The game done changed. I look at the new generation of kids coming up and it’s just not the same anymore. Graffiti has gone from aggressive vandalism and street survival to becoming legal walls, internet-forum thugging and mommy’s credit card buying European spray paint. The heart ain’t there no more. That’s why the first time I met Horne, I could tell something was still right in this world. I could sense the hunger pumping through his veins and a passion so strong that I’d knew this man would go through trials and tribulations to live life the real way. As I got to know him, my first instinct was proven true and I immediately knew he was cut from a different cloth by the way he vandalized the fuck out of my city and racked everything he could get his hands on. More importantly, the kid had heart… not the type of heart that makes you go on a mission then call it a day, but the type of heart that would make you risk your life and freedom for your peoples. Real recognize real and Horne is as familiar as you can get.
With multiple warrants and half the police forces looking for him, it’s not the easiest thing to get a hold of this man. We tracked down one of our favorite graffiti outlaws and had him drop the science on the shit he lives everyday. Mook-Life shows love to the underdogs, the real people out there putting work in those streets and not giving a fuck about what mainstream graffiti has to think. Fuck your magazines and DVD’s, we’re the streets.
Mook Life: Whats good playa, let us know what you write, where you’re from and what crews you rep.
Horne: First and foremost, I want to give a shout out to my boy Daeo who is currently doing a bid in Boston’s finest.
I write Horne…when I changed scenery and moved to Montreal, I thought it would be a good time to also change my name. Where I’m from–Boston–it’s normal to have multiple aliases and it’s normal to change your name when the heat’s on. We have the most notorious vandal squad in the country. They hold seminars in multiple cities teaching the police how to identify writers based on location, style, and the magnitude of their damages. The crews I represent are DFM, YKW, and OFA. I’ve been put down in multiple crews throughout the years but the crews I rep are family, the people who always have my back.
Mook Life: Give us a brief 411 and history on the crews you roll with.
Horne: DFM (death for many) is the American underdog crew. It started in Portland then Tonek brought it to the east coast while fleeing from the police out west. In doing so, he started the first rising of a west coast crew in NY. He was there before the MSKs, the TKOs, and the BTMs. After realizing that multiple arrests didn’t lead to jail time, more of the west coast crew relocated. They then set up shop in NY. It became an elitist crew putting down writers who were down to ride, instilling the mentality of your crew as your family and that when you rep it you’re repping every member.
YKW (young kelts wrath) is somewhat of a newer crew; it is only a few years old. I am co-president of the crew and you need to get the vote from both me and Ceos and if you don’t make the cut you get the cut. In Boston the crew is pretty tight and holds it down in multiple aspects of the graffiti game. We have some thorough people who are enforcers, some clean machines, some bombers who wild out, some tag bangers, some of the veteran bombers, the new guy with something to prove, and we have the guy on the couch who is down to roll without caring about graffiti. It’s the homies crew of all shapes and sizes with links in Montreal, Miami, New Orleans, New Jersey, Boston and San Fran.
OFA (one for all) is one of the oldest graffiti crews in america, if not the oldest. It was started by the Mexican gang tagbanger scene but to date its members include some true gems in the american graffiti scene past and present.
Three Time’s a Charm. Iphone changes to Ipad, the name stays the same. Canal Street.
The view of the city is always nicer when you’re living on the edge.
Mook Life: Who are your influences when it comes to graff? Who are your influences when it comes to crime?
Horne: I look up to true style masters in the graff game, the people who schooled me in graffiti and life. The people that I look up to are Caype, Resk, Tonek, Alone, Alert, Perl, Prank, Secret, Lost, and Hint. Lost is gangster as fuck. As for crime, Dragan Mikić is a personal criminal hero of mine and is the mastermind behind the international jewel thief network, Pink Panthers–named by Interpol after The Pink Panther series of crime comedy films. They are responsible for some of the most audacious thefts in history. Even criminologists consider them to have an ‘artistry’ to their crimes after, for example, applying fresh paint to a bench across from a jewelry store they intended to rob to deter potential witnesses from sitting on it. They have targeted several countries and continents, and can include Japan’s most successful robbery in history on their resume. I wouldn’t have known about the panthers if it wasn’t for another criminal I look up to, my favorite Napolitano, Cazzo.
Mook Life: Word on the street is that you’ve got craftsmanship when it comes to shoplifting. Talk to us about some of your biggest scores and your motivation behind this hustle.
