Rude DC5 Interview

Here is an unfinished interview with the man who showed me the ropes when i first became interested in the graff game. Although its unfinished i thought i'd share it with you guys.

I met rude dc5 for the first time at the meeting of styles in 2006. Soon after he gave me the opportunity to hang out with him as well as a few others from his crew. He taught me the fundamentals of graff and told me it should never be about the fame but the art. His advice has been invaluable to me. He told me to learn my history and respect those who came before me. Through this man i have a greater appreciation of graffiti.





This was the first permission wall i was asked to flick. The first time i was a able to see a wall being painted from start to finish.







MN- How did DC5 originate?


Rude: Well, My run with Aerosoul was coming to an end, and i wasnt happy (no diss to them) I had been wanting to do my own thing for a long time. Ever since i heard the military alert levels (DefCon 12345), I always new that DEFCON 5 would make a great name. The levels went from 5 to 1, 5 being peace or everythings cool to 1 full nuculear war... It was my intention way back in the day, that if the crew had gotten into any beefs, we could change the levels to become DefCon 4,3,2,1 depending on the severity of the situation... I thought it was a dope idea, Anyway, I knew i wanted to start my own thing, and I had a name to back it....Now i needed to recruit. My Idea was to start with guys, who had talent but weren't getting shots at the big crews...SHRED was my first recruit, Shred was in DOT crew, and he used to do fill ins all over the exspressways.... Green fills with green outlines....WTF! dude had mad heart but that shit needed to pop off...so i asked around, nobody knew him....Badnewz told me shred use to stop in his airbrush shop from time to time, and he set it up for us to meet. We met in a grocery parking lot, me by myself, and him with all his DOT crew friends, All he knew was i was looking for him, I guess thats why he brought his crew. But i pulled him to the side, i explained to him, i had been seeing his stuff, and i wanted to start a new crew, but i had a catch, he needed to drop his crew, and be DC5 and DC5 alone...it didnt sit well with him at first, I told him to go for a ride with me, i explained i was gonna drop AEROSOUL, and i wanted to direct all my efforts to 1 new crew. I drove up to the old DESPLAINES wall, downtown. We did a DC5 fill that day, best i can remember ...summer 91...


Original members...Rude,Shred,Fear,Seph,Beni.......


Current members..... I cant say enough about the DC5 rollcall... Each member past , present,and future will always be family to me, Each one has hightened the crew in there own way, When i left graff for about 8 years, These brothers kept the crew alive, and took it to world wide levels...pushed styles, colors,characters,productions, but most of all, Kept DC5 in legendary status in Chicago . Its in the books, nobody can take that away. DC5 will always be a top named crew in Chicago. I was very lucky to have a crew to come back too, let alone a crew with that kind of status.


past and present roll call- Alter,Awol,Beni,Chachi,Chase,Chucho,Cove,Crae,Dwarf,Fear,Jash,Jher,Jonske,Kane,Ohde,

Pose,Rude,Seph,Shred,Skew,Woes,Wyse






MN- It was great to hear that you guys finally launched your own website that showcases work done by current and past members of your crew. Would you tell us a little bit about it.




(Left to right: Nyke, Rude, Fargo, Jash, Zink, Queztal, Like)


Rude: The web site was something we had talked about a long time ago. A Place to show case all our work, And show past members as well, Chachi surprised us on New Years Day, and

launched it....Its still in the works, and not sure to what extent it will go, I know Chachi is digging in a box of negetives to pull out some old jems.....


check it out..


DC5CREW.COM




Painted on a rainy day along with Poem, Rome and Gape. I stood aside him and listened to stories of bombing missions from a time when i was learning how to crawl. After everyone had gone he stood there painting in the rain.