BLADE AND THE BAZAY JAM BAND - SODA POP CD

Blade is not so much recognised for his heavy funk electro sound but for his funky graffiti styles. Blade's Subway Art was a straight up expression from the youth of the ghetto. He intuitively brought to writing, new concepts and forms that had never been seen on trains before. Blade came from an era when writing or graffiti was truly developing.

"This is how things where, nobody can ever say to me to my face, no writer, no anyone that Blade wasn't the biggest king of New York on Trains Period!"

Blade painted over 5000 New York subway cars and was never caught. Living in the Bronx, New York he painted his first 'Master Piece' in 1972 and continued prolifically painting trains until the early to mid eighties.

"From '72 to '75 I was painting at the Bourke St(Bronx) lay-ups and everything done from the end of '75 early '76 through to like the early, middle 80's was done at the esplanade, they actually called it Bladesplanade, nobody would even go there cause it was like my tunnel with Comet, nobody would even go into it."

The Seventies is when subway art truly exploded. Graffiti progressed from just tags into masterpieces, which are now referred to simply as pieces. It is debatable about who actually was the first writer to do a masterpiece but this was a time of creativity and true originality.

"Super Kool 223 was one of the first, I don't know who the first was because one guy can say he's the first from Broadway, another guy can say hes the first from The Bronx, I know who did the first two man whole car top to bottom. That was Crachee & Roks and that was at the end of '73, it was a Serious Pink top to bottom with a Delta Blue outline, and they boxed off the whole car, the first train that was boxed off completely."

Graffiti has been a way of Hip-Hop culture since its beginnings on the streets of New York but Graffiti didn't progress from Hip Hop, before Mc'c, DJ's & Breakers there were Writers. "We where listening to Music that was groovy, ya know. You where listening to Motown music, soul music, you know, Rap music and all that Hip Hop didn't come until many, many years later until like the end of the 70s, like the sugar Hill Gang, Curtis Blow and Grand Master Flash. Actually on one of the blocks I did a piece for Grandmaster Flash called Flash, "two time for the record", I did that piece and that was and I moved to that building in 1980 and so it couldn't be before then.

"That's something that people want to market, that way it sells. You Take the Brake Dancing, you take the Hip Hop and Rap music and you take the Writing, you put them all together and you get something to market, even though non of those things went together from my era."

Blade was also a well-known and influential bass player and bandleader from the Bronx. Ahead of his time with his heavy funk electro bass sound. His funky graffiti style was also found in his fat bass playing for groups like THE FIRST CLASS GOOD TIME BAND and the BAZAY JAM BAND. These groups occasionally toured throughout New York State. Blade has just recently put together a full length Album of Original Seventies Funk tracks.

Back in the day writing wasn't about fame or recognition, it was about being crazy, having fun, meeting girls & getting high. "I did mescaline, hallucinogenic drugs and that was when I was in my teens and twenties. The fist time I did that (pointing at a psychedelic Blade panel) I was high on acid. That was brand new clean car and that was the first time I actually drop acid, so the whole time I was fucking tripping on these crazy drugs. Everything was psychedelic, everything was metal, there was no violence, there was no anything, you just bombed trains and you had fun."