All Photos by Dan McMahon except the Holy Roller.

As we have said repeatedly on this website. RJD2 is headlining our 7-Year Anniversary at Skullys this Friday Feb 5th. Ticket info and line-up here

RJ is an old friend of mine, so in this informal interview we chopped it up about his brief graffiti career,walking the tracks near the Ohio State Fairgrounds, the passing of Howard Zinn, RJ’s new album The Colossus and his theme song for TV’s Mad Men.

I remember when I first heard your name in Hip Hop discussions around town, graff writers were like…thats RJD2 blah blah he is down with A-Team? A-Team had pieces at the convention center and CAP that hit you up… This question is more for the graffiti dorks but…?

so i moved to the bay area after dropping out of college. i had my records and turntables and stuff, and one of the dudes who i stayed with shortly was down with the a-team guys, this dude cliff. he was the only guy i knew in the city at a point, and then he left too. so the only people i knew in SF were cram, esa, this kid beaver who i cant remember what he wrote, but he would do these “god is love” pieces all over the city, and a few other guys. so they sorta inducted me in as the unofficial a-team dj or whatever. those were the only kids i knew in the city, really. so i’d hang with them, maybe go out a little here and there with em while they painted, but not too much. i later found out that esa had a columbus connection. and then cram moved to philly after i’d been here a while. small world, basically. and my friend cliff lived near and was friends with mike giant, and looked up to him-in 95 SF graff world, he was a really big deal, up there with twist and amaze and the like upper echelon of bay writers, so i met mike thru him. esa later moved to LA, and i think she was doing fine art or something. cram actually was doing public murals for a living for a long time. i guess mike giant got involved in tattoos, but i havent spoken to him in a loooooong time. but in short, all the a-team guys were just cool people, no ego shit, just real friendly folks.

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Video of graffiti and other things in Brooklyn, New York. Made by www.avoidpi.com
Featuring:
AVOID pi, ADHD, Zeiht, JA, Mymo, Cancer Carl, Droid 907, Sadu 907, Goya 907 and more.

Columbus rap group Greenhouse Effect is putting out a new ep next week called “Electric Purgatory”. They have a release party next Saturday, November 28th at Skullys.
Greenhouse Effect’s new line-up is Blueprint and Illogic.
Print’s been video blogging about the process building towards the release.

This shows Blueprint scoping out spots for a video shoot. He visits Used Kids, the Dube, the Fairgrounds, the traintracks and the Daymon Day Wall.

previous video blog after the jump.

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MP3:Greenhouse-Gettin There

A lot times I get emailed MP3’s and they aren’t near anything but my blackberry so I don’t get to put them up until they are a few days old. So I’ve decided from now on, when I post images of drawings, I will add a song.

Daymon Day will be returning to Tuttle Park, Saturday 9-19-09. There will be basketball, mural painting, dejay’s and a cookout from 3-8pm culiminating with the highlight of any god-fearing/foreign car stearing humyn’s week, the Daymon Day Parade. The parade leaves at 8 and journeys down the scenic campus of the Ohio State University until it reaches community hub, the Milk Bar, which is located on 5th and. High. There will be an after-party at a currently undisclosed location featuring DJ Lo Zone, True Skills, DJ Detox, and DJ Pos 2. All are welcome. We regret that this is the same day as Independents’ Day downtown, but this the day that we confirmed with Daymon’s family months ago. We are sure everything is going to be ok. All welcome.

Some Graffiti writers thought it would be funny to “Turn their Swag On” via writing “Twitter” style status updates on walls this weekend

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Baybay shouts outs the shooter and co….

ARA isn’t back in the building but this is prolly funnier than they were anyways…
People are writing “Not A Real Abortion Clinic” on Home Pregnancy Centers.

Read more here.–Feminist Avengers

Looks like graffiti writers fucking with Dipset is not just an Ohio thing. The homie Wands sent me this wall by Sest ID repping for Cam’s new album “Crime Pays” out in Los Angeles.

