So good to catch up with one of my long time friends and crew mates Deap One aka Jamie McCready graffiti & Hip Hop documentarian. We talked about his beginnings taking photos, the changing graffiti scene, his archive with Auckland Library and documentation of Aotearoa’s Hip Hop musicians while working for Back2Basics. In 2 weeks time our big TMD show opens at The Dowse museum in Lower Hutt featuring Jamie & Rimoni (Raymond Sagapolutele) archives alongside some joint installations and our post-graffiti work.
So awesome to catch up with Opto aka Otis Frizzell and discuss his incredibly varied career doing everything from being a pioneering graffiti artist, musician, TV & Radio host, contemporary artist, driver to the stars and taco truck owner! This guy has done so many things and along the way been a part of many cultural flash points.
I had a chat with Merksta of the infamous DAF crew. During the early to mid 90's Merksta along with this crew mates innovated and pushed the Auckland scene to new levels. Merk discusses his early days in Greymouth, New Plymouth and Melbourne before coming home to Auckland and wondering why there had been no continuation from the era of Smooth Crew. He talks about the time period they were busiest and it's enduring impact on the scene.
It was an absolute honour to have this chat with pioneering graffiti artist and musician Darryl Thomson aka DLT. Darryl was one of the earliest graffiti writers in the Wellington region before he moved up to Auckland as part of the group Upper Hutt Posse. He was based in Auckland for close to 3 decades where he mentored many young artists.
