Kilo

Back In Tha Days!...part 1:
I got into Hip Hop back in 82/83 after spending a few moments checkin a bit of Jazz Funk and being lead into early Electro. At the time my family had moved to Exeter (being from SowfWest London originally!)...shortly after I saw Style Wars on TV and that was it - hooked!
My cousin - Zeus - was already on the scene back in London, he was in a crew with Bionic (London Posse), Basil L (Look Twice/Electro Rock) amongst others and used to feed me the necessary info that wasnt in the mainstream...props due!
I started out as a graffiti writer and hit Exeter hard...at that time there was only a few of us writing so it wasnt easy to get up! Names worth noting are: Wiz, Herbie, Lyte, Fuse 69, Wire, Cue...
Around the same time I also formed my own bboy crew - Electro Shock - which consisted of me (Raz), Coxie - The Backspin Kid, Andy B, Steve B and Harris...we werent very good!!!
A few years later I formed my second crew - MasterBlast - me (now Risk-E-Raz), HI-Rize, E-Raze, Maggot, Spider, Pete T (turtle master!), 2 poppers - Terry C and Chris and DJ Herbie...
We became part of The Devon Air Roadshow and toured parts of the SouthWest - wow!!!! *MBC chillin at Paignton Zoo as part of Devon Air Roadshow L2R: Raz, E-Raze, Hi-Rize and Vick-E...
As I still missed London so much I would visit my family there every month - this was a busy time for me as I spent most of the day going on solo missions to discover new pieces, halls of fame, etc - often wandering around completely foreign areas like Wembley insearch of Image 4 pieces with my crappy 110!!!
When I wasnt on these missions Id check out any jams I heard about...worth noting is the Taco Bells Breakdance Competition, held on the concourse at Leceister Square tube station...now that was a jam!!!...not forgetting Spats! In the evenings/night Id tune into whatever pirate radio station was playing Hip Hop and make tapes to take back to the 'X'...I was the music man back then! Another favourite occupation was to go upto Groove Records in Soho to pick up copies of the freshests tunes (always getting hot tips from the old lady!)...infact that was where I met a few heads - eh Blade!!!
After doing the do with MBC, I got together with some new friends - Ill Beat Posse: Rola, Shah, Ad-MC, Nik-E-G, Rob Gee (RIP) and together with my graf crew at that time - WWP (Wild West Posse): me, Skarse, Soe, Cue, E-Raze, Remer, Idee, Case and Grade - we formed SSA - SouthSide Alliance - which became the main crew in the SouthWest with links to the Plymouth scene via Rust, Cram and Rebel, the Bristol Massive via John N and Era, the Reading scene via Prone and Kel (not NYC) and London via Skore, Tener, Dome and Len.
Those were good times for me with too many episodes to mention and alot of development was achieved - Ill Beat Posse went onto become Def Defiance and finally ended up as The Numbskulls, WWP regrouped and became NBS (Norty Bastards) and SSA was used as the main idea behind SIN Cru! After quitting my job as a Maintenance Fitter at a local factory (big up the Howmet crew!), I decided to move back to London in the summer of '91................................
Back In Tha Days!...part 2:
The summer of '91 was BUSY...I released the UK's first graffiti videozine - Visual Grafix - and went Inter-Railing around Europe for 3 weeks meeting up with Cherish, Fame & Fiasko in Amschterdammmm. At that time Cherish was busy smashing the dutch Metro & racking lots of lovely Sparvar & Flexa.
I also hooked up with Skore & TRC after meeting them at 3 Corners (Farringdon)...through Skore I then met many good heads such as DJ First Rate, Second To None, Infoe, Drax & PFB - to mention a few!
Around the same time the Unity hall of fame in London kicked off & it was there that I met Teach & Erok (MTS crew) & spent many mad evenings hanging out at Teachs yard (which was like a writers bench back then!)...this also led to me meeting more heads like Rate, Diet, Fume, etc.....
I was still painting heavily back then & decided to form a collective of writers as a few of us were hitting the same spots at weekends - this led to the original Strength In Numbers crew which was me, Skore, Dreph, Skube, Keen, Fire & Shok 1...we also used to paint with Shar, Nemer, Fluke & Morn alot too.
Amsterdam became a second home for us & we would go over there 3-4 times a year to sample its various delights (& paint!!!)...meeting writers such as Rhyme, High, Get, Kar, Delta, etc along the way!
At this point in time a new crew was briefly formed called The DamBusters which had various members & a particular 'initiation' involved too!!!
*original DamBusters, L2R: Kilo, Skore and Tener