Automatic Attraction: The Story Behind Crome, Miami's Infamous Graffiti Artist

When you come across something that you love, you will do almost anything to keep it in your life. The love that we have for our passions in life is what keeps us going and often times keeps us breathing. As human beings we are often willing to sacrifice and put ourselves at great risk just so we can continue to keep that love going.

In talking to Crome, one of South Florida's most influential graffiti artists over the years, it is evident by the tone in his voice and the expression in his face just how much love he has inside of him towards graffiti and art in general. What started out as a hobby for the Opa Locka native soon turned into a deep and burning passion, one that saw him create a name for himself among the world of graffiti artists, but not without much risk and danger along the way.



Crome's story is that of a free spirit who never was willing to settle for a life less ordinary. From starting out as a budding amateur tagging up public property, to eventually having a much publicized run in with that law, Crome has had to both rise and fall to get a fuller sense of appreciation for what his love of graffiti truly means to him. Throughout it all, he has remained upbeat and optimistic, reflecting on his past with much joy while still eyeing the future with anticipation and hope.

Sitting inside of his personal tattoo parlor, Crome opened up about his life and times, never shying away from the truth for the slightest moment. In his own words, this is what he had to say about getting into graffiti, becoming known for his work, his fiasco with the Miami Police, and how he found a way to persevere through it all. This is Crome's story…



Experimenting with Graffiti…

"I was originally born in Opa Locka and later moved to Miramar. I have been back and forth between Dade and Broward for the past 30 or so years. I got into the graffiti into the early 80's when it was really evolving. It was around before then but in the Miami area it really started picking up at that time. I got into break dancing as a little kid and I was also into art as well. My father was a sign painter and I learned things from him. I started experimenting with graffiti and I eventually got a lot of influence from all the New York cats moving down to Miami. I had met up with this Dominican cat out of Queens and he showed some New York roots of graffiti. He was fresh out of New York and he already had his own style that was completely different than what everyone was doing down here. He put me up on some new shit and I just went from there. People down here were just tagging but this guy was really into making something look like art.



Automatic Attraction…

"I just had an automatic attraction to graffiti. I just loved all of the colors and designing that went into it. When I was around 13 or 14 I was with a downtown skate crew called Downtown Mafia and they used to tag up all kinds of shit. It wasn't exactly like graffiti but I noticed that if you tagged something, it represented your name and your work and I became interested in it. At first it was just like a drug to me because if you tag your name somewhere, then a lot of people are going to see it. You get used to hearing people say that they see your name everywhere and when you go to all these spots you want to see your work up there. It's almost like getting recognition and a sense of respect. It was like a ball of fire that just kept burning and I had the urge to just keep going with it."



Coming up with a Name…

"I noticed that people were tagging all over Miami and I soon began thinking of a name for myself. The name Crome originally came from Cypress Hill. A lot of Cypress Hill songs featured the name Crome and I also remembered they had chrome spray cans so it seemed like a perfect fit. The word just hit me and that's just the name I rode with. That was around 1993 or so."



Risking Your Ass…

"When I was younger I didn't realize the ins and outs of everything and I would just tag anything that I could come across. I would tag up basketball courts, schools, and stuff like that. The only problem with that is that it only lasts a day or two before people cover it up. As a kid I didn't realize that my work was going to be covered up in just a matter of days and I had to learn to hit up other places. I started looking for places that were tore up. I would hit up empty crack houses, poles, curbs, and things that would be harder to notice and harder for people to clean up. I realized that if you are going to risk your ass, you might as well risk it for something that was going to last longer."


Investing Time…

"A typical block letter or bubble letters take maybe fifteen or so minutes. And of course just tagging something only takes a few seconds. It all depends on the spot and how comfortable you feel working there. If you find a spot that is chill then it could be a case where I sit there and experiment with different colors and be creative. If I was ever at a spot that wasn't too chill then I would just use one color and be in and out. The longest I would spend might be around two hours because after that you really wouldn't want to push your luck."

Getting Respect…
"When you start out doing graffiti they call you a Toy, which basically means a beginner in the game. I never considered anybody to be a toy and instead looked at people starting as amateurs or apprentices. You can't just start off being fresh and everything takes time to get good at, but I still never was the type to just look down on people for starting out with something. I was a Toy early on and I didn't really get much respect and I had to earn it over time. You had to get respect by the muscle, by simply working harder and putting your name up on more and more shit. Little by little the older cats started giving me respect and wanted to start really getting down with me. I was never really into the whole thing like other people were and instead I just created my own thing with my clique and went from there."



