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‘Rammellzee was an electric presence’: Thurston Moore on NYC’s graffiti-writing hip-hop pioneer
Sonic Youth’s frontman pays homage to the otherworldly New York City artist who turned graffiti into a futurist art weapon and used experimental linguistics to escape definition
Photograph: Courtesy of Mr Els and Vincent VlasblomTypical of his resistance to definition, Rammellzee’s birth name remains a secret; even his younger brother declines to divulge it in a new oral history and monograph, Racing for Thunder, published by Rizzoli. Photograph: (c) Mari HoriuchiMy only other experience witnessing Rammellzee in action was hearing him MC a Rock Steady Crew breakdance event in Soho, NYC, and seeing him in the 1983 hip-hop movie Wild Style: he appeared dressed down in a muted overcoat, oddly clutching a rifle, and, unlike many rappers in those days, eschewing any attempt at glitz. Aside from CBGB, Mudd Club and Tier 3 it was midtown’s Squat theatre where hip-hop and post-punk, funk and jazz truly merged in the early 80s NYC – the no-wave discord of DNA; the drop-dead minimalism of Bush Tetras; the harmolodic guitar shred of James “Blood” Ulmer – iconoclasts all.
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