LAKOTA

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

 I write LAKOTA WKT FOC CHIEFS. I’ve been writing about 18 years now. I started in 2005 but really got active around 07-08. It’s been a consistent pull to graffiti since I first noticed it in my neighborhood on the walls and on the trains since we lived near the tracks, when I was about 4-5yrs old. Ever since then it always sparked my interest and became a life long pursuit. Before it blew up on the internet it was all a mystery so I’d see it and just wonder all types of things like the who, what, where, when, & why’d they do it, etc. I’d keep track of how many tags a certain writer had up around the city and just wonder all types of stuff, it made me hella interested. I ended up going to this after school program in the hood and one of the guys who worked there was a writer, he used to draw our names and do characters. I started finding out about graffiti and so I started asking him about it and he ended up showing me style wars and I decided then I was going to be a writer no matter what.

2:How did you get your name? I quit for a couple years due to several traumatic experiences painting, hella legal consequences, writers I admired passing like Ceks, Yesm, and Anemal all passed around the same time, and I had a couple near death experiences painting. I couldn’t see the positives anymore, it seemed like it was all negative. I found my purpose in life, I wanted to move to help my people struggling out on the rez and if I caught another case I wouldn’t be able to help anyone. I ended up moving and seeing how bad it really was, witnessing and experiencing pervasive racism and discrimination everyday. Shortly after I moved, the Standing Rock protest happened and I spent some time at the protest camp. It all made me want to use my skillset to protest in a highly visible but non violent way. I was sitting in my car in a parking lot weighing the pros and cons of writing Lakota, and I hear a houseless relative say “Hey Lakota, you got any change?” I tripped out, I gave him some change and took it as a sign I should start writing Lakota.  

3: Who were your biggest influences and why? First off I’m a big style nerd and also love my friends and really admire great graffiti writers because I love it so much. And I want to give credit where it’s due. So all politics and drama aside these are honestly the writers who influenced me the most: Gomes, Luter, Ceks, Anemal, Snek, Nael, Dayer, Cepha, Gusto, Hevy, Twist, Tie, Swrv, Pemex, Revok, Augor, Adek, Jurne, Kava,Ankor,Aerub, 3ayem, Gus, Alen, Yesm, Shear, Kash, Yuck, KRK, Orby, Ibeam, Censr, Kick, Goer, Buek, Owks, Aidz, Nekst, Savie, Tiempo, Biafra, Mecro, Shock, Lawst, Apose, Opres, Shoe, Xaust, GiJoe, Fuerte, Mnroe, Styner, Guest, Gkode, Mike, Skuf, TD, Seen, Dondi. 

Gomes was and is my favorite writer growing up, he was a legend in my eyes. Was the most up and had every aspect of graffiti down, insane amounts of style and creativity. I just wanted to meet him and when we finally linked up he was hella cool to me, took me under his wing and taught me a lot and I learned a lot watching him. We ended being best friends and now I consider him to be my brother. We been through a lot together, really good times, been there for each other at our absolute worst times, and been through a lot of crazy shit together! Influenced and inspired me both in graffiti and in life, Mi hermano de por vida. 

 Gomes, Luter and Ceks RIP, are prolific style masters and are legends to me. I grew up looking up to them so much and when I met them they both ended up being hella cool to me and showed me a lot of love and laced me up with hella game even when I was toy. They probably influenced my style and mentality the most. 

Snek, Nael and Dayer, also all taught me a lot and helped me out when I was kicked out at 17, took me on trips to the bay and also put me on to hella game. We ended up having falling outs, but I still love and respect those guys. 

 Shear, Hevy, Kash, Gus, Alen, Yuck & Yesm RIP and Censr I’ve admired their styles a lot for years and wanted to live up to the examples they set. Never seen anyone crush the bay like Swrv, I imagine it’s similar to how Tie crushed SF. 

