Sonic Graffiti: The Untold Story of the Tape Bomb

In the early 1980s artists, gangs, and nations all behave the same way, holding firm to anything to keep power and control. Mostly, it comes from a lack of control people have over themselves. This existed within the graffiti world and crew culture.

In 1982, DIS-1 came to me wanting to retaliate for a violent act against his crew. We came up with the Tape Bomb: record creepy sounds onto black cassettes, crazy-glue them to walls in rival territory. Not musical. Not some funded academic movement. We were at war, and I was the messenger. If they peeled that tape off and played it, they were in for the weirdest shit we could make.

The irony is, I kept the tradition, percussion, noises, tape, and recordings, but turned it from a weapon into a way to heal. Even after I was shipped off to the West Bank and left to fend for myself, I kept making tapes there too, only now to heal and process what I was seeing.

By the time I made it back to NYC, I was a changed person. The neighborhood was unrecognizable. Now the enemy was myself, and later, the industry. But I’ve always known what I was doing, delivering a message. We who sample are time travelers. Inside it are secrets to peace I don’t have the answers to. I keep hoping they come.