I write TenseOne. Ive been writing for about 17 years now. I’m originally from Cambridge (MA) and currently based in Boston. The crews I represent are DSA, GN, PFP, CC, OTM, and TWA. When I think about graffiti styles, what stands out the most to me is letter structure, stance, and color choice. I remember being in middleschool and staying up for hours at night drawing tags, throwups, and pieces attempting to emulate what I saw on the street and trying to understand the foundation.
Growing up I was heavily influenced by writers; Deme5,Ryze,Alert,Temp,Back,Problak,Kwest,Odesy,Dayz,Tyme,Beyond,wombat,Relm,Meres,Nic1, just to name a few. Equally important are two great writers and brothers of mine that I came up writing with; Drupe and Soem. I’ve had countless amounts of graffiti experiences, intense laughter, and life lessons with them that have carried us up to this point. They definitely had and still have an influence on my style and philosophy. I believe in letting your style breathe. So I don’t paint every single day. I paint when I feel it. “Your only as good as your last piece”… so I’m always in an eternal battle with my own style. Real ones that know TenseOne know that I paint with nearly anyone thats chill and takes graff seriously. Painting graffiti is a spiritual ritual for me. It’s mind healing and challenging. To add on, I freestyle all of my pieces. I loosely draw individual letters and whole pieces at my studio, and when I’m at a wall it’s all about how I’m feeling at that moment. I listen to a lot of music. The shape of sounds influence the rhythm of my pieces. Jdilla, Peterock, Sean Price, roc Marciano, Nas, Mop, my brother Lotus Taylor and the like are some of my favorite artist to vibe to while painting or on the way to a spot. Sketching the piece on the wall is my favorite part of the process. As everyday is a stone in the building of life, so is each piece a stone in the development and evolution of style and funk.
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