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I started writing in the summer of 1979 and found the name SAK, while I was in a local supermarket.  The name happened to be the perfect letters to do pieces with.  The yards I hit back then were the Ghost Yard and 242nd street yard (on the Broadway #1 line.  The biggest writers of the time that caught my attention were from the writing groups TDS  ( The Death Squad )  and TMT  ( The Magnificent Team ).  They had members like CHAIN 3, PART, KOOL 131, BEAR 167,

got busted.  It wasn't until 1983, when I hooked up with T-KID and his crew, that I knew how to enter into the Ghost Yard from the 215th street side, where you were virtually undetected.  My first writing partner who helped established the writing group MBT, went by the name of FROZEN, then by his name ROBI.  Believe me when I tell you, he was ahead of his time and definitely was a better artist than I was at the time.  He was also down with W.S. ( Wild Style ) and FBA ( Fast Breaking Artist ) as guys like TRACY 168 and TACK saw his genius.  He did do a hand full of pieces.  FROZEN (aka ROBI) was a scary kind of guy who was always afraid of getting caught, so he wasn't as consistent as I was, however I do have pictures to prove he did exist.  My next (second) writing partner was RIZE (from 1981-1984).  RIZE slowed down while I kept going, and that is when I met KC of the writing group MSK, from 1984-1985, we put in a lot of work on the Broadway #1 line.  Then finally my departed boy RUN (R.I.P.) became a great writing partner from 1985-1987.  I have painted trains and walls with so many writers through-out the years, writers such as DIA of the writing group MSK, FURN also a member of the MSK crew, SWAN3, RAC 7, T-KID 170, MAGNUM, CEM 2, KENN, SLIN 2, PER, 2NEW, POEM, FM, PASC, SHAME 125th, NICER, CHI, SEEN UA, JON ONE, COPE 2, FLITE,  DAE, DERO, JASON (of the writing group THE MOB) and MKAY.  I have written for so many writing crews over the years, that it is hard to name all of them, but all the writing groups in order were MBT, FBA, TNB, TAT, TAC, TOA, MSK, and OTB. I pretty much pushed them all.  Once I did a whole car with OTB on it.

I would have to say that 1984 to 1986 were my peak years on the subways.  When I was starting to do burners with my new found name SAK, I always had it in the back of my mind that I wanted peoples mouths to drop when my work pulled out for the public Monday morning commute.  I wanted to give people and upcoming artists, that same jolt I got, when I was an up and coming artist (who saw freshly painted DEZ, SKEME and PORE cars roll by or a TACK, SPADE, ALIVE 5 whole car done).  So in the beginning, I would try week after week to wow people, but I felt that I wasn't giving off that same magic SKEME and TACK were.

So after trying so much and so hard, before I knew it, I was king of the Broadway number 1 line by the summer of 1984.  I had top-to-bottoms running, windows-downs and silver block letters stretching across the subway line.  I was painting so much that everything fell into place.  Eventually, I learned better paint control and was confident in what I was doing on the lines.  Getting paint to do all those pieces back in the days was not a problem, because I was a master of racking.  When I started out racking I usually went at it alone with a big 3/4 snorkel, with a hole in my pockets, and went into the stores and dropped the paint into the hole,

the paint would fall to the bottom, and in doing this I would come off with like 9 cans of paint.  There was another time I went racking with these guys that wrote MAP, ASH and FLITE; that's when my luck ran out.  Me and ASH went in together and I already racked my paint in a portfolio, but my mistake was waiting for ASH to make his move.  He was shitting bricks and finally did his thing, but when we were walking out the store, this DT grabbed me from behind and ASH got away.  As I looked into the distance, I saw FLITE and MAP run away, so I said to myself, "hell no I ain't gonna be the only one caught", and started  swinging wildly for him to let me go.  As I struggled, I punched the DT in the  jaw and then got away.  The number 1 Broadway line was my main line, but after a

 while I stated to branch out to different other lines.  As a result, I did a bunch of stuff on the 2, 3, 4, and 5's and one unfinished car on the number 6 train. As much as the

 with other writers... I just wanted to paint.  Back then I didn't have any major cross-out war's with other writers. Well...I can't really say that I had cross-out wars with anyone, but if I had to go over someone, I did it with my name and whatever the outcome was gonna be...it was gonna be.  After awhile, I got tired of hating niggas going over me just for sheer hate, so I retaliated against anybody who I knew dissed my cars.  I can say one guy by the name of CHAZ who was a thorn in my ass and was a no talent fuck, dissed a handful of my stuff.  Whenever I saw something of his, I dogged it, which wasn't often because he didn't have shit running.  At one point, this toy dissed my Gremlin car, so I waited for him by his school and when he came out, I smacked him up for about a half hour straight, then let him go.

As far as raids stories go, there was this one time in 1984 in the Ghost Yard, when there was like 20 of us painting;  All of  the members of the TNB and  TAT crews were there going strong (and some other great writers were there as well).  The whole crew took up  about one whole subway  lane, while Me, RIZE

and KC decided to paint away from the crowd and skipped a few lanes to paint on the 4's for a change (giving Broadway a break).  RIZE and KC went to the other side to map-out outlines for another 3-man car for us to start on, once we finished the one on the 4s.  I was the last to finish, then something told me to look to my left and what do I see but two uniformed cops and a work bum watching me paint, so I grabbed up my camera and paint and ran for it.  I realized that no one else was in sight which was strange at the moment, and also noticed while running for the hole to get out that there was a trail of flavored Krylons leading to the hole in the fence.  You name it all the colors were there, popsicle orange, turquoise, avocado,  clover greens, and fed purples. ( I found out later that KENN  dropped them while running out).  I was the last one out, but I got away.  Here's the crazy part.....T-KID 170 had everybody in

such deep  check that he said "there's too much mother fuckers in here today, that's why we got raided.  So I'm gonna have to dismiss some of you.  When we headed back to the Ghost Yard, he had everybody form a single line and he started to weed out the ones who couldn't go back in.  He said "you can go in, you can go in, you can go in YOU CAN'T GO IN, you can go in, you can go in, you can go in, YOU CAN'T GO IN".  (I won't mention the names of the writers who couldn't get back in, but I wasn't one of them).  One of my favorite cars done, was the Gremlin car with Gismo and Stripe, done by me, KC and RAC7.  I was so into that car that when we did it, some work-bum opened the doors on us, stood in the doorway and I said to him "could you please close the

 door back so we could finish this?"  He came out of the train and stood next to us and said "wow that's real nice work".  As a result, he and his partner complied and didn't call the cops.  SEEN UA, wasn't the only one with a little pull on the trains.  My favorite cars I painted was with CEM 2, SWAN 3 and me (SAK).   Another favorite was with SHAME and KC, on the 2's and 5s'.  Other favorites were with me (SAK), KC, and POEM on the Broadway line. and then JON, BOOM2 (by RAC 7) and SAK.  More favorites were me (SAK) KC, and SHAME (PART # 2) on the 2s and 5s.  The SAK,
 MIC, and DAE was the last train I painted in 1987.  Well, as you know, the game ain't what it used to be, it's up to us to keep the history on the straight and narrow.  After us, the history will be lost, because many of these new cats don't have a clue or don't even care about us old timers.  Thank God for the Style Wars DVD, it's one of our last hopes for accurate Graffiti history..... I was king of Broadway from 1984-1986.


 

     Peace Out, SAK .. El Rey De Broadway                        

Should anyone have photos of SAK's work, please contact us at MESSAGE@SUBWAYOUTLAWS.COM.