Miami Style Gods Crew…They were not coming out of art schools or the bosom of academia; they’re coming from, more or less, the streets. For them, graffiti became a way of life: close to the margins, sometimes falling off the edge – getting arrested for bombing (known as vandalism in criminal justice-speak) or occasionally drunk driving or drugs – but mostly hanging on, through the rush that bombing provides, through the rush that creating provides, through the camaraderie that this chosen family gives one another. They mourn together, like when Ynot, the youngest crew member at the time, tragically passed away in 2010. And they celebrate together when they find themselves reaching heights that (I would put money on) they never dreamed, certainly not in the 80s and 90s and early 2000s, like when Crome (birth name Anwar Kahn), was featured in The Museum of Graffiti in Wynwood. Who indeed could have foreseen that there was a career path, an industry, a legit artform that would emerge from graffiti? MSG Crew are not the only ones in the country or the world to ride this unexpected wave from the criminal to the celebrated, but they’re ours. They’re the sons of Miami, so they have a very special place in the heart of all involved in the Miami mural scene.
MSG Crew put Miami on the map of graffiti writing and then muralism. As this article in the New Times tells it, back in the 90s, the first Miami-bred folks to do the dangerous, illegal, and thrilling “work” of graffiti writing over Miami’s most visible surfaces were MSG Crew, originally known as MSG Cartel. Until they devoted themselves to this form of outlaw activity, New York transplants were doing it. Crome, along with his friend Crook, used “bright, glossy colors,” making a distinct style, fit for a city that liked to bathe itself in neon lights. They bombed signs over highways and other places difficult to reach and attracted the attention of commuters, news media, and cops alike.
It was the glory days of graffiti for Miami. Eventually, Crook and Crome were busted, both spent a bit of time in jail, and the glory days of graffiti in Miami (or their rampage, if you ask a different set of people) were over. That’s not to say that graffiti doesn’t happen any more. But the volume is just not the same.
MSG Crew has counted a varying number of members throughout the years. Besides Crome and Crook, some of the other memebers are/have been Atomik, Komik28, Bane, and dozens of others.
What seems apparent is the love, cooperation, and community that they have provided for each other. Although they probably look down a bit on Wynwood and its hoity-toity ways, we think that Wynwood’s art district has allowed talent to flourish and graffiti-writer-turned-artists to make some money with what they love to do: spray.
Written by Anna Vamos
