Oh man, my current style is kind of in a weird transition. I've always kind of bounced around with styles and it's always been really progressing. I would say that at this moment my style is just kind of me going through the motions of my life and a lot of times I'm just using it as an expression for how I'm feeling in my life. So it's always evolving, just kind of like how my life is. It's always something new each day and it kind of pulls a new style out.

It's kind of 50/50. Sometimes I'll go to the spot and I'll have a sketch and I'll be really set on it and I'll have my scheme pulled out and then I'll just be focused on that. But other times I'll just be feeling like I want to go do this one day, and I'll throw colors together and I won't even really try to scheme it out or anything. I'll just show up to the spot and just freestyle however I'm feeling. So, I definitely bounce around with that. Sometimes I'll draw up a bunch of sketches and get inspired. But when I go to a spot, I'll kind of decide. Or sometimes I'll just like I won't even worry about it and I'll just be like, I'm feeling grumpy today. So, I'm gonna go to the wall and tear it up and I'll just bring like some ugly colors and just freaking whip it around and do whatever and just kind of express myself.

Honestly, not really, man. I was going through a few different name changes and nothing was really sticking. And I just started trying to make up words, and I made up this set of letters because I wanted a four-letter name, something that was short and concise and had a kind of a sound to it. So, I pretty much just thought the letters looked cool and I painted it and I was like, "Oh, I like this name." And it pretty much just stuck ever since.

One lesson. Could it be like five things? It would be: stay consistent, practice, study the people that you're interested in, chase your passion, don't talk to cops.

I've kind of had some weird ones, but I feel like to be honest, some of the craziest ones have been in the train yard. I had this one time we got in the yard super early and we were kind of scoping out cars and it seemed chill. We found some cars that we liked. We started sketching, started painting, and then all of a sudden the whole line starts airing up and we're like, "Ah shit dude." And within minutes they start yanking the line. We're like, "Fuck." And we were hanging around for a second and then we started seeing the workers coming to the yard. So, we jumped into this trash gondola car on the line over and then they started walking down the line with their flashlights. This was the middle of the winter too, so it was super cold that night. And we ended up sitting in this freaking trash gondola for like an hour and a half in the dead winter while the workers were just walking up and down the lines. I don't think they were looking for us, but they were doing something. And I just remember sitting in the rail car and the dude's just right there next to us. And we're just holding our breath like, "Oh man. I hope he doesn't look over."

I love hoppers, man. But honestly, if I had a choice, I would probably choose Auto Racks or something. I can't go wrong with box cars. Boxes are sick. I love things that are smooth though. And Auto Racks are huge and they're smooth. I think the only one that's smoother than that is those reefer cars. Those are impossible to get unless you're that dude.

Yeah I think it totally has and I think the introduction of the internet has been a really big factor in the change of style and development. But it's interesting because it seems like it's kind of making a little circle back around and all those old styles and the stuff people were doing like 10 or 20 years ago is kind of trendy again all of a sudden. So you could say it's changed but it kind of hasn't.

I believe that there's some truth to that, but I also believe that it's benefited graffiti in a lot of ways. It's kind of accelerated how everyone learns and perceives. I think it's overall been a benefit, but for the true core of graffiti I think the internet just doesn't belong. But we're in the modern age, so if you're still trying to die on that hill you're kind of an old head who needs to be phased out, get with the times or fall off.

Oh man, it's so important. I feel like there's such a large new generation of writers that have unfortunately kind of skipped over it and there's not many old heads or dudes out there willing to mentor that newer generation. So it's definitely something the new generation needs to take into their own hands and learn or at least respect it for what it is, because that's where it all came from.

I mean the classics are always timeless. But I really do like a lot of the newer YouTube videos out there. "American Accents" was always a big one for me. There's a lot of cool YouTube videos that have been really inspirational and I've honestly almost liked them more than some of the older classic videos. But as far as classic video goes, Reefer Madness is an awesome one.

I've always been interested in art. I've always been an artist. I could never find what I liked about art and I never really fit into any of the niches of art. So in a roundabout way, sure. But graffiti was really the thing that opened it up for me.

I feel like that's such a hard question to really answer. It's probably mainly because it's not attached to anyone with a real name. It's kind of like free media and it's trendy looking and cool and eye-catching. So it catches your eye and it's kind of free in that way. It's kind of messed up though. It's kind of messed up for the writers and for the art galleries and everyone. It doesn't really do any good for anyone.