The Influence of the Internet…

"Obviously now, with the internet, things have changed. People have access to new spray cans and new chips. When I was young we didn't have the internet and I don't even think we had cell phones or beepers. It didn't come as natural as it did now because we didn't have access to all this information at our fingertips. Instead of looking up stuff online we would have to go to areas where graffiti had been done and look for the caps and try to figure out some way to use them, but it never really worked for us like that. People can look up and find out about styles upon styles, where to buy caps, and things like that. It was more underground before the internet came around. It's much more commercialized now, which is both good and bad. I think overall it's good because people are finally starting to get paid and lord knows that I have paid my dues."

Hatred in South Florida…

"As for South Florida area, there is a lot of hating going on. The same thing can be said for a lot of the rappers down here. It goes with everything; a lot of people down here just don't get along. I don't know, maybe it's the heat down here. There is a lot of hating going on in Miami and the same can be said about graffiti. For example I have never gone over anybody's work, but numerous people have gone over mine. I specifically don't like to go over anybody's work because I don't like to cover up someone's work, regardless of who it is. I never played that game. I would rather just get at them with my hands if I had to take care of something."



Starting Off With the Basics…

"To get into graffiti you have to start off with the basics and associate yourself with people who are going to show you the right things. Like I said, if people don't want to give you respect you have to go out and get it yourself. If you like doing something you should just go for it. When I was young and coming up people didn't really want to show me anything and I just had to do things on my own. I am always willing to show younger kids how it is because I know how it is but a lot of older cats don't really care and just do their own thing. It's hard to break into it but you just have to study your letters, try not to bite off of people's styles, and go from there."

Forming the MSG Cartel…
"The MSG was originally formed by myself and my other homies in the U.B. Crew. We branched off from this crew called the F.E. Crew, which stood for 'Fuck Everybody'. I never was crazy about the name 'Fuck Everybody' because it wasn't graffiti oriented. Me and my other homeboys out of Hialeah formed the Urban Bombers crew. We used to clique up and bombed a lot of stuff. We later formed the MSG, which stands for Miami Style Gods, and it just went from there. We just started really wrecking things after that."



Meeting Crook…

"I met this cat Crook through some friends and he and I teamed up because we were into a lot of the same shit. Me and Crook had been doing shit, and I didn't have a car at the time and was kinda using him for his ride. We ended up becoming good friends and we cliqued. We both had the same vibe, which was to just wreck a lot of shit and pretty much kill the whole city. We weren't just about one city or one hood; we were all over the place. We linked up and it was almost like Miami Vice. We knew we were killing shit and everyone kept telling us how much shit we were doing. We were spray painting everything from Highway signs to curbs, and every little thing you could think of we were doing. Some nights we would focus on Hialeah the next night we would focus on Broward and the next day it would be Palm Beach. Sometimes we would bust out a map and plan out our attack for the week so we could really cover a whole city. We would hit up all kinds of places and people realized that we were everywhere. We even went to Orlando on occasions. We definitely knew it was getting heated and that people were out to stop us."



Home Invasion..

"It was in February or March of 1999 that things got really crazy. The mayor of Miami at the time, Alex Penelas, was very pissed off over all the graffiti we had done and he really pushed to have us caught. He kept asking what was up with Crook and Crome and wondered why they hadn't been caught yet. In return he called up the Gang Unit and one way or another they found out where we were staying. They came to our crib and fucked a lot of shit up. It was all in the news. They came to the crib but thankfully I wasn't there. They were trying to be slick and they had the maintenance man knocking on our door, trying to make it look like he wanted to talk to us. Instead, we had accidentally left the door open and they just came rushing through. Crook was inside the bathroom cutting his own hair when they started knocking on his door. He thought it was me and when he opened up they threw his ass to the floor. They said he was wanted for murder and all of this stuff. They didn't even know if he was Crook or Crome, they just wanted a live body. My other roommate didn't even have anything to do with graffiti and they threw him to the floor as well and broke his glasses and stepped on his chest. They had these two hemmed up in the crib for hours and went through all of our work from our pictures, spray cans, thinking they got something big. They kept asking him to fess up to it and every time he said no they would slap him across the face."



