West Side Kingz, a Graffiti saga in Paris and it Western suburb, 1982-1999

West Side Kingz is a journey back to the Golden Age of Graffiti in the 1980s and 1990s, when hip-hop culture was booming in France. It's an odyssey told from the inside by those who lived through it from the Western suburbs of Paris: its author EONE, aka David Hachour, his partner TOGS, aka Thierry, and over 30 writers interviewed specially for the project, to retrace their lives through the emergence of urban cultures in a timeline. Graffiti, DJaying, BMX, Streetwear, Breaking and graphic design: experience the advent of Hip Hop in France as if have been were there with us in a magnificent 600-page book featuring over 1,500 exceptional or previously unpublished photos and documents, exclusive interviews and a foreword by Jim Prigoff (Spraycan Art). After more than seven years in the making, the West Side Kingz book is ready to see the light of day, and we need your help to ensure that it appears in December 2023. Reserve your copy and take advantage of the exclusive rewards we've devised for you, and embark on an incredible journey back in time to the source of today's urban culture. Once upon a time in the West... The story of this book begins in Marly-le-Roi, 15 kilometers northwest of Paris, in the early 80s. My mother and I moved from Pantin, then a soulless suburb, to this Yvelines commune bordered by a forest and boasting green spaces, a swimming pool and sports facilities. One morning in 1982, I looked out of my window and saw a kid doing tricks on his bike. I discovered BMX and freestyle: the first thing that clicked, and my ticket to a certain "movement" that was taking shape, lulled by American influences. I went from mogul to mogul, meeting Franck, the turntable guy. Hip Hop, dance, first mixes... And in 1987, I picked up a can of spray paint. My buddy Thierry went the other way: he jumped straight into graffiti, then got into music and dance. We both ended up wearing the same pants, and formed our HTA crew with Claude Anelka. This era, this music: it's fresh, it's new and it's ours. Like so many kids, we've found something that belongs to us, that brings us together, that unites us. We can count on each other, create and build together. At that point, we have no idea what we're doing, or that we're participating in anything. We just do it. What counts is this language we invent for ourselves, these gestures that persist once the spray has dried in the form of our words, this drive to be seen, to be recognized, to engrave our names in the veins of our cities. We don't have much choice, no opportunities open to us, so we claim our space, we seize our moment. We venture into new territories, the trains and the underground metro. Signing, claiming, owning, with our graffiti. But also to converse with those who, like us, throw their raw creations on the same walls. Like a dialogue, with a language we invented as we went along. From the Western school with FBI, TFB, WS, BCK, TER, ASA, STK, KDC, TCP and 90 DBC, to the Parisian crews with VEP, Bando, CTK, Jay One and Saho from the BBC, a current was forming. Our adventures lasted until around 1999. Alongside Graffiti, we each began to make our own lives, finding our own jobs. And little by little, we went our separate ways. In the meantime, graffiti had become a recognized mode of creation, and was beginning to find its way into museums. Hip Hop will soon be the most listened-to music in France, while everyone wears streetwear. A book of stories More than eight years ago, I decided to take a look back at the cultural and social background of the teenager I was. As I gathered my personal archives, I realized the extent to which my own trajectory was intertwined with those of my compatriots, near and far. Culture needs vehicles, and there have been many. In our own way, we've all been vehicles. I decided to document all these trajectories. With the help of Elodie, Mehdi and Thierry, we went back in time to listen to our friends. We gathered their raw words, as they wished to express them and as they should be heard, unfiltered points of view. We gathered a mountain of archives, sketches and photos, stumbling along the way upon some totally insane collections that had never been published before. The book we're presenting today with Elodie, my co-author, West Side Kingz, is full of interwoven personal stories that tell the inside story, on our own scale, of this cultural movement as we experienced it, in chronological order. We don't pretend to draw up a history of Graffiti or Hip Hop with a capital H, or to give you scholarly or intellectual analyses. Other books have already done that, and done it better than we could. More modestly, we offer you a journey into this movement through our eyes and our time, from where we were, in the form of a handsome book of over 600 pages, with over 1,500 selected and restored photos and documents, many of them previously unpublished. Some thirty writers are interviewed, and each