SOUTH BLESSED UNVEIL WORLD EXCLUSIVE STREET ART BOOKS
247 Magazine’s close ties with the street art scene are well documented – over the years we’ve been involved with and published work by some of the South West’s leading artists and seen some really amazing pieces. Now and again though, something comes to light that is so significant for the scene that it’s worthy some serious attention.
Recently, good friends of 247 Magazine, spray paint supplier and fashion outlet South Blessed came by the office with exciting news that they had come into possession of a set of original 1980’s sketch books from pioneering crew the Manhattan Subway Kings, widely reported to be one of the first properly established hip hop/graffiti crews and artistic influences for many to follow over the years. The books contain some pretty amazing “work in progress” pieces, including the logo for none other than cult film Wildstyle and the logo and character design for Lady Lee, one of the characters central to the film’s plot.
The guys at South Blessed are holding a special one off exhibition of these influential and hugely important books at their Bristol store, and ahead of the exhibition, 247 Magazine caught up with Chicago music producer Astrosnare who brought the books to the UK to find out a bit of the amazing story how they came to survive when the vast majority of these books were destroyed to prevent being caught by the authorities.
“I meet a rapper from New York who moved in with me and gave me the books as a present when he moved out” he tells us, “Only two books that I know about from this crew and era have survived, the ones you see now. I think they come from a pretty unique period, there could maybe be others out there in the hands of collectors, I would love to see them if they are out there, as it is a unique insight into the styles that were coming out of New York in the late 70s and early 80s”
Looking through the books, there are more and more recognisable characters and pieces that have since become instantly recognisable street art icons – Astrosnare fills us in on the point at which he started to really appreciate the importance of the two books: “When I watched Wild Style for the 8th time, I started relating the content of the books to the artists in the film. I saw the styles and the names relating directly to the film. And this was a film that I grew up on.”
Of course, times have changed a lot since the 80s – the dawn of the internet has led to numerous well documented international hook-ups between different crews and of course the ability for artists to get their name out further than ever before: “Graffiti writers have got better over the years from Brazil, Japan, Barcelona, France and Bristol and have taken the scene to another level. Graffiti is now international and has been for the last X amount of years. In the 80s we didn’t have the internet. With the internet we can view writers from all over the world. In this aspect it has helped push the love of graffiti to all corners of the world.”
Bristol’s renowned for it’s vibrant street art heritage – all around the city there are pieces constantly evolving and appearing on an almost daily basis. We thought it would be cool to see what a US based originator thought of the work around our fine city: “Writers from Bristol I like are Cheba, Epok, 3Dom and Rico just to name a few, and of course Banksy. I think the art form will only grow in the future. The way underground writer express themselves with paint helps the graffiti scene grow.”
South Blessed Sprayz are exhibiting the two Manhattan Subway Kings books on the 19th of November at their store which you can find at 125 Wilder Street Bristol BS2 8QU. You can find more online by checking out there facebook page HERE or www.southblessed.co.uk
Find more about the Manhattan Subway Kings here
