KR ESSAY I grew up in Astoria Queens. I started writing in 1977. My boy MACE turned me on to writing, I saw him looking at a picture he had taken of a subway. When he showed me the photo I saw a MC 2 throw up on a RR flat. I started noticing pieces on subways. Goin' to Yankee games on the 4 line I saw pieces by all those IRT cats. CASE 2, BLADE and COMET, etc. Going to Met games on the 7 line I noticed FUZZ ONE, SON ONE, PRO, SKY 2, CAINE 1. As a kid I always used to draw, now I found myself doing letters and characters. My first tag was KROME 1. I wrote that for a bit until MACE told me about KROME 100 SALSA. Out of respect I changed my tag to KR.ONE. Trough MACE I met DEAN BYB. He was then living in the Queens Bridge projects. Guys like DON ONE MAFIA, SMOKE TKC, GEAR, KB TSS, these were guys from my hood that were up on the RRs. I did my first piece on an M train in the M yard in 1979. My writing partners were FOME ONE, SICK NICK, MACE, KB, ROB 78. Crews I was down with were BYB,TSS,TKC, NSG,RTW,TNT, among others. My influences were guys like TRACY 168, CHI-CHI133, FUZZ, DON ONE. DONDI, for pieces. For tags it was JESTER, AS 2, T 59, DEAN, ROTO NCB. Our favorite lay-ups and yards were, of course the RR lay-up that spanned four stops. The M yard was a biggie, back then it was such a get over. We'd hit the Ms Js RRs in that one yard. Assorted tunnels from 42nd Street to 34th Street from 28th Street to 23rd Street, all in Manhattan. On the A line there was this underground yard on 163rd Street. It had As Bs RRs, like seven tracks full. Esplanade in Pelham was nice. FOME, PAZE, MIDG, SIZE, and myself did 5 top to bottom whole cars in row in that tunnel (page 5 in the book Subway Art, Henry gave me no props.). I feel the year that I started writing was the pivotal time in the history of graff. You still had the old school guys still out here, style was getting really good, bombing was at a peak, and then in the early '80s the gallery scene came in to play. ĘThat was scene of great energy and creative excitement for myself. Being a 14 year old kid meeting guys like LEE, SHY 147, DONDI, BLADE, PHASE 2 was a big thrill. I mean some people laugh, but to me I was meeting the modern day Van Goghs and Dalis. In retrospect, writing since has become a worldwide phenomena. A true art form born of necessity. We needed to write and obviously so did the world. Back to KR main page | Home |  Artists |  Crews |  History |  Links |  E mail | Glossary |