9) Errata and New Info

As I mentioned up front, in a project covering twenty two years of often not well identified work, I would probably get some things wrong. In all of the previous sections, I include corrections specific to that text. In this section I’ll put corrections not necessarily relative to the book’s main text body.

ALSO, beyond corrections, this is where history that came to my attention since the book came out will be placed (other than history presented in the comments by people writing in).
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A great example of under-reported history is that of the KTE family, a crew that has a strong history in L.A. graff, but that quietly went about their business without as much notice as they deserved. I mean to rectify that as best I can here and now. Here is their history as kicked down by Taloe (who also wrote Talo):

KTE—Kings Tribe, Keeping The Essence, Killing Time Everyday—began in 1989 and was the main family which contained both the older and newer generation of writers and piecers that actively carried the name into the late 90’s when the crew unofficially disbanded. To be put in, there were trial periods that led to an initiation of skills handed down and taught to the newer generation. It was made up of members from 3A, P2I, AWR and AD. It was founded by Kaos, Tork, and Eclipse. After a couple years the AWR’s went their own way. KTE was Kaos, Tork, Besh, Jear, Soke, Smerk, Zink, Caso, Taph, Deil, Taloe, Rate, Zeb, Binky, Bahn, Jake, Aunix, Deceit, Format/4mat, Credit, Mask, Kaper, Kanx, Chino, Sibu and Sabio. KTE currently has active members today still representing, mainly Taloe, Mask, Zeb and freshly added to the crew, Never. To this day they remain a tight knit crew and nobody was ever “just let in.” You had P2I—Piece 2 Impress—which was started in 1986 by Kaos, Vertik, Tork, and Shamer, a crew that was very selective of who was let in, and made putting in hours at the yard a requirement to even be considered. P2I is Kaos, Tork, Shamer, Vertik, Besh, Ferst, Taloe, Jake, Soke, Jear, Smerk and Deil. 3A, Against All Authority, was started by a guy named Lotus. Besh, who was his childhood friend assumed the main head position later on and ran a very tight ship. Besh and Caso were the ones that really put it on the map as far as piecing and bombing go. The 3A roll call is Lotus, Besh, Caso, Zink, Rate, Sibu, Taph and Taloe. Then finally we have ETB–Expect The Best, Exploding Time Bombs–that started in 1991 and was comprised of members from West LA and the San Fernando Valley. ETB was initially made up of a three KTE members, Caso, Taph, and Zeb. It later would comprise of mainly the foot soldiers from the KTE family and outside members. A slew of missions by Deil, Ster and Bohr would put the crew on the map for Los Angeles. ETB members were Caso, Taph, Zeb, Simr, Deil, Ster, Bohr/Bore, Bord, Klent, Kanx, Binky, Mask, Deceit, Sasoe, Ramble, Bahn, and a few others. All crews—P2I, 3A, KTE, and ETB—combined, are pretty much West L.A. based with a few members in the Valley and Hollywood. With 30 years of Los Angeles graffiti influence, with very few still representing, remains a culture and family that still paints today.

And now for a gallery of KTE related writers in chronological order (and as I continue scanning my archive, I’ll post other KTEs as I find them):

Besh at Sanborn, 5-91:

pg-14-mid-5-91-ss-besh_cc-sg.jpg

P2I at Motor yard, 10-91:

pg-42-p2i-b-mn-10-91.jpg
pg-42-p2i-crew-mn-10-91.jpg

Soke helping Kaos (the main writer) out at Motor, 10-91:
pg-43-kte-crew-a-mn-10-91_cc-soc.jpg

Here is the finished piece (sorry for the lousy pic):
pg-43-kte-crew-b-mn-10-91-soc.jpg

Besh and Caso at Motor, Jan. ’92:
pg-51-besh-caso-mn-1-92.jpg

Rate at Sanborn, Jan. ’92:
pg-53-rate-ss-1-92.jpg

“3A Crew” by Besh and Caso at Huntington Beach, 3-92:
besh-caso.jpg

Besh and Deaz at Motor, 4-92 (note cool hand-styles):
pg-72-besh-deaz-mn-4-92.jpg

A quick Besh at Motor, 7-92
pg-82-besh-mn-7-92.jpg

“Besher” at Motor, 8-92:
pg-84b-besher-mn-8-92.jpg

“KTE” by Kaos, Motor yard, 8-92:
picture-1.jpg

“KTE” by Besh and Jake, Huntington, 4-93:
pg-115-kte-besh-jake-hb-4-93.jpg

Talo on the left and Duse FH (Flying High, Fucking Hitsquad) on the right at Belmont, 2-94:
pg-172-talo-duse-bt-2-94.jpg

Talo behind the Hip Hop Shop, 6-94:
picture-2.jpg

“PTI” by Talo, Motor yard, 12-94:
picture-1.jpg

A quickie character by Talo, Motor, 12-94:
pg-197-19-talo-mn-12-94_cc-sg.jpg

PTI crew hitting Melrose hard, 2-95:
pg-204-12-pti-mel-2-95.jpg

Talo, Motor yard, 5-95:
pg-212-8-talo-mn-5-95.jpg

“PTI ETB” by Smerk at the Venice Pavilion, 5-95:
picture-2.jpg

Talo, Motor yard, 5-95:
pg-215-11-talo-mn-5-95.jpg

“KTE” by Talo, Motor yard, 6-95:
picture-1.jpg

“PTI” by Talo, Motor yard, 6-95
picture-1.jpg

Talo with Push, Vox (short time as MSK), Evol and Dame at Commerce yard, 9-95:
pg-229-2-talo-push-vox-evol-dame-com-9-95.jpg

