sixcentz: what do you write?
kr: KR.ONE and KAY-ARTIST

sixcentz: where you from?
I'm originally from Astoria, Queens NYC.

sixcentz: who are you down with?
kr: Well when I was writing on subways, the first crew I was in was IRT (Invading Rapid Transit) That was MACE and RCA's crew..(we used to call them cliques) I was down with TSS (The Super Squad) TKC (The Killer Crew) BYB (Bad Yard Boys) TNT (The Nations Top) alot of others like RTW, TFP,CW,NSG,..in 1980 SICK NICK and myself came up with BTB (Big Time Boys). We wrote with dudes like MACE, RCA, ROB 78, KB, KN, JACE, SMOKE, FOME, MIDG, KS3,.

sixcentz: who got you into graff?
kr: It was a natural progression for me. I was always drawing and doing characters since I was a little kid. Going to MET games and YANKEE games first exposed me to the graff on the subways..Takin the 7 train I'd see CAINE1, FUZZ, SKY2, SON and PRO, TRACY 168, CHI-CHI 133, SPY, CHINO 125, RODGER and all of that..Going to the Bronx it was BLADE and COMET, CASE2, MITCH 77, BLAST, FOCUS, BAN2 so seeing all this art at first puzzled me , but it was MACE that explained the whole thing to me though one photo that he had of an MC2 throwup of his on the RR which at that time was being bombed by SMOKE, KB, AS2, T59, ROTO 1 NCB ( No Competion Boys) DYNOMITE SPEAR (DS 3) DEAN (KO,LE), (, SLY 65, JESTER (DY 167) POO 4 and DON 1 ( MAFIOSO 1) who was doing the bassest pieces out of all of em', IZ THEWIZ, SIKO (BT2), KIK, KEL,HURST, HATE 168, UPS 2 (FBI) I even remember seeing T-KID pieces on the RR's. Since the J's, LL's M's and RR's where all BMT's they'd switch lines all the time so I saw a mix of writers on our main line that were not from our neighborhood. Later on RTW,like MACKIE (HYPER), SAGE (BILROCK), MIN, REVOLT, SAMURAI, STRIKE and ZEPHYR were all up , so alot of style was coming through the neighborhood. In 1977 I started tagging. I wrote KROME ONE. MACE then told me that there was already a writer called KROME 100 so out of respect to an old school writer I changed my tag to KR.ONE. It was given to me by this dude that tagged Krazy Rudolfo, so I made it mine and took it from there. KS3 took me to the layups for my first time.

sixcentz: Whats your favorite thing to paint?
kr: Back then it was train panels, insides,buses, school yard walls, and piece books. Now I like painting on a lot of surfaces. Canvases, walls, paper, metal ,wood.

sixcentz: Who were your influences?
kr: Alot of writers..Lets see..for tags it was ROTO 1, SMOKE, JESTER, DEAN, KIK, and for pieces it was DON 1, DONDI, KEL, FUZZ, TRACY 168 and DONDI.

sixcentz: What do you feel about graffiti today?
kr: There is without a doubt a lot of great talent out there, from all over the world and the level of popularity that it has reached is incredible. There are a lot of differences in it though ,compared with when NYC subways were happening. The style factor for one. Since Subway Art and other books came out it really made it easier for that era of NYC graffiti style to be absorbed on a worldwide scale. Meanwhile there was a whole evolution that led up to that point. I mean growing up and seeing all the styles as they were happening is a bit different than having it readily available to sit and study, sure we were able to photograph pieces but so many trains were painted that so many pieces just went by in a blur. It has been documented for mass consumption. It was soley a New York thing, y'know. Like you had to be there and see it roll by to understand. I guess it was inevitable for it to blow up the way it did. A truly original New York City based art form unlike any other in history. It had to happen. Today, I think its great that people who love to paint and dig graffiti and its history keep it alive. Some things are'nt the same though. The energy is different. To me, any piece that looks great on a wall would have looked twice as good rolling through on silver and blue flat, for all to see.

sixcentz: Any good stories?
kr: Here is one...This is great to me because I look back on it as an underground adventure. One Sunday morning I get a call from SICK NICK (SN)..he gets me on the phone and tells me he wants to go to this tunnel that MIN showed him in upper Manhatten on the A line. It went from 168 st to 175 st. So I said alright lets do a BORN 2 BOMB whole car for BTB (we later changed it BIG TIME BOYS)..So we met , I came prepared with the outline for piece and about 25 cans of paint. We meet on Broadway in Astoria and head up there. I'd never been there before so we take the RR to 34 st switch for the A.....meanwhile we both had about 50 cans with us ink and paint on our jackets..cops even checked us out but we get there. We wait for the train to pull out before we walk into the tunnel. The whole tunnel was on a right turn we walked for almost a block till we came to this staicase..took the staircase down, around a hall ...then there it was..an opening that led to an underground yard! Catacombs. It was spooky. All dimly lit and damp.. I was buggin' About 8 tracks fully laid up and we are ready to bomb. We lined up all our cans..Fed Green, Jungle Green, Cascade Green, Wet Look Lime, we had all these dope colors, Icy Grape..So we're like half way though it when all the lights went on in two trains. I got a nervous but SN said to hide under the car , that it was probably a work bumb or a cleaner. So we waited for like a half hour ..the lights went off and we crawled out and finished the whole car.. BORN 2 BOMB 1980...I could'nt believe what a get over that day was..after we finished the whole car we went and did about 25 throw ups each and we did insides! This is all at like 12:30 on a Sunday morning! We did'nt want to bring the leftover paint back with us, so we hid it under this big piece of metal that was covering a drain...we leave the tunnel..and right there on the wall ..KROME 100 SALSA.. I thought seeing that tag in that tunnel was really cool..so we hiked back to the neighborhood and told RCA, ROB 78 and FOME what we just did..they didnt believe us..but we knew it.. as a matter a fact I never saw that whole car again..we went back to that tunnel 2 weeks later and the paint was gone too..the lights went on again, this time we just broke out....but I'll always remember that day....no crazy chase story , a nice little get over story..BTB 1980..KR.ONE.. SICK NICK a fond memory.

sixcentz: What do you feel about the future?
kr: Its pretty open. I mean, considering its popularity, The internet exposure, corporations using the art ( although not always a good thing). Gallery shows, walls, music videos, commercials,etc....

sixcentz: Any shout outs?
kr: Yeah..first off thanks to SIXCENTZ for keeping the urban phenomena of graffiti art out there. To all the writers that came before me and those I met coming up and being influenced by...MACE, KS3. KB, DEAN (RIP) DON 1, FUZZ1, SN, FOME, my brothers in heaven BIG GIUSEPPE (RKS, OC. M1) Patsy, 2MINT, ELF 2, MB, PHETUS, and my Supervillain cohorts.

Peace and Paint
KR.ONE
1977-1982 NYC SUBWAYS

sixcentz: THANKS ALOT .......