The Main Agenda…

"They waited until almost 5 O'clock to take them out and needless to say we were the main story on the news, from channel 7, 10, 4 and even the Spanish channel. We were the main agenda because they had been looking for us. My other roommate ended up leaving and came and told me that the police rushed the house. I was with my homeboys from Atlanta and I decided I wasn't going to turn myself in. I ended up staying with my friend in Broward for the night. As we were driving we drove by one of the walls that we had done and we saw the news crews in front of them. I realized that this shit was serious. As soon as I got to my friend's crib in Broward I turned on the news and the main story was Crook. They showed him locked up. They were showi ng pictures of me on the television and they said that I was still on the loose but they expected to have me in custody by the end of the night. I ended up heading out to Atlanta to chill for a while and I heard that they tried giving Crook a million dollar bond. The judge said they were crazy and that he didn't even give kingpins, drug traffickers, or real criminals that kind of bond. The judge gave him a $50,000 bond and that was still too much. The prosecutors kept acting like we couldn't be controlled and that we were some kind of maniacs who were going to terrorize the streets if we were set loose. In reality we were just a couple of graffiti artists and everything was really overblown."



Getting Off…

"What happened with me was that I ended up going to Atlanta and I was just chillin' but they never had an arrest warrant for me because they couldn't prove it was my work. Really it was just some petty stuff if you think about it. I was out in Atl anta and I was getting by how I could and just hustling and surviving. It started getting cold up there and I began running out of money, so my sister told me that I could come stay with her for a while. I headed back to Florida and ended up turning myself in five or six months later after discussing it with my lawyer. They kept me in the Miami Police Department with the Gang Unit and I was there for five or six hours. I kept asking why they didn't take me to Dade County jail. They waited until five o'clock to March me out of the precinct just so they could have me on the news. They asked me how I felt about Crook supposedly snitching me out but I kept my mouth shut and didn't say a word because I knew they were going to be asking me all kinds of questions. They ended up taking me back to a county jail and I was out for a few weeks on an $8,500 bond. They then revoked my bond and gave me a $50,000 bond. We ended up going to court over this and it was a circus. The news crews were there every time and they ended up dismissing the case. The judge stated that they had no proof to come to our house to ask us these questions, to come to our door, and to go through all of things. It was basically an illegal search and seizure and I got off on everything."




Time in Prison…

"I ended up doing a prison stint for drug trafficking and while I was in prison I still kept up on everything. I did about four years, from 2001 to 2006, and in that time I realized that even though I was going to stop selling dope I was never going to ruin my art. I don't ever see myself stopping because I've been doing this since I was a jit. After getting locked up for drug trafficking I realized just how petty graffiti really was. In prison I got a lot of respect because people knew who I was and they ended up hitting me up for either portraits or tattoos of their names and things like that. I already had it good and did a lot of tattoos in Dade County Jail. It was pretty much a free ride, not to say it was easy, but it could have been worse. Looking back on it I just laugh because it made me realize just how petty graffiti really was compared to other crimes."



Respecting the Love…

"Graffiti and hip hop go hand in hand. Graffiti pretty much is hip hop, except it was around before hip hop was. Graffiti was before break dancing and all of that because even the average cat can write his name in the bathroom and that right there is graffiti. Stylish graffiti is a whole different story but it's all connected. It's all from the street and it all comes from passion. Nowadays people might rap for bread but when they first started they rapped just because they had a love for it. It's just a form of expression. In the past I risked my ass doing graffiti. I could easily have fallen off the highway, been hit by a car, or been locked up for what I was doing. The reason I was doing it was because I was passionate about. I did it out of love and people have to respect that. Graffiti isn't an easy life and you can ruin your life through this. Some people never even get out of high school because they focus on it so much."



Popularity from Graffiti…
"The popularity from Graffiti led me to a lot of other things. Me and my crew also ended up doing a lot of commercial jobs through our work. We've done videos, movies, advertising signs, and things like that. My crew, the MSG Cartel, is basically like a business to me. We are trying to do things that no other graffiti crew has done, whether it's from television or being the first major graffiti crew for a record label. We have different ideas of doing things like creating a movie based off of video footage of our work."



Eyeing 2009…
"I just want to paint more in 2009. I want to travel a lot more and hit up as many cities as I can. I've been traveling a lot lately, from L.A., New York, Atlanta back and forth, Honduras, Mexico, and hopefully Europe in the near future. I also want to look into coming up with websites and making money off of our work that way, because there is nothing wrong with that. I just want to keep promoting and stay true to what I am doing. Graffiti is still a major influence in my life. It will never stop. I'm older now and I still don't care. I always say that at the end of the day we are all going to die someday and you might as well live your life doing what you love and right now I'm still doing what I love."



Story via Chris Robinson of 24hourhiphop.com

Original Link: http://24hourhiphop.com/hip+hop+Honest+Truth/Automatic+Attraction:+The+Story+Behind+Crome,+Miami's+Infamous+Graffiti+Artist/3816