She began to tell me that Salvador was riding a skateboard over at the skatepark when someone noticed that he fell down and was not getting up. By the time the ambulance had arrived, Sal was gone.
To those of you that don't know my good friend Salvador "BIZR" Lujan, he is the father to alot of us graff heads in California. A HUGE influence to a collective of hip hop heads around the world. When I was a freshman in High School, before I even knew what graffiti was, I would walk to school and see these tags,
"FREE LORD BIZR." Even before that, when I was in middle school I had gotten approached about my green shoes. The person asked if I was in LORDS. I had no clue what they were talking about. Just a few years later I would be sketching and painting with my crew!
MODESTO LORDS CREW CIRCA 92-93
Written By: Salvador "BIZR" Lujan
IT WAS IN THE YEAR 1986 THAT THIS CREW STARTED GETTING ITS FAME "LEGENDS OF RARE DESIGNS" IT DERIVED FROM TWO CREWS "TOGETHER WE CREATE" AND "SAN JOSE STYLES" TOGETHER WE CREATE WAS THE FIRST WEST COAST CREW I GOT INTO WHICH WAS GOING TO BE CALLED "DEVESTATING CREATIONS" SNO ONE, WISPER ONE, SHEN SHEN 210, POE AND MYSELF. IT WAS POE WHO CAME UP WITH THE IDEA TO CHANGE THE NAME TO TWC, A CREW HE WAS IN BACK IN THE EAST COAST " TOGETHER WE CHILL" THAT CREW GREW TO ABOUT 10 MEMBERS PHANTASM, LEGACY, WIZARE, WIZE, SILENT, SINDY AND CALICO. IT WAS A WIERD TIME FOR ALL OF USE AND THE CREW FELL APART.
I WAS ON A MISSION TO GAIN KING OF THE CITY. IN DOING SO I MET ALOT OF WRITERS FROM ALL OVER TOWN. AT THAT TIME PEEPS WERE GOING TO THE BAY TO PAINT IN OAKLAND AND FRISCO. CREW AOUT THERE WERE ON THAT TURF TRIP AND JACKING FOOLS FOR THERE PAINT OR KICKIN PEEPS OUT OF THERE YARDS SOME WERE EVEN GETTING BEATDOWNS... SO I DECIDED TO START A CREW THAT REPPED SAN JOSE. BEING THAT WE ALL HAD OUR OWN STYLE HENCE THE NAME "SAN JOSE STYLES" I WAS STILL PUSHING TWC WITH POE AND WISPER AND A FEW OTHERS. SNO AND SHEN STARTED "PARTNERS IN CRIME" THE OLD CREW STILL HUNG OUT EVEN WITH SOME PERSONAL DRAMA GOING ON. FRIENDS STAYED TRUE TO EACHOTHER. I WAS MISSING US ALL BEING DOWN IN THE SAME CREW SO I DECIDED I HAD TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. I HAD TO COME UP WITH A CREW THAT WOULD HAVE US ALL WANTING TO TAKE PART IN IT. WE WERE BOYS DOWN FOR EACHOTHER AND I WAS CHILLING WITH ALOT OF OTHER HEADS THAT I FELT WOULD BE GOOD TO HAVE ON OUR TEAM.
I WENT HOME AFTER A DAY WITH THE BOYS. MY MOTHER HAD LEFT A BIBLE ON MY DRESSER... MY BOYS WERE HEAVY ON MY MIND AND THE THOUGHT OF BRINGING US BACK TOGETHER WAS REALLY BUGGING ME OUT. I REMEMBERED HOW MY MOTHER WOULD ALWAYS TELL ME THE BIBLE WAS THE BOOK OF ANSWERS. SO I PICKED IT UP AND STARTED READING IT BY CRACKING THE BOOK AND SIMPLY READING THE PAGE IT OPENED UP TO. AFTER READING A FEW PAGES IT CAME TO ME... THE ONE PERSON THAT EVERYBODY LOOKED UP TO "THE LORD"... SO THEN I GRABED MY DICTIONARY AND STARTED LOOKING FOR THE WORDS THAT WOULD BRING IT ALL TOGETHER. LEGEND CAME OUT EASY, OBSCURE WAS MY FIRST CHOISE, SINCE WE WERE ALL ARTIST THE WORD RARE SEEMED TO WORK, THEN DESIGN BROUGHT IT TOGETTHER, BUT IT DIDNT FLOW TO WELL SO I SLEPT ON IT. AND WHEN I WOKE UP IT CAME TO ME LEGENDS OF RARE DESIGN'S... THAT WAS IT... I HAD FOUND THE KEY TO BRING MY OLD CREW BACK TOGETHER AGAIN.
