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PART # 2

Started : 1971

Area : upper west side Manhattan

Main lines : 1's, 3's, A's, D's. B's, CC's, 7's.

Writing Groups :  COLUMBUS CREW,  MGA

 ~ Early Broadway Bomber ~

In the early 70's I have been chase or raided out of so many places, but there is one particular time which stick out freshly in my mind . When the ding dongs first came out, in the early 70's me and the MGA boys, swore we would be the first to hit them. And so did every other writer and crew, but the city only ran a few trains at first. On the E and F lines, maybe two or three and only at certain hours. They were clean and no one had hit them yet, not even a motion tag on the insides. A lot of writers and crews were looking all over for

them and no one could find them. The city keep them hidden, they weren't in the E and F yards or tunnels in Queens or Brooklyn or in any of the other yards and tunnels. So we started checking the lay ups and after about two weeks of looking, we found them at city hall. We were real exited, we were going to be the first. But when we got in the lay up , we could smell the  paint and hear the cans being shaken and a few guys whispering. We said to our selves dam they beat us to it and all of a sudden the lights in the trains started flashing off and on . At first we thought it was the other writers messing around and then we hear, hold it right there, drop the paint. Your under arrest, were the transit police. They just busted the other guys, that beat us to the lay up, we took off running back

to the station. My little brother who wrote SPANKY 106  was running a head of us, and ran up on to the station platform, with out checking to see if it was safe . I guess he panicked and a dam cop  jumps out from the corner of the end of the station platform and snatches my brother. The other guys jumped the tracks and ran to the other side of the station and ran out to the street. I couldn't leave my brother behind, so I give my self up. We were sentence to 4 Saturdays of community service, we buffed and cleaned trains and stations for 4 weekends on Saturdays.  

EARLY SUBWAY SAVAGE

My early home boys and partners in crime were SEGGI -1- 719 and JOHNNY- 1- 719 But I have had tagged up with so many writer such as SALOR 109, SAINT 107, POLLO 136, T-REX 131, NEHI 161, RB 1, OZ 109, REBO , BLUEB EARD183, and others. My comeback in 1980 with DEL, well let me just tell you first, that I made a small comeback in late '76 to early '78 for a little over a year. Mostly doing motion tags on the insides of some 1s, As and Bs and a few stations. I ran solo for the most part and only put up a couple crews, there were a few crews that wanted me to get down with them, but I was not interested. In the early days I was down with MGA, Master graffiti artist aka Mad or Mean graffiti artist. I became the vice prez. of the upper west side division, for a shot time in 72. I also put up WC 188 and WAR for a little while, only to find out that the guys that put me down, were members but didn't have the authority to put any one down. But they led me to believe other wise, it was really up to SNAKE 1 for WC 188 and LAZAR at the time for WAR, two writers that I never had the pleasure of meeting . So I can't really say I  was a member of WAR or WC, so I stopped putting it up. I didn't want to be accused of putting a crew I was not down with . In the late 70', and early 80's I put up CC , Columbus Crew , C.Crew and OTB for a little while and had the same problem with OTB as I did with WC and WAR in the early days. So I stopped putting it up . I pushed CC, Columbus Crew the most. I mainly focused on the 1's, 3's, 4's, 6's, A's, and B's and a few C's, D's, 2's, 5's and 7's in the early days. I hit the D yard in Coney Island, Brooklyn and the 7 yard in Flushing Queens a few times in the early 70's.

DEL ( Del waz here ) was my best partner, I made small comeback and I probably didn't really get up that much before I partnered up with DEL. Then in early 1980 I just caught the fever again and started motion tagging, once again hitting the insides of the 1s, As, Bs, Cs, Ds and some 4s. I was also hitting a lot of stations. I really got into it again this time. I was like a big kid again and my shit was getting up! One night I was on the 1 train doing motion tags on the insides, the train was empty and I was bombing the hell out of it. Then I ran into another old timer OZ 109 and he was with this new kid called REBO 1 and they were tagging up the train from the other end. We hung out for a while and put up some tags  together. Then I met another old timer like myself named

 BLUE BEARD 183. In early '78 just before I stopped writing again and we teamed up on few occasions and hit the outsides of some Bs, Cs, Ds and 4s. We went into the yards, tunnels and lays-ups only two or three times and then I stopped again. In 1980 I started hanging out on the bench at 149th Street and met my boy DEL, ( DEL WAZ HERE ) We hit it off instantly and started hanging out and became a team, a good one at that. Me and DEL never had any problems as a writing team. We just seemed to always be on the same page. I took DEL to a lot of yards, tunnels and lay-ups he didn't know about. We both loved the Ghost Yard and did most of our best