Anemal RIP, killed the bay with massive pieces, block busters, heavens, and I loved his style. Same with Pemex and 3ayem RIP they put in a lot of work, pieces, throws and blocks, all with style. 

Ibeam is crazy up all over the country and paints spots that are epic.

Seeing how Gusto does his 2 letter throws in one line inspired me and he has always been cool to me even when I was just a toy, he told me about Adek and his mentality about graffiti and his style was also influential. Twist’s simplistic but perfect styles are one of my all time favorites. Jurne, Kava, Aerub, have eclectic styles that opened my mind stylistically. 

Kick, Goer and Revok have some of the dopest styles, and stay progressing. I’ve been looking up to Revok since I started, painted some of the craziest spots with tons of style and he still keeps progressing. Kick and Goer have been hella cool to me every time I’ve kicked it with them and are fun to be around. Kick laced me up with a sketch when I first met him and he’s been heavily influential and inspirational to me. Augor was really killin it when I started and I wanted to paint all grimy like him for a long time. 

I admire Buek a lot he has a dope style, paints hella risky spots, heavens and badass whole cars with portraits, also always showed love. Owks is a great guy, hilarious and has wicked style, love that guy. Shock has a hella unique style and is a Midwest legend in his own right, he’s been hella cool to me ever since I met him, had some really good times painting and conversing with him when he came to visit.

 Cepha and Opres kill so many freights it hurts my head sometimes when I think about it. Really solid friends and dedicated writers that heavily influenced me to paint more and also just feels good to have solid friends like that. Cepha really helped me get through my graff related ptsd cause I’d been shot painting freights before so it was triggering for me, being around him calmed me to down and he’d hit me up all the time to paint. Wouldn’t have anywhere near as many freights if it wasn’t for him. Opres is a freight maniac and the most knowledgeable person I know about them. 

 Apose is also Lakota and a badass writer, killed Minneapolis like no one else ever has according to the locals, dude crushed the freeways with GIANT pieces in hella hot spots. Also a humble and good friend to me, invited me to do an Art Show with him and that was a big honor. Lawst is an awesome writer and human being, has rad styles and a lot of knowledge, always shown me a lot of love been very generous to me and I consider him my brother too. 

GiJoe, Fuerte, Mnroe, Styner and Guezr all kill it in their own ways and they’ve all got my respect and admiration for pushing stylistic boundaries, being down af, and just being good dudes I have a lot of love & respect for. 

Shoe is a style master, blows my mind sometimes, and a real cool humble dude for how good he is. Aidz and Savie paint insane spots and I really dig their styles too. Mecro has been heavily influential to me learning fonts and pushing the boundaries of graffiti mastering texture and depth, but also the 60x60 ultra legible styles. 

 TD has gone all country and will probably go all world soon, I’ve seen him up in every city I’ve gone to. He came out here and I brought him around and he got me to paint some street spots and built up my confidence to start painting streets again, also showed a lot of love even though I wasn’t active at the time. Dondi, Seen and Skuf were the first writers who had my favorite styles and are just legends. 

 4: What's  your Favorite type of graffiti? I love all of it, except anti style because I love style so much that it’s so cringy it hurts to look at bad graffiti done on purpose. It really just depends on my mood what I feel like doing. Every type of tag, throw ups, straights, fonts and blockbusters, pieces and burners. I’m in love with it all. 

 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? Yes because Hip Hop is an inclusive Art Movement. If you look at hip hop music it includes every other genre of music, even country, classical, metal, punk, rock, folk, etc. the same way that Graffiti includes every other style of painting and even sculpture, videography, photography, etc. It’s also inclusive of every type of person and I think that’s dope, in my crews and my friends I’ve made through graffiti I have friends from every imaginable background.

 6: What's your favorite type of music? Hip Hop & Rap mostly, but I grew up with Funk, Traditional Native American Music, Reggae, Gangster Rap, Metal, Punk, Dubstep, and Phonk is a new genre I dig. Been listening to more classical music and Rock lately lol chill dad vibes.