Here’s a close up of Talo’s Commerce piece:
pg-228-19-talo-com-9-95.jpg

“PolTergeIst” by Talo and Deil (the piece I misidentified as by Italo UTI in the CD-Rom in the book. Talo has a good sense of humor about it, saying I’m not the only person to have confused them):
pg-229-14-talo-vp-9-95.jpg

“Taloe” by Talo, Venice Pavilion, 5-96:
pg-246-10-talo-vp-5-96.jpg

Ok, that’s what I’ve been able to find in my archives at this point. I’ve only scanned thoroughly up to 3-97, so I hope and imagine I’ll find more KTE/3A/PTI stuff. When I do, I’ll be posting it!

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9-14-11: This just in from Odin:
Just a quick note… C2D crew did not come out of DP. The C2D crew was established in the early 80’s. Founders were Draze, Alpha, Iris (Rakaa of Dilated Peoples) and Tez (Black Silver). Several years later, Some new members were added to the c2d family. Including Dazzle and myself (odin). During the time we had been asked to join by Iris-Rakaa, I was pushing DP crew that was started by Me (odin) and Gamer . Both of us were OTR and we wanted to do more Graffiti art pieces instead of focusing on Bombing. Other members later joined DP in the early 90’s such as DS1 (Fly i.D.), Kef… Acme & Precise (SH), Meck (Fly i.D./CBS) and several other members. Later, some departed from DP due to artistic differences. Both DP and C2D do share a connection of friendship, but are both very separate groups of artist.

C2D is Create To Devastate…Founded in 1984
DP is Def Productions… Founded in 1989

And this, from CBee:
Loving your photography and documentation work! just a couple quick corrections:
That piece labeled “cisk” above is actually USK crew(note the OZER USK tag above it). Also, on the cd-rom on page 3 under “pieces” there is a “PolTergeIst” (for PTI crew)piece at the venice done by TALO and DEIL which has been incorrectly labeled as “italo”.
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Page 105 at the bottom: I ID the writer as Pistol45, but the other two credits should be Chee and Steam.

Page 194: Express is standing in the center of the canvas, and Jick is kneeling at the lower right.

In the “Memorial” section on page 111 bottom right (“Jesus Wept”), that piece was done by Toons and another USC member.

On the last “collage” page (291) I identify photo 31 as Twist, but it’s actually by Emuse, who does indeed flex a Twist inspired style.

In the CD-Rom under “Locations,” I identify two bridge pieces as by Ayer, but the beige one is by Rask LTS and the red one, which does say “Ayer” is a memorial piece by Zes.

I know there will be crew roll call additions and corrections coming soon and I welcome that.

OK: THIS IS A REPRINT FROM THE POST “BILLBOARDS,” BUT IT DOES PROPERLY BELONG HERE AS WELL…

The term “corporate” is the graffiti term coined by Yem (Krenz), founder of AM7, for doing a piece on the front of a billboard. Ideally integrating the piece/s with the existing imagery. I ran into Yem who wanted to clarify that his first partner that worked with him was Dae, followed by Doonze/Dew. Today there are plenty of “bill-bombers,” but few that actually work with the imagery like Revok and Augor. When I have talked with people outside of graffiti culture about the vandalistic/ethical questions of doing corporates, I tell them that while I, of course, can’t encourage it (like any kid would be influenced by me anyway), that I honestly have enjoyed seeing the Silver Surfer parting waves of Revok and Augs names, and find it hard to believe that any revenues were lost to a movie production company for example, because Aug’s name was coming out of Spidey’s hand. On the other hand the surge of toy tags on private/mom and pop businesses and public art sucks, a reflection of the loss of some standards that of course spills back over into the graff world where toys don’t understand respect for dope pieces and productions as well. It’s all tied in together.

5 Responses to “9) Errata and New Info”

  1. on 31 May 2008 at 7:22 americ

    On page 138 of the book you say the production is done by sh with characters also by czer the 2 purple character on the right page were done by era of the uca crew

  2. on 03 Aug 2008 at 9:06 amfearo

    On page 54 the Fear and Dove piece was actually done in 2002, if you want to get technical…lol

  3. on 11 Nov 2011 at 8:39 amMark7

    Good to see all the up dates. P2I and KTE are like family to LTS,the history dates back to the 80’s before L.T.S was even L.T.S….@ the RTA yard..Jefferson down through the west side,Much Luv to the homies Vertik,Kaos,Tork,Shamer and Talo.

  4. on 15 Nov 2011 at 11:22 pmZeb

    Yes very good to see. As well as all the other updates. Way to keep the history honest. At least for those who are looking into the facts haha! Good Work though for real!

  5. on 27 Sep 2014 at 6:40 amSTAY OUT

    TIME to Stay out of the Motor Yard Not Only is it Trespassing a Local but it is a County / State and Federal Issue and Soon you will get killed by the Train Starting in 2015

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