Interview with T-KID 170

Partial Transcript: Steven Payne: Welcome to the Bronx Aerosol Arts Documentary Project. My name is Steven Payne, director of the Bronx County Historical Society. Kurt and Pastor you wanna go ahead and introduce yourselves?
Kurt Boone: Yeah I'm Kurt Boone and I've been writing about urban culture for 40 years.
Pastor Crespo: I'm Pastor Crespo, Jr. and I am the research librarian for the Bronx County Historical Society.
Steven Payne: Great, thank you both. We're very happy, thrilled to be here with the legendary graff writer and world renowned artist from none other than the BX. T-KID, Terrible T-KID 170, goes by a few names but really most people know him as T-KID. T-KID's gonna get into all kinds of things, he came up during the golden age of graffiti and a force of nature really ever since in the graff world and beyond the graff world.

Segment Synopsis: Steven Payne, Kurt Boone, and Pastor Crespo, Jr. introduce themselves and the narrator, T-KID 170 world-renowned graffiti writer and artist from The Bronx.

Keywords: T-Kid 170 (Graffiti artist)

Subjects: Graffiti; Oral history

Partial Transcript: TKID: So, you know, my father wanted to take me for a weekend and he kidnapped me and took me to Peru.
SP and KB: Oh, Wow!
TKID: Yeah when they were separated, when they weren't together. Back then you could leave the country with no passport, but you couldn't come back in. My father's plans was to keep me in Peru. And there are pictures in my family archives of me in Peru as a little kid, you know, I wanna say I was about 2 years old, I think my mother was pregnant with my brother at the time. No bullshit, I was 3 years old then and my mother had my brother, now that I remember. And there's some pictures of me in Peru with some of my Peruvian family which I barely know any of.

Segment Synopsis: T-KID discusses his family's history and background in the Bronx. His mother was from Puerto Rico who came to the mainland in the 1950s with her mother (T-KID's grandmother) who worked in a fishing net factory. His father immigrated from Peru and moved to New Jersey, trained as an accountant and working as a house painter on the weekends, but dreamed of being an ironworker which he did eventually become. Shortly after they were married their two kids were born, T-KID and his brother. However the marriage rapidly deteriorated as T-KID's father developed a drinking habit and became physically abusive to his mother and to T-KID, leading to a divorce early on in T-KID's life. We also learn about how T-KID was taken to Peru by his father as a toddler while on visitation, essentially kidnapping T-KID as he did not have a passport to reenter the country, but an (apparently legally empty) threat by law enforcement scared his father into coming back to the US.

Keywords: Hunts Point Palace; Kidnapping; Kidnapping victims; Parental kidnapping

Subjects: Children of immigrants; Foreign workers, Peruvian; Immigrants; Immigrants in America; Immigration & society; Peru; Puerto Rican experience; Puerto Ricans; Women immigrants; Women immigrants--Abuse of--United States

Partial Transcript: TKID: We used to hustle back then! And before I get into that story these are the hustles that we had: We used to go to the supermarket and carry the shopping bags for the old ladies. I'm not gonna say what race or whatever, you know, I'm just gonna say there were certain type of people who gave us a penny, the other people who gave us a nickel, the people just like me gave us a quarter! And that was one of the hustles, so I was always hustling. The Bronx Hustle, kid! I remember the hammer trucks. People used to get sodas, like soda water delivered to their houses. And trying to steal it, let me tell you they used to be like hawks watching those things. Cause you take a bottle they come running around and chase you up the block and stuff. Then I found out you could return bottles, you'd get 2 cents or whatever it was back then.

Segment Synopsis: T-KID speaks about his early education experiences and what activities he remembers doing at that time. Popular games included skellies, a popular board game played with custom playing pieces derived from various salvaged materials. Another game, Off the Point, involved bounding a ball off a curb and seeing how high it would reach. He also speaks about how as a child he was hustling for spare change, for bottles, to carry groceries, and so on. One time, a worker for the Police Athletic League lured an approximately 6-year old T-KID in with the promise of a number of bottles to return for the deposit, and attempted to rape T-KID, only thwarted by being walked in on by another person. T-KID reflects on this, noting how lucky he was and that was how his neighborhood could be then. He furthermore speaks about how he met his best friends because they fought every day.

