Get to know Pike 169 by InfamyArt!
Recently, InfamyArt did an amazing write-up on THE 169 and I had to reference some amazing subjects bought up, one day I’ll have an in-depth interview with the man himself regarding our crazy stories that have formed around the world.
Here’s a bit of a snip-it to the interview between these two titans, for more, please click the button at the bottom of this post to be taken to InfamyArt’s full article.
Describe how you fell into this subculture. How did you get started?
I first started out in the Breakdancing scene (KID CRUZ) and used to tag my Breaker Name wherever we went, little bubble letters of it or rudimentary tagging of Kid Cruz, but I was only about 9 or 10 years old. Then I moved with my Mom and Sister to Los Angeles and ended up at Walter Reed Jr. High in the mid 80’s with SPY 1000, VISION, FLASH, ELSE, MASTER, SWIFT ONE, ZONE, SELDOM, RICK ONER, SAME ONE, and many more early San Fernando Writers. I started tagging the name EXTREEM (misspelled on purpose) and joined MAK (METRO ART KINGS) with SPY 1000 and founded a crew with DAPER, DAVE ONE, FEER (not UTI), SAME ONE, and numerous others called TBS (THE BOMB SOCIETY) which lasted years past my membership.
Within a year or so I got busted for tagging EXTREEM so I changed it to KROME ONE (which I got up huge with, making the LA TIMES Valley Edition and garnering a 5K reward for ratting me out along with DAPER ONE. At that time I had joined TDK (THOSE DAMN KIDS) with SENS, ELSE, DASH 2000 and others, also joining the valley crushers JKI CREW (JUST KICKIN’ IT) with SWIFT ONE and many more.
Once I got arrested for KROME and got the kitchen sink thrown at me in 10th grade, I had to switch names again to avoid Juvenile Hall which is when i took on the moniker PIKE 169 and soon after joined the iconic KSN (KIDS SMOKING NARCOTICS or KINGS STOP at NOTHING) offshoot TCF (THE CHOSEN FEW) with RAGE, WYSE, SERF, SKAR, NYSE, ESK, PYSE, KAOS,SYNC and many others, this was still only late 1988, so a lot had happened in just 3 or so years in the graff scene in Los Angeles, which in the 80’s… was off the chain wild.
I dropped all other crews once I joined TCF and to this day rep TCF which is now world wide with members across Europe, UK, parts of Southeast Asia, Australia, African Continent, and of course North and South America, but the San Diego Chapter of TCF is likely the most active to date.
