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History of writers.

( DYNAMITE PINTO.)

STARTED : 1974

AREA : BROOKLYN, N.Y.

WRITING GROUPS : MOG , BGA, 3YB, NCB, TOP

MAIN LINES : LL's, J's, RR's, B's and D's Trains lines

ALIAS : DP 2 - ( DYNAMITE PINTO ), RI.

___________________________________________________

I started writing graffiti in early 1974. During that time, I just wrote my name on the walls where I went to school. I didn’t think much of it and I didn’t even care about what I did. My cousin used to

write a few years earlier than me, under the name CASUAL 1. He was part of that older generation of Brooklyn writers and would hang out with many of the top guys of the time but he never really got his name up on the trains much. He had a very good style of writing which looked great on paper and it was from him that I learned to add style to my writing name. When I first started tagging the LL's, M's,

and RR's trains, near my home, in Brooklyn, the biggest names on those subway lines were BROTHER LOVE 333 and ABC 3, SUPER STRUT, CLIFF 159 and TRACY 168. These writers were ahead of

their time during those early years. one of my favorite pieces running on the trains at the same period was a car done by FLINT 707 which read ... " FLINT -VS- THE WORLD ". I was never a watcher, I was a doer and I made a quick jump into the subway scene… that is when I met GOYA, SKIDO 1 and KON 1. These guys also lived on my block in Brooklyn. the first place I went to hit trains was at the Franklyn Ave shuttle in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. We all tagged the outside of the trains – that was the

popular thing back then. We later found better places to rack up our paint, went back, and did quick pieces. They were not great looking, but we were proud of our work at the time. Goya was the most

respected out of the three and through him I met other writers. One Brooklyn writing group who was greatly respected was the “BGA” crew. MR. AL was the president of that group and the vice presidents were MR. DUCK and PRIEST 310. They were not only getting up on the trains, but they would bust your ass if you fucked with them. Since writing graffiti, I rode trains frequently and met more writers that way. These writers exposed me to more lay ups and train yards. TERO was one of my first writing

partners. He and I started our own writing group at the time, long with CHINO 13. We called our group 3 THE HARD WAY. I loved bombing with Tero, especially racking up paint. I could remember at one of these paint stores, I distracted the salesperson behind the counter, and Tero would walk out with the whole paint store. It was crazy! Then, Tero would take me to the “RR” lay ups which he was the king of at the time. I met two more writers through TERO.. DANGER 59 and AFX II. AFX was a constant bomber. He was a Chinese fellow with a lot of heart. The Bowery street lay ups in Manhattan was the

spot where he would do most of his damage. He would take us along with him and he would bomb the place. We would not see each other for hours until we were ready to hit the inside of the train. I

remember going back two days later, with AFX, to take pictures of my work. “VINNY a writer from the A- line was branching out to different train lines that year had painted over all of AFX’s pieces. AFX and VINNY had a quarrel that lasted until AFX quit writing, I think was mid 1976. I started with the name Pinto and never really wrote anything else until AFX told me to start using two letters for quick recognition. I chose the initials D.P. which stood for Dynamite Pinto, which I would occasionally write on the inside of the trains. AFX II, TERO, and DANGER 59 were my first true hardcore writing

partners in those days. I remember getting caught by the police with DANGER at one of these Brooklyn Lay ups near where he lived. The police did not care if they had me or not. Who they really wanted was “Danger”. Not only was he known for vandalizing the trains, but for painting these big DANGER 59 pieces on the train stations and tunnels. Near the end of my career, (When, what year?) I hooked up with HURST (aka OI ) from the famous writing group " TOP ". He dated my sister and we started becoming friends. He became one of my most effective writing partners. With him, I took my first trip to the IRT lines, but we both mainly stayed on the BMT lines together.