Keywords: Adult child abuse victims; Skully (game)

Subjects: Ball games; Early childhood education; Friendship; Fun and Games; Games; Games people play; Games--Equipment and supplies; Games--Rules; Games--United States; Milkcap games; Rape

Partial Transcript: Ah, the music. Everything from salsa to whatever was happening. My mother loved music, my mother loved to dance. So she was constantly listening to music. My grandmother on the other hand she would listed to the old-school Puerto Rican music. What do you call aginando [sic] aguinaldo, the old jíbaro music she would listen to.

Segment Synopsis: T-KID's life at home as a young kid: the food Puerto Rican food he ate his mother and grandmother made. He especially remembers the Cod Fritters and fruit juices. His mother and grandmother had different taste in music, with his mother liking anything she could dance to but his grandmother preferring classic Puerto Rican jíbaro music. He also remembers the facts of poverty: manufacturing jobs shutting down, hiding goods so that welfare inspectors would not find them, and expansion of gangs.

Keywords: Guiro; Jíbaro (Puerto Rican identity)

Subjects: Cooking, Puerto Rican; Dance music--Puerto Rico; Folk music--Puerto Rico; Popular music--Puerto Rico; Popular music--Puerto Rico--1971-1980

Partial Transcript: SP: So you mentioned the Ghetto Brothers already why don't you speak a little about some of the gangs you were seeing in your neighborhood in like the late 60s?
TK: So when we lived in University I remember the Ghetto Brothers because the guy, this kid named Alex, or was it Tommy? No it was Alex. And he was a Ghetto Brother. And we used to play baseball in the convent, there was a convent next to my building and there was a little park. And we used to play baseball right in there. And I remember they used to call me "Johnny Bench with the Pussy in the Chin" because I had a cleft and I was always the catcher. And I had a cleft and they used to call be Johnny Bench. And this guy Alex used to call me, "Hey! Johnny Bench with the Pussy in the Chin!" So he lived in the basement right on the corner of 170th and University he lived in the building, in the basement, and his mother used to sell Limber. Now Limber is a cup of frozen, let's say kool aid, it's just frozen, it's an ICEE. Different flavor ICEEs. But they made it with let's say fruit juice and they freeze it. And that's it; it was a nickel. So we were always there. And one day we seen he comes up and he has these colors on. And we were like "oh shit what's that?" "Oh, I'm a ghetto brother blah blah blah" and we were like "Oh, yeah cool!"

Segment Synopsis: T-KID discusses the gangs he remembers, their rise and changing nature. He especially discusses the Ghetto Brothers, members of which he was friends with and became involved with eventually.

Keywords: Ghetto Brothers

Subjects: Gangs; Outlaw Gang

Partial Transcript: TK: So I remember on one trip, on one weekend, my mother, we were supposed to meet my mother at my grandmother's house on 192nd and Aqueduct, right? And I remember she decided, because she was still married to the guy in Queens, and I remember going there and she was like "alright let's go" and we took a cab from 192 and Aqueduct to Queens and she caught the man in bed with another woman! Yo my mother flipped on the dude, man. She fuckin' flipped! So you see my childhood was fucking insane! You PTSD bro I never stood a chance man. And I'm not even getting into the shit I saw that my father did to my mother. I'm not even gonna get into that. But I remember my mother taking a knife, man, breaking up all the furniture chasing the fucking woman out of the house, talking about how she wanna kill this mother fucker, man. And I'm laughing like "yeah you fucking prick!"
SP: So he got his ass kicked by both your parents!
TK: No but listen, listen, listen! So after that we end up back at my grandmother's house. And I don't know a couple of months down the road that's when she met Frank Payne, and that's my sister's father.

Segment Synopsis: An incident of abuse by T-KID's father causes his mother to move the family to Puerto Rico, beginning a period of turmoil in his young life. She goes back to New York and eventually remarries, calling the children to her in Queens. Eventually, an incident with his mother's new husband occurs and T-KID runs away to his father's house back in the Bronx. His father beats up his mother's new husband and takes both kids to the Bronx to live with him from then on. He gets a new group of friends and plays Ringolevio. During one such game he witnessed a kid get killed by a moving car. He also began attending the Catholic school system on his father's insistence. He would continue to see his mother on the weekends, who eventually caught her new husband in bed with another woman leaving him as well and moving back in with T-KID's grandmother (her mother). She eventually starts dating a man named Frank Payne, who worked for Con Edison and is the father of T-KID's sister. T-KID developed a strong relationship with Frank, who taught him how to box and supported T-KID. T-KID also describes the competitive relationship his father fostered between T-KID and his brother, which transferred into a competitive spirit in almost everything T-KID would do from then on.

