Ayo, I’m Knife! I’ve been writing for 19 years in Atlanta, Ga. I don’t rep any crews, I’m just not into the politics or being held accountable for other people’s actions. I try to keep it tight and paint only with a handful of friends. Otherwise, I mostly keep to myself. I like painting alone and finding a chill spot to spend hours working on a piece. I’ll bomb here and there, but the older I get the less important that is to me. I really just want to have fun with every piece I paint, push myself to try new things, and not take myself too seriously. Graffiti is medicine. When I’m painting all my problems disappear and I’m just in this moment where everything is in its right place. I want that feeling to last forever. That’s why I’m still painting all these years later and why I’ll probably paint until I physically can’t.
My biggest influence is probably Esteme TGE. He painted in Atlanta a lot when I was a kid and made a big impact on me. Some of what I’ve gleaned from his work is the importance of letter flow and the whole piece is greater than the sum of its parts. Meaning, adding more whips, bars, and arrows to a straight letter won’t matter if all those pieces don’t work together and adding all those extras might not be necessary in the first place if your letters have good flow.Those are the principles I try to paint by. Sometimes I deviate from that, but you gotta break a few eggs to unlock new doorways into your style.
My other big influences are my homies! Big shout out to Creep, Yeaso, Wage, and Aches. I learn a lot from you guys everytime we paint together. Shout out to my city and all the writers, young and old, holding it down. And the biggest shout out to Nope for getting me started on this wild adventure!
