The Death Squad @149st

THE DEATH SQUAD
TDS was one of the most significant and influential style crews graffiti has ever seen. Their work was mainly seen on the Broadway number 1 line and the 2 and 5 lines. The peak TDS years were late '70s to early '80s. Unfortunately most of the major books and publications overlooked the significance of TDS. The fact that TDS was neglected is quite ironic considering the fact that some of the biggest names in writing were affiliated with it. Hard core members being MR. JINX 174, PART 1, KOOL 131, CHAIN 3, NOC 167, PADRE, PESO, BEAR 167. Other writers to put it up were NIKE, KF 174, MOON 77, REPEL, DONDI, BAN2, FUZZ 1,EZO FLITE, A ONE, SKEME, SLAVE, CASE 2, TEAN 5, KADE 198, MAGOO, ZEPHYR, DAZE, DEZ, JOEY, TOXIC, SCORCH 170, DELTA 2, TORCH and COSE.

TDS was a crew concerned more with style rather than bombing. (Despite that fact they bombed anyway.) Their style contributions to the culture are significant and have been somewhat overlooked as is the case with many style masters. This is due to three factors. One, the natural abstractions of wild style make names illegible to the uneducated eye, therefore the media and general public can not determine the origin of the work. The second factor being style masters generally write many different names to demonstrate their ability to create a broad range of letter forms. It can be difficult for the writing community to keep up with all the names. The final being, style masters give outlines to other writers, many of which take credit for the style master's work.

PART 1, EZO, FLIGHT, and CHAIN 3 are active in the current street mural movement

Short list of core TDS Alises:
CHAIN 3: TEE BAG 170th, ASH, BAG 170th, DOSE, DR. PHIBES, WORD POD, PEEL, RAID
Excerpt from CHAIN3 3 interview conducted in late 1995 by SPAR ONE.

PART1: ROAM , RIO, FUDGE 357, 2WORM, WEPA, ULTRA2, RIQUE

KOOL 131: 2-BAD, WARM, VEGA 2, AQUA, DOBRA 2, INCH 007, RAND, BOSS
KOOL AID 131 interview conducted in February 2002 by @149st.

NOC 167: BOY5, PARIS, DR. PROD.

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