Keywords: Pedestrian accidents; Tag games

Subjects: Family violence

Partial Transcript: TK: Now I'm hanging tough in Harlem and coming home later and later and my father's starting to, you know. And I remember coming home late one day and stripping me naked and checking my body for needle marks he thought I was shooting up heroin. And that was a time in the couple incidents that had already happened where my father really got physical and abusive with me. At one point a couple of years prior he put a fucking gun to my face. He was drunk, you know. I think I walked in and averted a suicide. I didn't know it at the time. I thought I walked in, my father was drunk in the living room. He had these heavy curtains that darkened out the whole place and he had a recliner. I remember walking in and he had the Beretta in his hand, fucking bottle of whiskey there and shit. I turned on the lights and, "Shut off the lights" I go "Woah Dad what's going on" I saw the gun and oh, shit. We knew he had the gun. My father used to teach us how to shoot, shooting into the corner of the bed that's in the room.
KB: That's loud!
TK: Yeah and it was a 9mm Beretta man. You know? It was like, I remember I walked in on that and I remember he told me to shut off the light and I said no, Dad. And I'm like looking and I'm like, "what the hell is going on?" I remember he got up and he puts the gun to my face and he goes, "I don't know if I should blow your brains out and kill myself or just blow your brains out." And he put his hand down and said, "you remind me of your mother." And he went back and he sat down.

Segment Synopsis: T-KID and his friends became hugely into doing tricks on the swings, and competing with other crews who could perform the most impressive tricks. After a particularly impressive battle T-KID gets the moniker "king of the swings" and begins writing KING 13 as his first graffiti name. This is also when was pressed into joining the neighborhood gang. He was initiated at Monroe High School and was involved in the gang but did not appreciate the choice of who they robbed, including older people and a beloved local shop owner. Ultimately he left that gang and left the name KING 13 behind with it. At this point he started writing SEM 102 and gets in with a crew in Harlem called the Renegades. He also around this time walks in on his father, drunk and with a gun, which T-KID now believes may have been a planned suicide attempt. His father threatened T-KID with the weapon, scaring T-KID deeply, and so T-KID stole the weapon from the bedroom, hid it away, and kept it for himself.

Keywords: Heroin; Renegades of Harlem; Suicide

Subjects: Abuse; Family violence; Gangs; Gangs--New York (State); Gangs--United States; Swings

Partial Transcript: TK: Anyway make a long story short, man, this is what happened, man. I ended up shooting myself with that gun. You know. I ended up shooting myself. You know I wrote a different story and I say a different story to everybody because it doesn't sound as exiting, but the truth of the matter is, is I did shoot myself with that gun and Satch saved my life. And that was in Crotona Park and I was 16 years old. September 26th it was like 2 months after my birthday. My 16th Birthday.
KB: In your arm or your leg?
TK: In my groin.
KB: That's gotta be painful!
TK: Yeah they said I wouldn't have kids. I got a daughter, I got a son. And I got another kid I don't know if she's mine or not but she says she is! She don't look nothing like me! Every time I go for a blood test they disappear, so. But she does get checks from me every once in a while.
KB: So what did your dad say?
TK: He disowned me. Nobody came to see me. Nobody from the gang came. This is when Lincoln Hospital was brand new. The new Lincoln Hospital on 149th. I mean it was packed in. They had a trauma center there was a lot of gunshots going on. Now this is between us here... but it's in the archives ok because if you really do the research you'll find out.

Segment Synopsis: T-KID accidentally shoots himself with the same gun he stole from his father to protect him and his brother. With the gun cocked T-KID goes to stash the pistol in his waistband and sits down on the bench, causing the hammer to release and hitting T-KID in the groin. When none of his gang members come to visit him in the hospital, he is disillusioned from gang life and swears it off for good.

Keywords: Crotona Play Center (New York, N.Y.); Lincoln Hospital (New York, N.Y.)

