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Q- Is that TNT?

Yeah TNT is the Dynomite Crew

Q- When did you actually start that?

That crew I actually started in 85'

Q- 85'?

Yeah, 85'

Q- Who were the original members?
The original members were Gee69, Zoonie, Toni and Uni and Metro.

Q- Metro? Wasn't he your writing partner at one time?

Yeah Metro was my writing partner I met in Jr. high, also Gee69. Both of them were mainly my bus writing partners.

Q- What kind of goals did you have back then? What did you want to accomplish in graffiti back then?

Back then...when I started out when I got into it, it was by gang writing that my brother had in his yearbook., but basically I just wanted to write like that. I looked at the writing and it was beautiful, you know, it just like fascinated me. So I didn't really have any goals; all I knew that I wanted to do was just write, that's all I wanted to do was just to write.

Q- Did you know that you wanted to write on buses? Did you want to write on the streets, what did you actually want write on?

Well how that came about was that first I started out writing like cholo blocks on the side of my apartments of where I lived, and then I tried spray painting on walls and that was back in 82' when I started to try to mimic my brothers writing on walls. Buses came later like in 84' or 85' when I started actually seeing people up on buses, and that kind of fascinated me and when I started seeing more of that when I was in Jr. High that's when I stated really picking up the action-tagging on buses on the insides, but not really the outsides.

Q-Who were you seeing up back then?

Back then...back like in 85', 86' I would see Mad top to bottom tags on the 45 line and I also saw a lot of Miner tags on the insides and outsides of buses. I would take the 68 line to Adams (st.), where I would catch the Adams bus to go to school and I used to see Miner up on the 68 line and on the 45 line on the outsides I would see Miner when I would kick it in Jr. High. I would see the buses go by and Miner was upon on the outside of them in drippers. It really took it to a knew level; I had never seen that before and when I seen tags like that it kind of influenced me and I just took that up and I said "you know what I want to do that," and I just took it from there.

Q- What kind of markers did you see them writing with?

Back then, to tell you the truth, I wasn't really exposed to markers; I didn't really...I had a miniwide, I had an ultrawide but I didn't have a pilot, I didn't have marsh ink; I had a unipainter but that's as far as it went. I didn't have a pilot, pilot's came about much later. So back then I just used what was readily available that I could get at the stationery store. So basically UN's and UltraWides is what I was exposed to mainly from Gee69 because he already had those markers, he had connections with people, writers, who actually knew people in the spots. So I would go check out those spots and get my supplies.

Q- Where did you used to travel (in L.A.) when you did your graffiti?

To tell you the truth, most of the graffiti that I did on buses was in Downtown L.A.. I would catch the 68 line, my home line, and I used to take it deep into downtown; I had selective spots where I would just hit up on a certain line, at least 10 or 15 buses a day, and then after I hit that line I would go to another bus stop and hit that line, and go to another bus stop and hit up that line. So in one day I would say I would tag 30 or 40 buses then I would go home. So I think the most time I spent was in Downtown L.A., that's where you could find me. Around that time I was always in Downtown just chilling being with the people checking out the stores, looking at the graffiti on bussed, just feeling the vibe you know...the vibe of the city, the people and everything...just bombing.

Q- Did you ever travel anywhere else outside of L.A.?

Yeah...the farthest I went was probably Glendora, we went racking on the buses and I think the farthest I went on the bus, but not tagging, is the Chino prison that's about it...

Q-Who is actively writing in the TNT crew?

Actively writing today...I know its me GinOne, Duce, Ducer is writing, Evoke's writing, he does his stuff here and there, uh...that's about it. There aint too many cats from TNT doing anything. Everybody has their own obligations and stuff to fulfill but its always been the one's who have always...I guess had more heart than the rest of my crew members. That's why I'm writing today, but its just that I have so much love for it that you know I just love doing what I do; so that's why I haven't givin' it up.

Q- When did you start hitting freeways?

Ah freeways...man...that started later; I think after I started writing on buses you can say I had the foresight. I was noticing that a lot of stuff was getting buffed and I had made the transition form tagging buses to scribing buses, because I already saw the things around me that they started buffing a lot more. Tags weren't staying up like they used to, before tags would stay up 3 months, 4 months on the same billboard and it would never change. People were up for a long time but then after a while they just started buffing. So I started scribing and then after scribing, after that I kind of noticed that I wanted to go to the next stage and that when I started seeing Wisk and Ser and other guys like bombing the city, and that's when I started bombing the city first, after buses. I started bombing the city because Wisk and Ser were bombing it, and I kind of figured, "you know what the buses are getting buffed", and "I wanna be ahead everybody else", so I started bombing the city also. That was back in 87'...started picking up to start to bomb the city, then going into 88' kept going bombing the city a little bit here and there, but I really didn't have a partner I was mostly doing it on my own and with Onick and other people like that. Then I started hitting the freeways because it was something I really didn't hit back when I used to see the other legends bomb the freeways and the freeway system. So I finally got the chance to bomb the freeways, that was back in 90', 91'.