Probably my favorite cities I've painted in so far are the places I've visited in Ohio, Cleveland and Cincinnati. Those were sick. Seattle was dope. I enjoyed Seattle. All the places I've painted outside of the United States have been awesome. I don't have one concrete city that's number one. They've all had something special about them.

They're both fundamentals to graffiti and I think you should be well-rounded in all those aspects. It's definitely its own lane. For me personally, I don't really have stuff to bomb, so I've been forced to fall into piecing. But if I go to a city and I'm let loose, I'll go throw down and do whatever. I enjoy doing throwies and tagging. That's the core fundamentals. It always feels the most real when I'm able to go tag and do throwies and get with the grime. But I love piecing. That's part of me always being interested in art. The piecing is about the colors and the shapes and incorporating all these things. I love it all. I think you should learn how to tag, throw, piece, burn. You should be able to do it all and respect it.

1988 to 1997.
2000 to 2005.

If you got 20+ years in the game and have put in your fair amount of work and you try going the gallery route, then you deserve it by all means. Anybody else trying to take that route, you gotta earn that shit.

It ruined graffiti, I think. The internet is a blessing and a curse. It's great for networking and making money, but it has taken away the grime and anonymity and watered everything down.

Consistency and longevity is key. Loyalty and respect goes a long way. Keep your circle tight.

The culture and the streets determine that. Again, consistency and longevity.

I didn't choose my name. It chose me.

A few crews that come to mind stuck it out and thugged it out. The same close friends from 30 years ago are still the same friends 30 years later.

It's always been my crews that inspired me. Older and younger homies. Back in the day NYC writers like Dondi, Lee, Dez, and Skeme subway cars inspired me. Los Angeles writers that inspired me back in the day were Gin, Wisk, Ser, Miner, Doom, Price, Triax, Sleez, Oiler, Chaka, Key, Tempt, Angst, Dcreas, Pale, and Skill. Writers of today would have to be all my younger homies in my crews. The shit they doing is inspiring.

Vayne, Cheak, Rams, Gard, Keep, Cult, Toast, Liter, Pheb, Snake, and Skola.

Mkue, Adek, Hael, Pear, Malvo, Lewy, Wanto, Zombra, 10Foot, and Soduh.

Most amazing experience of my life. I've never experienced a level of freedom I did on that trip with him. It's memories like that, that immortalize us as human beings.

Keans had to have several talks with Gride about him tagging churches and peoples personal garages! It wasn't malicious there was an innocence to it, but this is a situation that can give you insight into the monster he was. King of kings. He couldn't stop. He scribed my bnb I had to pay 800$ for a new mirror.

50/50 Los Angeles/ Bay Area honestly couldn't choose…..

Tacoma Washington builds em different !!!!

Doing time for dumb shit. Lots of time to think.

7 days in Chile

I'm into HOBO train hopper shit rn.

We did floaters across from 14th street supply in Oakland day time. Some lil paisa dude pulled up hella mad. He was too small, so he wasn't a factor but he followed us for a few blocks throwing cones at us. Every time we'd try to grab him he'd run away and grab more cones….. he threw a cone that perfectly that landed on Grides head. We both stopped running and couldn't stop laughing!!! While carrying the ladder the entire time….. don't forget it's G.Ride not Gride. My boy didn't believe in hyphens.

I remember one of the first times I actually dropped a bomb was at the Belmont tunnel. I used touch n tones and safety pins to make our own fat caps. I grew up around that area so I was lucky enough to catch a little bit of the end of it. Along with the end of the bus era too.

Indecline: it's worse than you think
Infamy
War
The seventh day projects
Style wars
The warriors
Ninja turtles
Random videos on YouTube

Freeways.

LAUSD and the 90s raised me.

That's hard to choose because depending on my mood, I really listen to anything and everything.

I don't really go out like that. I just hang with my buddies and paint. Painting is my drug now. Back then I was bad. Growing up in Santa Cruz it was hard not to be. People called me "P Rock." I was notorious for stealing—burglarizing, taking anything. Now I changed my life around. I own a house in Santa Cruz. I take life serious. I totally changed.