Subjects: Accident victims; Gangs; Gunshot wounds

Partial Transcript: TK: They used to call me big T because I was tall and skinny. By now I'm tall. By 16 I just shot up like a fucking week, right? But I was skinny! When we used to play football on the block, 2 hand touch, remember that? I used to say oh! throw me the ball [spreads arms straight out]. Satch used to laugh "oh look at that big T over there." Called me a T and shit. And Kid because I was always the youngest. Everybody was older than me except for my brother so they called me kid. So when I was in the hospital I was doing big T and KID. And then I saw T-KID. So in 1977, right after I got shot, I came up with the name T-KID. And that's when I decided, that's it man. Fuck this gang shit, I ain't with this gang because all I could think about was nobody came to see me, we was supposed to be fucking brothers, ok. All I could remember was them fucking robbing fucking Cheap Charlie, a place that I liked! And then fucking stealing fucking welfare, not welfare checks, social security checks. They used to wait by the check cashing place and wait for people to cash checks and rob em. I dedicated myself to graffiti.

Segment Synopsis: While recovering in the hospital, T-KID comes up with a new graffiti game combining two nicknames he acquired: "Big T" and "The Kid." With not much else to do T-KID used the supplies his brother brought him to start sketching out this name, the tag, and a few pieces and resolved to make graffiti his raison d'être from then on.

Keywords: Hip 1 (Graffiti artist); John F. Kennedy Senior High School; Padre (Graffiti artist); Rep 2 (Graffiti artist); Set 149 (Graffiti artist); Tracy 168 (Graffiti artist)

Subjects: Graffiti; Graffiti artists; Pseudonym library

Partial Transcript: KB: I'm always fascinated on you guys getting spray paint cans and being able to paint with it! Right, so how does skill get developed? Did you learn something from Tracy or did you learn by experiment.
TK: You learn by trial and error, everything was trial and error. Like once I started hitting the fucking trains man I started to learn that if I spray with the regular cap it would take me forever and doesn't come out real cool. So what I started to learn was that there was these things called Jifoams and Niagaras and those were fat caps. You come in and do the outline and fill it in with those. And if I remember correctly the Jifoam were for rust-oleums and the Niagaras were for everything else otherwise the paint would go all over the place. Also for doing the outlines I learned if you let it get clogged a little bit a skinny line would come out.

Segment Synopsis: T-KID speaks about the process of trial and error in developing technique in spray painting. For instance, the process of discovering what caps work best for fill-ins: the cap from Jifoam oven cleaner worked best for Rust-Oleum paint as a fat cap, while Niagara spray starch worked best for other paint brands.

Keywords: Art techniques from pencil to paint; Paint--Testing; Rust-Oleum (Firm)

Subjects: Aerosol propellants; Art & technique series; Art--Technique; Graphic arts--Technique; Spray painting; Technique

Partial Transcript: KB: Now did you get involved in any crews?
TK: I started my own crew man The Nasty Boys back in 1977 man. The Nasty Boys that was my crew I started that in 1977. But I was always Wild Style, Tracy [168] had put me in Wild Style. So I was down with Wild Style. And before that it was FTW - Fuck The World! Everybody wrote that shit, man. You know that wasn't necessarily a crew it was more of a statement.
KB: So who was in The Nasty Boys?
TK: The original Nasty Boys was myself, PESER, was PESER he also wrote INT 1 and he was down with TMT that was my connection to SKEME and them and CHAIN. The Magnificent Team. So that was my connection with them, was PESER.

Segment Synopsis: T-KID discusses the crews he was down with in his writing career, including two he played a foundational leading role in: TNB - The Nasty Boys and TVS - The Vamp Squad.

Keywords: Chain 3 (Graffiti artist); Peser (Graffiti artist); Skeme (Graffiti artist); T-Kid (Graffiti artist); TMT - The Magnificent Team (Graffiti crew); TNB - The Nasty Boys (Graffiti crew); TVS - The Vamp Squad (Graffiti artists); Tracy 168 (Graffiti artist)

Subjects: Graffiti; Graffiti artists

Partial Transcript: KB: You hit a lot of trains over the years, so what was your technique getting into the yards?
TK: It didn't matter man! I remember when they came up with, they were talking about we're gonna start putting dogs in the yards. We were like, "how the fuck are they gonna put dogs in the yard?" You know? We just saw, like, they did it in the Bedford Yard, they had dogs in that area and shit. So all we did is come down from the top of the tracks where the dogs weren't and you'd jump into the track. When they did the razor wire, we invented wirecutters! What we learned quickly is when you cut razor wire it has the tendency to spring. So you gotta watch it. So you cut it and watch it spring. So you'd take a board and put it like that [holds an imaginary board in front of face/wire. You know we'd come up with whatever way. It was just your imagination you were limited by your imagination. If you wanted to get into a yard bad enough you could get into a yard.