Q-After you started hitting the freeways what did you start thinking your next medium would be, or next locations?

After freeways I always wanted to try something different. So I wanted to hit freeways, and then hit more city spots, but I think rooftops; I think I kind of focused in on rooftops and bridges. I think that was the next step for me because I noticed they were staying up for a long time and I just wanted to rock them because at that point I was just hitting everything. I was taking the opportunity and the time just to bomb as much as I could and especially the spots that I had seen back then in 87', 88' that I didn't get a chance to hit. So basically, I was retracing my steps; I was just like starting over again-bombing. So I remember all the spots and the transition went about...I started hitting rooftops an bridges, mainly.

Q- What did you feel were some of your major accomplishments that you have done in your career?

I think for the most part in my career that I'm happy with is for the fact that I kept the name that I started with and its still the og name that I have now. But I think the most pride I have I got to say its two parts; the first part I believe its the bus part because that's like the biggest history for me, RTDkillers days, a lot of my history, my blood, my sweat, my work went into buses. It was pride back then; it was a whole movement of writers that created a very happy time for me an I believe that was one of the best times, the bus writing days. And I think the second best time for me is when I started bombing the city with Duce. Those two moments were the highlights of my career because during the bus days I gave it my all, and we killed the bus lines. I represented Los Angeles along with all the other writers, and basically we were just out there having fun; and bombing the city with Duce it was the same way, we were just out there having fun and just bombing, bombing freely, basically. So I think those two things stand out in my mind the most; and the thing that really stands out the most is also meeting the people that I met from different crews, like Wisk, Ser, bombing with Miner, Uti, bombing with all kinds of different peoples from different crews and just chilling with them and nobody had an attitude and just getting along with everybody. I think that's one of the things that makes me happy, because I never went out to make enemies I always wanted to make friends. So I think that's what people remember me the most is that I'm friendly and I'm a cool guy to get along with.

Q- What kind of things would you like to see a lot of writers today doing?

I think a lot of writers today...the vibe that I get....I don't know, to me the whole movement, the graffiti movement is not like it was back in the 80's. Back in the 80's everything was happening at one time, you had music coming up, you had the crack epidemic that was coming up, you had the gang wars that were coming up, you had hip-hop, you had break-dancing coming up, you had graffiti coming up, and all of that was happening at the same time. Plus back then everybody had their own style and mostly all the writers that wrote back then were fresh writers. They weren't like the writes of today, and the writers back then, we all got along; I mean you could go up to any writer's bench and just chill with any writer and it was more friendly back then and everyone just wanted to be friendly and get together from different crews and just bomb. Nowadays I don't get that feeling, Nowadays I feel like...a lot of kids have heart, but they mostly want to bomb safely, they don't want to take it to the next level, they don't want to get out and do illegal stuff, they want to do everything legally; and back then its like we had more heart, we had more balls, I can say then any generation would have. I think that the generation today...the writers today, although I don't blame them, nobody wants to get busted. But I mean it takes a lot for someone to go out in the city and bomb, it takes a lot, it takes a lot of heart, it takes a lot of balls and I think the writers today lack that; I think they just want to bomb safely, legally, and not have any problems; not have to deal with any static.

Q- What kind of things do you want to do in the future to represent graffiti?

I think for me as long as I'm still on this earth I still want to represent the lifestyle and the life that I was given and the memories that I still have of graffiti. I don't want people to forget because I think my generation, was the generation that started graffiti in Los Angeles and I want to represent it, you know, I want to represent especially the bus days and especially the bombers out there because I guess we get overlooked sometimes by the piecers, we get overlooked by history and I want to represent that. I want to represent it positively and I guess for me I want represent graffiti in a positive light in the future. I don't know what direction I'm gonna be taking it but if I can I wanna make it a respectable art like it is.

Q- Do you have any closing comments?

Closing comments? I just wanna say that living in Los Angeles and bombing in L.A. is the biggest thrill that I've ever had and I love the city, and I know everybody else that came before me that has bombed the city, loved this city. And I'm just grateful that I grew up at the time that I did and met the people that I did and I'm just grateful for being here today and I thank my older brother, because without him I would not be here today and I just wanna say peace to all those writers out there, keep going and keep up the good work

gin@guerillaone.com