That said, the main reason for not finding (or making) the time is due to the fact that since last June, I had been working on a project for a festival which would have taken place end of this June 2013; with a small line-up of very talented individuals in different fields; many whose names you would be all too familiar with.

Due to the fact that I lost faith in the willingness of our hosts (at the prestigious venue where it was to be held for two very intense weeks in South Germany) to ensure the right conditions, I recently resigned from what I felt would have been a small milestone in the evolution of the culture. F**k the pay and all those hours and days and weeks and months spent; if it ain’t right, don’t get involved in the first place, and never be scared to back out.

I was much happier going off to Dakar, Senegal instead, for much less money, a couple of weeks of intense activity and stress; but at least that feeling that you were sowing seeds on fertile soil, despite the hardships of others there and the crap deals signed by generations of corrupt leaders to foreign “investors”.

As for the idea of the event I resigned from; it’s not dead yet, and I’m speaking with some people closer to me who can probably help to make it happen…

I know I get pretty quiet for a while, but I’ll drop by and catch up every now and again ;-)

laters…

That said, I have also been giving some time to my 12oz Prophet blog, as I’m under the possibly mistaken assumption that I can reach more people specifically from the writing community there.  In the end, you also get very little feedback there, as most people are not into sharing their opinions and reactions to even the most interesting posts that you can find on that website.
It’s a little sad really, as we seem to have lost our ability to open up and share; to let people hear what WE think about some particular given topic, or a posted image of one kind or another…
Still, that won’t stop ME opening my mouth, or rather typing away on my keyboard.
I might copy and paste my posts and comments onto Mode2.org, at some point…

The opening for the show is this Friday 10th of August at 5pm, and I’ll be back again at the venue on Saturday at 2pm for a live performance in the garage, which will go on until about 8pm.

Should you be in the vicinity, you only need check the links above, in order to find me!

Right after finishing the painting at the 4 Pillars gig, on Wednesday  20th of June, I was on an early flight the next morning, going to Geneva, from where I took a train to Sion, in the wine region of southern Switzerland. My contact there, Issam, had presented this quite well to me, and it seems as if a lot of preparation had gone into it, but that did not stop it from being a nice surprise…

It had been previously arranged that I would be expected to start painting just a few hours after my arrival, having first the pleasure of meeting our host Yvo Mathier and his wife Yvonne, then some of his team, as well as being introduced to the rest of the crew.

It was then time for a group lunch together, as well as some of the local wine; before we came back to grab our pre-selected colours and get down to what we had come to do…

In no particular order, the other writers were Askew 1 (NZ), Demes (CH), Esow (J), Faith 47 (SA), Jasm (CH), Revok 1 (US), and TRD (CH). It was therefore nice to meet new faces, as well as a couple I already knew, and to get down let off on a lovely sunny day, in an unbelievable setting of the Cave Fin Bec.

Our “canvases” were made up of a stack of around a hundred wooden wine boxes forming a portrait format, the end image produced by each of us ending up on the labels of the bottles which would then be sold six to each box.

We painted throughout the whole afternoon, with Demes, Jasm and myself painting on late into the night; but through all the hard work put in by everybody, we were opening this rather unusual exhibition to a selected number of guests who languished in the beautiful sunshine before streaming into the newly rebuilt cave the very next evening;

There are six wine types in all, that the eight artists selected to their taste, or to whichever they thought would suit them best; but you’ll just have to go and visit directly the Cave Fin Bec website if you want to find out a little more about all the wines.

I must thank all the team who made this possible for writers like us to be able to travel to such a beautiful area as the Valais region of Switzerland, to be looked after with such hospitality, and to allow us to express ourselves on such a well thought-out project. I left there with memories of a great time spent in a wonderful setting… :-)

You can check out my involvement in this project in the following gallery;

You can get to Sevran Livry on RER Line B going towards Mitry-Claye.
You can find more details in French about this jam right here. Sonic from NYC will also be painting on the 29th…

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I have already posted this before, but, should you have forgotten about it, there’s a little double-bill this Thursday and Friday at Underdog Gallery, Arch 6, Crucifix Lane, London, SE1 3JW.
I started painting directly on the walls yesterday, and finishing off my stuff for 6pm this evening. Watch out for wet paint!
I must unfortunately fly off early next morning; so I’ll be missing out BIG time on Friday…
The artwork will stay up for a while, until it gets sold or auctioned off or painted over; but Friday’s gig will definitely only be a one-night affair.
I’m hoping to catch up with some of you guys on this evening anyway…
Bye for now; and until then :-)

A big “thank you” to all those who managed to show up and get in, last Thursday evening. The Outsiders gallery is indeed not a very big space for such a show, and it was just as hard to squeeze the crowd in there, as it was trying to get all of our work onto the walls.

In the end we had to democratically settle for three pieces per artist, so, with regards to my part, that was only half of what I had. I myself didn’t even get a chance to see what else Zaki, Pride, and Scribla had produced for the show; though I knew that there would only be three pieces from Bando.

Many of you seemed to have really enjoyed the “historical” section upstairs, which got me thinking  that we must get back in touch with Andrea Caputo (All City Writers), and get a TCA book out at some point. Given all the fake-ass publications, reference books, and coffee table books that we’ve had these last years; he’s the only guy that I would trust for such an endeavour.