Oh yeah, 100%. My art comes out way better because I'm not all messed up. When I was loaded I didn't care and I'd do reckless stuff—crazy spots, crazy missions. But you can only be on the front line for so long. Eventually you hand the torch to the kids. There are crazy kids out there now.

It's wild now. People repel off buildings, use ladders in plain sight, just paint right on the scene like it's nothing. Back in the day you had to hide, scout the spot, lurk, be stealth. If someone saw you, cops got called. Now it feels like a free-for-all. I respect it, but I don't have the same balls I had when I was younger. I have more to live for.

Yeah, way different. In some places it feels minor now. Like in Oakland, cops will drive by and not even stop. I've painted close to cops pulling someone over, and they didn't care. It's weird.

The city isn't the city anymore for painting. Back in the day SF was like a jungle gym—freeway spots, roofs, roaming all night. Now it's cameras everywhere and people watching. Oakland is different though—Oakland is way better. It's grimier. It feels like the community almost loves graffiti there.

You had to be there. No phones. You'd go up and see new styles in person. You'd literally have to run into people on the street to meet them. You had to be doing it to meet the right people.

We'd push a shopping cart with paint. One of us would stay with the cart while the other two went up and painted, then come back and keep walking. I met so many people. I loved being in that atmosphere—crackheads, weird stuff, crime—just the whole environment. We dressed kind of homeless because if you looked square you'd get robbed. We had guns pulled on us in the Mission. But we never disrespected people. You had to respect their area.

Yeah, late 90s / early 2000s SF was crazy. Trust, Peace, Pablo—those dudes were bombing. We'd go up there just to paint, eat, hang out, paint more. That was the whole point.

WAR One is one of my best friends. I went to school with him and a few others. Gunner is like the number one FTL all-star ever. WAR basically told Gunner if he didn't let me into FTL, he was dropping the crew and going with me. WAR stuck up for me. Once me and Gunner connected, it was over—we went crazy in San Francisco. Gunner wanted to keep FTL small, and it still is. We don't let just anyone in.

We don't need a big crew to do graffiti. We keep it tight because we're really close. We've got people in LA like Donor and Alloy—both been putting it up for years. Alloy is top-tier in LA.

Yeah. First it was "Icarus" because I was a B-boy. In 1996 I went to the B-Boy Summit in San Diego. They used to call me "Kid Icarus." But "Icarus" was too many letters. So I changed it to "IKSO." Kady and other people were like, "You should change it to IKSO," so I did.

From Greek mythology—like the story of Icarus flying too close to the sun. Also there was a video game called "Kid Icarus" I'd play at liquor stores and I thought it was a sick name. I even stenciled "Kid Icarus" on my sweatshirts when I'd breakdance.

Yeah. My mom is from Oakland, so we'd take trips to SF and Oakland a lot. When I was young, I lived in Honolulu around 1984. That's when I first got into breakdancing—Beat Street, cardboard in the yard, all that. When we'd go to SF, I'd see fat-cap tags—UFO, Unique—and I wanted to do tags like that. I always loved the whole culture: breakdancing, graffiti, hip hop, DJing.

Yeah. At the 1996 B-Boy Summit I jumped in a circle with Rock Steady people—Crazy Legs and Mr. Wiggles were there. I wasn't the greatest, but I did it. Just being able to say I got in the circle with them was sick.

Rooftops. Setback rooftops where you can paint a good one and no one can mess with you. You can hang out up there and really paint.

Me and Gunner hit the Bay Bridge one time. We walked out on the outside and climbed up under the bridge on the metal. We were holding onto a little cable with our feet. Gunner painted his thing and I painted EXO. I've never seen a photo of it, but it was a nutty spot.

When we came down we ran into Cuba. Me and Gunner were covered in black dust—faces covered. We were talking to him like, yeah, we just did our thing.

Yeah. One night me, TIE, Jinx, and others went into the Safeway Muni tunnels on Market Street. We went down to paint and we got chased out. TIE was doing throw-ups right in the underground station. A worker opened a gate so we could get out onto Market Street. TIE was wild. He'd always give me mops and pens whenever I saw him.

