GESHU RYB INTERVIEW
The First Interview With The Legendary Upper West Side Handstyler
Born and raised in the Upper West Side of Manhattan during the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, Geshu remembers a time when writers weren’t popping tags with flare caps or fancy cans of spray paint. He grew up in the stock cap era. Back when all a writer could do to make their tags stand out in those days was to flex how bugged out their can flow was. Today, Geshu has kept that ethos alive as that mad handstylist whose name creeps in some of the most cutty spots of a New York City block. Styles upon styles is what Geshu has. So it’s not surprising when he says that he writes graffiti for writers, rather than civilians.
“It's just repetition and the need to separate myself,” says Geshu when asked about how he’s cooked up so many different handstyles over the years. “I always wanted to do some shit that people aren't doing. I never wanted to do the same shit over and over again.”
Who knows why the Upper West Side has birthed a number of ill writers ranging from JA One to Futura. It might be something inside the fountain water that flows through Riverside Park. Or maybe it’s because of all that fire ass bud that Tabla on 106th used to sell. Whatever it is, Geshu’s handstyle is unmatched and has blown the minds of many New York City graff heads for years. We chopped it up with Geshu to talk about the origins of his handstyle, Upper West Side graffiti history, how he put on Earsnot to graffiti, and more.
So you grew up on the Upper West Side?
Yep, grew up on Amsterdam Avenue. I lived there from the time I was born to the late 2000s.
The Upper West Side was different back in those days. What can you say about growing up in that era?
It was fun because you can get away with more shit, but it was rough. My family is kind of bugged out so I was used to craziness. New York was just a different place back then. It was unforgiving. Especially coming up and going to junior high school in the early '90s, that was a real bad time. But it makes you stronger and more intelligent.
I just ask that because I see how much love you got for your hometown in your art. I always see you mention this spot called Tabla 106. What's good with that?
That's my hood man. My grandma and my mom still live over there. 90th St. is my block and it's all love. My family has lived there since the 1930s. Tabla was a weed spot between 106th and 107th on Columbus. My junior high school was on the same block on 107th and Columbus. Now this place was originally the candy store for us. We'd buy Sour Power straws for 5 cents a piece and used to hit it during lunch time. But we never realized it was also a weed spot because they never sold weed during lunch time or when kids got out of school.
By the time we were in high school, we'd go to this place and I still don't know what they did to their weed dude. You can ask anyone on the Upper West Side because this spot is legendary. I don't know if they laced it, but the first time my friend smoked that, he literally blacked out on the corner and vomited. They used to sell these small nickel bags and give you a White Owl or Philly for free. Most of the weed at that time was Jamaican regular and you would buy these big $5 bags which were enough to roll three blunts. That was dirt weed. Whereas Tabla, sold you a 1/3 of that amount for the same price, but the weed would get you so fucked up. That spot was probably open around ‘95 or ‘96. That was right around the time when New York was getting better and gentrifying at an accelerating pace.
The Upper West Side has birthed many graffiti legends like JA and Futura. Maybe there’s something in the water down there. Or maybe it’s because of the Freedom Tunnel. You kick it with the mole people there?
Hell yeah. There was this guy named Tommy who wrote Ment and lived in the tunnel. There is an entrance on 72nd and he probably lived around 79th or something. He was a real cool dude and probably lived there around '94. There was this dude named Bernard who lived on 91st and he had a TV and hot plate set up there. Being teenagers, it was intriguing to say the least. We used to just go down there to practice. It's a graffiti museum down there and it's sad what capitalism did to it.
So when did you first start writing?
I would say 1992. As a kid, I used to doodle a lot and look at supermarket circulars to try to copy the crazy shadows they put on words. Around the age of 12, I started catching tags in the staircase of my grandmother's building in the projects. That was a big influence for me personally, the project hallways. There was so much graffiti in there and it was intriguing to me.
Who inspired you early on?
It was definitely some neighborhood dudes. There was this guy no one probably knew outside of this hood named BSD 456. It was just some hood stuff and it looked real dirty, but it was fresh. That stock cap style. Obviously JA because he had marker tags and fill ins on everything. Literally every traffic control box, mail box, or any other surface that you can think of. He had every tunnel in the whole system and that's another reason why I got into graffiti. Around '92, JA was also going crazy in the tunnels. 2RAGE’s handstyle was fucking dirty. It signified graffiti to me. It was grimy and in the fucking tunnels. Just to see someone risking their life to write in the tunnels; I couldn't understand it, but it was dope and there was this outlaw aspect to it.
