KRAZY SNAKE INTERVIEW
Interview conducted by KROOK TBK
Where did you get your name and who inspired you in the early years?
I started in early 1972 as SHORTY13, on the Cluver line, which got torn down at the end of that year. There were a lot of gangs in my neighborhood, Turban Saints, Rican Saints, Bishop Lords, the Dirty Ones, the Brooklyn Czars. They caught my eye. I needed a good name DANGER 59 and TROUBLE 59 were all taken so I came up with SNAKE aka KRAZY SNAKE, and KS 3 and shortly after started my own click GSA (Graffiti Strikes Again.) MINO 2 POG inspired me,
We all know MINO2, also inspired REPEL, another BMT legend of the ‘70s and SNAK 1, ROTO No Comp Boys, they were brothers. They took me to real hard core neighborhoods. I met a lot of writers like the MOG crew Masters Of Graffiti the POG crew. Prisoners of Graffiti and the SSB crew (Soul Stoned Brothers).
What crews were you down with?
GSA, SSB, POG, The Crew (TC), The Killers (TK). LSD OM put me down in The Rebels (TR).
I give you a lot of respect, for a young white kid from Brooklyn to get in all those top crews of that era when there also were other people who wrote Snake, what got you down was your legendary Brooklyn style and balls of steel you really lived up to your name in those important years.
Who was up that you can remember?
To name a few LEE163d , ALL 1. MR. MINT 58, TROUBLE 59, DEAN BYB, HURST TOP OI and TO TOP, INKA TSK, BB2 , DAMGER 59 and of course IN 3YB the throw up king.
Did you ever meet VINNY 3YB?
Yeah me and DANGER blasted three stations together on the B line end to end.
Where did you manage to get all those KS3 throw-ups off?
During the day I would hide in the bushes on the 9th Avenue train station and when the train pulled it I would jump out like a mad man and get off as many floaters as I could.
Did you ever get busted?
Yeah, I would go scrubbing. In those days the cops would come to my house with pics of my latest hits. I would often have to change my name and style to make it hard for them to read. It was the birth of wild wacky style. We would also change our signatures. I use to write KILL A COP EXPRESS. We would meet up scrubbing and plan our next bomb. Scrubbing was a great place to meet writers.
I remember seeing a “SNAKE1 I quit!” burner on the New Utrecht Avenue line. Did you quit in 1976 and why?
One day my girlfriend Michelle Guthrey aka CANDY was with my boy BEANO looking for me and she got run over by a train and lost her leg and I felt really guilty about that tragic accident and it fuc*ed me up a bit, besides all the legendary kings like CLIFF 3yb and IN TOP, TEE quit and STIM 3YB dieing. I felt the time was right to quit.
You really influenced a bunch of Brooklyn writers who in turn became legends through you. Any regrets moving to California?
My dad wanted to get me out of Brooklyn, but who knows what I would have achieved today.
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