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Although not a well-known name back in the day, Solo was around to witness all the great work of so many writers and did his small part as conditions allowed in order to help make the writing culture more prevalent in Queens. "It was August of 1978 when we arrived in the Kew Gardens neighborhood, right by the corner of Metropolitan Ave and 116 Street/Audley, about a block away from the beginning of Forest Park. Having only lived in Whitestone & College Point prior, it did not take but a matter of days for me to take full notice of the writing culture phenomenon that existed in our new neighborhood. Graf was basically non-existent in our previous areas at that point, save for the occasional band logo or a smattering of other civilian writing. The first name I spotted, while initially exploring the block, was a bubble letter SN outline behind our building, and those letters were immediately appealing. Within a week or two I had met SN, who founded the MGA (Mad Graffiti Artists) crew and his younger brother MIGE. They introduced me to additional members of the crew, STOCE, SOCO, RI, IT, GG, DR, as well as others. At the age of 10 I developed the tags SOLO & SZ, and became the newest member of MGA. The area was loaded with writers at that time: SIKE, ST, COOK, ROCKY, NIP and the rest of the 112 park crew, ROOK, COSE, ZACH, MARTY/NE, KENNY/DI and the Metro park crew, UNCLE JOHN 178, TEAR, FLIP, SAR, OD, STOE, MOVIE & ZEP, NED, KEVIN/EX-1, and so many more. The J line was nearby to the south; the E & F yard to the north, and the LIRR lines as well. These were all magnets for the writing masses and we frequented all of them regularly. IZ THE WIZ and VINNY were considered the two top subway kings at that time, and then the recollections of seeing VINNY's stylish yet readable letters during prior years started coming back to me. I knew nothing yet about the culture before then, but always noticed that name VINNY rolling by on the elevateds whenever we drove into the Bronx, as well as when my mom would take me on the 7's into Manhattan on occasion. Now it all made sense, and was quite inspiring. My first piece on a subway occurred in the Spring of 1979, when my partner DR and I ventured to the E & F yard by Union Turnpike on a Sunday afternoon. We found a nice hole in the fence down toward the end of the yard, crept in, did quick block-letter fills with white and orange on an F train, and got the hell out of there. A week later I ran into another partner of mine, STOCE, and he let me know that he had already seen our work running. I was elated. And hooked. Unfortunately, I was soon to find out that we were moving to Texas, and by mid '79 we were out of that area. I was crushed, due to being yanked away from the culture I had developed such a love for. Luckily my mother worked for an airline, and for the next 6 or 7 years I was able to visit NYC during just about every major holiday and for a good chunk of every Summer due to the low-cost family travel benefits that existed back then. Always staying with my grandparents in Whitestone as a homebase, I started to explore those areas of Queens and get busy when I could. Flushing was closest and it was there that I started seeing the work of PRO & SON, Partners At Large. I had much admiration for their work and will never forget biking up to the Whitestone bridge in 1980 and witnessing the beautiful pieces they had recently done on the handball courts and pillars under the bridge. I was so excited that they had chosen to put in such amazing quality work in Whitestone! Around 1981 I started venturing over to the 7 line and watching the trains roll by from the area around Shea stadium. FLAME, FUZZ, CONAN, BIONIC, ANGEL DUSTER, OE3 & P13, JOEY, EKO, KB, and so many others were rocking the line, it was incredible to see. The following year, 1982, the TDK crew got busy all over Flushing with killer work. SO, GHOST, REC127, ZONE, PEAK and others were rocking the area with nice colorful burners, and that was so inspiring to see. I was still mostly just sticking to the Whitestone area at that time, doing a lot of pieces under the Throgs Neck Bridge -- my main stomping grounds -- and that general area. While hanging out in Whitestone that Summer I started seeing a new tag appearing. The name ROBBIE was starting to pop up and he had some nice style. There were very few writers in that area back then; none of whom I had yet met, including SILVER, SLIT (who later started writing TORCH), BOSS, TILT (Sundance Kid), myself and maybe a couple others I can't recall now. And it was great to see a new name appearing. Not long afterward I was introduced to ROBBIE while hanging out with a crowd behind the Whitestone shopping center one night, and shortly after that we went on some local writing missions. Later that year ROBBIE changed his name to LOST, hooked up with GHOST & NEO, created the RIS crew and went on to go all-city. That was awesome to see. That next Summer, 1983, my best friend and writing partner in Texas, Rory, who wrote SI-3 & POLO, flew out to Queens with me and stayed for a couple weeks. We had been excitedly planning this trip for a long time, and got busy all over Whitestone, Flushing, rode the 7's, E's & F's, N's, as well as some of the other number lines around the city and into the Bronx, rocking stations, insides & in-betweens everywhere we went. We got up in the area around the 7 yard, taunted the guard dogs there, and one night crept out back behind it and did black & yellow pieces on the old LIRR passenger car that was parked back there, facing the elevated 7's. Then the night before the 4th of July, we strolled down to the Throgs Neck bridge to sip beers and light some fireworks and as we were leaving two guys our age were walking by us and for some reason we all just stopped and said what's up. They ended up being TORCH & BOSS, and we all talked graf for hours. Torch and I became good friends, and have been ever since. Sadly, Rory lost his life as the result of a car accident in 1991, and is greatly missed. He had such a strong love for the writing culture, which continues to inspire me to this day. During another visit later that year, possibly around Thanksgiving, I did my second piece on a subway car. While riding the line toward Union Turnpike I spotted an N train laid up at the 67th a\ve station. I hopped off, went down into the tunnel and proceeded to do a blue and yellow piece on the parked train. It was the perfect way to finish off a nicely active year, and helped me return to Texas feeling like a stronger participant in the culture. 