Stan One TS5 Interview @149st

STAN ONE TS5 INTERVIEW

©2001, 2003 @149st Do not republish without permission.

Where and what year did you start writing?
I started hitting trains mid 1979. At first I did a lot of motioning on the IRT number1 line. This included bombing of subway stations up and down Broadway. It wasn't until 1980 that I really started going to the 137th - 145th street tunnels and during the wintertime; the 1s were also laid up from 103rd to 116th street. I didn't start doing outsides till the mid 80s when I hooked up with my first partner DE aka DONE-ONE.

Did you have a particular inspiration or mentor(s)?
My mentors were basically the first members of TS5, TMT and also a writer named KOOL 131. These guy's black book pieces really inspired and "Made me want to get busy!" My motivation is to strive to make the next piece hotter than the last one produced.

What lines have you hit?
I've hit pretty much most lines IRT and BMTs, My main line was the Broadway line, the 1s which also included 2s, and 3s. One of the nicest lay-ups I've hit was with CHRIS 217 of AW (Acid Writers) who took me and a few other members of TS5 to the City Hall lay-up.

What borough are you originally from?
I'm originally from Manhattan, Uptown, Tiemann Place, which is a small block off Broadway, and this is also where several of the first TS5 members were also originally from.

What crews have you written for?
TS5, TIB, WBC, WAR, IBM, TC5, CYA, RSC, AW, TFA, TMT, ROC STARS, CIA and presently writing for CAC and OTB.

Who was your most successful partner(s)?
Well I have to say, that my most successful partner is the one I'm presently piecing with PRIZ 1 and I say this because after all these years, he's still keeping the graff alive and in the "old school mode". He brought me out of retirement to do something that I still enjoy doing. The next would have to DONE 1, and then CHAZ 1. These are the only partners that I've had since I've been writing.

Who were your rivals?
I won't say that at the time I was President of TS5 that we had rivals. I'll just say that I've had a few disagreements from time to time with other writers. This eventually ended up with a whole lot of nice 1 line cars being crossed out. Some were mine, but the majority were mostly theirs. I greatly favored Rusto flat black with a very big fat cap. Works every the time.

How did you get your name?
I got my tag name STAN from a high school friend of mine named Junior who I use to wrestle with. I use to always act like I was going to use a wrestling move on him called "the claw move" which was made famous by the wrestler named "STAN The Man." Junior started calling me STAN The Man and it just stuck with me. Some people thought my middle name was Stanley but it's not.

List all the other names under which you are known?
I only hit up one other name, which was RS.

Do you have any interesting memories of the imfamous One Tunnel lay-up?
When I did my first window down color piece on the 1 line. It wasn't all that great, but there's nothing like watching your first piece roll by.

Do you have any good raid stories?
Oh yeah, it all started when DONE's mother introduced us to a female, Columbia University student who was doing a story on graffiti writers with pictures included. DONE and I decided to give her the "grand tour". On a Saturday morning we took her down to the One Tunnel. We came in through the uptown side and walked a few cars down right across from the emergency exit, which we had also opened up, just in case there was a reason for a quick exit. "Everything was cool", so we thought. Several hours and a dozen photographs shot later, we were halfway done with the window down end to end whole car. However, on this Saturday the cops had chosen to raid 145th. Suddenly, the lights were turned off and the raid was sprung. The cops came in from 137th Street station and were headed towards us. DONE grabbed the student and I grabbed the paint and we made our way up the exit. Though, we had warned her ahead of time that this could happen, she was still pretty shook up. Once we were outside we went around the corner from the hatch, watching and waiting. A half hour later DONE and I decided to go back down and finish the car we started. The Columbia student was against doing this, but after calming her down, we finally convinced her to come with us. We reopened the hatch and went back down.

How did you become a part of TS5?
At first, I wasn't part of any crew, I was solo. I hit whatever I could at the time: trains, stations and my neighborhood. I even bombed the uptown bus yards with EN aka ENTER who had them on locked down back then. But to me, the trains were where it was at. It's kind of funny how I became part of TS5. First, no one on my block knew that I wrote, all they saw was the name STAN 1 everywhere. Before this, I had started practicing my tags on the rooftops of my building and even Oscar's (RATE 125, AKA DJ OC) building that was across from mine. One day when I was practicing up there, I noticed that KELSON (AKA TEEN 125) left me a message telling me that the way I tag my name "needed help". In other word my tag was "wack!" Well that's what KELSON did, he helped me get my tag right. He left me STAN tags in different styles. He gave me my capital "N" that loops over to the right, which I used then and still do today. The way that I tag today is still in some form the way KELSON taught me. After sometime had passed and I was getting up, I notice that the first members of TS5 had just about stopped writing, members were doing other things and the crew was fading out. One day I approached Oscar (RATE 125) and asked him if I could take TS5 (THE SPANISH FIVE) over and bring life into it again. Oscar said that it was all right with him, but LEO had the final say because he was the prez of TS5. Once I spoke with LEO he said okay, but said that if TS5 was to be passed down to me as the new prez, I would have to promise him that I would only put it up by itself with no other crew next to it, under or over it. "TS5 stands alone." "Solo" like I had when I started out writing. I agreed, and he gave me a pound.I took control of TSF and I hit it up hard and then I met and hooked up with DONE-ONE aka DE and we hit it up together.

Who was the Pres and vice pres of the second generation TS5?
I was and still am prez of the second generation TS5 (THE SPANISH FIVE). Though the prez position has been mine and passed over to me by the first generation the vice prez position has changed from one person to another. This has occurred because the individual who was vice at the time either, found other interests, moved away or just stopped writing. But one thing for sure, the position was always filled by some one that I trusted and was a good friend. Someone I look out for and in return looks out for me above and below ground. The first vice pres was DONE 1, which was also my first partner and later quit writing in the mid '80s. The second vice was CHAZ 1 and also my partner, who then moved away. The third vice prez position is held by PRIZ 1, who back in 1979 wrote SWAN ONE, who is also my partner, and was one of the younger members of TS5's second generation when I was first given the crew. Unlike most crews, THE SPANISH FIVE has always been a close knit group of writers from the first to the second generation. It just wasn't writing or racking for us. We hung out, went to parties and to one another houses. We were family of writers and friends with different personalities as well as graff styles. We also had one another's backs. Our motto was and still is "WE ROC!" And still do this today. Each member back then had their own unique style. Sadly, I don't see much of this today, what I have seen is money, personal gain and deception intertwined with fame very little loyalty to each other or emphasizes on the love of the art.

Name all TS5 members. (First and second generation)
First Members: LEO (pres), RATE 125 (vice pres), FED2 (aka KOMET), KELSON (aka TEEN-125), PAPO, AD ROCK (r.i.p), ANGEL (AKA STAR 3), MATCH, CHINO Second Members: STAN 1 (pres), DONE 1(1st vice pres), CHAZ 1 (2nd vice pres), MIST 2, FRESCA 5000, MANIA, CHU ROCK, AD ROCK 2, SWAN 1 (AKA PRISM/PRISMA aka PRIZ-ONE), (3rd vice prez), SON, (SON's brother) SEP 1, STAT, 2RAK (SHY 147's (r.i.p) cousin), MON 1, NATE 125, NEAL (AKA LEAN), CHRIS 217.

Where were the crew's favorite locations to paint?
Of course 145th street lay-up (The one tunnels, uptown and downtown sides). The middle track lay-up 103rd to 116th (Winter lay-up). The Ghost yard was all right, but we just went there to bomb. I can't front, I have to say that my favorite place was 145th street, which was the official home of TS5!

Back to STAN ONE main page