'Graf Godfathers Vol. 1 FUTURA2000' - Hip-Hop Connection June 2001.

Graf Godfathers #1 Futura 2000

Graf legends don't come any bigger or bolder than Futura 2000 — a writer who's managed to transcend the medium many times over. And while hip-hop's most reluctant rap artist may be addicted to toys, you could never call him one... Graf Godfathers #1 Futura 2000

Verbals: Mansel Fletcher
Visuals: Fulura & Hainsley Brown

In 1970 Lenny McGurr, a 15-year-old from Manhattan's Upper West Side, started tagging his adopted name, Futura 2000, on the walls of subway stations. When he daubed his last illegal piece 12 years later his status as graf legend was assured. Fast forward 21 years and the boy has become a man of 45 who's used his huge international reputation to jump into the lucrative worlds of graphics, record cover art, web design and fashion. All of which funds his addiction to buying toys - a hobby he shares with his ten-year-old daughter, Tabatha.
Not that Futura is merely coasting on his reputation. His appearance alone is enough to reassure fans that he's keeping it real, in the way only a techno-obsessed, style fixated, continent hopping observer and creator of trends can. Which today means thin wool skully hat, jet black sunglasses, T-shirt under an expensive outdoor jacket and embroidered combat trousers. Peeking out from the trousers are a pair of white customized Nike sneakers that bear the legend FVTVRA. He began experimenting with the Roman version of his name in the run up to the millennium and way before Gladiator was released. On his fingers are vast steel rings, miniature heads of characters from Star Wars and Planet Of The Apes. As he talks and smokes the rings crack against each other like steel coconuts knocked together.

Sitting sipping Coke at a very fashionable London hotel he puffs on his filterless cigarettes and talks with the ease of a man who's seen and done a lot, but knows that there's still a long way to go.

How did you start writing graffiti?

"I started in 1970 tagging Futura 2000. That was the starting point, developing a name and coming up with a tag - it was probably about a year before I went onto a subway. Before that I was writing in stations and on walls.”

Why did you get into writing?

"I started out wanting attention, we were all looking for some emotional release. My story is about discovering my adoption and being told, at 15, that my mother and father weren't my blood after all. Back when I was born in 1955 people were still exchanging babies - I'm not even legally adopted, I was just given to a family who needed a kid. It's kind of sad, but don't cry for me Argentina."

What did this have to do with graf?

"Becoming a graffiti writer was based on my personal crisis. If I wasn't their child, and I had no brothers and sisters, then who was I? And it really was a 'Who am I?' kind of thing. Just at that moment graffiti was beginning to appear."

Are you made up about this yet?

"The skeletons in my closet were cleaned out and I've got my own family now. I met a girl and we made it happen and I've been with her for 18 years. We've got two children the exorcism was complete when I created my own family."

How did you end up in the navy?

"I was painting a train one September evening in 1973 when myself and another writer, Pali, were involved in a fire and he was very badly burned. There were implications that I'd left him in the tunnel to burn; a lot of rumours were going around and eventually the police got involved. I was shaken by the experience - my friend nearly died and I looked to get away from everything. I thought the military was my answer." How did you get back into writing?
"At one point in 1979 | was standing in the very tunnel where my friend had burned.
And I couldn't explain to myself what I was doing there, other than curiosity as to what the writers were doing. I went with them as a lookout/companion and to take pictures. I wasn't even active, I was just hanging out."

When did the graf artists get involved with the gallery scene?

"That was when the '80s kicked in. The street artist movement took shape with artists like Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat and all of the street artists and graffiti artists who surfaced at that time.
They brought me into a totally new movement which was public art - I didn't even know what that really was."

Was it like Wildstyle, where the galleries were just ripping writers off?

"Up until 1980 | had never made a painting, I didn't know how to stretch canvas. For me God lived in a can of spraypaint. The graffiti writers never understood the art world, or their place in it. We didn't understand business. I did a show for one gallery and I sold two or three paintings and got $200 or $300. So I asked what was going on, the price was like $3,200 each - don't we split the money?"

Were you involved with Wildstyle?

"In it "Lee' (Georges Quinones, another legendary graf writer) plays Zorro. That role was offered to me, but at the same time The Clash pulled me out of New York. I came back from my Clash experience and Wildstyle had already wrapped, but they reshot some stuff and there's a scene in the club where I'm standing with the graffiti artist Dondi."

Do you regret going to Europe and missing the movie?

"I had a choice, be in the movie or go to Europe with The Clash. I didn't even know who The Clash were, but I wanted to go to London and Paris. So I told Charlie Ahearn (Wildstyle director) that the story could have been written about Lee - he was a recluse and he was great as Zorro."

How did you hook up with The Clash?