WE ALWAYS MET UP AT WISPERS CRIB BEFORE ENDING OUR DAY SO THAT DAY I WAS ALL SMILES CAUSE I KNEW THIS WAS IT. THIS WAS WHAT WAS GOING TO GET THE TEAM BACK. AT WISPERS POE AND SNO WERE DOING THEIR DAILY BBOY BATTLE AND WISPER WAS WORKING ON SOME SKETCHING. I SAT WITH HIM AND TOLD HIM OF MY IDEA. I WROTE IT ON A PIECE OF PAPER AND SHOWED IT TO HIM "LORDS" HE WAS LIKE DAMN I LIKE IT... BUT THEN I TOLD HIM THAT THAT WASN'T THE NAME THAT IS JUST WHAT WE WOULD WRITE... THEN WHEN I SAID WHAT IT'S TRUE MEANING WAS HE WAS LIKE AWE SHIT THATS HELLA TIGHT. POE AND SNO WERE LIKE WHAT THE FUCK YOU GUYS TALKING ABOUT... MY FIRST QUESTION TO THEM WAS ARE YOU GUYS READY FOR THIS... AND THE TEAM WAS BACK TOGETHER... BIGGER AND DEFFER. MOST OF THE GUYS FROM SJS WERE PUT ON AND THE CREW GREW FROM THERE. TAG MASTER, PICASSO, CURSE, AMAZER, NEON, TEZACON, DEFCON, DEFROCK,RAYVYN, RICH GUESS, DASH, DEOZ, SHORTY, DESS, IROC, SCRIPTO, ICON, SYAK, XTREAM, THEO, ROMEO, CAZAL, JAYONE, LEAR, CASANOVA, IMAGE, MESSENGER, SPARE, LIVE, DJAE, EAGER, DEVINE69, SKEEVO, K2, KASPER, SIRE MAN ITS HARD TO REMEMBER ALL THE NAMES....
BY 1988 WE HAD GROWN TO THE POINT WHERE EVERYBODY THOUGHT THEY COULD WRITE IT. IN FACT IT WAS GETIING TO BIG.. AND THE PIECERS WERE NOT FEELING THE BOMBERS. IT WAS THEN THAT I HAD TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. SO AFTER ABOUT A WEEK I CAME UP WITH THE IDEA TO START PUSHING L.I.F.E. FOR ALL THE BOMBERS. "LORDS IN FULL EFFECT". AT THAT POINT THE CREW WAS CUT IN HALF. AND THE BOMBERS WERE NO LONGER TO WRITE LORDS ONLY LIFE. UNLESS DOING A ROLL CALL. THUS BEGAN THE LORDS AND THE LIFERS PART OF THIS FAM....
IN 89 I MOVED TO MODESTO AND DJAE WAS IN FRISCO. THE CREW GREW EVEN MORE I HAD MET UP WITH KAZE A FEW TIMES IN SJ AND ASKED HIM TO BE DOWN BUT AT THE TIME HE WAS TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT WAS GOING ON WITH HIS CREW TDR. LATER I FOUND OUT KAZE WAS IN MODESTO SO I LOOKED FOR HIM TURNED OUT HE LIVED DOWN THE STREET FROM ME... LIKE IT WAS MENT TO BE... SO I TALKED HIM INTO JOINING THE CREW HE CHILLED WITH MAZE SO MAZE GOT ON AT THAT POINT TO... ONE DAY WHILE BOOSTING AT THE MALL KAZE AND I RAN INTO SOME GUYS SPORTING SAN JOSE LORDS CAPS. SO WE WALKED UP TO THEM AND ASKED THEM WHATS WITH THE HATS... YOU GUYS IN LORDS.. THEY WERE LIKE YEAH WHATS UP? I WAS LIKE SO WHO DO YOU KNOW IN LORDS, WHO LET YOU IN... THEIR ANSWER WAS FUNNY THEY SAID THEY KNEW KAZE, BIZARE AND ZIKE. WHEN I HEARD ZIKE I KNEW THEY WERE TRUE AND IT ALL CAME TOGETHER... DESS/ZIKE HAD MOVED TO MODESTO AND PUT THESE GUYS DOWN...TASK AND CLONE. JESTER ALSO CAME IN AROUND THIS TIME. IN SAN JOSE DEBATE, TONE, EAZER, PASHE, TOPR, DOPER AND A FEW OTHERS. IT WAS PASHE THAT STARTED THE FRESNO CHAPTER... I HOPE YOU CAN SHARE THAT WITH US PAUL... SLEEPY J, ZOOMBIE, RIKO, DRANE SHMOO... IT WAS IN THE 90'S THAT I STARTED WORKING ON FRISCO WITH DJAE ME AND HIM WOULD LOOT ALL DAY AND PAINT ALL NIGHT. I MET QUAKE THROUGH A GUY WE WERE WORKING WITH. AND DJAE WAS LIKE BIZ WE GOTTA GET QUAKE DOWN THAT FOOL ROCKS THE HUGE SHIT... HE STARTED SHOWING ME FLICKS OF QUAKES UPS AND I WAS LIKE DAMN.. YEAH YEAH... SO I ASKED HIM AND HE WAS HONORED TO BE APART OF US. BRINGING SOME COOL HEADED GUYS WITH HIM. DEFIE, ROPES, MIES, KODIK, LOGER, CREASE, WERM, AND A FEW OTHERS.
This is the history of the crew from the eyes of BIZR himself. I am only putting this out there so it won't be lost in time or forgotten. I can hear his voice saying every word as I read it. He was the dude. Please share his memories on the comment box and love your family and friends, you don't know how long they will be with you.
R.I.P Salvador "BIZR" Lujan