With regards to the new work that was on show, I myself wanted to introduce some of you (for those that didn’t yet know) to the “one-liners” that I have been playing about with, for the last three years or so. The principle in itself is quite straightforward; an image or a lettering made up of one continuous line, but it’s the significance behind this that I’m trying to get at.

Whether it be a dance move, an MC freestyling, a melody or programmed beat sequence, a tag, a character, a throw-up, or a full colour piece; the backbone to it all would be that one continuous thread binding it all together as one, from beginning to end.

This line, this time-line, this flow of moves or progression of beats, is what we recognise within the culture as being the one common denominator that holds us together, where we can, upon seeing or hearing, feel whether somebody is on-beat, whether somebody or something has flavour; whether or not it has soul.

Though we have always strived to remain open-minded and progressive, with regards to what influences us, as well as trying to stay ahead of what is going on around us in the world; we can still recognise that deep down there, beneath and behind, there is that rhythmic and dynamic pulse of some writer, dancer, Mcee, Dj or musician who’s giving us goose-bumps, whenever he or she does his or her thing.

This, in my opinion, is one of the main elements that differentiates us from all other cultural trends, fads, movements, and revolutions that took place in the 20th century; ours being probably the very last one. Our blueprint gave us the wherewithal to sample just about anything that all other cultures had offered us up until that point; but sampling back then (unless something was a blatant tribute to its forgotten originator) was only half of the story.

Whether you decide to redefine the letters of the alphabet in your own way, break down some well-known or obscure tunes and restructure them in the studio or on the turntables, flip anything from Capoeira and its origins to the Russian Red Army Ballet into a new dance move, or even decide to take all the music you heard and make the music with your mouth (Biz); we took it all, flipped it and remixed it!

Art critics, buyers, and all those journalists and sociologists writing and talking on our behalf don’t know what they’re on about, but, as they don’t want their audience to see that they’re blatantly out of their depth, they use their words, writings and opinions to dictate who’s hot and who’s not within our culture; denaturing the natural and organic evolution that we should have taken, while conveniently forgetting the instigators, innovators, and originators who brought new notions of rhythm, sound, shape and dynamics to art and culture, full stop.

Every now and again we hear that one of these pioneers has passed on; Rammellzee, Kase 2, and Stay High 149 in the last year alone. Their voices, their knowledge, and their living memory and definition of what this is all about gone forever, while those that don’t know keep on talking and writing and dictating…

Speaking of which, we should not even begin talking about the record industry, the biggest pimp of the 20th century, which absorbed and perverted the vocal and musical aspect to all the various cultures that came to the fore during those hundred-odd years. Rap? Please… That word or name or definition used to have a meaning for us during our youth; but in this day and age….? The record industry, along with a lot of short-sighted, selfish and foolish MC’s made it a lot harder for many of us to be able to pick out what still feels good; and after having to listen to a lot of people just spouting whatever negative sensationalist shit that sells, I just stop searching, and rely on thicker-skinned friends of mine to guide me to what still makes me feel good inside.

Funny how back in the days we would be getting off on “Techno Scratch” by Knights of The Turntables, alongside “It’s Yours” by T La Rock & Jazzy Jay, “Fresh, Wild, Fly, and Bold” by the Cold Crush Brothers, or “Summer” by the Fantasy 3, back to back; but it was all music to us, however diverse. And, strangely enough, we were perhaps more open to diverse influences then, than we are today. We wanted each next tune to be as different as possible from the previous; and that’s what felt exciting, inspiring, and ultimately enlightening and empowering.

You know what, though? Some of us thrive off of being receptive that way, as opposed to boxing ourselves in. The strength and richness of The Chrome Angelz as a crew was the sum of these very different individuals who managed to put their egos to the side, and thrive off of their collective diversity. I’m still vibing off of ’84-’85 today, but I don’t live back then; because back then we were definitely living for the future, and, no matter what’s going on with the world today, the position of opposition that we had then, is what still drives many of us on right now…

Just a quick one to let you know that Bando, Pride, Scribla, Zaki and I will be showing some old and new work at the Outsiders gallery Greek Street, Soho, London, from the 15th of June until the 14th of July.
We’ll also be having an archive section with lots of old material from our private stock, so hey; drop by when or if you get a chance…

By the way, you may have noticed that I haven’t been back here in a bit, but I’m very busy preparing other stuff. See you again soon… :-)

I may have said in some interviews that I had heard about Covent Garden in 1984, through an article in Melody Maker music magazine. I was wrong.
The article was actually in another music magazine called Sounds, dated the 14th of April 1984. I was in my fifth year of secondary school, looking forwards to revision before sitting my “O” Levels; but suddenly I was faced with an alternative form of education which seemed more important and relevant to life, as well as the development of self-expression.
I consequently had to re-sit a few of my exams, but hanging around that whole summer had been more than worth it; a life-changing experience even…
I haven’t looked back long enough over the pages, to see who I can recognise as having been there when my brother and I got there, but they were all a world of inspiration to me; and I wonder where they are today…