TGF > THOSE GOOD GUYS...

by FlyCat
AL 42 December 1999 - January 2000

Pienely aware of the burden that ‘this’ interview may represent, I go now to you, my dear and beloved reader, to introduce and introduce those whom no definition could ever suffice to paint their work between the right and the wrong, the conscious and the unconscious, But to put it more simply it is of them the craziest of minds.

>When was TGF born and who is or who are its founders? The motive?

TGF: “The ‘Tha Good Fellas’ Enterprise was born in January ‘93 from a diabolical idea of Grake (then Shan), Styng 253 and Ders (later desaparecido); already by the next day Kez and Coka joined and in time all the other outstanding members who added quality to the team. We emphasize, however, that everyone's artistic birth predates (for some even by a lot) the birth of the crew.”
Kez: “TGF was born in ‘93 created by Grake and Styng 253. We were born to rock.”

>Why ‘The Good Guys’?

Caubo: “Because we are good guys, it seems obvious! However, if someone disagrees, they can always visit us and argue otherwise...”
Styng 253: “Because we make others play the bad guys.”
Kez: “The Good Guys because that's who we are and then in my opinion it's a name that is as gifted in style as the TGF members, some in painting and some in something else.”

>Member names, and if there is some kind of hierarchy, what is it based on?

Caubo: “There is no hierarchy, although actually everyone feels and wants to be better than others, maybe even in different areas. I, for example, am definitely the best, but I still haven't figured out in what field. You could say there is a kind of dictatorial anarchy among us.”
Sedo: “No hierarchies there have never been any, there are those who paint more and those who paint less.”
TGF: “The Good Guys are: Kez, Styng 253, Caubo, Skyf, Coka, Grake, Vaste, Sedo, Talo, Booz and Faro.”
Kez: “Kez, Styng, Coka, Grake etc... The only hierarchy that can exist is the one that is based on personal experience in writing, otherwise they are all on the same level for me.”

>For each of you, I would like to have in a few lines the motivation or one of several motivations that led you to be part of a crew.

Caubo: “Out of desperation. They would call me, they would look for me, they would write begging me to go with them. I finally agreed.”
Sedo: “Well, at that time I didn't want a crew. My space was with them so I wanted to be part of TGF and not something else.”
Styng: “Human affinity, friendship, sharing a passion for colors, belonging to the same area.”
Grake: “It was my sense of belonging, my wanting to be heard without being asked for anything and the guys around me were the right people for this endeavor, it all came from there and it's hard for that spirit to die, in all the fields we will play in.’
Kez: “I joined a crew to share, enhance and concretize my thinking. I must say that with TGF, as far as writing is concerned, this has succeeded perfectly.”

>What answer do you give me to the question, “How much did the area you came from (Lambrate) influence you as a writing crew?”

Caubo: “It influenced not a little! Lambrate and the whole eastern area was the beginning of writing in Italy. The crews that came out of there dictated the rules and still do. The tension was always high and the scazzi many, but from there the style was born. I remain of the opinion that Hip Hop is at 99% tension and it is metropolitan tension. Those who live in a small, laughing town on the shores of an alpine lake will never fully understand it.”
Sedo: “The area I think has been important, I was born there and I find myself there every day; it has been my reference point in the city at night.”
Styng: “This question can be answered in different ways, I tell you that it has been fundamental and that to my neighborhood I have given, in my own way, luster and with me the group to which I am proud to belong, imposing this area to the attention of the aerosol world, although there are a couple of guys who although not belonging to our bright team, have done a lot for the neighborhood (ya know men!)
Kez: “For me the area means belonging. I grew up in Lambrate so I feel it as an important territory first for me, then I brought there together with the other members also the TGF brand that is now often accompanied in the pieces by Lambrate Kings.”

>My earliest memories of you as TGF go back to that time when your acronym was linked to C. S. Leoncavallo, the one based on Leoncavallo Street. What can you tell me about that time? Do you still carry that experience in you?

Styng: “It was an exceptional period of life, with hallucinating artistic, political, emotional input, where our love for each other welded, the urge to kick everyone's ass took root, and pissing off the whole world found fertile ground. I can never forget.’
Kez: “In the days of C.S. Leoncavallo, the TGF crew was very united and full of energy to really rock and it did. As far as I'm concerned, yes, that period marked me, but I think also the other TGFs, obviously the ones that were there then, some maybe came later on a little while later.”

