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History of writers.

 

STARTED : 1979

AREA : QUEENS, N.Y.

MAIN LINES : 7's, 2's, RR's.

ALIAS : SURVIVER.167, DUS.3, TUF.146.

WRITING GROUPS : RIS , TPA, VIC,  KAT,  TSP, PAL.

 

I started writing Graffiti in the fall of 1979. I was introduced to Graff by this guy who wrote RO1. RO and Rec.127 were going to Cardoza HS in Queens at the time. I would go meet up with them after school RO would bomb the inside of the buses with a Pentel marker. The buses were the first thing I would ever start hitting. My first tag was Cerrone, Rec's was Ski1, Me and Him would go bomb the neighborhood hit every pole every school yard in Flushing. That’s how we met SO and Ghost they were bombing some school yard. They approached us and asked “Yo you write?” they were the first writers we would meet. Ghost was writing Logan at the time, and SO was his partner. We would go bombing together from then on and from time to time get chased by cops. You always had to be on your toes for unmarked cars with funny

 characters driving around in them days. Ghost lived out in the Bronx and took us out to the D yard that was the first train yard I was ever in even though I lived closer to the 7 yard and E & F’s. We went in there one night Me, Rec.127 and Ghost we started doing insides; SO was doing outsides. The D yard was the bomb back in those days nobody would fuck with you in there. There were mad trains to hit and the fence was an open walk in.   I would also do motion bombing on the 7's back then with RO and his partner Sec we would go to the last car and bomb the shit. I also remember doing some lay-ups on the 7's I think the one by 111thSt. I was there with RO, Sec and this kid that wrote Kink
 

that was the first time I ever did a lay up on the 7 line.  In those days there was another guy throwing up a similar tag to mine that was Cer1 when he would write it as Cer One.  I had got in into beef with him about it. I met up with him at Funhouse to fight but I guess he respected me and we squashed the shit. Still I felt that I needed another tag because Cer had the tag before me. I tried other tags like Chez One and Lime One but they really didn’t fit me. In 1981 I came up with Sur167 sur is south in Spanish and the 167 I got from Deli167 who was Ban2.

 

He was the king of the 4 line back then and influenced my hand style as well as my tag. In 1982 Rec.127 had gotten into some beef with Ghost and banned him from coming out to Queens, Ghost started using another tag Boo2. It must have been like spring of 82 and the 7's were all painted white. There were Peek and Boo throwies all over the 7line this was

probably the first time the White's got hit so heavily. Peak and Ghost were hitting the 7’s at the last stop they would do throw ups on the last five cars or so facing inside the tunnel on Main Street. It was cool as long as the cops don’t see you. The vandal squad would never think that this is how they were hitting the 7’s. They hawked the 7 lay-ups religiously and that was their primary concern at the time. Rec.127 and Ghost squashed there beef and we ended up meeting Peak who at the time was a little kid but was king of the M's; him and PG3. Peak had moved to Flushing that summer from Ridgewood and was anxious to hit up the 7 yard. This guy was a true blue Graff artist. He got me into

 
 

scoping out the lines, showed me how to blend colors with paint and gave me my first simple style outline. The big thing for Peak was getting fat caps and racking paint. That summer we would go racking the bunch of us Me Rec.127, Ghost, SO, Peak and PG. We would go all over Long Island, Jersey, Brooklyn and a couple of spots in Queens. I remember we were able to rack in the Village in those days by the end of the week between all of us we must have had about a thousand cans of spray paint. Peak would take us to the M yard and that’s where he would do His whole cars. I would do throwies and some insides. The M Yard was a Graffiti playground, there were mad writers up in there bombing and from time to time we had to tax a some of them  for paint and beat them up to get them out the yard. This was no democracy the trains were bombed and I was fighting for my piece of it. I think Peak did a burner inside the train that day it was the craziest shit I ever seen. It was a top to bottom that was painted on the passenger seat and over the windows inside the train. He put me down with his crew which was (VIC)  Vandals In Control and PG put me down with (TPA) The Public Animals.