encounter can be accessed in full in audio format using the QR codes included in the book. With a preface by Jim Prigoff (1927-2021), American photographer and author, a legend and international reference in the world of graffiti (Spraycan art), in which he has been interested since the 1970s. Book features: 608 pages, sewn hardcover, white edgeband. Anti-scratch lamination. Format 23.5 x 31 cm. Semi-matt 135g inner paper. Languages: French and English (end of book) Downloadable from a QR code; Spanish/Italian/German Printed in Rubí, Spain A book to listen to We've put together exclusive playlists by Disco Patrick, DJ Foze, Phase, Kool M and myself, along with a fine selection of remastered tapes from DeeNasty's Radio Nova shows, which in part forged our souls. From DJaying to the first portable players, I wanted readers to be able to feel the vibrations of the time, which were very much transmitted through the music we listened to. With QR codes throughout the book, you'll be able to immerse yourself in the soundtrack of our travels. A book to look at At the heart of the West Side Kingz archives is the "Paris 1986" photo collection by photographer Gérard Guittot and Claude Abron, a collection of incredible images that show, as rarely before, the writers of the time at work, painting, and not just the finished murals as documented. Gérard followed the crews not only as they graffitied, but also where all the followers of the Hip Hop movement gathered in Paris. Most of the photos in this collection have never been published or shown, and West Side Kingz will be the first opportunity to discover some of them. We also wanted you to be able to acquire some of these photos, as well as others from our personal archives, in Fine Art prints on Hahnemühle 200g paper, in a choice of 20x30, 40x50 or 60x90 format. West Side Kingz extras West Side Kingz is offered in a standard edition, and in a edition with an outside cover hand-tagged by EONE, limited and numbered to 200 copies. The contents of both editions are identical. With each copy of the book, we offer you the famous SNCF Z 6400 train, in service from 1976 to 2020, which you've passed and borrowed so many times if you've lived in the Paris suburbs. in fold-out cutaway view, which you can tag yourself or have autographed at the book launch. The legendary Bando has graced us with an original creation for a t-shirt available exclusively during this campaign. We also offer you the West Side Kingz t-shirt, featuring the famous Z 6400. We've also prepared a tote bag with a map of the Ile de France rail network in the '80s, restored from a period map, also available as a 40x60 poster, delivered rolled. You can also order our Z 6400 as a 40x60 poster, also delivered rolled. We've also put together a selection of Graffiti reference books to complement West Side Kingz: The Faith of Graffiti Darco Code Art Descente Interdidte Mouvement 1984-1989 And finally, we've selected 20 of the most emblematic photos from the hundreds we've assembled in the book. We offer them as Fine Art prints on Hahnemühle 200g matte cotton paper, guaranteed 50 with exceptional contrast and color rendition, in the format of your choice between 20x30, 40x60 and 60x90. To choose your print, refer to the mosaic below for the name of each photo. The authors David Hachour In 1982, David immersed himself in hip-hop culture thanks to his bicross, then two years later, the cult films Beat Street and Break Street 84 exerted their influence on him, as on so many other young people of his generation, first for the music and then for the writing, influenced by the Spraycan Art effect. Although not a virtuoso, he took pleasure in graffiti, risking adventure under the blaze of EONE. He hung up his bombs to get into electronic music in the 90s, then founded the Denote Records label in 2000 and the Oscar group. Today, he divides his time between DJing and mastering, between Barcelona and Paris. With the idea of introducing his son to his career as a graffiti artist, David dug out his old photos and everything else he'd been able to archive. This led to the idea of the book West Side Kingz, designed to pass on the genesis of this culture to younger generations. Elodie Remoissenet Press relations specialist, creative director and entrepreneur, Elodie has worked in sectors as diverse as private banking, private equity, fashion, luxury goods and curating art exhibitions, constantly cultivating the links between creation and entrepreneurship. For West Side Kingz, she was responsible for writing the book's original texts and editing the interviews. Design, layout and cover: Elodie and STON Images: Elodie, EONE and STON Goodies: STON & EONE West Side Kingz logo: SINO Photo credits Julien Lelong, Jean-noël Lafargue, Archives de la ville de Marly-le-Roi, Nicolas TSM Deys, Amadou Gaye, Franck Carpentier, Famille Guittot, Jcool, Alarm Defo, Darco, Trash, Kool-M, Sino, Shuck II, Robert, Crook TFB, Elon, Belka, Scale, Mat Jacob Gérard Guittot and Claude Abron