>I will not ask the usual question i.e. where did you get your inspiration from or what is your style etc. etc. Instead I will ask if you think you have succeeded in getting a role in this strange game of writing of ours and if so which one.

Caubo: “I don't know what my role is, partly because this is neither a game nor a job. I have been there, I am there and I will be there. Writing and Hip Hop are part of me, I need them. And they need me, too.”
Sedo: “I really don't know whether I succeeded or not, I know that I can be satisfied with my work and my bombing and that I tried to bring forth something personalized in which I expressed myself. By now I don't paint on walls anymore and I certainly don't disown the past on the contrary, it is one more experience that in painting and in my experiments has been and will be a teacher to me.”
Styng: “Look TGF was absolutely in Italy the first ‘breakthrough’ crew, that is to say it imposed a new way of confrontation in the Italian aerosol scene and, mind you, I am not talking to you about letters but about tears, anger, blood and success: there my style as an artist was born. From the power of the group and the absolute role it plays: you will never find us at parties, in trendy places, kissing the ass of some rotten mc with which ‘this shitty world is tiled; we exist only on the field, while the others watch from the stands, because it is from the street that we come and not from the disco. If we go down to the arena, we are afraid of no one and no one is written nice and big.”
Grake: “I have always considered TGF a planet unto itself, which has sought quantity but above all quality as much in writing as in daily life, because in my opinion it is not in the action that is the key and the yardstick, but in the PRODUCT. We have tried to grow our creativity and quality because if you make a thousand trains and they are rotten from scrapping, what's the point!?!! I think, looking around the city, that if, however, it is quantity that takes over, it also means that there is little quality perhaps...but not in Lambrate, rest assured! Perhaps in the end our role is to marginalize the ‘defenders of quantity for its own sake’...they are the cancer of writing.”
Kez: “No no role, I remain the one who uses spray on walls to get out what I have inside. That's enough for me which I think is the best side of writing.”

>I would like each of you to tell me, even if in a short space, whether parallel to ‘painting’ you pursue other interests--work, school, woman/men, hobbies, etc.

Caubo: “I study in college, work when I need cash to invest in women and alcohol, and play sports to keep my conscience quiet.”
Styng: “I am a graphic designer, and even in this field I strive to be the best one day. Otherwise, no offense, that's my business.”
Kez: “Yes, in addition to writing I think about taking care of my woman (Blu) and the work that gives me a chance to make a decent living.”

>Do you think that your union, now that for many of you writing no longer occupies the space it once did, may be affected? Or do you think that, regardless, the friendship will not be negatively altered but will be confirmed?

Caubo: “Friendship has to be cultivated, and over the years some people hang out less and things change a little bit, but the bond is still the same. They are my second family. I have it and I hold on to it.’
Sedo: “It's inevitable that things will change, but basically I see all TGFs quite often, except for a few desaparecidos.’
Styng: “Look, you are interviewing us after 7-years-7 that we started this game. This is the answer.”
Grake: “I stopped painting for a while, for reasons I don't feel like talking about; my relationships with the crew represent ALL of my past and for the future I couldn't tell you, but that's a whole other story...’
Kez: “No, I don't think it can be affected, when we all get together and always like before of course there are fewer occasions than there used to be, but we always get along.”

>What would you write about your partner in front of you if you had to describe him before a thousand people?

Caubo: “I can tell you that Styng is the most harassing person I know (the second being you, Fly!). If it weren't for the fact that he's my brother, I'd have battered him long ago.”
Styng: “A thousand people is quite a number, and I will bring up Vaste, even though he is not physically in front of me, for a very specific reason: although few people remember him, he was a phenomenon, a real talent. Unfortunately, he quit because something inside him pushed him elsewhere. A talent lost on who knows what ‘journey’ ... I only wish him to have found what he was looking for.”
Kez: “Styng great TGF character basically a dickhead, but gifted with great style in painting and ambitious to the point of achieving the excellent results that made him STYNG 253 with all capital letters, nervous and of course a good guy and a GLN (They Turn The Night).”

>Greetings?

Caubo: “The Viruz and Tkuai (mi hermanos por vida), the UK crew (Hops, Thero), VSOP (locotes!), Argo and the MEGs, Hang, Splinter and the Demon (the future), Lambrate and Argonne. Trep R.I.P.”
Sedo: “The Good Guys and the Regional Command of the Carabinieri.”
Styng: “No one, as usual.”
Kez: “I salute my woman Blue, A-One, the Cagliari TMCs, Lwis, FlyCat, Grake.”