Friday, March 02, 2007

Skitzo's Views on Graffiti

The following piece of uninformed, badly written, inexperienced crap was recently brought to my attention:

"My views on graff The taggers I admire the most are real writers, writers like Rude/Rasto, Grift, Ab, Rise, Cist and Goner. These are real writers, they don't do it for fame or for money. Fair fucks to them! They have the heart and they know what they're doin, unlike most writers. Graff in ireland has gone to shite. Graffiti is illegal. Legals are art, and may look good, but don't confuse graff with art!!! Milk is an artist not a writer... Grift is a writer! He knows what he's doin. Anyone who's interested in graffiti shouldn't look up to people like Milk, there's a huge difference in art and graff. Gone is a hardcore bomber, but yet some people find that Milk is a better writer.... FUCK THAT. How many walls in Dublin have Milk on them?? eh... three? five? 300? haha, 300???? so what??? 300 is sweet fuck all! Goner has covered the whole lot of Dublin but gets less respect for graffiti than Milk. Goner is a writer, Milk is an artist! More of my views.... Compare Milk and Skitzo.... In my opinion, Skitzo up as much as Milk, but yet Milk gets more respect than me as a tagger. Haha fuck that shit, I ony respect real writers. Fuck sellin DVD's or t-shirts, or hangin around allcity cos it's cool. Real writers are out there bombin. When was the last time you actually SAW a Milk piece? Yet I see Grift and Goner every fuckin day, on every fuckin wall! If you go into allcity you will see Smack t-shirts hangin up for sale, but go outside and you'll spot Gone, Grift or any other hardcore bomber. In my opinion most of RFA is falsified. Fuck all these fake ass legals! I agree that some of them are really good, really good ART! What makes RFA such a big crew? Eh... Legals!!! Where's the RFA graff? I don't really see any... Do you? And I refered to Milk alot here, sorry, but you're the biggest example of the difference between art and graffiti in Ireland, and it's defo not just you! And I do admire alot of your work, but as art, not as graff. And more..... I have nothing against Milk, or RFA, it's just their image, and i'm only using them as an example. Well except for Mak he has totally sold out, t-shirts and shit. Mak used to be proper bomber. But fair enough they can do what they like. My only problem is that people seem to confuse graff with art. Whatever half of RFA are doin isn't graff, it's just art. I am more into graffiti, the art of bombing. And on that note I am gonna go out there and bomb the place to bits! Give me a year or 2 lads!!! I'll be out there fuckin everywhere!!! Oh and Noer is a total fuckin biter! He sucks big floppy donkey dick! Noer is a good bomber, and I'd honestly have respect for him if he didn't rip everything he put up! Stop rippin!!! Ya queer!! And for anyone who doesn't like my opinions or my styles... Fuck you!..........Skitzo"

Wowsers. It was a lot to take in without breaking the monitor or laughing when I first read it. It was written on this guy's Bebo account, and I wouldn't have a clue who the chap was either if it weren't for Bebo. This 'real writer' seems to prefer bombing whiteboards than 'the streets' (yo).

I'll try not to let my own disgusting personal shitstorm get into this while dissecting every part of this randomer's argument. Though I can guarantee that it will be in some way involved.

Ok. Firstly, this educated article amused the shit out of me for a number of reasons initially: The argument 'Skitzo' is trying to make, is an argument I've been spouting since I started writing 3 or 4 odd years ago. That is, legal walls are NOT graffiti. This is something I've been saying well before this dude picked up a paint marker (and I haven't even been writing any ammount of time) and began forming a 'view on graffiti'. I've had this argument with a number of writers, and created some grudges among the Irish graffiti elite as an ignorant toy with a big mouth. Graffiti, in a legal context, loses its essential potency and thus becomes something less powerful, a type of folk art: nice, but in a tilting head kind of way. Thus (I said 'thus'), I try to use legal walls as little as possible, and keep everything I have for illegal space.