Another neighborhood writer I got to give props to is Nice CM. When I was a kid, he had fill ins on every single gate on the Upper West Side. I also got to give it to OJ and the whole FYC crew–Dear and Zen2. I hate to miss people. FYC had fill-ins all down Broadway throughout the Upper West Side. Nice had mad fill-ins Uptown. Doby KOF also had this real dope throw and a funky tag. Robo MOM also had one of my favorite throw-ups as a kid. In East Harlem, on the other side of the park, you had AVER, Joves, TDO Crew, Spon, Jbug, and GNR Crew. There were just so many dope stock cap tags back then and that's what I loved about it. You really had to have flow because you're fucking with a stock cap. It's not like how it is with all these fancy can tricks they got now. Believe me, I love flares and all that too. But seeing these funky stock cap tags in the early '90s, showed how these guys really had flow to make that shit stand out.
I read that you drew mazes as a kid. Did that have any impact on your skills as a writer?
I think it did in some ways because it helped me with line work and kept my pen steady. But I think the biggest thing was that my father was very strict about penmanship. If I wrote a school paper, he'd make me rewrite that shit so it was perfect. He wouldn't let me make any mistakes. So eventually, I learned to not make mistakes. I was constantly writing on paper to try and develop styles. I always loved the stylistic aspect of graffiti.
So how did RYB form?
It was started by me, JASK and SKEN. We started a crew called FBV around ‘94 and I personally didn't start writing Geshu until '97. We started RYB in '96 and I always wanted to develop my own crew. I didn't want us to hang on to other crews or clout chase, which was called “jocking” back then. Of course, I wanted to meet other writers when I was young. But I wanted to do my own thing and have a tight knit crew that was down for each other. Not letting anybody in just because they wrote and were down to push RYB. It's more than just writing, it's about having friends and family.
Personally, when I think of some of the most ill and original handstyles in New York, your name always pops up. I see you cook up all this heat everyday. What's your process like?
It's just repetition and the need to separate myself. I always wanted to do some shit that people aren't doing. I never wanted to do the same shit over and over again. People get tired of seeing the same shit. That shit is too much for some people. Some people don't like a tag if it's too intricate and I understand that. But when I'm doing graffiti, I do it for graffiti writers, not civilians. I don't give a fuck who can read it. It's better if the police can't read it. Civilians aren't going to understand bugged out handstyles anyway. But if they really like it, they’ll make the effort.
How much time do you dedicate to cooking up new styles?
Sometimes I doodle everyday, but at least a few times a week. But it’s easy because I love to do it and love to experiment with new concepts daily. I don’t really love television or technology. I would rather be creating than consuming. Some of it is natural because I always had penmanship. I'm also not close minded. People think that graffiti has to look a certain way but a good mind tries to separate itself. You got to do something different. People fail when coming up with new styles because they quit before the miracle happens. You just have to switch it up and see new things. If you’re continuously doing it, you’ll find something new that works eventually. It may not look great at first, but if you know the basics, you can build on those.
I hear what you're saying about being open minded about style.
I feel like they just can't see those things or maybe their mind isn't there yet. It doesn't matter. It's a damper to your success when you worry about what everyone else is doing. That's why we got so much hate and animosity in society today. When you focus on what you're doing, you grow more as a person. You become more self-aware and focus on your own goals. With this Instagram culture, people are so desperate to see what others are doing. You see these wack writers with thousands of followers but shitty handstyles on video. I like the purity of graffiti. I like going outside and seeing that shit for for the first time. Instagram has given and taken a lot from the game. People are growing up in a generation where people are just so judgmental. It was different back then. Don't get me wrong, New York was bad and people were mean as fuck. But there is a certain type of vitriol today that I can't explain. People feel like you have to fail so that they can be on that pedestal instead of you.
It was dope to recently see your part in Reboe's film All We Got Is Us. When I speak to some younger writers today, they kind of describe you as a mentor of sorts. Do you have young writers reaching out to you or are you just social?