7: What's the difference between Graffiti and Gang graffiti to you? Gang graffiti is about marking territory, representing a hood, the homies in that hood, and dissing rival gang members who are in violent battles over power and control. Graffiti is the most diverse and creative art form imo, it’s first and largest American Art Movement to spread across the world, created by youth and gang graffiti is a small part of it. 

 Gang graffiti heavily influenced my style and a lot of styles & writers today, and Xicano graffiti in California was the first modern graffiti in America, Indigenous petroglyphs before that. Some writers are active gang members, but what’s dope about it is that I’ve got homies who were in rival gangs but came together through graffiti when normally they’re supposed to be enemies. Some writers who didn’t grow up indoctrinated into gang life, try to act like gang members but that’s dumb to me cause graffiti is what saved me from joining a gang, and for many of us who grew up in that environment we didn’t have much of a choice. 

 My homies in elementary school were all related to gang members and were all aspiring to join the gang and I so I fell in with them. They’d hit up placas and try to do old English, and I got exposed to a lot of lowrider and xicano art, that was really dope to me having an alias/street name and getting up. Later on when I started getting locked up for graff I’d see all my homies I grew up with, except they were on their way to the pen for serious violent crimes, so even though I got in trouble it saved me from that, and made my time in jail smoother since I knew what time it was and already knew a lot of the guys in there or their relatives. The “School to Prison Pipeline” is real af. 

 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 hope not, I feel like my styles are finally getting decent and want to keep pushing them for the rest of my life. Having children has changed things and got me to calm down a bit, but once they’re older I’ll be more willing to take bigger risks again. 

 10: What's your favorite city that you have painted and why is it your favorite? Minneapolis and Denver are close but Oakland is my favorite. It can be hella dangerous and grimy but there’s a lot of dope people, writers, history and culture there. It’s just a dope city all around. I started painting there in 2010 and then a couple years later it was a free for all and that was hella fun. I always felt a connection there and didn’t know this until recently but my dad lived in Oakland for a lot of years after the Indian Relocation Act sent him to SF and he ended up in Oakland. 

11: What do you think of people getting jail time for graffiti? I been to jail a lot for it and it’s ridiculous, everyone from the inmates to the co’s thought so as well. Being in there seeing dudes come in and out multiple times for meth, guns, domestic violence, all types of serious crime and I’m in there for doing something that can just be covered up with some cheap paint. It never made me stop but it turned a lot of my homies out to sell drugs and get into more serious crime to pay off their fines and stay out of jail and made me consider it too. I think it was more as a result of my drinking than doing graff, I’d get arrested a lot when I was drunk or had been doing a lot of hot dumb shit when I was drunk that made me a target. 

 12: Do you still drink 40’s and if so what's your favorite brand to drink? Slug said “I ain't drank a forty since I became old enough to drink.” When I heard that I thought it was crazy, but I think the last time I drank a 40 was on my 21st birthday and I’ve been sober for 8 years now. 

 13: How do you feel about the graffiti trend and as well as being used for everything now a days (clothing,lunch boxes , hats , etc…..) It’s cool that normal people are more aware of it and more accepting of it, I mostly do my graffiti now for regular Lakota people to see and feel proud and they do. I get a lot of positive feedback and have been in a lot of media recently and those are forever ups. I also like that the penalties are becoming less harsh as a result because I’ve dealt with some of the harshest. Fads are whatever, real writers will keep doing it no matter what. 

The graffiti getting used is usually wack and corny to me, but if writers are getting opportunities then that’s dope and the more it’s out there the less people see it as a problem to get rid of. Graffiti was never about the money for me because I just loved doing it and there wasn’t really any money to be made. But being able to make some extra money and be considered and recognized more as a legit artist is cool, being persecuted and hated on isn’t fun but I’m gonna do it regardless. Less resistance is better though.  

