(intense dramatic music) (indistinct chattering) (intense dramatic music continues) (indistinct chattering continues) (machine whirring) (suspenseful dramatic music) - [Narrator] In the '80s and early '90s, the streets of Hollywood were
more likely to eat you alive than make you famous. - In Hollywood, in those
years, it was scummy. - I was in the middle
of hookers on Sunset. - [Bystander] Give me, give me, give me! - There's all kinds of weird shit in West Hollywood, you know? (indistinct yelling) - There was some freaky, nasty, grimy, sleazy shit popping off. (suspenseful dramatic music) - There's predators, all types of creepy motherfuckers
runnin' around up there. (suspenseful dramatic music)
- Let's go! - It's so different than
it was in the early '90s. Everybody thought they were a gang member. (group clamoring)
- Warriors, come out and play! - It was like the Warriors, man, with fuckin' good weather. - [Narrator] Kids living
on the streets of Hollywood had two choices, join a gang or join a graffiti crew. - Crazy ass mad CBS crew! - [Narrator] Graffiti crews
blew up all over LA County. Crews like UTI in the Valley. - From big UTI Los Angeles. - [Narrator] K2S from the East Side. WCA from the West Side. - Minor! - [Narrator] But only one
crew had a Hollywood presence. CBS, Can't Be Stopped. ♪ We mob the spots ♪ ♪ Streets and rooftops ♪ ♪ Trains till rush hour ♪ ♪ Catch the best spots ♪ (glass shattering)
♪ We were on TikTok ♪ ♪ Can't stop ♪ ♪ And we can't be stopped ♪ ♪ Can't be stopped ♪ ♪ Can't be stopped ♪ (crew clamoring)
♪ Can't be stopped ♪ - [Crew Member] We dissed
a lot. We lost a lot. We had a lot of close calls, being chased, being shot at. - I think we have a good backbone. My crew's one of the oldest and most well-known crews in LA, and if not, the graffiti world. - Is this like CBS or what? - It's CBS. - CBS is to me, is to everyone, is the Holy Grail of graffiti. (group laughing and
chattering indistinctly) - CBS is something else,
is something greater. (upbeat rock music) - I've personally witnessed two, or three, four generations of CBS. - [Narrator] Forged by a
larger than life leader, bonded by three letters, CBS would risk arrest and
even death to make their mark on the streets of LA, and
eventually, the world. - Can't Be Stopped Crew till
the wheels fall off. (laughs) (intense whooshing) - [Hex] CBS started out
as Can't Be Stopped Crew, started out in about 1984, I'd say like '83. The name came from an
emotion or energy we had, and we just wanted to kinda take over. - But originally, CBS was to be four guys. It was Hex, Frost, Theory, and Demo. - It was really just gonna be us four. That was our vision, you know? It was like, they got all
these big crews, you know? We were lookin' at WCA, and the mad numbers WCA had, and it was just like, we don't want that kind of boom, you know? And wee really don't wanna tag, and we really don't wanna... We just kinda wanna, yeah, bomb! - [Narrator] The original four members met two new artists who had
changed the crew forever, Rob One and Skate. - CBS, for me, came about
in a time about 1987. I was hanging out a lot with Skate One, and then hangin' out still with Rob, you know, doin' stuff. - Rob introduced me to Skate first, and they had a crew, actually, before. When CBS was literally in its infancy, they had a crew called LA 2an2. It was just Rob One and Skate. - The relationship with him and his mom wasn't going too well, so he had to not stay there as much. He wanted to live there,
but he was kind of a real, I guess what you would
call, a fucked up kid. - A lot of times, he was homeless. He had his issues, but he was always down for
his homies, for the crew. Always down. - Skate was sort of a
loner, drifter-type, right? He really wasn't a part
of any particular clique. - He was kind of an introvert,
and kind of a nerdy kid, and a little chubby, and he just seemed like, I don't know, just wanting to be down so bad, you know? - [Narrator] Skate hung out
with gangs like the LADS, which stood for LA Death Squad, and the graffiti crew WCA. - So Skate originally wanted to be in WCA, but he was a toy. Back then, he had just started,
so that wasn't possible. The fact that he was told
he couldn't be in WCA probably got him a little pissed off, so it probably made him
work a little harder. (intense whooshing) - [Narrator] In 1986, Hex
invites Skate to join CBS. - [Hex] I put him in the
crew because I liked him, and not everyone agreed to it. But I loved Skate. And if you met him, you know his energy, and he's a straight good guy, you know? - CBS was gonna be done. And the fact that they saw
someone who was self-driven, and motivated, and said, "You know what?" "Here man, take the torch." And he took that torch, and set a fucking inferno to the city. (uptempo rock music) ♪ And the truth shall set you free ♪ (uptempo rock music continues) ♪ And all I mean to say ♪ ♪ So make it very plain ♪ ♪ Just had to reach a mission
♪ ♪ Callin' out remember me ♪ ♪ And I can't put my finger on it ♪ ♪ Wrap my head around it ♪ ♪ Though I know it's very close ♪ ♪ I feel it all around me
♪ ♪ And I try to smile ♪ ♪ Now my face in a charade ♪ ♪ It's all the same ♪ ♪ It's just a game ♪ ♪ But wow ♪ ♪ Momma, wow ♪ - There was always these