Horne: A note to you readers out there before reading this… always remember the only free cheese is in a mousetrap! With that said, my motivations: money, money, and money. That’s enough motivation for a man to rob a bank, kidnap a child, and for me kidnap goods for people who can’t afford them and make them affordable. I am a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I blend in and have hustles for everything. Shit, I get food payed for by the state that hunts me down! If you saw me now you’d think I was Dapper Don. If you look like a thief, you won’t be good at it; if you look like a writer you won’t get far. It’s a lot of smoke and mirrors. To fellow thieves out there, don’t blow up your spots; do them in moderation. Don’t make a route! Never bring your car into the lot. Always carry identification. Wear 2 pairs of boxers and 2 white tees and a hoodless sweat shirt. In case you get caught, these are all things you can keep in county jails. Get strike anywhere matches, papers, and tobacco or weed, and hide that shit in secret compartments so you can chill while you’re in the cell. If you cut shit to make holes in your clothing to make pockets, that makes it burglary. But if you hem that hole and put a button on it, it’s simple shoplifting, because you do not have a burglary tool. But I like to think I’m a magician, so I wont be revealing how to do my tricks.
All in a days work.
Mook Life: Give us some crazy-ass, mooked out stories you’ve lived out.
Horne: Well, after the police raided my place and a legitimate job that I was working at, things got a little hectic so I went underground and lived in the lion’s den. I wouldn’t go out during the day for anything. I’d stay up all night paranoid of the next raid. I made it 2 years having pictures in the paper of my graffiti and pictures in news segments. It became got a good ol’ witch hunt for me. Stupidly, I stayed put and painted spots, trains, went all out. Well, I went to this party with a fellow crew member and we are chilling by the door when a rock went through the window and cut my hand with glass. We went onto the porch where we started getting pelted with rocks. I picked up these metal dining room chairs on the porch and started throwing them down at the people. After I ran out of chairs I pulled a lead pipe from my bag and started chasing these fools. One fool was on the phone with the police probably scared for his life. When I caught up to him with the phone to his ear I cracked him with the pipe getting a 3 in 1 (breaking his hand, phone, and face) while shouting “stop snitching!” In the paper it confirmed that I had broken his hand, and cheek bone. He was laid the fuck out so I went back to the party. Later the police came to break up the party, which isn’t unusual for where I was, so I walked out and see the chumps that had been throwing rocks pointing me out. I walked right by the police but then I felt someone grab my new Arceteryx jacket and ask me where I thought I was going. Well, I jumped out of that shit and started running. There were cops in paddy wagons, on foot, and in a squad car chasing me. I didn’t think I was going to skate on these fools. At one point I was running and realized the cruiser was right along side of me. But ahead of me I saw a ton of people in front of a house. I ran past them around the house, jumped the fence, and walked into a house next door where there was a family eating. I told them people where chasing after me trying to kill me. I asked them to hide me and told them I didn’t want to call the police because my parents would never let me go out and party again. They hid me, changed my clothes, and let me go. My boys who were with me had never seen anything like that happen before. I’m just glad I can tell this story now from home, not from a cell.
Mook Life: The media have been blowing your spot up lately and it seems that you’re always on the run. Talk to us about the outlaw life and give us the time behind what you’re living right now.
Horne: Yeah, they put the picture of a crew member in the paper and claim he’s allegedly me. He doesn’t live in town anymore so I doubt he knows or cares. But, like I said, it’s a giant witch hunt and they want to make an example out of me like they’ve done to others in the past. One of the reasons I moved out of Boston is because the police make mistakes all day and get paid but if I made one mistake that’s all they need to set me on fire in the center of town. Instead of selling out and having art shows, I started tattooing. Getting up on people’s skin forever is pretty gangster. I apprenticed under my crew member and mentor and he taught me a lot. Now I have a skill, I can travel and be my own boss legitimately, unlike with shoplifting.
Mook-Life: Talk to me about your hometown Boston. What was it like growing up out there and let us know a bit about its graff scene.