Yeah, for sure. I mean, my brothers — one of my brothers was gang banging too. So they used to always hit these big old school English and gang writing, you know, that's like the LA culture, bro, back in the days. So I saw that, it kind of got my attention a little bit, not as much, but it got my attention. So I started from there. But from there I started seeing one of my homies — he's the one that's the reason I really started doing graffiti the most. He's dead. RIP the homie Tekmo 74. He used to crush. I think he still has like a few landmarks to this point from 1998, 1999, still rocking. A lot of people know about him in South Central. But yeah, I started seeing him up, like crazy pieces. And then I used to have two homies and I'd bring it up like. And they're like, that's my brother. And I'm like, nah, that's my older brother. Then they started showing me his black book, bro, and I was just amazed. And it's crazy cuz I end up pushing myself more, cuz at that time I started writing but I was writing with shoe polish or markers and stuff like that. But then that's the thing that pushed me to do more. So that's when I started picking up a spray can and everything. And I ended up joining the crew, you know, I ended up painting with the homie and it was sick, bro. That's how I started. And then besides him, you know, I was already deep into graffiti. Then I used to see all those cats from LTS, MSK, K4P — these are cats that used to have LA streets unlocked, bro. They used to be crushing, big time. So that's what I grew up around.

It's a lot of lessons, but one that I think is the smartest one for me, is just when you hit a spot, bro, you got to analyze. You have to study the spot. Because when I was young, I used to hit spots, I didn't care. We used to pull up in the middle of the freeway and just start throwing throwies or bombies or whatever. And that's how you get caught up, you know. So it's always just choosing the wise spot. Like, if you're already out there risking it, make sure you drop some dope stuff. Don't just go drop whatever, especially when it's a really dope spot. Like people do throwies, whatever, I got love for throwies. But when it's like a really really dope spot, like if you know you could take your time on that, crush it. Kill it. And just, my thing would be just, choose your spots wisely because a lot of times we choose these spots you never know what's going to happen. It could go south, it could go good or bad. But I think that's one of my biggest mistakes — I used to just run up on stuff crazy without knowing the outcome. Like the consequences — the police station's around the corner or whatever. There were a lot of close calls back then.

Well, it all depends. I mean, before I wouldn't really care, but now you have cameras. So where I'm at right now in Tijuana, if there's a camera they're going to get you. And if you're painting beneath the camera, they're going to get you, they're going to report it and get you right away. So that's one thing you have to do — keep an eye on the cameras. And if there's cameras, you can still do it, you can just do a quick, fast throwy, you know, something big, something fast, something you're not going to take as much time on. Usually before, my burners will take about two to three hours. But now my burners, it could take only 30 minutes to an hour. I'm talking about 5, 10, 13 color burners, you know. So the spot has a lot to do with it. You just got to really see, you know, the cameras, the spotlight, that has a lot to do with it. There's a lot of spots too where it's a hot spot in the daytime, but at night you have that shade, there's no light, and you could do some crazy burner and in the daytime it's on blast. I've done those spots a lot before. I study them. I be like, all right, this looks low-key at night but it's on blast in the daytime. So just scoping the spot, you know. Do your homework on it.

Oh man, there's a lot of crazy stuff. A funny one, a crazy one — I think I mentioned this before, but for me it was kind of crazy at the moment because of the way it was. There was one time when I was hitting this spot, right? And this spot I had already hit a few. So they were kind of on me because I already had a few spots. So I'm painting this spot and I look to my right and I see the cops coming towards me, fast in the car, but the door's already wide open — like he already knew, they probably passed by before, you know. So what I do, instead of running back, I start running towards them. So when I run towards them, the cop jumps off, almost stumbling, almost falling off, and then you have the cars behind trying to block me. So I managed to go over the other cars. I hopped on the freeway and I go to the riverbed. Usually the cops won't go in there. Like if you run, usually they won't, bro. They're just lazy. They don't want to go up in there. So I'm running, I'm out of breath. I turn back and these guys are behind me and I'm like, damn. So I'm going down the riverbed and I fell down. Start rolling. My knees are bleeding. I'm scraping my knees, I did like maybe a few flips and I got to the ground. This is like a slanted drop, maybe like 30, 40 feet. Just rolling down. I look up and they're right behind me as well. So I keep on running. Once I got in the riverbed I went inside and I swam it, cuz it's not that deep, probably up to like my stomach or something. I got my phone, I got my wallet, everything. This is me coming out of work, this is like around 8:30 p.m. at night. It's a freeway spot. I was just thirsty. I'm like, I don't care. So anyways I get to the other side and I run out of breath. I'm on the ground, my legs gave up, my breath gave up, and I look up and the cop's right there. We're looking at each other from like 10 feet. Like we're looking at each other and this guy's like, I'm going to get you and mess you up. The cops could have shot me right there, bro. We're in a place where nobody's going to find out. But I just got up and kept on running. They went back to their car, went all the way around, and when they come around the other side I was hiding. I was calling my homeboy, like, hey, come pick me up. He couldn't at the moment. So what I had to do, I had to cross back the riverbed, swim back to the other side, get in a car, and I smashed, bro. I'm out here stinking, soaking wet. But I mean, that was a crazy one. I got some other crazy ones but honestly don't want to speak about them. It's just young stuff.

