Thursday, April 14, 2011
POKE (IBM MOS )
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GROWING UP IN THE FREDRICK DOUGLASS HOUSES ON WEST 100TH STREET IN MANHATTAN, THE INCREDIBLE BOMBING MASTER POKE BEGAN ATTENDING MANHATTAN'S HIGH SCHOOL OF ART AND DESIGN IN 1984. A PROTEGE OF DOZE, POKE WAS AMONG AN ELITE GROUP OF OTHER WRITERS WHO ATTENDED THE SCHOOL AT THAT TIME INCLUDING SON ONE, RIZE TNB, NET TC5, GNOME, PAR,RAD,TOTEM AND PURE. POKE'S PIECES WERE EASY TO READ AND ALWAYS WELL-CRAFTED. HIS ARROWS WERE ALWAYS IN THE PROPER PLACE, AND NOTHING WAS EVER OVERDONE. THE POKE NEL RIZE PIECES IS A SEMINAL MID-EIGHTIES CAR FROM THE ONE LINE. HIS SELF-PORTRAIT NEXT TO HIS PIECE, ROCKING A KANGOL AND A DOO-RAG, IS CLASSIC TC5, AND POKE HELPED MAINTAIN THAT CREW'S PRESENCE ON BROADWAY AND ON THE A LINE.
AT ART AND DESING AND ON THE ONE LINE POKE RECRUITED NEW IBM MEMBERS AFTER THE CREW WAS OFFICIALY PASSED ON TO HIM BY DOZE. AT SCHOOL HE ALSO HELPED KOZE DEVELOP HIS SKILLS AS AN IBM CHARACTER MASTER IN HIS OWN RIGHT. HE PARTNERED UP WITH WEST FROM FC TO DO WINDOW-DOWN PRODUCTIONS IN THE ONE TUNNEL AND TOP-TO-BOTTOMS ON THE 2S AND 5S. HIS PIECES WERE ALWAYS CLEAN LOOKING, BUT IN 1985 THEY LOOKED UNUSUALLY SO AFTER POKE DISCOVERED THAT BY USING THE NOZZLE FROM THE CLEAR SPRAY LIQUITEX HE WAS ABLE TO ACHIEVE A VERY NARROW, SHARP LINE. THIS CAP WAS KEPT AS A TRADE SECRET WITHIN HIS CREW FOR ONLY SO LONG BEFORE IT BECAME A STAN DARD TOOL OF MOST WRITERS. TODAY THERE ARE DOZENS OF NOZZLE BRANDS THAT IMITATE THE LINE OF THIS TYPE OF CAP, AND OFFER VARYING DEGREES OF WIDTH. A CLASSIC EXAMPLE OF A TC5 STYLE SOLDIER, POKE WAS AN IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTOR TO GRAFFITI CULTURE DURING THE GOLDEN ERA OF THE B-BOY MUG.
(MASCOTS AND MUGS) DAVID VILLORENTE & TODD JAMES
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