Segment Synopsis: T-KID discusses how he and his crew mates would get into layups and yards after security tightened up. The dogs and razor wire wire turned out to be not too much of an issue, but when police showed up they were known to be caught.

Keywords: Koch, Ed

Subjects: Breaking in; Trespass

Partial Transcript: TK: He did an interview for that hip-hop magazine and said the T in T-KID stands for Tracy's Kid right after that's when he did that because he's been mad at me for that shit ever since. I mean Tracy's ego he wouldn't let me sign my name next to him, his ego was so big. And you know that's typical of artists, especially geniuses 'cause he's a fucking genius and I get it and I understand it but the truth is I heard this fucking ego so forever he's got this grudge. And one this I always tell him, I am Wild Style, you made me Wild Style. I will forever be Wild Style. You know? And Wild Style, one thing about Wild Style it's not about letters! You know these guys Zephyr and them think Wild Style was about letters. No, Wild Style was a way of life! It's how we live in the Bronx.

Segment Synopsis: T-KID speaks about his experiences with the move that his peers were making into the galleries. He was separated from the gallery scene, feeling that the move into the gallery was in effect the culture being hijacked by money. He nonetheless knew them, with Henry Chalfant at one point asking T-KID to narrate Style Wars, which T-KID eventually turned down due to beef with CAP. This is an attitude that T-KID now says he regrets, and was influenced by a bad headspace at the time and cocaine addiction.

Keywords: Quinones, Lee George; Tracy 168 (Graffiti artist); Zephyr (Graffiti artist)

Subjects: Commercial art

Partial Transcript: KB: So you got a couple of infamous stories out there that you can tell us what you want. First is this Ghost Yard story. That's the first one. Then this event with Cap, you and Cap had this fight
SP: At fashion moda right?
TK: Which story about the Ghost Yard there was a bunch of them?
KB: Tell me about you running it?
TK: Ok so yeah man the thing with the ghost yard was I found the perfect place to paint. And I protected it. Basically what I was doing is I protected it because at the time you had all these new writers, guys like COPE who would come in and bomb. Not only would they bomb which is ok, but they would break the windows, fuck shit up. You know they didn't give a shit. They didn't see it like I saw. Cause finding a good place, and I had beef with the Ballbusters in the 1 tunnel so I couldn't go in the 1 tunnel because they almost killed me there, right? And then I found the ghost yard and I was like ok, this is my fucking spot. So I protected it, you know and I was very limited to who I brought in there. And whoever I would catch in there, this is, by this time I had met MAC and them and shit man, and BIO and those cats, you know they came up to St. James park where I was hanging out and ask permission to go to the ghost. And I took em to the ghost!

Segment Synopsis: T-KID speaks about how he was able to control the "Ghost Yard", the 207th St. Repair Station which was the perfect place to paint due to the variety of trains that came into the yard, how it was typically inactive in terms of workers, and outside of the territory of the Ballbusters street gang. He decided who would be allowed into the yard and made sure they were respectful enough to the trains and the yard in order to make sure the spot remained ideal. He also was the one who let Bio TATS Cru in for the first time, who would end up being the next crew to hold a monopoly on the Ghost Yard.

Keywords: Bio (Graffiti artist)

Subjects: Graffiti

Partial Transcript: TK: Fashion Moda. So what led up to the fight with CAP was COPE. Little COPE2. So I remember we're hanging out in St. James' Park right. St. James' Park is right off of 192nd and Jerome between Fordham Road and Kingsbridge. And you got St. James' Park, right? That was my hangout because I lived in 192nd and Aqueduct. So we're hanging out, we're chilling you know. Smoking weed, you know. Suddenly, you know, there's a layup between Fordham Road and Kingsbridge, and we hear doors opening. Someone said it was COPE2.

Segment Synopsis: T-KID tells the story of how he ended up in a fistfight with CAP at a Fashion Moda (an art space/storefront that served as a hub for the international art scene's interest in graffiti) event. After cornering COPE2 coming out of the tunnels, T-KID and his crew demand COPE stop writing for Morris Park Crew (MPC) due to its leader CAP writing over everybody's pieces. After COPE tells CAP, CAP decides to confront T-KID and stick up for his young crew member, but ends up on the ground at Fashion Moda.