Horne: Ed OG said it best, Boston’s a great place to meet bad people. Some of the graffiti in Boston is on another level. The no-neg graffiti style originated there. The highways get it the worst, excluding the trains. And, depending on where you are in the city, you can find some true gems. Bostonians know to do real cutty tags. They last longer, don’t get buffed or sun struck, and don’t pop up on the VS radar. Boston, like any other city, has different parts; it has its yuppy parts, its hood parts, and its towny parts. Usually, the vandal squad likes to put the people against each other to get someone to rat. In Boston, there are a whole lot of rats and dry snitches. If you go there, be careful who has paperwork. It’s best to paint with your family and crew. In Boston, there is also some racial tension that’s rooted in a racially motivated crew from the late 80s to early 90s who call themselves the African American Latino Alliance. In my opinion, that shit is just mad weak. I don’t have any respect for that. I respect the original kingpins. Shit, Lost and Alone had already sat in cells by the time I was born. That shit is G as fuck. The crews I respect who helped spearhead Boston graffiti, in my opinion, were AMPM, OD, 5AV, KBN, and DCK. Back then, people from all demographics and pedigrees painted. Shit, Joey Mcintyre wrote Popeye in the 80s. Now, in Boston, there are a lot of toys dissing anyone old or new just to try to get a name for themselves. There’s a total lack of respect. They diss spots that have been running almost 20 years but they write ‘No Diss’ next to it. There’s a new movement for people to do graffiti just to be a part of some trend. Some people out in Boston will rag you and not sign it, then make up fake internet personas and talk shit on you, telling people you met and you were scared. Until you find out it’s some no-rep-having toy that has beef with you. Then, you catch him at one of his tight-pants art shows and you give him a nice hello followed by a beatdown that leaves him an inch from his life. Boston is a great place to get into fights, especially if you’re looking, then it’s a guarantee you’ll find one. But you probably wont find one with another writer in Boston. Most of them are either junkies or art school flunkies. (With some exclusion of some gangster’s) Take, the case of Back vs. all of AEA. It was one guy against an entire crew and he’s the one looking for them. He’s dissing them everywhere but they paint under bridges and don’t look for him. They hide from him. It is truly pathetic.
Mook-Life: How do you see the new generation of kids coming up, those who have it easy and roll up to buy hundred dollars worth of fancy paint to go do a legal. Howbout graffiti in mainstream media and product placement?
Horne: Well, it makes my trip to the hardware store in my hood that much easier knowing that toys are working there in order to buy paint. It’s pathetic. I have bought one can of paint only because I thought after all this time of racking cans, I should buy one just to buy one. I still have it. It’s funny these toys blow all their money on fancy spray paint just to line real writers. Especially with what I said about Boston writers being cutty, the most you’ll see out of one of these bookworms is a shitty throw. Like I said before, I think in some ways graffiti is romanticized in the media like it’s urban and hip with this associated notoriety. That’s what’s making so many little toys try to come out and make names for themselves. But if you read police reports, they give up easily because graffiti isn’t at their core. As far as my shit is concerned, I do think it’s cool to see my tags and fills in movies or on TV. That’s respectable. But making an ad out of it and putting a price-tag on it makes it street art bullshit. I think most of the writers who go down the street art path probably started as losers anyway.
Mook Life: I’ve seen you came through Montreal and wrecked shit pretty bad, let us know your thoughts on this city and your experiences here.
Horne: I racked my way through 6 months of living in Montreal. When I first moved there I had a girlfriend who wrote graffiti and she turned me on to the city as a whole. I’m grateful for some connections I made through her. I left briefly, did some more damage on the east coast, then returned to Montreal single and ready to go a little crazy. It was intimidating as an out of towner moving to a new city already completely smashed. On the other hand, without roots, I felt I had the freedom to go crazy without much concern for repercussions. After I went wild I moved on and because the ties I made were crime related, my homies understood. I met a friend from Canada when I was living in Boston but he actually got deported. During my time in Montreal, his mom hooked it up. She held me down, made my mops, made me dinner, bought me cigarettes. She was my best roommate to date. The people, the city, the cost of living… shit I love Montreal (even though residents might not think so after my non-stop painting every night). And not knowing French, got me off the hook with Montreal cops numerous times. I had a lot of great experiences there.
Mook Life: Any last words, shout outs, death threats or good porn site suggestions?
Horne: Shout outs to all the killers and hundred dollar billers out there, to my family and my friends, to my girl Rosey, Daeo, Alone, Caype, Okto, Tonek, Resk, Zyre, Darks, Marty, Cazzo, Black Adam, HT, Ruger, Gyer, Elbo, Tilly, Nepal, Soln, Dez, Snor. Shit, lets see? To all the homies in YKW, DFM, OFA, OD, KBN, DCK, EMS, GSM, TFO, TFB, OUT, RAD, DBS, YSB, 24k, Smart, SDF, LPV. As for threats, I will say that revenge is definitely best served cold. I won’t be saying names because, that gives them too much of a rep, and makes getting revenge too pre-meditated. But just know, I will get who I’m looking for and they’ll get what they have coming. As for porn, for all you lonely jerkers on the web: you will lose a lot of money chasing pussy but never lose pussy chasing money! Also, cleans are not worth the trouble, but they are fun to do, use an alias, and don’t get caught slippin!
Mooklife.