1984 turned out to be the height of my subway writing career. During my first visit of the year, in early March, I met some writers while riding the line doing motions, DEO, DEEN, EN, as well as some others. We met up at the 111th St. layup the next night and I watched DEEN do a top to bottom outline on the white 7's in about 10 seconds. Then after the next line rolled thru we all filed down off the platform and got busy on those lovely white surfaces. Upon returning in the Summertime I spent many hours riding the line doing insides, along with my trademark spot which was the panel in between cars opposite the conductor window. I loved that spot as it could be seen from both inside and outside of the train, and recall how sweet it was to be doing in-betweens as the train was rolling and at the same time being able to see all the ones from the prior hour rolling back by in the opposite direction! I ventured over to the double R's one evening with hopes of hitting the elevated layup in Astoria, but things just didn't seem kosher and I headed back to the 7's. I think it was 111th that was laid up again, so I hopped off and when things cleared out I descended the stairs to the tracks. As I approached the train I heard voices behind me and realized there were windows open in the building facing the tracks. Hopes of doing a full piece turned into just doing an outline & tag in black on the white 7 and I was out of there. Two days later my grandfather and I attended a Mets game at Shea stadium, and at the exact moment I was walking down the ramp to the concession, a line appeared on the 7's and there was my new outline rolling by, on the opposite side that it was done on! I was psyched to see it hadn't been buffed yet! At the end of that Summer I did my third and final subway piece. One weekend morning I decided to check out that 67th Ave. layup that I hit the previous year, and there just happened to be a GG train laid up there! Things felt a little sketchy, as it was almost too quiet, but I went into the tunnel anyway. Rocked a red & baby blue piece on the train, caught a big tag high on the pillar next to it and hit up 1984. Climbed out of the tunnel and, all sweaty and dirty, headed back to Whitestone very happy. A few months later I was back in town for a few days and took off destined for the N line. Somewhere in Manhattan there was a station where the last car was on a curve, not visible to the conductor. I found the station and began doing tags on the outside of the last car on every train that stopped, just enough time between when the doors closed and the train started moving out of the station. After about 5 or 6 trains, my confidence was very high, and I boarded the next line that pulled in. There were two guys at the very back of the car, so I walked to the other end and pulled out my pilot. They didn't seem to be watching so I turned and hit the panel above the seat with a nice big tag. As I turned back and was putting the marker away I looked up and those two large individuals were heading right toward me, not looking happy. They yanked me out of the seat, took all my markers out of my pockets, and then slammed my skinny frame around the car for a while. As we pulled into the next station they told me they were subway workers and said I was lucky they were off duty and had things to do. Told me to get the hell off the train, which I gladly did, and they rolled off. That was a damn good lesson on being overconfident, and foolishly tagging in front of others. While I did get to NYC now and then over the next couple years, and was still getting up a bit here and there (I remember seeing SAINT come out and do countless tags end to end across entire stations on the 7's, and SHEER start taking over rooftops along the line as well) the visits were shorter and less frequent now that I had started working more back in Texas. Paying for cars, the ladies, and other such luxuries took more of a priority at that point, and demanded much of my time. Fall of 1986 I started college, met my future wife, got kicked out of my folks house, and started getting up heavily around the Dallas/Ft. Worth area with my new found freedom. While i was loving getting busy out there, there was still a gnawing from within due to no longer being around the NYC culture which I loved so much. It was during this time that I stumbled upon a freight layup while out and about one night at the end of 1986. I caught a few tags on the one car that was there and then went on about my business. Over the next couple of weeks I thought more and more about them and then recollected that over the years while riding the 7 line over Sunnyside yard it was always packed with freight cars. Also there were times when I rode the double R's to the end station in Astoria, and long freights would roll by high above on the Hellgate Bridge. Then it clicked that the freights could be my way of still staying connected with the NYC culture, while at the same time having to live so far away from it. So in January of 1987 I began seeking out freight spots around the DFW area, of which there were multitudes, and have focused most of my writing toward the rolling steel canvas ever since. It has been absolutely incredible to watch the freight writing culture develop from it's infancy, to the massive movement it has now become. All-city has become all-continent, and if writers avoid painting over the car reporting marks & numbers, work is now rolling untouched for decades, phenomenal longevity. Rest In Peace SN-mga, MIGE-mga, SI-3, IZ THE WIZ, REC127, KOOL AD, FLAME, DONDI, CASE2, SHY147, DEO, SANE, SIRE365, and all the other fallen brethren who dedicated so many precious hours of their lives to the writing culture." |
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