"Initially my involvement was artistic. They wanted me to do a record design, some posters and backstage passes. But when I was at their rehearsal studio in Westbourne Grove I wrote a rap song which I presented to Joe and asked how they'd feel about doing a track for me."

Did you want to be a rapper?

"All I wanted was a cassette to give to Fab5 Freddy back in New York, because rap was really jumping off at that time. I never wanted to make a record, I was just hanging out with these guys and they were a group. It would have just been a cool little memoir. But Joe (Strummer) liked my lyrics and said that I should do this with them. So when we went to Paris they got me to go on stage and sing my record every night. The first night I got up the kids were spitting on me."

So they weren't into hip-hop?

"The Clash were vibing on my rebel qualities because I was still underground at that time, but their fans weren't having it. Initially I was booed and that was quite a shock. One minute I was spraypainting a backdrop and the next I was rapping into a microphone."

How come you kept at it?

"I didn't like that experience really, because I felt that Joe pushed me to do it. But his response was, 'You've got something to say and here's an opportunity to say it and you should take advantage of that'. I do appreciate that those guys really gave me that opportunity."

Why is your record so badly slept on?

"Through my whole life I've never talked about it. It was a novelty rap about graffiti, a very personal thing. And then a year later The Clash did 'Combat Rock' and asked me if I wanted to get involved, so have my little phrasing on 'Overpowered By Funk'. I actually liked that more than my own record - I listen to my record and cringe."

What are you listening to now?

"Everything. I've got 65 hours of MP data on that machine (points, at top of the line laptop). That's about 1,100 records. And that's everything - jazz, punk, trip-hop, hip-hop, all of it. I don't have any specific music that I'm into."

What keeps you busy in 2001?

"Me and my partner Stash have a few companies that we run under the umbrella of Project Dragon. PD is a design collective, we do graphic work for numerous people and we also do our own lines of clothing which we sell at our Recon stores in San Francisco, New York and Tokyo."

What's up with your website?

"My site is a companion piece to the book, it's been up since 1995 and it's there for anybody in the world who wants to find out who I am and find out more about it straight from my mouth. It's more than 200 pages deeep."

How did you get into collecting toys?

"What happened was I never had any toys. I played to death with my friends' toys, but my mom was like 'No toys, no TV'. It was the principle of poverty."

When did you start buying?

"I missed out on the initial Star Wars craze because I was in the military. I actually saw Star Wars in Manila in 1977 when I was in the navy. And I remember saying, 'One day I'd like to have that whole collection', just dreaming. And in the '90s when it came back I thought 'Alright, I want to get into something on the ground floor'. I couldn't seem to stop."

Did you go mad from day one?

"It started out really small. But 1 am excessive, I know I'm excessive and it's a problem. Once I get into something I really jump into it and the toy thing is a bit of a frenzy. I have actually cooled out, because it was way out of control. I could fill this space (a restaurant the size of a tennis court with my collection."

Doesn't it cost you a fortune?

"I'll try to find work to handle it. So I'll say 'I need $2,000 because I really want to get something' and I'll find a job for $2,500 and that money will not go to my family - that's just toy bucks. I buy everything. Part of being a collector for me is the hunt and I was really fanatical for a few years. I'd be in every toy store in New York as a routine and eventually I knew all the merchants."

How did the book come about?

"From James Lavelle's interest in my work. It was an idea proposed four years ago, and it took a couple of years to make it happen. I met James in 1992 and that began my affiliation with Mo' Wax. Then in '95 the idea for a book came up, partly of my own desire, but of course I needed someone to support me in doing that."

Visuals: paul@hiphop.com

Back To The FUTURA:
1955: Lenny McGurr is born.
1970: Futura comes up with his name and designs his tag. He begins scrawling it on the walls of subway stations around Manhattan.
1972: For the first time, Futura begins writing on subway trains.
1973: After his friend is hurt in a tunnel fire, Futura turns his back on graffiti and joins the US Navy.
1979: Having completed his stint in the navy, Futura finds himself
back on the graf scene.
1983: Futura writes illegal graf for the last time, and starts exhibiting in galleries for the first time. He records "The Escapades of Futura000” with The Clash.
1983: "Wildstyle", the classic rap movie starring Lee (another graf artist) and featuring a cameo appearance from Futura, is released.
1992: Futura meets James Lavelle, head of Mo' Wax records, and their partnership begins. Futura goes on to create many record covers for this most image-obsessed label.
1995: The official website www.futura2000.com goes live.
1997: Futura exhibits at a group show, Contents Under Pressure in London alongside Lee and Stash. Eric Clapton is among the buyers willing to pay around £10,000 a painting.
2000: Futura finally publishes his long awaited book, titled simply
“Futura.”