That's funny because I'm anti-social when it comes to graffiti to be honest. I do graffiti to be anti-social. To communicate without meeting people. Typically, I just meet writers through mutual friends. I'm glad to be a mentor to the younger generation because there's too much hate out there. Fuck all that "You wasn't there" shit. If I can help someone become a better graffiti writer, why not.
I was watching some clips from the Beautiful Losers archive the other night. It’s funny because I watched this Earsnot interview with Sace where they both talk about how they got into graffiti. Earsnot drops your name as the dude who put him on.
That's my man dude. I was a Freshman in high school in '94 and this kid came into my school around that time. This kid used to rack so much shit that I couldn't even believe it. I thought he was buying the shit. There was no fucking way this kid could rack this much. He used to come into class every morning with like 20-30 packs of Starbursts and pass it out to everyone. I was writing Das One at the time and I was just drawing on papers in class. One day he was like "Yo, what's that?" It's funny because this kid looked straight edge as a motherfucker. He was wearing corduroy pants and penny loafers, which is ironic because he’s one of the most stylish people that I know now. But he was already this accomplished booster so he was clearly built for this.
So I told him that it was graffiti and he asked me what that was. Like he legitimately didn’t even know what it was. He took that page I drew in class home and copied that shit perfectly. That's how he started writing. We used to cut school together and ride the elevated train lines. That's how I really learned about graffiti because we just absorbed this shit. We just looked at all the styles and loved it.
Were you close with Sace too back then?
I wasn't as close with him as I was with Earsnot. But we definitely smoked some blunts in the basement of Alife together. Every time I saw him on the street, it was always love. They were the Downtown kids while I was more of an Uptown kid. My stomping grounds were like Harlem, Washington Heights, Midtown, and the Upper West Side. These kids were on the Lower East Side and became fucking legends down there because their lifestyle was so crazy. Rest In Peace Sace.
So this is all during the late '90s?
Well me and Snot linked up either towards the end of '94 or the start of '95. Then we started chilling together. Just cutting school to go to the Freedom Tunnel and paint tags with little Krylon testers. I think he started writing Earsnot around the same time I started writing Geshu in '97. We both had a few tags before that and he wrote Senc at first. Of course, by the late '90s and early 2000s, he had tags all over the city.
What years are you the most proud about personally?
I would say the late '90s and early 2000s. I don't regret it now, but I didn't write for some time after that. I completely disappeared and I wasn't even thinking about graff. I was just trying to pay rent and build a life. But when I had a breakup, I got back into graffiti again. When you love it, you go out and get the rush again. You smell the paint and your heart starts racing. That whole cat and mouse game is exciting.
Wase told me to ask you this. Why does one have old pics past 72nd St?
It's funny because you mostly see stuff from Brooklyn and Queens. In those days, it was suicide to carry a camera Uptown at anytime, let alone night. Harlem and East Harlem at that time was mad wild when I was a kid. That shit was as bad as anywhere. People didn't carry cameras and nobody had a cellphone. Like I said, Uptown was kind of grimy. You probably don't even see that many pictures from ghetto neighborhoods in the BX or Northern Brooklyn. You see more stuff in South Brooklyn or Queens. I'm not saying you couldn’t get your camera robbed in South Brooklyn or Queens either, but it was safer than Uptown and the Bronx–especially considering the population density of the hoods Uptown. Again, I'm not going to say I was going crazy back then. I did my thing and I had my ups. But every tag I've ever had flicked was in SoHo or the Lower East Side. If I see any photo before 2000, it's always from that area. I think it's just because New York was more dangerous back then and everyone didn't have a camera.
What are your thoughts on stickers?
It's low key and not everyone understands that. What I like about stickers is that someone knows you walked through their hood. They know you didn't just hop out of a whip to catch a quick tag. You see that trail and know that person went down every single block. It feels more grassroots and personal in a way. I love them because you can be everywhere and in the most cutty spots of a street. You're still doing something you can theoretically get bagged for, but it’s obviously a lot safer and more covert than any other form of graff. That's why the stickers come in handy. You could put a sticker up in a clean neighborhood like the Upper West Side and have it run untouched for over five years. That's graffiti to me, because it should hit you. You shouldn't have to come to graffiti, it should come to you.
this is so ill thank u