work there. We could hit INDs, IRTs and on occasion even BMTs came in the yard, me and DEL did a lot of good work together. Unfortunately some of it was never seen. Some of it never made it out of the yards or only ran for a very short time before it got buffed. We never took any pictures. I think we must have gotten together, when that so called big buff begin and starting to take off. I think maybe we were one of the first teams to see and feel the effects of it. I guess we were just unlucky that way, what you gonna do? When me and DEL got together he wanted to put up my name first, when we were piecing together and piecing the same cars. He said that I was writing longer and was up more, so my name should be first. I said DEL, MOOSE sounded better then MOOSE, DEL and it made more sense alphabetically, to put his name first and that's how we came up with DEL, MOOSE. I might have been around longer and up more, but he was more talented and could piece better. I was the bomber he was the artist. DEL did most of our outlines, but not all them. I would help with the fill-ins, back drops, details and touch ups. Me and DEL became more then just writing partners, we became the best of friends, were like brothers. DEL and I have kept

 in touchwith each other over the years, after we stopped writing and he just moved down here to Florida, so we'll be getting together soon, to do some painting again. You ask if the writing world was different from the early days, yes it was. I thought it was easier to write. There were less transit cops due to the city nearly going bankrupt, in the mid to late '70s and didn't really get back on its feet till maybe '83. The writers in the mid '70s to '80 were now spending hours, working on one car just taking their time.

Back in the days, you wrote fast and hit as many cars as you could in few hours and got out of there. A lot of writers early on had long, big names; some used two or three names. Writers of the mid to late '70s and early '80s used shorter names. The writers of that area didn't have to deal with street gangs, as much as we did in the early days. Graffiti was now becoming an art form. Remember I started before they called it art. We were called vandals vandalizing the city, not artists. The artist/writes were getting more talented and using new techniques. The quality and color selection of the paints were getting better by the '80s. Guys were now taking art classes and sketching out their work in sketchbooks, before they went to the yards to put it up. Some were using painters tape, masking tape and other tools to enhance the quality of the work. There was nothing wrong with that, the changes and

 advancements were and still are good for the art and I welcome it. In the early days when we started piecing we did all freestyle, spontaneously from scratch, what ever came to our minds at the train yard. We did it from the top of heads. We didn't prep ourselves ahead of time. We just went and did our thing. No sketch books no nothing just our paint. The writers of that era became more competitive.
 

There are many writers that have contributed a great deal to the art, as well as just plain got up on the streets and subways that are so over looked its just a shame. Some of the the guys I can think of were COOL CLIFF 120, HILT 505, CLANCY 120 JOHNNY- 1- 719 ( r.i.p ),  SEGGI -1-719 aka SWEET SOULFUL SEGGI, SODA 1, THE BOSS 1, TOP CAT 126, RICAN 619, SPIC 54, LUPI 51, WEB 1&2, LIL MAN 1, BLADE 131, TUROK 161, SHAFT 112, POLLO 136, PIPER 1, ROSS 1, ROME 150, JIVE 3, RC 162, SJK 171, KOOL KITO, SLIM 1, X-RAY 174, CHI CHI 133, RIFF 170, BILLY 167, ROGER, HERB 99, HONDO 1, FRESCO, TURK 62, CHECKER 170, MOSES 147, B-ONE, PEACE 108,  A-TRAIN, LAVA 1 & 2, DICE 198, RAY-B 954, SKIP 1, IN aka KILL 3, CHASE 2, REBEL 3 aka REBEL -GO CLUB, DERBY, DOC 109,  KROME 100, OZ 109, JESTER aka DY 167, MOVIN 2 aka TI 147, DISCO 3yb, SMILEY 149, REE 2 aka OPEL, HURST aka OI, MICKEY 729 aka TO, PRE-SWEET, NOC 167, TEEN, BILROCK, COS 207, RASTA, DEAL, OE 3, P13, MED 167 aka DISCO 92, BS 119, G- MAN, and so many more. I'm glad this website as well as others are holding on to this history instead of allowing it to fade away like the dinosaurs. I stopped the first time in 73 to go into the Marine Corps and then made a brief come back in the mid to late 70's. But I was not really getting up that much. I Stopped and made another come back in early 1980 and stopped for the finale time early 1982.   The first time was to go in to the service,  the second time I was trying to make that money, the last time was to raise my kids.

I want to saythanks to you Gil, Bom 5 and subway outlaws. Also like to thank Del, Kase, Sak, Pade for giving this old timer, O.G. his props and I want to say what's up to Bluebeard 133, Whiz 3, Ree 2 and Fdt 56. I also want to give a shout out to all writers/artist from NYC and around the world, young and old, old times, old School , New school. 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th generations and all the generations to come. Lets keep this thing of ours alive, world wide. Forever, never let the movement die.    Peace, later .   MOOSE 106 aka ZAR 1, The original  MGA, CC. Check me out at www.12'clockcrew.com