The Infamous Archives: Hands

The Infamous - Hands Department

Rasad: Writers Write

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Rasad ATP explains to Sophia Varoumas why you can’t cover up a mistake with a tag.

Crews: ATP
Location: Philadelphia
Experience: 1983
Arsenal: Level 5

When Rasad thinks graffiti, always at the forefront of his mind, he thinks: LM (Little Man), Truck, JK, KB, PS (NEP) Notorious Bik, Donski, and Jonski. “Those people are who I think about every single time I approach a wall.” Rasad has a very humble demeanor, vast graff knowledge and has quite a few hand styles that have inspired many Philly legends to come out of hiding and show the new breed what time it is. “I’m not new and I actually taught Rasan,” he says. The fact is, Rasad has been a spectator of graff for the last three decades, teaching some great Philly writers of the past, and only coming out in 2010 – truly reinforcing that graffiti has no age or gender.
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Kar: Funkiest

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Baltimore native Kar describes the history of his hometown hand styles.

Crews: DST, BA
Location: Baltimore
Experience: Mid-1980s
Arsenal: NY Thin

What I write:
Kar: Kar DST BA crews.

Where I’m from:
Kar: Baltimore, Md. I started in the mid-1980s and really started getting dedicated around 1989–90, really doing pieces and trying to represent.

Influences:
Kar: On the local side Stab, “Monster” Shaken and Zek and Ever. In the early days we had no Internet, so if you wasn’t up with these cats you were not really doing much. Outside of Bmore, I used to live in the Philadelphia area when I was really young and it’s only like an hour or so from Bmore, so Shaken and I use to go to Philly a lot back in the early-1990s. It was Kair and Enem who had me sketching hard, and New York cats like Bio, TKid, Kase2 (RIP) and Futura, Vulcan, Seen… that whole Spraycan Art crew was heavy as well…
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Apex: True Flow

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For Bay Area legend Apex, it is important to remember that all true graffiti talent springs from the hand.

Crews: None
Location: San Francisco
Experience: 22 years (in 2011)
Arsenal: NY Fats


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Read the rest of the Apex interview in Issue #4 of The Infamous.

Lazz: Freak Out

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One of the original gangsters of street bombing in Philadelphia, Lazz has dope hands, which he describes as weird and un-orthodox but original.

Photography by Michael Francis

Crews: LAW1
Location: Philadelphia
Experience: 1978
Arsenal: Rusto fats

I write… Lazzix aka Amazon Man, BraKad, Kalar, Vexed, LX, VX, Lazz.

Lazzix stands for… Leonard as zany zaltar is xtraordinary.
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Tone: That Whip

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A writer’s hand is often described as his trademark. Tone IYA gives his advice about the hand scene.

Photography by Michael Francis

Crews: IYA OAL IAO BMD
Location: Philadelphia
Experience: 20 years (in 2010)
Arsenal: Rusto fats

I started writing Bleek in 1988 on paper and walls in my neighborhood and in 1991 I switched my name to Tone. My biggest influences as far as what I saw in my neighborhood were Bark, Krane TUK, Chicago, Men, Slice, Kers, Sam, Nolski, Crack 7, Boza, Fax, Kad, Kair, Oz, Ozo, Nark, Cose, Zash… and any writer who bombed North Philly and Kensington when I was coming up. I, like any other good Philly writer, have that whip – you know, the whip you get after writing your name like, a million times. A dope hand has got to have that whip, it’s gotta be uniform, good proportion, and should be an expression of your own personal style.
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Boza: Perfect Tag

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Hunting Park’s own Boza YCU has perfected the science behind a vicious hand.

Photography by Deva TET One

Crews: TRK, YCU, MIC
Location: North Philly
Experience: 1980

What do you write?
Boza

What crews are you down with?
Boza: TRK, YCU, The M Team, Model Thug, MIC…
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