A tag in Paris, bro — right by the Eiffel Tower. So I'm going to run a quick story on this. When I went to Paris my leg was messed up. I had sprained my leg on the riverbed, I had done a roller. So I'm like three weeks out from going to Paris, like, damn. So I'm doing physical therapy, trying to work on my stuff. I get to Paris. Paris, bro! I want to go out there and paint some trains, some metros. That's what I want to do. I don't care about the rest. The people invited me — shout out to BM crew, they're the homies, great hospitality, they took care of me. I painted some walls for them and everything. But I couldn't paint the trains because my leg, bro. I couldn't run. I couldn't hop gates. So it was tough, you know. Two days before going back to Mexico from Paris I was really bummed out, bro, because I wasn't able to execute this trip as much as I wanted to. So I went out for a walk with the homie and we ended up seeing this spot right there in Paris by the Eiffel Tower. And I was like, bro, look at this spot right here. He's like, bro, it's hot around here, there's cops walking by in groups of four or five. And I was like, you're right, let's just forget about it. So the next day I already had some ultra white cans with the caps, cuz I wanted to do something, I just never had it planned for that specific spot. I called the homie, I'm like, hey bro, you gotta back me up. He's like, let's go. So we get to the spot and I'm thinking, man, this is going to be wild. I was literally two hours away from my flight leaving. Thirty minutes from the airport. I just had to be there ASAP. So I'm thinking too much and I'm like, forget it. So what I did, I grabbed a backpack — this backpack I put next to a tree by a bathroom. It had a whole different shirt, different sweater, different pants. There's a gang of cameras. So I went down there and I just started doing it. Big tag. People are looking. There were some people screaming. I did it and I walked up. Soon as I walked up, I went straight to my backpack, went to the bathroom, changed into a whole different outfit, tossed on my glasses with the hoodie. Whole different person, bro. I came out, grabbed a taxi and we were out. For me that was like Mission Impossible because it's two hours before your flight, you're about to get in trouble in Paris, you're about to get in trouble with your wife. If I get caught doing this, I'm finished, you know. But I just had to do that, bro. If I would have left Paris without doing that I would have felt like I did nothing. I did it. And that thing blew up, bro. I was so happy. As soon as I got on the plane I'm drinking beers like, I'm going to post this. It just recently got buffed — it rocked for like six months. But it's crazy because everybody that sent me that picture from Paris told me, bro, we're surprised this lasted that long. Like I don't care if it gets buffed. Look at the view. You know what I'm saying. That was legendary.

Well, I think my letter structure is kind of almost the same, honestly. I think I should switch it up but I just like it. I'm talking about my burner style. A lot of people say it's changed but you only know. But I mean, I think where it's going, the direction is really good. I think I still have a lot to learn. I'm still a student to this point, you know. But I think it has evolved a lot in the past years, especially since I've been here in Tijuana. Because when I was in LA, I was painting, but I wasn't working on my style. I was more into doing crazy stuff, getting in trouble, going to prison, whatever. And then once I landed here in TJ, that's when my style really developed. Using roller paint helped me out a lot. And then just textures and layers over layers. But I think it did evolve over the years.

I just saw it at school people were getting into graffiti and it felt right to get into graffiti and seeing the graffiti in the train tracks i was nobody but was like maybe one day i can be sick like that.