 

That year I think Caine One got killed, I remember we went in the 7 yard when they first put up the double fences with the dogs in the middle. We had racked some dog biscuits and when we cut the fences the dogs came; we gave them the biscuits and they became  friendly after that. Peak had done a top to bottom Caine One whole car that day. I was amazed at how quickly he got it done. I don't think it ran more than a day or two. I know some one got a picture of it. There was this other writer we hung out with he wrote Elf 007, 007 was his crew. He was from Woodside. I remember Me Peak and Elf bombed the 7 yard one night. It was crazy the way we got in we just slid down a pipe that was near the over path of the 7 yard. The yard was filled with this fucking swamp like green shit I think it must have been radioactive or some thing. Elf had stepped in it when we started leaving the yard. He had to throw his sneaker away and put his foot in one of the fountains in Flushing Meadow Park to get rid of the contamination. That shit was crazy I think that place glowed at night from that shit. I was living in the attic of my house at the time Peak, PG, Ghost and Whack did pieces in up there. MR. R came over from Brooklyn and caught tags up there also. In 1983 Ghost started RIS

The Ris Crew 1982. NEO, REC.127, GH aka GHOST, SUR.167

and I remember going to the 5 yard in the Bronx after a big snow storm. It was me Rec.127, SO, Neo, Zoney zone, Lost and DA aka Dasher. We had to go under the fence to get in. I remember seeing one of Seen's Christmas cars; I was amazed at the detail in his work and paint control he had. I could never imagine myself doing any thing like that at the time. I just mastered tagging that’s about as far as I went. The 5 yard was quiet we got in there early like 9:00 AM Zoney was doing outsides the rest of us were doing insides. Zoney came back in the train and we heard him scream “God dam!” “God dam Zoney Zone” we ran to the car to see what was up, and there was Zoney hitting some clean insides with a Unie. I guess after seeing so many bombed insides to see some clean insides was surprising to Zoney. We bombed the shit out of that car and the other cars that had clean insides. It was late like one in the morning and the work bums started chasing us out the yard. I climbed this wall that lead to the bus yard and ran up these train tracks that went out the yard. It was real icy,  I slipped on the tracks and was dangling by one hand.

My original Sur tag style.

 

 

 

Part of Nye, Sur car on the 1 train 1984

 

I must have been up as high as a 3 floored building. I managed to pull myself up and carefully jumped off the tracks on to a building that was underneath the tracks. I got down from the building and took a train home. In 1984 I went to the One Tunnel with Rec.127 he got involved with the Ball Busters and he knew his way around in there, He would carry a gun in case of beef. We did a straight letter style Rec and Sur. I did another car with Rec.127 in the M yard and I think we did some thing out in Pelham layup on the 5 line. Shortly after Rec.127 retired from writing and got heavily into the drug game. I

 started writing with my other partner Den1. He was good friends with this kid from the Bronx that wrote Pure. Den and I would hit the 7’s we did a top to bottom at some lay up back then. I remember when it ran people were amazed because there was no kind of Graff on the 7’s; that was the taboo line to hit. I did a car on the Ones with Zone’s brother Nye. I also tried to do this other whole car on the Ones with two other writers  but it was not to be.  There was a bunch of little wanna be writers up in there. I just finished doing my outline and first fill in when some of the kids grab my paint. one of the dudes I was with started hitting one of  these kids and then this other writer who wrote Raz (not the real Raz TAT) sliced my head with a machete. Me and him went at it, he kept threatening he was

gonna put the machete on the third rail and fry us. I told him ‘Its on you, I would like to see your fat ass fry!” We kept fighting for about 30 minutes I kept head butting this guy and trying to get the machete out his hand we both got tired. He ran out the tunnel and on to the platform. I was too tired to chase this fucking guy. It was late and I was just through carrying like 60 cans of paint when I went in there. I just let this fuck go. This was one of my more fucked up adventures but I guess we all have them. I would scope the lines a lot and take flicks that how I started to get some style in my pieces in that time. I used the local school yard as my sketch pad I did hundreds of pieces in there developing style and paint control. I think Henry

