Sadly this week the world lost a true legend & revolutionary time-stopper.
The Equation: RAMMELLZEE
In my opinion Rammellzee is one of the most important artists of our generation. And undoubtedly one of the biggest influences on my work to date. Staunchly underground, he was truly an enigmatic masked genius of the highest order. Godfather of wild-style theories, and innovator and grand guard of a style he called Gothic Futurism, deeply rooted in mathematics, quantum physics, history and science fiction.
In 2007 while in New York i had the honor of meeting and hanging out with Rammellzee at his Battery Park City apartment. I turned up with a slab of beer not knowing what to expect, we kicked it for the afternoon, it was a slightly scary, very fun and truly fascinating day. He showed me some rare and interesting documents from his archive including catalogues for early exhibitions in Europe, and also some of his incredible costumes and sculptures. He was creating some work for an exhibition, he also put on some rare tracks he recorded & was rapping along with them, raising his voice and eyeballing me maniacally to emphasize certain lyrics. HA!
He schooled me on the bloodsuckers in the artworld, telling me to guard my work with all you’ve got, as these people will just “TAKE TAKE TAKE”, if you’re not careful. I showed him a photo album of some of my work, i was stoked that he liked it and even said upon seeing some of my graffiti work “your letter styles are like freedom man”, I’ll never forget it. He also told me some CRAZY stories about the New York art scene in the 80’s, art dealers, his rival/friend Jean-Michel Basquiat etc... The whole afternoon was a paranormal experience, when i bailed i felt as though i had been in some sort of mystical wormhole. Reality would never be the same.
Jim Jarmusch said it well when talking about Ramm "he was the kind of guy you could talk to for twenty minutes and your whole life could change, if you could only understand him." Co-signed.
“For my money, no more true style warrior ever walked the mean streets of New York”. Haze
Rocking Iconoclast Panzerism Rammell
N[UR]OC
photos © Fred Fowler 2007