This guy was everywhere bro...I would say he was King at one point in time...I'm 54 and when I was 14, all the way to 30 yrs old...I saw IZ THE WIZ on every line, especially the L 🚆 train the G , N , E and F trains...may you rest in peace my bro.🙏
Agreed but once you run king status as a writer that's for life, not just one point. Makes you a hall of famer historically. Today's generation doesn't run game as passionate as older writers, half the youngins now don't give a s about history and respect who and what made the ground work for them. Yes the world has changed a lot for writers, but he literally quotes how it is. A king is someone you either want to write with or fight with and or both. Even in the late 70s and early 80s few still held the title back then and today even fewer try hold the title. Kase 2, IZ, Dez, Billy 161, Min one RTW, Joker, T kid, pjay to name a couple. Amongst thousands of writers to actually stand out and achieve king or queen status meant you did remarkable feats. I digress. 😂
'Kids were learning the trade without having to pay any dues, and thats the perfect formula for destruction' that sums up so much of what is wrong with the world today in general. Damn.
For the sake of the comments section and knowing more about I'm sure what is a lot of peoples favourite old school NYC writer. What was he like? Did he say anything wise or memorable? And did he mention anything we haven't heard him say as the general public that was interesting relating to NYC or graffiti in any way? Thankyou for sharing and thankyou if you can share more to. Very limited resources exist on IZ to be fair.
2024 and im still waiting for this. Ill be very disappointed if nothing comes of it. He was definitely a king, he knew alot of places, painted alot of places, and most people back then writer or not can tell you they rode a car with his name inside and probably out more times then not from the time period. Late 70s, early 80s nyc films alot will have his name somewhere. I mean watch the warriors thats the most classic. But theres a scene where i remember an inside sprayed iz tag.
I lived on the Grand concourse in the Bronx. i used to see Iz the wiz pieces on the 4 train. I remember seeing a whole car with "IZ" on every car back to back. IZ IZ IZ IZ. and i just wondered how in the hell do they do it? i was like 7-8 years old.
We will love and remember you forever Mike, aka IZ THE WIZ TMB. You are a true all city king and like you said you could count on one hand who did that. BE3 RTW
I know what you mean. When you hear people speak from the era. One of the most knowledgeable and interesting characters was always IZ. He seemed humble and invested deeper into the scene then most people even at the time. It was like newish for him as well at the time but it seemed like he invented the wheel. (He definitely helped invent the wheel) 😂 imagine though, he was so invested he would be able to answer most of the questions we all have the most accurately. For a guy who was a king and would have known this to he wasn't arrogant and overly ego driven like other guys. Hard to explain. Very inspiring and unique guy indeed.
We used to rob conductors, beat up track bums,175 yards,200 ,lay ups,goast yards,300 keys master locks, stores,haaaaaa,REAL VANDEL ,KING JEWEL ,PEARL RIVER BOOSTING,WEST SIDE STATIONARY, UNIS,MINIS,FAT CAPS RED DEVILS, KRYLONS,DEZINER MARKERS😮
When you see real kings like IZ.. then look at newer gen gronks (gronk - Aussie slang meaning someone who is silly, ignorant and just plain dumb) like let's say cope claiming to be a king. 😂 It's a funny old-world. Yes our Graff generations have changed but even now still, you need to actually stomp, burn and master graffiti like IZ in copious ways to actually call yourself a king. Not just get up, you need to be able to actually paint burners, actually paint top to bottoms, paint end to ends, paint streets, paint insides, paint underground, paint master pieces, and everytime your trying to actually evolve your work and progress to get better again and again. Not just rinse and repeat the same shit generic throws and tags. The little bombers who think they're cool cannot compare to dedicated graffiti writers who can actually draw, paint, adapt, develop and keep growing as an artist. Don't call yourself a king if you know one style of throwup and one style of tag, and especially not if you copped your name from gronks like cap which cope did. Actually he was so shit he pre much got cap to do it up for him. 😂🤣
You clearly don't understand classic style if you think IZ was toy. Dude had mad NY 70s style, you gotta understand the era he came from. Learn your history, toy.
