CASPA hits crew

1:What do you write , how long have you been writing for (year started), and why did you get involved in it ?

Caspa Started around 1995 but I count really starting in 1998 when I hit my first highway spot and first freights. My neighborhood friends weren't teenagers yet but we all decided to make up tag names and wrote all over the neighborhood and school and everything honestly. My word back then was Slip. My friends all did it for a few months and gave it up. I stuck with it.

2:How did you get your name?

Had a couple names but ended with Caspa. It didn't have any meaning I like the letters. Starting with the C , having a S in the middle for a solid center and the A at the end kickoffs. It could have been CoStA or CuSkA. I went with Caspa.

3: Who were your biggest influences and why?

When I started Mear KSW was killing Baltimore. I saw him everywhere I went even out to the mall in the county there was a wall on the highway. Mear, Wilde BA, Ammo KSW, Ugly KOS, Daver PA & Metasin PA. Then once I got into freights it was the KOS crew. Ker, Ero, Joce, Moka etc.

4: What's your Favorite type of graffiti?

I like it all, piecing, throwups, markertags, stickers, rollers, freights, highways, city corners, tunnels, extinguishers. I like bars that are symmetrical. I like having my own style. If I did a different word people from Baltimore would know I did it because my style is my style. I didn't bite it from a dead writer or have someone do my sketches or handstyles for me.

5: Do you consider graffiti Hip Hop? and if not where did you pick it up from and what group do you think it falls in?

Hip Hop & Punk. I've been on both sides of that spectrum. It is what you make it. I hang with guys who only listen to Hip Hop and I hang with guys who only listen to Punk and Metal. Whatever it is you listen to doesn't matter to me. As long as your cool and in it for the same reasons as me and my crew.

6: What's your favorite type of music?

Hip Hop. Early 90s Hip Hop. Not radio rap. And underground Hip hop since around 2000 up to now.

7: What's the difference between Graffiti and Gang graffiti to you?

There isn't much gang graffiti around Baltimore.

8: Fruity pebbles or coco pebbles?

Coco Pebbles

9: Are you in your prime as of right now? And if not, when do you think your prime was?

I've been in my prime since 98. I don't slow down and I don't take breaks. I paint with my son and he's in his early 20s now. We've been bombing for over 5 years consistently. So between me pushing him and him pushing me we are out often.

10: What's your favorite city that you have painted and why is it your favorite?

I'll always love Baltimore. It may be a shit hole full of murder and heroin but it's what I know and I've had a lot of fun being here. New Orleans and New York are great too.

11: What do you think of people getting jail time for graffiti ?

I think jail time for it is wack. But I see the reasons. Need law or the world we be a shittier place than it already is.

12: Do you still drink 40’s and if so what's your favorite brand to drink?

Yes I drink 40s. Olde English, Colt45 and Natty Boh. For a very long time I was known as the guy who had a 40 at all times.

13: How do you feel about the graffiti trend and as well as being used for everything nowadays (clothing,lunch boxes , hats , etc…..)

I don't mind the trend. I don't get mad when my shits in a photographer's picture. It is a little wild how they glamorise it but will still fuck with you for doing it. Ya can't have it both ways.

14: Do you have a chase story that people would like to hear one that you almost shit yourself during?

Craziest chase was in a train yard in Baltimore. In the late 90s freights were being hit heavy in Baltimore. The frieght writers of the time knew it was possible to do daytimes without much risk. So we took advantage for many years. So The bull drove up on us quick. We heard they were hiring some new ones because the regulars were 250lb old men who weren't doing shit. So we got a good chase from the new young guy. As I was running he was throwing the rocks off the ground which are the size of a baseball. A jagged baseball. He caught me in the face. My shit was ripped. So I get to a spot where I know there's a cliff you can jump down and I knew he wasn't following this mental jump. I end up landing halfway down the cliff in a heavy patch of sticker bushes. So I Start cutting myself free while ripping my my hand and face and legs up. Fucking cop is still uo top throwing rocks like Nolan Ryan. I Jump again and land in the small 6 foot wide body of water I end up passing out from the impact. I then wake up and come up out if the probably 5 for water and look around. Cops still throwing rocks. I look the other direction and my homie who I was worth is about a thousand feet away running through the woods with no signs of looking back for me. I end up crawling into the tunnel and laying in the tunnel on my stomach for about 3 hours until the sun went down. It was January so the temperature was around 30 degrees and I'm soaking wet and laying in a tunnel tube with about a foot of running water flowing under my body. So I'm freezing. Cell phone was trashed from being under water. Wasn't the new phones like today. This was like 2002. I end up getting out and being good. But that was a pretty shitty experience.

15: Any last Shout outs?

Shout out to all the people I've met and linked with over the years. My homies in New York who come down and crash at my place. My crew HITS. KOS crew, GOMD crew & RTH. Huge shout out to my kids for joining me on all of our trips to abandon buildings and piecing spots and sitting in the car while I jumped out to do a tag or put a sticker up. That shit was a major part of your lives growing up. Sorry looking back about it. But you enjoyed it for the most part. And thanks for letting me boost you up when you were toddlers to put my stickers up higher. I would still be lifting you three up if you weren't the same size as me. Rest In Peace to my homies who passed along the way. Smak, Random, Vandel, My bad, Serch, Wilde.