My favorite are hot spots street spots something everyone gon see or the think outside the box type spot something different I go out and lurk the streets and the spots that catch my eye are my favorite cause after painting for years I need something different cause I get bored of the same spots

It has influenced me by actually being out there in those streets biking it in the day lurking seeing what those streets are about and you gotta be respectful and know where your at or your gonna find out in the streets be street smart out here

Rap rock oldies

Just do this for the love whatever it comes with this is what you sign up for this is what makes you happy this is who you are and you never now opportunities might come later from this without expecting something

This is an interesting topic because we've really just reached an evolved state of the .COM era in my opinion. You got guys that were saying the internet ruined Graffiti and now you've got guys saying social media ruined Graffiti. Yet those same people were on the internet then and on social media now…I feel like it's brought more awareness and a greater reach to graffiti. It's helped me make connections globally that I probably would've never made without it so what do I have to be mad at it for?. If anything it has the capability to empower anyone who uses it to create their own brand which is all anyone's platform really is. In the past artists were at the mercy of let's say a gallery director, now that powers been given back to the artist.

Easily Infamy, I quote that documentary all the time.

Whatever gets my heart rate jumping and adrenaline pumping.

I painted that box truck with the intention of it being for the collectible. The spot I painted it wasn't in the chillest area and I was painting it in traffic getting honked at every few minutes so this is what came out with all that considered.

You'll never hear me call myself a king or a legend. Titles like that should be given never self proclaimed in my opinion.. but if I were to say what it takes to become a legend? Consistency, Evolution in style, Longevity, impact on the culture, and contribution to the next generation.

Do your homework and know your history, pay homage to those that came before you to pave the way. If you're going to do this, Know that you WILL get caught at some point in some fashion. Take your consequences like a G and don't snitch. And most importantly, put in the work. Don't rush the fame. Build your handstyle, build your letters, build your name. Stay humble, stay moving, and let your actions speak louder than your mouth.

My boys started in junior high, my neighbors started tagging out. I thought it was super dumb. I was like, what the hell, that's dumb. And then, like I always say when that question comes up, it's the yo-yo and the pogs. It's one of those trendy things happening at that time, a fad. A trendy thing that everyone's doing. So it was graffiti at that time — when my boys started, I was like, oh, it's just going to be a stupid trend like everything else. It was for them, not for me. I have a horrible addictive personality. So once I started doing it, I liked everything about it. The whole sneaking away from home, doing it in school, the whole illegal aspect of it, trying to sketch something, trying to do something, move your letters around, even if it was just a tag when I first started. Finding that name that was going to stick. So it started that way. Junior high, I thought it was going to be a trend. It was not for me.

The one that caught me to be more involved — I fell in love with this when I was hanging out with my older buddies, my older homies from the neighborhood. They had already been doing pieces, bombing, and they literally put a can in my hand. And from there I was just like, what the hell was that? My homie Safe helped me do kind of a peace bomb in Belmont, the Belmont tunnels. I was super lucky that they took me there as a kid. And I still have that picture. He helped me with my sketch, he helped me fill it in, he helped me with everything. He literally stopped what he was doing to teach me what to do, how to do it, shadows and all that. And after that I was just like, oh, I got to do this more. I got to do this again. And then I would hang out with them more. I just started hanging out with these guys, ditching school, going to Shaky's, going to rack, and just going to paint and waiting for them to AOL me — I don't know if you know AOL Messenger, it was a message thing on the computer. And they're like, you want to go painting? I'm like, yeah, come pick me up. My dad doesn't show up till 11, I can sneak out now and he'll never know.

Once I got the feeling of doing a piece bomb, I was like, I need to do this again. It was literally a challenge to myself. I got to do it again, I need to know how to do this letter. And my buddies were doing really good stuff and I was like, I want to get to that level. I just kept telling myself that and I just got to practice, man. It was from junior high to hanging out with my older homies — I started in junior high, and then in ninth grade is when I started actually using spray paint.

I was running a lot of different names all through junior high and a little bit of ninth grade. Pretty bad ones. I don't even want to say the names I was writing.

I was walking with one of my homies, Hero, going back to my mom's apartment. We're passing by my homie Freight and his brother Ruid, R U D. Their brothers were already painting, already piecing and all this stuff. And I was passing by and I was like, yo, I've been asking you for names, I need a name, I have a horrible name right now. And they kind of laughed and Freight's brother Ruid gave me a handful of names, about five or six. Me and Hero were walking back to my mom's apartment and I was like, man, I need to get a new name, enough's enough. I'm thinking about all these names and one of them was Scholar. I think it was Scholar, Recon, and three other things. And I was like, damn, Recon is tight. But then right around that time there was 50 Millimeter — I don't know if you heard of it, it's a website, before Instagram, a Flickr but all graffiti. You would go to 50 mm and all the names would come out in graffiti that you could think of. I would constantly go there to check if a name I wanted someone already had. So I went home, turned on the internet, waited for it to load. Went on 50 mm and I was looking for Recon and someone had it. And then I went to Scholar and no one had it. It was not there. And I was like, oh, Scholar. I'm like, oh man, that's so cool. All right, let's run with it.