I have done some pieces in some legal spots, mostly Windmill Lane, back when painting Windmill Lane was something every writer did when they were too tired to run from the feds (yo). Thing is, most of everything I did in Windmill Lane ended up on the social black plague we call Bebo, in every toy's 'Deadly Rapid Graffiti' folder. So somehow, this Skitzo thinks this bebo collection is my entire life's work. I am 'falsified'. Who knew? Frankly, I think the praise I get from kids for this collection (of quite old shit, by the way) is very out of proportion. Agreed. But these kids don't know anything other than their PC monitors and All City Records, and they are NOT writers. But then again, either is 'Skitzo'.

The main thing that was so ridiculous about this guy's outburst was he using me as an example of a writer who does purely legal graffiti. Jesus jelly fishing Christ. I have not done a legal piece in as long as I can remember...actually, if I do try and remember, I think it's been about a year since I've done a permission wall, maybe more. Skitzo, you obviously don't live on the Dart line, I have full colour pieces between almost every station on the northside, and plenty on the south. Pieces I have done in the late, barbed wire night, dodging STT, Garda, and everything that comes with REAL GRAFFITI BOMBING. Everything got buffed recently, I had a lot of shit wiped out...but I've been out since and taken back most of the spots again. I have plenty of pieces and dubs on motorways across the county too. And street bombing? I have (and have had for the last couple of years) more throw ups, dubs, rooftops, and tags on the streets than you and your crew combined. Don't take me as some ego maniacal exxageration fiend though, cos Skitzo and his crew do not have that much up...no offense or anything. I fucking love street bombing, and do it steadily and frequently, for more than a month. Skitzo, you obviously don't get around past the 3 squares of 'street' that surrounds Central Bank, since this is where your tags seem to congregate.

Oh, and as far as I know, RFA have not done a legal in a long fucking time, and are more up anywhere you choose to look than 90% of bombers out there. Pull down your fucking hoody and take a look around. I agree with the anti commercial sentiment though, and I had nothing to do with any of it, if I did I'd have some money to go out tonight.

I am sorry, Skitzo, that kids like my shit. I see it must have touched a nerve, but don't take it out on me. Yes, Grift is more up than me, as is Goner, I never said otherwise. But I am more up than you. I never claimed to be a king, never asked kids to have 'Milk' folders, or run stupid ass polls on their stupid ass bebos. I write, pretty much purely illegally, and whenever I can. I love it, and I won't stop (I say this after years of stress I'd say you have yet to even tip the iceberg of). So let me do my thing, and I'll let you do yours, less talking and more writing Skitzo, whoever you are.

I could be writing a lot more of what I want to say a lot more coherently, but this internet cafe is non-smoking.

It's the 'Not a writer' thing that really got to me. So please, do not fucking insult me and tell me I am not a real graffiti writer. I have been paying my dues steadily for four years, I have had countless trackside pieces, motorway pieces, street dubs, rooftops, city throwups (on the quays, and all around D1) and tags tags tags. Sorry, but I don't post everything I do on the interweb. I don't even have a camera. I have seen next to NONE of your sloppy, still-practising-my-tag handstyles in my travels. In fact, I only recognize your hand from the whiteboards I've seen on every second bebo account. Not to mention throwups, dubs, straight letters, rollers, and pieces, of which I have seen a total of ZERO. I am (much) more respected than you, because I do all of the above ILLEGALLY, and have been doing so for years.The two or three tags (I think) I've seen of yours have only been in the last 2 months or so. So basically, you've yet to crawl out of the stinking pithole of trend hopping kids that infest the city to being merely a toy. Nevermind being a name. I actually still think of myself as a toy, in relative terms, 10 years plus and then I'll have some more authority on the subject. So I don't even know what to call you. I recommend you fire your researcher, develop your handstyle for another few years, start doing something other than those handstyles, travel more than 5 streets from Temple Bar (take public transport), stop talking as if you know anything about graffiti other than what you've read online, give up the whiteboard addiction, and pay some fucking dues. In the meantime, see Espo's 'Rules of Graffiti', and refer to rule one: "You suck until further notice."

(Oh and P.S: EVERY writer on Earth writes for fame, tell me otherwise...and you're a liar.)

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Eric B and Rakim - The Microphone Fiend