After the jump peep footage of Bucket doing a Cali freeway spot in L.A. with “Reppin Time” by Jim Jones in the background. (more…)

PBJ members Syco & Level thank Bea Arthur for being a friend along with the homie Desto.
Characters by Sucko PBJ/BSA
There was a graffiti jam in Dayton. Columbus repped for the Golden Girls.
see the rest of the wall here.

Unrelated, I would like to send a special shout-out to whomever has written Bea Arthur’s name on High Street about ten times from like King to like 12th.

photo taken from some random girl’s blog, Suzy 234

Maybe I am getting old & out of touch but I have kinda thought illegal Columbus graffiti bombing had strongly decreased.
Seeing Skum replacing PBJ as the posterboy for the news’ annual spring graffiti hysteria report pretty much confirms not much is going on in my mind.

Don’t get me wrong, Skum is really amusing to me because the moniker conjures the backdrop in like an 80’s vigilante movie or someone who might’ve threatened Crocodile Dundee or the robot from Short Circuit. So the idea of Skum written on things prolly should bother people.

Anyway…ladies & gentlemen!

FEAR SKUM
Channel 6 & Channel 10

For bonus fun, read the saga of Shred’r NBR on Omnimix.com.

I guess Channel 4 figured covering swine flu was enough and passed on all of this.

Cincy writer Gamble in Italy. Heatrocks.

Some dood named Russell Jones(no odb) wrote a book called Inside The Graffiti Culture:Why Graffiti isn’t Art.
Jones used Ohio graffiti writer Ask as his coverboy.

Here is the Amazon.com description:

Product Description
Illegal graffiti is disconnected from standard modes of visual production in fine art and design. The primary purpose of illegal graffiti for the graffiti writer is not the visual product, but “getting up.” Getting up involves writing or painting one’s name in as many places as possible for fame. The elements of risk, freedom and ritual unique to illegal graffiti serve to increase camaraderie among graffiti writers even as an individual’s fame in the graffiti subculture increases. When graffiti has moved from illegal locations to the legal arenas of fine art and advertising; risk, ritual and to some extent, camaraderie, has been lost in the translation. Illegal graffiti is often erroneously associated with criminal gangs. Legal modes of production using graffiti-style are problematic in the public eye as a result. I used primary and secondary interviews with graffiti writers in this book. My art historical approach differed from previous writers who have used mainly anthropological and popular culture methods to examine graffiti. This analysis enabled me to demonstrate that illegal graffiti is not art.

Bay Bay posted this on omnimix.
Three Way Action in Third World America.

I have been huge fan of the domestic dispute R+B song going back to Sparkle and R. Kelly’s “Be Careful” all the way up to  Kell’s “Real Talk”. The newest wrinkle in the domestic dispute genre is the irrational woman  doing something illegal song. I don’t know if Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats” put some influence out there on the industry but being a crazy bitch has really sprung its wings whether its “Fight A Man” by Rihanna or my current favorite song “Bust Your Windows” by Jasmine Suillivan.  Ms. Suillivan basically sings about how she gonna vandalize some doods car. The video is kinda tame compared to Carrie Underwood’s. Jazmine never really fucks up the car. The closet thing she does is shake up a can of spraypaint in front of doods fake Basquiat paintings and then put a line thru them. Maybe MTV has a double standard when it comes to black woman vandalizing vs. Country stars.

As disappointed as I may be with the video. One thing Miss Underwood didn’t have is response jawns. Trey Songs, Skillz, and Gorilla Zoe have all weighed in about how they feel about a woman fucking up their whip. Trey Song’s  has him singing overthe instrumental letting her know what happen when you mess with a players ride, while Skillz and Zoe prefer to have a dialogue with the deranged R+B singer. Skillz is funny cause he complains about not having insurance. My favorite response record is this remix with the Dream. Cause he tells her its dumb shit and makes fun of her for breaking the window on the side of the car she sits in.

MP3:Jasmine_Sullivan_-_Bust_Your_Windows_Dream Remix