 Chalfant took some pictures in there of some of my madness when he was doing his wall book. I was a big time rackaholic I had hundreds of cans I racked up on. I was saving up for a big production. I was very anxious to do one at the time when Den and Pure came over. Pure was talking about this lay up in Jamaica that Jon One was telling him about. He said it was a get over spot to hit. I remember Ghost telling me that it was hot there. I guess I didn’t want to hear it, I just wanted to paint. I went to the 175th Ave lay up with Pure and Den. We went into the tunnel and down one level that’s where they layed up there trains. I started my outline and finished doing a partial filling when all of a sudden we got raided. It was a big set up from the start. We ran to the exits but they had them all closed the vandal squad was watching the lay up that night; normally those exits would never be locked up as they were for emergency reasons. I was up an escape exit but was trapped cause this undercover graffiti detect named Curly was behind us. Pure was flipping Curly came up to us with his 38, and pistol whipped us both on the head. I started bleeding badly; I felt bad for Pure he was a young kid at the time and all that

 

beating Curly put on him was unnecessary. Den got caught by a transit cop; he arrested him with a little more decency. That was the first time I seriously got caught for writing. I got sent up to Riker’s my pops came through to get me out after a week,

Actual arrest sheet 1984

and as I was waiting for the bus out the Island I ran into Cope2. I met him uptown with Jon One while taking flicks. He came up to me  telling me that he wanted to fight REC and for me to give Rec  the message. I was tripping; I just wanted to go home, I didnt want to listen to this nonsense.   I continued to write I did other cars on different lines I think I did a car with Dutch and Ghost on the CC line and then one at grant lay up's with NEV.67. I also did a windows down Survivor car on the 7’s that I dedicated to the Ball Busters they would chill at this club called USA in Jackson Heights. I was arrested a second time for the Survivor car Curly grabbed me a week later while on the train after finishing scoping out the 6 lines. This shit fucked me up I was on probation and had to be working or in school. So I got this job doing construction work. In 1985 I was working painting Leaman College I did a wall in my neighborhood that Henry took flicks of. I heard from the kids in the neighborhood that he came down there with Duro. I had to stop writing because I had no time it on account of my job and probation. That’s when I got into Djaying. I play in bars in the city from time to time and did some college radio shows.

Survive car on 7 train 1985

  In around 1989 I heard there was going to be a graffiti exhibit on 42ndst near Grand Central. I showed up over there. I’m looking around, there are a lot of old whole car photos being exhibited in the back of the gallery. I turn around and I see Ghost. I start walking towards him to say “What’s up?” He then starts to point his finger at Dondi, Quick, and

Ghost Outlaw

Revolt who are sitting in the front of the gallery saying “You, you and you are a bunch of fucking assholes.” Then Revolt stands up and says “Lets take this outside!”  Ghost and Revolt step outside the gallery and they start going at it. They end up in front of some hotel near Grand Central where a bus to Atlantic City was parked waiting for passengers. I was keeping any one from stepping in that might consider sucker punching Ghost. Ghost has Revolt in a head lock and starts ramming it against the side of the bus going to Atlantic City. Revolt is a mess at this point his face is lumped up and he is bleeding. Ghost continues to ram his head and then starts punching him in the face. Revolt was caught by surprise it seems. He at this point is lumped up and bleeding profusely. He steps away from Ghost starts cursing him out and walks away. Ghost is standing there while a crowd of people are watching him. He is wondering what the hell every one is looking at. You see to him this is normal behavior. I guess that’s why they call us subway outlaws.

                                                                                                        

~ PG by Peak VIC

I dedicate this interview to the memory of my partner Rec127 rip and PG3 rip. It wasn’t so long ago I seen PG and Peak at the Chocolate Factory out in Brooklyn after about 19 years it was great to see these guys once again…..

 

                                                                                                   .....Peace SUR167     

 

 

 

 

 

 

Should anyone have any photos of SUR.167's art, please contact MESSAGE@SUBWAYOUTLAWS.COM