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.