IZ the WIZ Interview @149st

IZ THE WIZ INTERVIEW

©1996, 2003 @149st Do not republish without permission.

What year did you first start writing?
Started street taggin' in '72.

Who got you in to it?
EPIC 1&2, VINNY and The 102 Park Boys. Seeing VINNYs and CLIFFs.

What was the first line that you hit?
Did a couple of throw-ups on the As. First started ragging E coal mines.

Where did you catch those at?
E Yard, Linden Boulevard right across from the housing projects. Never seen a little ol' white boy like me running around the fuc*in' neighborhood

Which writers were most inspiring to you for pieces and throw ups?
TRACY was already out. He had some nice sh*t. Dean was very influential in like me doing window downs de-de-de-de-de-de (Referring to families) I brought that to the As 'cause it was like on the IRTs.

Oh, so that originated on the IRTs then?
IN Originated it. I just keep his hope alive, his dream goin' you know. It was really a whole bunch of guys COSA, DIZZY ONE, TEAR, UNCLE JOHN. A whole bunch of guys.

Who were like your main writing partners from that era?
My first writing partners. I used to write with EPIC 1 & 2, I used to write with FI 1. I used to write with VINNY, EVIL 13. I went bombing once with JESTER. That sh*t was sweet. It was me, JESTER, WIZZ ONE and 00One (Double O One). And it was like me and JESTER, we were the die hards we kept on bombing till there was no more paint.

How many whole cars do you think you produced?
Whole cars? You mean like burner top-to-bottom jammies? Oh I don't know, I never counted but I know in the years 81-82 I did no less than 25, and that was just in that time period. I mean, there are people who who have pictures of my whole cars that I don't even have that I forgot I did.

Which writers do you remember as being the first real kings of the As?
Well besides VINNY, you had BOD, he was up. TEE and STIM were up a lot after VINNY faded away For a little while CLIFF 159 was the man when those Ding-Dongs came out. Forget about it! He had every single panel. Raggin' them shi*s.

CLIFF even had a PAZ 2 tag running on an A Ding-Dong up till 1982.
All due respect to you, I understand a PAZ 2 tag is exciting to you, but I'm talkin' every fuc*in' Ding-Dong had a CLIFF on it, on the middle panel. Every car, alright. I don't think he missed a single train.

He must have been on a serious mission.
Not even VINNY did that sh*t!

I remember FLINT 707 on plenty of Coal mines. I mean these guys were my heroes. Ya know what I mean. Piecing on a fuc*in' E train next to a TRUE 1 piece. Know what I mean. That's an orgasm for me.

How did you meet CAZ 2?
I met CAZ through CISCO. I thought he was a nice guy, but the fellas used to say CAZ was a sucker, but he wasn't a sucker because he didn't believe in stealing paint. You know if he was down to bomb, but anyway for about ten or twenty cans of paint I bought a Corderfeild coat off of him when Corderfeilds were in style with the fur collars. So that's how I met him. He wanted to trade cans for his coat. His father found out about it and was pissed. I had to give him his coat back. He said he would owe me some cans. I said don't worry about it. Let's talk to these other guys see if we can do something. We did something. We did a lot of something!

Yeah. I remember all that bombing all-city.
He supplied the get-high and I supplied the paint ya know. It was a pretty good partnership. Ha ha.

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