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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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