sixcentz: what do you write?........lol im kidding

trip: lol

sixcentz: where you from

trip: New York City, NY, Born and crazed

sixcentz: how long have you been writing for?

trip: Well I had always been into Graff since I was a little kid. When I was growing up everyone wrote graffiti in my neighborhood. When I was 11 I caught tags on an F train with a marker. But I was a little kid and I didn't feel like I had the resources or ability to travel around the city late nights to really get up. I didn't really start bombing as trip or writing with a real plan until I was 17.

trip: when I became 17 I was standing in front of the Midway Movie theatre on Queens blvd and it hit me, I could bomb as much as anyone so I did

sixcentz: and how did you come up with trip?

trip: well I used to do much LSD, virtually every night that I could scratch together enough cash to step down to the LSD spot I would and drop hits. Anyway my boy and me would walk around all night bugging out doing random acts of vandalism and I remembered that I use to write. So both my friend and I decided to write "Acid" - that was until we saw an acid tag by Union Turnpike in queens. We came up with Trip instead and started writing it. He later decided to stop doing drugs, get some order in his life so he joined the Air Force. Me I decided to drop more acid and write more graffiti.

sixcentz: who are your influences or writers that inspired you

trip: Its odd cause I never really paid a whole lot of attention to other writers I just liked to paint on public walls, and destroy shit. But once I did start writing a lot of kids showed me the ropes. Shade MOD, who introduced me to allot of history and basic technical stuff. Siar MOD who was an overall mentor. Cost KRT who taught me how to get over and over and over and over. Lots of others who helped me grow over my career, JD, Set, Yes POW, Dref AIC, Blaze AIC. Those were all my boys and they were all really supportive. I did most of my graffiti with them in mind.

sixcentz: so do you think the Internet hurts or helps graffiti?

trip: Graffiti is so much different now than before the Internet for a number of reasons. For one thing, Graff writers are allot more friendly nowadays and less willing to fight. Back in the early nineties (and really since train days), if you got caught out there you got your paint taken from you. If you had beef kids would either fight or slice you. Now that kind of shit rarely happens. Is that because of the net? Maybe, but I also think that the tougher quality of life laws on writers makes them all feel a bit less angry towards each other and somewhat more unified in their anger towards the system. This is a good thing as it doesn't really make sense for us to argue amongst ourselves when collectively we are so talented and at the same time persecuted for simply spraying paint and expressing ourselves.

trip: I will say this the Internet has allowed me to speak with writers whom as a youngun I worshipped. I think that's cool.

sixcentz: ok so who do you hang with now and what crews

trip: I still hang with the same kids I always hang out with. It's a rare thing to find good friends in graffiti. My crews are MOD AIC KRT POW FUK TFT

trip: im also down with a few others, BTW DMS

sixcentz: any stories you'd like to share trip: hmm here is a good story,

sixcentz: everyone has to have a good story

trip: co and I always used to get guns pulled out on us or shot at. I don't know why but it seemed to work out like that. Once we were bombing this truck on Queens Boulevard one Sunday night, co was on the sidewalk side of the truck and I was watching out. I see an unmarked vehicle (I knew it was cops cause 4 heavy set white people were in it all looking at me.) I told co that we'd better split. We ditched the cans and started walking away from Queens Boulevard. We get about a quarter of the block up when the cops pull up onto the sidewalk and the next thing I know my head is being used as a prop for this officer's gun. Im lying there on the sidewalk just hoping the cop doesn't by accident slip. Finally they let us up, we lie to them, telling them that CO was taking a leak. They check for piss stains (not noticing the drippy Cost throwie or the assorted cans laying in the street.) They suspected that we were robbing the truck and since we were only writing on it and were not carrying crowbars, they let us go

trip: just goes to show that people only see what they want to see

sixcentz: ok thanks allot for the interview and give your shout outs

trip: when I was bombing, I wasn't the social butterfly, my goal was to be known by my Graff only not to be friends with anyone. So I never really hung out with a whole lot of dudes

trip: Shout outs? Well big ups to all yall who have supported me throughout the years my true friends, SHADE, SIAR, NOVEL, BRINK, AVEA, COST, YES, RIPE, SET and anyone whom I might be forgetting. Big ups to you Drilmaster Ones for hooking up a fat site and putting me in it. Also big ups to the extended family, Dref AIC, Swatcho, Skales, Seemen and all the other peeps out there that are mad chill

trip: to all the haters, lick my motherfucking nuts, don't you know that I see through your game you hate me just cause you on the dick. Lucky for you it's big enough for all you sucker wanna be jocks to suck on HAHAHAAAAAAAAA

sixcentz: ok so thanks again and check out trips site www.tagpage.com....

trip: yo can I add one more thing?

sixcentz: yeah

trip: People who don't write graffiti look at us like we are strange misfits. "You paint on walls? how odd..." or even worse, "I hate graffiti, if I ever caught someone vandalizing my property with spray paint, I would beat them senseless" but what is it that we do that is so outrageous? We paint. We draw art in a public forum. True, it is on other people's property, but it really affects no one, it is one of the true victimless crimes. We compete for space with the corporations who fill every possible spot with more and more ads. This advertising is legal, yet what we do, our personal expression is illegal. And everyone thinks we are strange for doing it. This is brainwashing plain and simple. We live in a day when the corporations are encouraged to buy our thoughts but the individual is persecuted for expressing his. Don't buy it. And don't ever stop writing Graff cause it is one of the last true forms of human expression left.

trip: thats it

sixcentz: thanks