Also being native it’s ironic that a lot of writers don’t see the issue with appropriation of Indigenous & Black Culture & Imagery but are hella upset about having their chosen cultural identity being used in the same way. I care more about appropriation of indigenous cultures because we survived genocide and attempted erasure of our culture only to be mocked and exploited on the other side of it. 

 14: Do you have a chase story that people would like to hear one that you almost shit your self during? Hahaha yeah I’ve got a few. I’d say getting shot with a shotgun twice from underneath the hopper I was painting with Gomes and Dram, blacking out on the ground and then jumping up running across the tracks through an orchard and getting shot at with a hunting rifle hearing the bullets zip and snap by my head going through leaves and hitting trunks was the scariest and most traumatic one. 

 But the craziest and best chase was when I was with Gomes, Snek and Chunto took us to paint a train tunnel. We were leaving and hiking down to our cars and Chunto said we should get some beers and go to his yard, I had recently quit drinking and swore an oath to never drink again, but I thought “I’m gonna drink” a few minutes later we come to an opening and I start taking pictures of this mural across the road, as I snap the second picture I realize an undo had just pulled up. Gomes and I were both on probation and I had a long suspended sentence. 

We dropped down and crouch ran back up into the trees then sprinted uphill to the tracks. We get to the tracks and I’m already tired breathing hard, we look down the tunnel and there’s a cop at the other end and shouts to us to stop and come towards him while drawing his pistol. I almost had my head blown off by a rookie a year ago. We look up and there’s a sheriffs helicopter right above us, and it’s the middle of the day. 

I ask Gomes what do we do and he said fuck that let’s go. So we start running up into the forest. It had stormed hella hard the night before so the ground was all muddy and there’s wet leaves everywhere, slippery as fuck, nightmare type shit. We got into a dried up creek bed and ran up that jumping over and crawling under dead fallen trees. We had been running an ROTC obstacle course regularly so we were lowkey ready. 

He stops us and says “look how it’s circling us, it can only see us in one quarter of that circle. So we’re gonna run when they can’t see us and then stop and hide under these logs when it can.” So that’s what we did, he was wearing all camo and I was wearing all black so I’d get down under the trees and look like a shadow. Meanwhile Snek and Chunto are down with the cops and can hear the Helicopter pilots on the radio saying “We can’t see them… they disappeared… we lost them… who the fuck are these guys, terrorists?!” 

The cops are grilling them asking them why we’re running like this, asking if we were killers, robbers or on the run for something. The helicopter gave up and flew away. I was a little relieved but still lightweight shook. We see a trail and a park bench up ahead and decide to cross over to the right over a hill. We get on the other side and see a big bush and we can see the whole freeway and road below us. Our friends are blowing up our phones and we think it’s the cops so we turned off our phones and waited for and hour. Then we reached out to a third party to hit them up and see if they answer. They do and say they got tickets and released and were at a fast food spot, and said their friend is picking them up and to come back down. They said they’ll drive by and make sure it’s clear. 

 So we start hiking back down, we make it down to where we parked and Gomes says “Let me drive” so I throw him my keys and we hop in. He starts it up and is adjusting the rear view and says “Fuck, there was a park ranger hiding back there in the park and is coming after us” so he gases it and takes off we pass our friends and they’re looking at us confused.

 We hop on the freeway and he’s going like 110 weaving through traffic and spots a highway patrol a little ways back. He says “Hold on I’m gonna exit off the freeway really fast.” He cuts across 3 lanes and is flying down the on ramp, he pulls the e brake and we drift around a 180 and onto a side street and starts flying up that passing cars. We came up to a hospital parking garage and I start tripping like “what are we gonna do?” he says “we’ll ditch the car and start running again.” Thankfully the road kept going and we cut through some neighborhoods, found a shopping center, parked in the back, changed our clothes and went to a coffee shop.  

15: Any last Shout outs? Biggest shout out to my Mom, sister, My awesome partner, our newborn and our soon to be born baby. And shout out to everyone who took the time to read all that. Big thanks to you for asking me to do this.