Keywords: Cap (Graffiti artist); Cope 2 (Graffiti artist)

Subjects: Fashion Moda (Group); Morris Park Crew (Graffiti artist group)

Partial Transcript: KB: Let me, before I get into the book, you travel quite a bit. When was your first trip overseas for graffiti?
TK: My first trip was, I had mentioned it before, Henry had hooked that up. That was 1986 which was for TDK Cassettes a company called Newton and Godwin an advertising agency that had the account from London, actually out of Tunbridge Wells, UK. And they had approached Henry. At that same time was when they did the Freedom Train, right? And I was the only one who actually did a sketch for the freedom train. That's when CRASH, PINK... And I didn't get accepted for that Freedom Train project that they painted I think it was in Philadelphia where they got an actual train and Crash and Lady Pink and Art and Tracy and these guys they painted on that train. I was the only one excluded from that, and I was the only one that actually did a sketch! So Henry kinda felt bad so these people had reached out to him and he hooked me up with that gig.

Segment Synopsis: T-KID talks about the importance of travel to him. His first trip overseas was a mural gig Henry Chalfant hooked up for him for TDK Cassettes, which he got paid $1,000 plus airfare. He also got hooked up with the European graffiti scene.

Keywords: Bando (Graffiti artist); Mode 2 (Graffiti artist)

Subjects: Graffiti; Mural painting and decoration, European

Partial Transcript: TK: I saw the interest in my artwork, and I met this guy named Nick Tarkov who said yo you should do a book. I said I got a bunch of shit. He said, "you got it with you?" I said no, I didn't come there for that, but if you come to New York I'll show you. Guess what, he came to New York. He saw my portfolio I said my wife was gonna throw this shit out. He said, "damn, bro you got a gold mine here! All this shit is from back then?" I'm like yeah, because I had this big giant portfolio full of fucking sketches, drawings, all my ideas man. I sold a lot of it, I have a lot of it, I have half of it from that portfolio but on top of that I have my blackbooks and all the artwork like folders in a box that my mother kept in Chicago.
KB: Wow you blessed. You know how valuable it is!
TK: Yeah I know. A lot of that shit is for my kids man.

Segment Synopsis: T-KID explains the impetus behind and the process of creating his "Terrible T-KID" book which showcases his art and writing. He wanted a book that was more than just a bunch of photos, and was able to create a book that showcased his developing art style and outlook on life with plenty of his own words.

Subjects: Books, publishing, and libraries information guide series; Folio art books

Partial Transcript: TK: I was doing the book tour when I first met Carly. I was doing the book tour, I was in California LA, doing this shop. That's when you see me, I got the red devil shirt on? That was Carly interviewing me that's when I met her, I met Brian Grazer... So, you know she wanted to do an interview, she wanted to interview me, man. I'm lying I first met her in San Diego when I was doing the San Diego book signing. And I was heavier. I had just come back from Europe for the tour... She loved that interview so much she wanted to do a movie based on that interview.

Segment Synopsis: T-KID speaks about the creation of the T-KID documentary about 10 years after the publication of the book. He met the filmmaker while on the book tour. He ultimately never made any money on the movie due to the contract terms, but he's been able to use the movie in order to promote himself and his art.

Keywords: Autobiography; Documentary film experience

Subjects: American movies; Digital filmmaking series; Graffiti

Partial Transcript: SP: How do you feel about, kind of, graffiti becoming this global phenomenon now. I mean you know, I'm sure back in the 70s and even in the 80s you woulda had no idea it would've become this huge thing. But what are your thoughts toward the global nature of graffiti these days.
TK: It's funny because like I said man, I thought graffiti should've remained underground and it became this big tool that's not just used as artistic expression, but to promote, to advertise. One of the things I always said is that graffiti is art and I've been a strong supporter of that, the fact that graffiti is art that it's pure expressionism, that it was for kids by kids. The graffiti that we did in New York on trains, not graffiti in general which is from the beginning of time.

Segment Synopsis: T-Kid reflects on how graffiti has changed since he started, having become a global phenomenon that exceeded the bounds of pure juvenile expression into a commercial and artistic tool for the entire world. He has somewhat mixed feelings. He's happy that it's kept alive but worries that it is in danger of losing its foundation. He also speaks about the Bronx and the culture of the Bronx with the enduring legacy of hip-hop.

Keywords: Advertising; Art collections of Europe

Subjects: Art and globalization; Arts and globalization; Graffiti; Street art