I remember continuing to use it and I was like, someone's going to come up and be like, yo, someone has that name already. And it just never happened. Nowadays, a couple people tried having it. There's a person in Europe that writes Skola, S K O L A. He's really dope. And then there was a Scholar from a crew out here in the valley and I never heard of him again. To me, I figured I've been having this for so long that if someone would come up and be like, oh yeah, there's already one in Europe or there's already one up the street — at this point what I wanted is to have the name and literally have it as a stamp so that people would be like, oh, no, that's not him. People to actually know that it's me, the Scholar. Not the impostor.

Energy is crazy, bro. Energy is crazy. The more I dive into it, the more I'm — because now I'm going to school, I'm trying to get my degree, I am learning all this stuff. I'm a Scholar in my house. I'm a student here. I learn from these kids. I continue to do all these things of what that name actually means. And I do tend to switch the lettering around. I think it's originally spelled S C H O L A R. And I do S K O L R, S K O A E R. I just move it around because the other one's too long to write.

I'll give you one. Me and Touch were painting a billboard. Not super intense, but it was funny, dope. In a nutshell, we're painting the billboard, we're almost done. He had just gotten a camera for Christmas and he's like, let's take a selfie. And I was like, all right. And he took it and I was like, we're partying too much. We're thinking that we're done and we're not, and we shouldn't have taken the picture until we're done done. Sure enough, a car pulls up on the bottom and I look at Touch and I was like, yo, this car is looking at us. He's like, no, no, he's going to go on the freeway. And we stop and we're checking him out and no, he's checking us out. Then he goes to the gas station and I tell Touch, yo, he went to the gas station to call somebody. He's like, you think so? And I was like, we're sitting ducks here, bro. We're in a pretty hot neighborhood, we should get away. And he's like, I trust your instinct. And I'm like, all right.

So we come down. But the crazy thing is that we had to put the ladder from one building to another building and we crawled — we didn't go up, we crawled sideways like rats on a wire on the ladder. So it was super tricky. And I was heavier then, so I was like, I'm going to flip over on this ladder and we're going to be done. We come back down, we're on top of a wheat shop. The wheat shop sees us. They start tripping on us and we're walking away. And as we're walking away, the guy in the Range Rover that was at the gas station — I keep telling Touch, keep an eye on him, keep an eye on him. Sure enough a cop comes cuz he had called them. The cop comes, he's talking to the guy, he's pointing to the billboard, and then they rush — they get in both cars, the cop car and his car, and they go to the billboard. Me and Touch are booking it and we start running. We go to my car and once we get in, the dude from the wheat shop was super sketched cuz he saw us come down off the roof with the ladder. So he starts following us. The cop is looking for us on the other side and the security is literally following us like he's a cop. We couldn't get away from him. I had to just MacGyver it, dude. Just move through everything, keep driving, not stopping for anything. And Touch was like, we're going to get caught, we're going to get caught. I was like, dude, don't say that. And somehow we got away and it was pretty gnarly, man. I lost my ladder. I lost my paint bag. But we went back three days later, finished the spot, and got pictures of it.

It's part of my journey, I have to touch base on it. It helped me focus and just tackle the things I want to tackle — things that I know I need to get better at. And not just in graffiti, just in life in general. Be a better dad, be a better student. With partying and whatnot, I don't downplay it, to each their own. I did my time and had fun with it. But at this point it was perfect timing. I've been sober for going on seven, eight years. It has really helped my life, to get elevated, in a very self-righteous way if that makes sense. And then everything else just clicks. Not the best, right? There's still a lot of struggles, a lot of stressors, a lot of fighting. Just being sober is a whole ball game, bro. But it has been the best thing that happened to me. Because then everything else has been amazing. I have a beautiful family, beautiful wife. Working on relationships.

