Miami Graffiti

August 2007
1) What do you write and what crews do you represent?

Atomik Bomb. TSC MSG BUK50 28

2) Where did you get your tag? Any special meaning behind it?

My boy Honer MH gave me the tag Atom. There was a bunch of people with that tag and there was even a crew called A.T.O.M. in Miami before I started writing it. So I changed it to Atomic. There's no special meaning behind it.

3) When did you start writing and what were some of your early influences?

I started dropping toy tags around the Devon Aire Villas #4 hood of Kendall in 1990. I lived right across the street from the famous roller skating rink, Hot Wheels. There was this kid who had temporarily moved from Harlem, NYC into my hood. He wrote CA One from RFC. One day when I was walking to school I saw CA One RFC up everywhere. You name it, he had did it. Marker tags, Can tags, Throwies, Hollows, Filled-In Throwies, Blockbusters and even a piece behind the wall of my elementary school. That shit blew my mind. That was one of my earliest memories of writing. If you know the Kendall area of Miami, then you know my hood bred a lot of quality writers. I met mad writers in my hood through Hot Wheels roller skating rink. There was a lot of crews that inspired me, FH, FE, TCB, AIM, STV, IHS, RA, WOW, BOM, FA, and VAL. Writers such as Meer, Ener, Trow, Boks, Astro, Opey, Best, Skil, Rage & Zeem to name a few. When I was in Junior High one of my friends lived next door to Meer. He gave him my black book to rock. When I got it back he had done an all out piece with colors, a character and a get up. Ener bombed the book as well. That was a huge influence on my writing. I didn't get serious with writing until about 1995.

4) What was your favorite Penit/Wall and why?

The first penit I ever went to was Modernage in Cutler Ridge with my boy Dtek. My favorite penit though, would have to be Agripost. After they closed the Airport penit I started painting there a lot with Quake. I liked the fact that everyone's shit rode out until it was closed.

5) Is there any crazy story that sticks out in your mind from the early days?

One day my boy Quake and I were painting a huge wall at Agripost when we saw a taxi drive right into the penit. We looked at each other like 'what the fuck is this??'. Two seconds later the whole place is swarming with D's. So they got guns out and are yelling to get on the floor. There was no where to run so we were caught. I thought we were going to county for sure. They asked us what we were doing there and I said we were working on a mural, which we were right in front of. Turns out they were Carol City gang unit and they were looking for gangs, not writers. They really liked what we were painting and asked if we could take a picture of them in front of our wall. I asked if I could take a picture with my camera they'd confiscated, but they wouldn't do it. Shit was classic, a dozen D's in front of our wall posing with C.C. gang unit tees. So all of them split, and a Taurus drives up to us and gives us our shit and dips out. We got back to painting and the rest is history.

6) Name a Miami writers work that you respect a lot (thats not in your crew/associated crews) and why?

It would have to be 2 different writers. Mork and Seam. Mork for bombing and Seam for piecing. Mork went all city twice, and has more handstyles than any other writer in Miami. Seam has been piecing with more style than any other writer in Miami since back in the days, point blank. They've been doing there thing since the early 80's and have the skills to smoke any active writer in Miami.

7) Any good stories about a time you got chased or busted?

One time I was painting a spot off of I-95 with my dogs Quake and Eson and the cops rushed us nasty. We saw headlights coming down the dead end road and saw it was 5-O, so I jumped over the wall I was just painting. I jumped another fence into a backyard of a house and saw a ladder. I climbed up the ladder to the roof and hid there. I hid by the closest wall while laying on my back. All I heard was breaks, left and right. 10 cop cars must've pulled up. I was shitting bricks. They were looking everywhere for us. They brought the dogs out with the flashlights, but never looked on the roof. That's when I heard a helicopter! That shit was coming my way with the spot light out and all. Luckily there was a tree grown out and onto the roof of the house i was hiding on top of. So I went under the tree, put my arms and feet in my shirt and stuck my head in. I could feel the spot light hitting my body, it was crazy. I thought for sure they spotted me. But it circled around a few more times and took off. I hid for about an hour more and got in touch with Quake and Eson. It ended up that they had got away as well, Eson hid on a roof and Quake did the turtle shirt technique while hiding in a pile of trash. I've never been that close to getting roped without actually getting caught. The cops had taken our paint so we left our shit without finishing, it stayed like that for a couple months and then got buffed. I always wanted to go back and put an outline on it but the spot was too crazy after that episode. It got buffed about a month ago.

8) Whats the biggest problem with Toys nowadays?

Toys: If you have a beef with someone you should either fight or battle them. If a whole crew has beef with another whole crew, then they should fight or battle it out. Right? To kids nowadays its Wrong. Toys just run around crossing me out and don't want to fight or battle. In fact, some of them don't even know me personally, but will line me just to get fame or props within their crews. If the first two or three writers that lined me actually linked up for the fight/battle then my beef wouldn't have grown to where it is now. But that didn't happen. Now I have every toy in their crew lining me. I'd like to thank my toy fans for fueling my writing fever, keep being toys, it urges me to get up more and better.

9) Any comments on the fact that you are probably one of the most name dropped and initially respected writers by the new kids coming up today?

Respect.

10) What do you think of the Graf Scene in South Florida and Where do you think its headed?

I think the writing in South Florida is at an all time low. No one is going for theirs. It's picking up a little bit but not as much as I would like to see. To all the writers in Miami: learn your history! See what was done before you started, you'll have a better understanding of what needs to be done today. All the older cats need to stop fronting and give styles down to the next generation to keep this shit alive. The reason the writing lacks in this city is because no one is schooling the new generation properly. There's no motivation for the younger kids to go and get up, when no quality shit is riding. Everything gets toyed and turns to shit within a month of going up. If the writers in this city would fight or battle instead of lining out each others shit we might have a scene. As far as my scene, Rest In Power to my brother Philip, I miss you dog. Rest In Power to King Sege, bomb the heavens. And ultimately to everyone out there in the scene: Chill with all the drugs yall, that shit don't get you anywhere but the grave. Peace out yo.

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*Atomik has supplied us with some rare flicks from his early years to appear with this intervew. Enjoy!


Dam Wall 1997,


Rooftop, 1997


Miami Dade CC Penit, 1997


Agripost Penit, 1997


Hialeah Penit, 1997


Metromover Rooftop, 1998


Indian Hammocks Penit, 1998


Hialeah Penit, 1998


Train, 1999


Train, 2007