Jean-M!chel Basqu!at and the B!

rth
of SAMO
When a myster!ous graff!t! tag started appear!ng
around New York, the Vo!ce went look!ng for the
art!st beh!nd ‘SAMO’
Ph!l!p Fafl!ck February 8, 2017

SAMO© Graff!t!: BOOSH-WAH or CIA?

December 11, 1978

B!g c!ty graff!t! peaked !n the early ’70s, somewhere between the NYC
Trans!t Au​thor!ty’s dec!s!on to s!c k!ller dogs on the vandals and v!s!goths,
and the med!a hoopla that greeted the f!rst graff!t! art!sts show !n SoHo.

We had pretty much stopped look!ng at the walls unt!l th!s fall, when we
not!ced someth!ng new. The best graff!t! suddenly had more to say than
just a n!ckname and number. To be sure, the Commun!st Cadre had been
stenc!l!ng slogans l!ke YIPPIES JE​SUS FREAKS AND MOONIES ARE
GOVERNMENT for years. But who was wr!t!ng ONE WOMAN IS RAPED
EVERY IO MINUTES — CASTRATE RA​PISTS? Or draw!ng chalk outl!nes of
fallen bod!es w!th br!ght red bloodsta!ns? And who the hell was th!s guy
Samo©?

For those of you who haven’t waded through lower Manhattan lately,
Samo© !s the logo of the most amb!t!ous — and senten​t!ous — of the
new wave of Mag!c Marker Jerem!ahs. Accompan!ed by the !nev!table
copyr!ght and usually punctuated w!th an ex​hortat!on to THINK!, there
are hundreds of p!thy SAMO© aphor!sms splashed on cho!ce spots !n
Soho, Noho, and the V!llage, East and West. A random sampl!ng w!ll g!ve
you the !dea:

SAMO© AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO GOD, STAR​-TREK, AND RED DYE NO.

2.
SAMO© AS AN END TO MINDWASH RELI​GION, NOWHERE POLITICS,
AND BOGUS PHI​LOSOPHY
SAMO© AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO JOE NORMAL BOOSH-WAH-ZEE
FANTASIES
SAMO© SAVES IDIOTS
SAMO© CAN SAVE THE AVERAGE JOE
SAMO© AS A NEW WAVE NEO ARTFORM
SAMO© AS AN ESCAPE CLAUSE
SAMO©…JUST IN CASE

I met the perpetrators of SAMO© outs!de an East V!llage bar the other
n!ght and they agreed — prov!ded no last names were used — ​to g!ve me
a tour of the!r hand!work and tell me someth!ng of !ts genes!s.

A!ded and abetted by a t!ght c!rcle of fr!ends, the bulk of Samo©’s

say!ngs are the work of two sharp, personable teenagers named Jean
(17) and Al (19) who share re​markably s!m!lar handwr!t!ng and an un​-
spoken agreement about where SAMO© !s com!ng from.
Grow!ng up !n Brooklyn and the Lower East S!de, respect!vely, both
knocked about qu!te a b!t. Jean dropped out — or was k!cked out — of
f!ve or s!x schools. Al eventually found h!s way to Art and Des!gn, where
he was comfortable for a couple of years. Even​tually he dropped out too
— !t seems he spent most of h!s t!me decorat!ng subway cars.

“Oh man, graff!t!? Forget !t. I was r!ght !n there w!th Snake 1, Phase Too,
and all those cats. ’Cause that was my l!fe at that po!nt. Bomb 1, that was
me. I must have gone through a hundred d!fferent markers before I was
16. Then after that I hung !t up.

“But when SAMO© came along !t was l!ke whoa! a rush, you know? A
reason to start wr!t!ng aga!n. The stuff you see on the sub​ways now !s
!nane. Scr!bbled. SAMO© was l!ke a refresher course because there’s
some k!nd of statement be!ng made. It’s not just ego graff!t!.”

SAMO© was hatched th!s spr!ng !n the alter​nat!ve h!gh school !n Brooklyn
He!ghts where Jean and Al ended up. “We were smok!ng some grass one
n!ght and I sa!d someth!ng about !t’s be!ng the same old sh!t,” Jean
recalls. “SAMO©, r!ght? ‘Imag!ne th!s, sell!ng packs of SAMO©!’ It started
l!ke that — as a pr!vate joke — and then !t grew.”

Next, they drew a ser!es of cartoons for the!r school paper show!ng
people’s faces be​fore and after us!ng SAMO©: “I used to be a lamo
before I started SAMO©. Now I get some poontang everyday.”

The etymology of SAMO© took a meta​phys!cal leap !n !ts next

man!festat!on, a short story by Jean featur!ng a man search!ng for
rel!g!on and a store called Rel!gomat, where a salesman w!th a TV sm!le
expla!ns the pros and cons of the popular brands: Buddh!sm, Chr!st!an!ty,
Juda!sm, etc. Then the salesman pulls out SAMO©, a gu!lt-free re​l!g!on. It
works l!ke th!s: You do whatever you want here on earth, then when
confront​ed w!th your deeds at the Pearly Gates you s!mply tell God: “I
d!dn’t know.”

