Started: Early 1970's
Area: East Manhattan
Writing Groups: T.D.S ( The Death Squad )
Main Lines: 1, 3, 2, 5, and 6
Alias: WORM2, FUDGE, ROAM, ULTRA2, WEPA
I
originally started writing in East Manhattan, tagging the name, Spiderman on the streets.
As I wrote more, I went on to names like HANK44, and a few others that I don't
remember. After going through all
those names, I finally came up with the
name
PART. I started tagging like any
other young writer would start off, and later worked my way to piecing in
schoolyards.
My first trip to the trains is still in my memory. It was in 1974, with a few guys from my block on 103rd Street and Madison Avenue in Manhattan. Those guys were DICE1, SKYLARK, CREAST and DAN1. On that day in 1974, they took me to the 7 yard in Queens, which turned out to be a real disappointment. The paint we racked the day before ended up being the same exact color of the trains. Therefore, the throw-up pieces we did ultimately faded right in, making it invisible. As a Graffiti artist, that turned out to be lesson number one. I never even got to see those trains. After that experience, I chilled out and went back to piecing in school yards to work on my skills.
On my next trip, I went to the six lay-ups. From that point, I went off doing pieces almost every Saturday and Sunday. The very first piece I did was a PART in block letters, which came out really nice. But, again I never got to see it run on the six line. The cool thing about going there was bumping into other writers that were there. I mainly went there alone and kept to myself, but when I got there every week, I met new writers and saw lots of freshly...
...done pieces. One piece in particular, was a STAY HIGH piece in which, the paint
was still wet on the train. Some of the writers I remember meeting, were LOVE1,
HYDRA1, PEACE2 and SON2. They had some real nice pieces running on that line
for a short time. Still to this day, SEEN UA, tells me he sees some of their pieces.
In 1975, I mostly scoped ( watched ) the Bronx train lines. I mainly saw PHASE 2,
PEL and RIFF170's stuff running back and forth. At that time, the Broadway line
had this mystique to it. You had guys like MOSES 174, B-ONE and CLIFF 159 all
over those trains in those years. With the Broadway line, if you did not know any
one, then you could not get in. Around 1975-1976, many of the earlier guys were
disappearing from that line. Guys were also getting busted and disappearing from the
raids that were going on, at the 1 yard and tunnel. The first time I went to hit the
Broadway Line, was at the one tunnel and it was just crazy. There had to be about 30
dudes hitting that lay-up that night. I was so unprepared that night 'cause I only had
3 cans of paint with me, and no room to write on. For that reason, on that night I
only did throw-up’s. I knew for the next time, I would have to be more prepared.
After that experience, I definitely went back there more prepared and it was all a
systems go, from that point on. " I just went off !" I figured out the whole routine
on hitting that line, and then headed over to the one yard, then moved on to the one
tunnels. There was this writer, who wrote HINDU2, who was a little wild back in
those days. He was originally from the six line, but eventually came over to the
Broadway line and killed the whole entire line. I figured, if I was going to hit this
line, I had to get along with this guy. What made things easy for me was I that I knew
HYDRA1 from the 6 lay-ups who knew HINDU 2. Later, that made me a member of
the 6YB ( 6 Yard Boys ) crew. HYDRA1, LIL JUDGE, HINDU2, YOGI, CODO and
DANCO had a bad reputation, much worse reputation than the 3YB crew ( 3 Yard
Boys ).
HINDU 2 on the Broadway line, 1974
Most of my trips on the one line, was taken with PUMA 107. We did a few whole
cars together, and through him, I got to meet MAFIA1 and his brother
P.BODY, on 96th Street of the one line. PUMA107 also wrote on the six line in those
days, with his partner SLY108. Just at the time when TAKE5 was fading out on the
six line, SLY108 and PUMA107 were taking it over. Regardless, I mainly stayed to
myself and would help some guys out with style.
I met PEL through a friend from my high
school who told me that PEL liked my work. We exchanged phone numbers, but
always missed each others calls. It wasn't until I did a car with PUMA107 at the
Brooklyn Bridge lay-ups did I meet PEL. After we finished the car, the next day we
went back to scope out ( look for ) the train, and that is when I ran into PEL. I had
with me, the outline I used that night and showed him what I had done. He was
completely amazed that the outline I did on the train, looked just like what I had done
on
paper. After that, we kept in touch and started getting busy,
hitting the trains.
WORM2 and PART (Late 1976)
The Death Squad, started around 1976, by MRJINX174, CHAIN3, BEAR167, and
KOOL 131. When they came to me, they said they wanted to start a group
and were throwing a few names around. The Death Squad was the name we all
agreed on, and so TDS ( The Death Squad ) was born. The original members were me
BEAR167, MRJINX174,KOOL AID 131/KOOL131, CHAIN3, PADRE2, PANIC
and DEK.
In 1976, we went off doing whole-cars on so many different train lines, but were
always very selective, on where we would go to piece. We usually went to the one
yard or one tunnel, but if that didn't work out, we would head over to the three yard,
or even up to the Bronx's Esplanade lay-ups and six yard.
In 1976-1977, we started doing WARD–WARM-WORM - cars that were inspired
by the famous SOLID–BOT–DON–RIFF. that always had a ring to it and I think
was one of the greatest cars in history. We laid low a bit in 1977, but then picked up
the pace and came back strong.
At times, I used the name WORM2, which got me into trouble with RIFF170, who
also wrote WORM. I had a quick run- in with him at 149th Street and Grand
Concourse. I was with BEAR167 and DEK when they introduced me to him. He said
to me, “So you’re the guy biting my name!” After that
meeting we got along fine, and I never had a problem with him.
WORM2 by PART 1, 1977 ( The Death Squad )
When CHAIN3 left TDS and helped start the TMT crew, we all felt dissed by him.
The TMT crew started doing lots of productions on the trains. His leaving and piecing
with another group started a fall out with KOOL131. The ending result was
KOOL131 becoming president of the TMT crew. The two ended up patching things
up
and
every thing was cool again.
WORM 2 by PART -1977 ( The Death Squad )
By 1979-1980, many of the guys quit, and I stayed active with CASE2.
The ones line were getting hot, due to the Ball Busters. One night, I was in the one
tunnel, with PANIC and CASE2, doing a whole car, when 20 guys ( who turned out to
be the BALL BUSTERS ) came out of nowhere. One of the guys pulled out a gun,
stuck it at the chest of CASE2 and said, “You know who we are?" I said, "We don’t
have no beef with you."
They
grabbed our paint and took off.
myself I would not be put through that nonsense again. As a result, I took off to other
lay up’s.
PART 1 and NOC167 Top-to-Bottom, 1979
Eventually, we all stopped writing and newer members, like DELTA 2, FLITE and
some others kept it going.
PART and FLITE - The Hall of Fame
~~PEACE! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PART 1 TDS!