I think now I use my graffiti as the drinking part of it. All the focus I put on drinking and partying, I use it in graffiti. When it comes down to the graffiti aspect, I do the sketching, I think about the colors, all these thought-out things. When I was drunk I just ran with it — whatever I had, whatever was there, whatever I'd go buy or rack. But now it's really thought out. Even with the trucks, there is always a plan and a scheme. Now being sober, it gets even better. It never goes exactly as you write it down, but it's always one day a week I'm going to go bombing. I put it in the paper slip with the wifey and I'm like, hey, this day I'm going to go bombing, this day I'm going to go paint trains. And it works out because I'm sober. Cuz once I'm drunk or partying it's game over. I just talk about it, I don't do it. I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna go do that, I'm gonna go do this, and it just never happens. Just back at the burner, give me another beer, keep drinking.

I have that addictive personality and I get more addicted to the craft, to the graph. I just get more like, I want to do it again, I want to do it again. And once I do one night, I want to do another night. But it's more thought out, more planned. There are days where I'm like, okay, Wednesday I'm gonna do that, Thursday, Sunday there's trains, I'm gonna go in the morning. My time is super limited. So when I do go out, I try to do the most I can. It became a major major major focus to me. And as of lately it's been trains, auto racks, because it's hard for me to go lurk and look for spots and then paint them that same night. So when I know there are trains, I just go straight to it and stay there for a couple hours. Or go in the morning — I call it the dad shift. I'll be there at 4:00 in the morning, stay till around 9:00 when people aren't coming in or walking out.

I don't discriminate. But as of lately I've been into a lot of auto racks. They've been super fun, kind of my go-to. Once I find out they're there, I pass by, check it out, and if they are, I'll suit up and head back once the kids are asleep. It's game on. Auto racks for the most part right now, they've been super fun.

I would tell myself just continue having fun with it. But I'll tell you what they told me. They told me as a kid — respect will go longer than painting a spot. So if you respect others and respect yourself, that will go longer than any spot, any tag or whatnot. Because once you start being disrespectful to people, especially other OG writers, and you think you're the man because you've been painting for a year or four months, or you're the king of your little city and you start being rude or lose your humbleness, you just become kind of a piece of crap.

I remember we were at the bar and my boy showed me how to buy a drink — I was super underage — and he showed me how to be respectful to your bartender in order to get a free drink or a free shot, and always be cool and give a tip. And then he told me, just in life, just always be respectful, bro, and it'll go longer than any spot, any tag, any throw up. And I still hold that to my heart and it has helped. It has definitely separated me from drama and nonsense that I could easily have been a part of. There has been nonsense and drama always, but not that I'm causing it. People are going to write — there's going to be a new writer every day, especially here in LA. But if you're going to do this, do it. And always hold that.

It has its own unique style. Of course in the beginning it got the New York flavor — the wild style of that. But I think LA created their own thing, great gang graffiti that stemmed off to something else. And the wild style stuff that LA created — you could tell if someone is from LA or not if they have that specific thing. But it's more of how people hold themselves. It's more of how people carry themselves than the style, to me. It's you have to walk around with your chin up and be something within yourself, and then it just stems off from that. You have to be either about it or not. It's very different. I might be wrong, there might be some bias to it. But that's what I could say. It has its own unique style with their personality, their neighborhood they grew up in, how they grew up, their journey, their background. It's not just about their style in graffiti. Everything comes with that persona for me.

Being from here, you have to have tough skin. If not, if you don't have respect to give anybody, it just crumbles to nothing. And it must be hard to stand out in LA too, because there's so many writers. It is very hard to stand out, and then it's not, you know what I mean? The ones that know what's up know what's up. The ones that have been here longer than ever continue to do it really good. And then there's the new ones that come up, have their run, stop, and come back.

Especially nowadays as I'm a little older, I feel like graffiti ain't going nowhere. So I'm kind of taking a hiatus myself with the bombing. Not that I did it a lot, but I just slow down. You stop on things because you got other priorities, trying to have growth. Growth is really important in my life right now. A spot is not going to pay the bills. A billboard is not going to pay the rent. So if you're going to stop, make sure you come back and hold down your stuff again. The ones that stay, stay. And the ones that come back, they come back and kill it.

To me right now, it's not even just LA anymore. I had this conversation with Touch and he put a good perspective in my head — LA is LA, but you got to go somewhere else. The world's beautiful out there, bro. A lot of people have been doing it. It's way much better when you get out of here and just do something different.