I never really had very much beef with the other writing groups, except with the P.O.G. crew which stood for ( PRISONERS OF GRAFFITI ). You see, I was pushing the group M.O.G. (which stood for the MASTERS OUR GRAFFITI ) Which belonged to MINGO 1. MINGO was an early B.M.T writer who Bombed almost every train line in the New York city in the 1970's. The first time I met him he

was dressed like the character from the movie " Super Fly "and was fading out of the whole Graff scene. MINGO would change the name of the group M.O.G ( MASTERS OF GRAFFITI ) to ( MINGO OUR GOD ) and wrote that all over the trains. This pissed off a lot of people in the group even writers outside of the group including some of the outlaw street gangs like the JELLY STUMPER in Brooklyn. The P.O.G. crew was a bite from the M.O.G. crew and I

crossed out a lot of their pieces for that reason. I would occasionally write over there work (PINTO OUR GOD) A few days later I received a call from one member of the P.O.G crew who wrote AIM (aka AVE 1). He was very disrespectful to me on the phone, so I threatened to take care of the matters in person and he backed off. Once I showed up right in his face at metropolitan avenue... he copped a plea, you had a lot of cats like that back then. I had a little trouble with IN (aka KILL 3) when he was first bombing the “J” line. He wrote KING next to his name and this pissed me off. I crossed him out for that reason... ( You see I was the king of the J - line at the time). But no animosity ever came of it because HURST (aka OI ) squashed the beef we had and we continued to bomb with each other. After

all, IN was the ultimate king. I had so much fun doing throw up's which would let others know who was running the line at the time, until I was ready to do some colorful shit. I remember bombing the J's line with HURST ( aka OI ), we had about 100 can of paint and did throw up's on the panel spots with " DP 2, OI, DP 2, OI, DP 2 OI "...down till the very last subway car , climbed up to the floater spots and then climbed

into the insides of the trains and did throw ups in the insides... " we just killed shit that day. I wrote with a few others like ROTO and SNAK, who showed up around my block, just walking around the area asking people did they know me. The funny shit was that I was hanging out in front of

the DIRTY ONES club house( Who were a big outlaw street gang on my block ) and these two dudes walk up to to me and one of the gang members. I started asking them what they wanted PINTO for?.. and the two would tell me that they seen PINTO up on the trains and wanted to meet him and heard that he lived on this block. They seemed like pretty harmless dudes, I told them who I was and they would take me to some of there spots. They were really big on doing insides and we all race to tear down all the posters to get the best spots. NACO 1 (aka TEX II) and STAF 1 ( Not to be confused with

the original, STAFF 161 ) were two cousins I would hit the trains with until they turned on me. I hid their paint out in my crib and NACO stressed me out about giving him his paint right away. STAFF got a little sneaky and grabbed my legs from behind me which caused me to fall face first. I stabbed STAFF in the side of his back with a big safety pin. The funny shit was that we squashed our beef with one another and continue to all write together the next week. I kept writing until 1977. This was the last time I hit the trains at the pull-ins and pull-outs in Brooklyn. I was with HURST at the time. I got tired of the late night missions to the lay ups as well as the task of looking for paint. HURST continued though. I never thought much about the whole graffiti scene until a friend showed me an issue of O.U.I. ( a men’s adult magazine). It was an old issue from 1977 which had a photo of my work, on a whole train car, in it. It read “DYNAMITE PINTO EXPRESS” in a ribbon style that I was famous for around Brooklyn at the time. I wish I could find that magazine. It bugged me out. Another experience that made me reflect was when I saw the movie “ The Warriors”. In the beginning of the movie a train pulls in, and on it was my piece on a whole car… some newer writers had written over it. It was a shame. After that I never cared much about the whole thing until twenty years later, when I heard from my cousin in Puerto Rico. He informed me that DANGER 59 was looking for me, to have his partner interview me for their website. It was great to speak with DANGER again after 30 years.

I would like to thank you, DANGER and Gil for remembering me and a special thanks to my cousin CASUAL 1, TERO 1, AFX, DUKE 9, MR. AL, MR. DUCK, GOYA 1 , ROTO, SNAK , IN - the all time bombing king) and my partner in crime HURST (aka O1) may you Rest In Peace.

~ PINTO 1 - M.O.G. 3YB. ~

Should any one have photos of PINTO's work please contact us at MESSAGE@SUBWAYOUTLAWS.COM . We would like to thank DANGER 59 and TERO for making this interview Possible.