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MISTERY INTERVIEW
Powderbomb:
You want to tell us who you are?
Mistery:
I write Mistery and I'm in a crew called Bounty Hunters, and
I'm also in Brethren Hip Hop music crew. And a breaking crew
Magic Villains as well.
P:
So you are fully into every element of the Hip Hop culture?
M:
I don't DJ, that's the only thing. But I know heaps of DJs
and hang out with DJs, but I don't do it myself.
P:
When did you get started in Hip Hop, or graffiti?
M:
I got started when breaking hit Australia, around 1983. I
started out as a breaker but I was better at graff than I
was at breaking so I steered more towards graff. When breaking
started to die out in the late 80's, I just kept on going
graff, and then graff took off. But I didn't stop breaking
the whole time.
P:
Who were some of the big names around those earlier times?
M:
When I started the best crews were like FAB 4 - Future Art
Beat. One of the guys in that crew, he was the first writer
that I know of that pieced in Australia. And he is the guy
that also taught me, he used to write Kazem..... They were
in IBS, the original IBS crew, when it was international.
There was IBS all over the joint. Other crews were CIS - Crime
In Style.... RCF (Rock City Funk)...TDF - Tour Da Future.
P:
And were they all in the forefront of the graffiti culture,
leading to what is happening now?
M: Yeah....A
lot of them aren't painting anymore. There's only a handful
of the original guys. I'm like a second generation writer,
but there's a few first generation guys that are still around.
Dudes like me and Unique, we were younger than the other guys
in that period.
P:
And what do you think of graff at the moment? Has it really
taken off from how it was before?
M: Yeah...Graff
is on the map. Australia is one of the well known countries
for graff internationally.
One thing that I don't like as much is....in the olden days
dudes were really about doing big pieces. Everyone would do
backgrounds and characters and wild styles, and really push
themselves, but there was a period when everyone was doing
chromies and throw-ups. I think it needs to get back to been
more creative and pushing the envelope. It's good when you
see heaps of different styles cause it means the people are
getting their own flavour. They are not just copying what
everyone else is doing....And Australia is good when you look
at the rest of the world, we've got our own style big time.
P:
So you notice different styles in different countries?
M: Yeah..You
even notice it here, in different states. Melbourne has got
a different style, a different style in tagging. Perth has
got a different style.
P:
You've travelled the world, you've been to a few other places.
What are some of the places that really stood out for you?
M:
I really like South Africa. I've been back to South Africa
twice. It reminds me of life when Hip Hop first started. There's
the whole four element thing going on....graff writers hang
out with breakers and breakers hang out with DJs and that
sort of stuff, whereas that's not the case in every other
country in the world. I went to a jam with Gore - from Paris,
and he was spinning out. He said it was like Beat Street again.
The jam had crews battling and that sort of stuff. South Africa
is dope. Every
country has their good and bad things about it, so I
don't really want to talk about the negative stuff....
South Africa is my favourite, France is nice. Germany for
me has the best writers I reckon.
P:
Berlin especially?
M:
I didn't get to Berlin. I was in Munich and that....that's
where Loomit and Neon and all those dudes are from. They're
just like on a mission the German boys, they paint non-stop,
and real hardcore about the whole thing.
P:
And you have also been to the 'Motherland', New York. Is it
really intense there?
M:
Well, I was really anticipating going to New York....you know,
because of Hip Hop starting in New York. But there was good
and bad. New York has got a really electric vibe...but I didn't
see that many pieces. There was a few productions by FX in
the Bronx...
P:
Mainly legal?
M:
I'm not sure if they were legal or not. I think a few of them
were legal, but the place was trashed....crazy crazy bombing.
There were a few pieces in Manhattan that I saw by local writers,
not dudes that were famous or anything like that.... We've
got writers that are on similar standards to that.
P:
And finally, if someone wants to get started off in Hip Hop,
where can they go, where can they learn about it?
M:
I do a lot of stuff in youth centres, cause I'm really about
pushing the whole Hip Hop culture. A lot of dudes come into
it...and if you try to find out things yourself, you get mixed
up facts. But I'm not saying I know all the facts about it
myself.
P:
So the youth centres are a pretty good start?
M:
The ones that are doing Hip Hop stuff. I work at Marrackville,
and Marackville Youth Center is actually one of the organizations
that gave me my second ever legal...back in 1987. I still
run a breaking group there every Tuesday night, and thats
been going for about three years. Every single Tuesday night
we get together and break, and its also just like a writers
bench. All writers come down and talk.....and DJs and MCs......
It's just like a meeting place.
P:
Cool.....Thanks
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