THE DEATH SQUAD

TDS was one of the most significant and influential style crews graffiti has ever seen. Their work was mainly seen on the Broadway number 1 line and the 2 and 5 lines. The peak TDS years were late '70s to early '80s. Unfortunately most of the major books and publications overlooked the significance of TDS. The fact that TDS was neglected is quite ironic considering the fact that some of the biggest names in writing were affiliated with it. Hard core members being MR. JINX 174, PART 1, KOOL 131, CHAIN 3, NOC 167, PADRE, PESO, BEAR 167. Other writers to put it up were NIKE, KF 174, MOON 77, REPEL, DONDI, BAN2, FUZZ 1,EZO FLITE, A ONE, SKEME, SLAVE, CASE 2, TEAN 5, KADE 198, MAGOO, ZEPHYR, DAZE, DEZ, JOEY, TOXIC, SCORCH 170, DELTA 2, TORCH and COSE.

THE DEATH SQUAD

TDS was a crew concerned more with style rather than bombing. (Despite that fact they bombed anyway.) Their style contributions to the culture are significant and have been somewhat overlooked as is the case with many style masters. This is due to three factors. One, the natural abstractions of wild style make names illegible to the uneducated eye, therefore the media and general public can not determine the origin of the work. The second factor being style masters generally write many different names to demonstrate their ability to create a broad range of letter forms. It can be difficult for the writing community to keep up with all the names. The final being, style masters give outlines to other writers, many of which take credit for the style master's work.

PART 1, EZO, FLIGHT, and CHAIN 3 are active in the current street mural movement




i was put down as a kid by bear 167 and mane but since i never really met part and bear passed and mane i havent heard from in years i never really hooked it up . and recently speaking with part he was down with it . ive always had a true respect to tds as well as tmt . so this piece i just did was my dedication to them .

BLEN 167 THE DEATH SQUAD