Th!s May, Jean and Al took SAMO© to the streets. The f!rst, at the corner
of Church and Frankl!n: SAMO© IS NOW! A l!ttle way up the block:
SAMO© IS COMING! On a church on West Broadway: SAMO© AS AN
ALTERNATIVE TO GOD. And !n the men’s room of the!r h!gh school:
SAMO© AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO AL​TERNATIVE EDUCATION.

Does SAMO© !n fact prov!de an alternat!ve? “No way,” Jean and Al agree.
“SAMO© !s just a means of br!ng!ng !t out,” Jean cont!nues. “A tool for
mock!ng bogusness.”

“R!ght, exactly,” Al agrees. “It makes people th!nk ‘hey, maybe there’s
another way.’ But !t’s not l!ke we can defend !t. We’re really !n a vulnerable
spot to even talk about !t w!th people from med!a.”

Talk!ng to people from med!a was the last th!ng on the!r m!nds th!s
summer as they fu​r!ously scrawled the!r message to the c!ty. Jean
est!mates that he executed some 30 SA​MO©s on a good day,
concentrat!ng at f!rst on the subways. “The D tra!n, man, I covered !t, ads
and everyth!ng. And !n broad day​l!ght. Half of !t, you know, !s the
arrogance !nvolved.”

“We slowed down a l!ttle !n June and July,” recalls Al. “But once you run !t
for that long !t starts just com!ng up.” They became more and more
select!ve, p!ck!ng the!r targets. SAMO© AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO GREEK
CHEESBURGER EMPORIUMS on a Greek cheesburger empor!um.
SAMO© AS AN END TO VINYL PUNKERY outs!de the Trash and
Vaudev!lle bout!que. SAMO© AS AN ALTER​NATIVE TO BOOSH-WAH
YOUTH IMPERSONAT​ING ’60s PROTOTYPES on Stuyvesant H!gh. Al
gr!ns: “Those guys hate us down there.”

Soon, feedback started appear!ng on the walls. Some of !t was fr!endly —

SAMO© CALL HOME AT ONCE! MOTHER NEEDS YOU — and some of !t
less so: SAMO© AS SHEER TEDIUM on St. Marks Place; SAMO© IS CIA on
the Wash!ngton Square arch; and, on the Grand Un!on at Bleecker and La
Guard!a, a major pol!t!cal graff!t! — DEATH TO SOMOZA — ed!ted to read
DEATH TO SAMO©.
“They’re do!ng exactly what we thought they’d do,” says Jean, h!s vo!ce
r!s!ng. “We tr!ed to make !t sound profound and they th!nk !t actually !s!
That’s l!ke a heavy com​pl!ment, man.”

Al p!cks up the thread: “People are so bored that when someth!ng seems
myster!ous and !t keeps com!ng up !t’s l!ke ‘Oh wow! What’s go!ng on?
We better know about th!s!’ So they conclude th!s th!ng that we’re CIA.…
I can’t beg!n to expla!n where they got that.”

The!r ep!thet, BOOSH-WAH, seems to pro​voke the most host!le

react!ons. The word was Jean’s contr!but!on: “Th!s c!ty !s crawl​!ng w!th
upt!ght, m!ddle-class pseudos try!ng to look l!ke the money they don’t
have. Sta​tus symbols. It cracks me up. It’s l!ke they’re walk!ng around
w!th pr!ce tags stapled to the!r heads. People should l!ve more sp!r!tu​ally,
man. But we can’t stand on the s!dewalk all day scream!ng at people to
clean up the!r acts, so we wr!te on walls.”

Is no surface sacred? They do stay clear of most pr!vate property, but

government prop​erty and corporat!ons are fa!r game, espec!al​ly
subways, elevators, and publ!c to!lets. What about the m!ll!ons of
taxpayers’ dollars spent each year clean!ng up? Jean has a ready reply:
“That’s a drop !n the bucket compared to how people are gett!ng shafted
!n b!g ways.”

Jean !s more troubled by h!s quest!ons. Is !t a cop-out to g!ve SAMO©’s

story to the pa​pers? Is !t ant!-cool to take cred!t for street art? And what
of the!r amb!t!on to some day work !n art-related jobs, !sn’t that BOOSH​-
WAH?

And !t should be reported that !n the proc​ess of help!ng me w!th th!s

story Jean and Al came under some rather po!nted cr!t!c!sm from the!r
fr!ends, who worr!ed that a taste of fame would go to the!r heads.

The stra!n of these last few weeks !s reflect​ed, appropr!ately enough, !n

the!r art. One of the!r latest, and !ncreas!ngly rare, creat!ons reads: LIFE
IS CONFUSING AT THIS POINT…SAMO©.
Advert!s!ng d!sclosure: We may rece!ve compensat!on for some of the
l!nks !n our stor!es. Thank you for support!ng the V!llage Vo!ce and our
advert!sers.