huge stories about Skate. I saw Skate fighting tonight, and I saw Skate kickin' it tonight. I saw Skate punkin' some cops tonight. That fool's huge. He had a baseball bat, and
he had 10 guys with him. - He was a viking mixed
with Santa Claus, okay? He was a fuckin' warrior, but it was also fuckin',
when you were with him, it was Christmas time. - If I just think about LA, I mean, he's like one of
the figures in my head. It's almost like a cartoon character. He was just so larger than life. (laughs) Just always had his look. - Dude, I felt like I met
fuckin' Thor, you know? Dude, of course, he
had that Skate uniform, you know, backwards hat,
fuckin' kinda stoner look, Vans, the cutoff shorts. I don't know how tall Skate was, but his fuckin' throw-ups are like fuckin' 10 feet tall, dude. - This big ass White boy
was paintin' on the wall in the squad, and he was like, "Hey, man, you know where you at?" And he's like, "Yeah, I'm
in a abandoned building paintin' my name on the wall". And he was like, "Well, I'm
Skate One from CBS Crew". And I was like, "Yeah, what's that mean?" He's like, "Can't Be Stopped". - Dude had a fuckin' wizard beard, a cane. Big guy, bro, you know? And I'm like, "That's Skate". I was like, "That's Skate". And he's walkin' towards
me, and I'm shivering. I'm scared in my boots. And I'm sittin' there painting this little, tiny piece, you know? It's so funny. And he stands behind me, and he goes... And it was funny how did it, 'cause he's just so big to me. He seemed like a big tree. You know what I'm sayin'? And he just looked at me,
and he strolled over to me, and he goes, "Your piece is small!" And I go... I'm shivering, looking back, and he goes, "You must do it big to impress!" And just reached his
arms out with his cane, and then went in the water, and then started doing
these huge throw-ups, beautiful CBS throw-ups. This perfect motion. I never seen anybody do
such perfect motion before. And he did these massive,
as big as he could, bubbles right there, fill-ins, beautiful. And that was the time when I realized, in order to get the respect
from somebody like him, who was this real, real
legend, I gotta go big. - [Narrator] That chance meeting
had a huge impact on Saber. He would go on to paint the largest illegal graffiti piece ever. (dramatic hip-hop music) - He used to scare the shit outta me. He was just a big, badass
White boy I didn't mess with. Scared of him. All my homeboys were Mexican, actually. I didn't hang out with White kids. So I was even more afraid of him, because I thought White
kids were pretty nerdy, and Mexicans were bad asses, and I wanted to be like them. (laughs) And it's not that he didn't anything mean, or nasty, or dangerous. He just had that presence to him. He had a massive magnetic
field around him. - [Crew Member] Skate,
what do you gotta say? - LA. LA City Bomb Squad-
- Skate had a plan. He wanted to dominate
the LA graffiti scene. - Skater rock.
(spray can rattles) - I think from the jump, he had a vision. He wanted it to be everywhere. He just wanted it to be this massive, strong, artistic beast. - Skate was older than
us, and a couple years, and I think he was either
already outta school, or wasn't going to school.
I don't know what it was. I just know that when we would
be in school, like at lunch, he would come up and hang out on the
other side of the fence, and slide his markers, and do whatever. So yeah, Skate was... That was big brother right there, man. That was all of our big brother. - They started recruiting
kids around this very area, like Melrose and around Wattles Park, around Holly Boulevard,
around Plummer Park. - He was more of the bomber, Skate was. So Skate needed bombers. - So a bomber is somebody
that's willing to go out and hit, for example, a rooftop, and put the three letters of the crew up. (spray can hissing) But it was a very important
element to the crew to have guys that were
willing to go out there, and risk their necks, and their freedom, to put up the crew, and get it known. - I got the boot from one
of the schools I was at, and I got transferred over to Fairfax. Crook, at the time, was
the president of CBS, and this was '88. Said he had seen my shit. Said he had talked to Skate. Said they were lookin' to get me in. - We had a meeting at Fairfax High, and that's when Lynk, Tren, Exer, a few other people, maybe? Anger. - But we were all, I think, kind of like, whoa, what the fuck, you know? I mean, at that time, we were lookin' up to
a lot of other crews. CBS wasn't even on our
radar, for the most part. - I got the green light,
and I was the go ahead. But getting in, I had my
boys that I grew up with, which, at the time, was
Axis, and Anger, and Bose. So for me to get another crew without them just pretty much wasn't gonna happen. - [Crew Member] Ooh, look at that N. - [Narrator] Tren was recruited into CBS under the condition he
could bring along his boys. - They agreed to have one big meeting, let everybody in at the same time, which was including Exer and Lynk, 'cause they were looking to get in, too. - Tren was like, "Yo, I'm
gettin' down with CBS". And I was like, "Ah, damn!" I was like, "I wanna get
down with that shit, too". I was kinda envious of him.
- Got in in the first meeting when Anger, and Axis, and Tren, and Lynk, and all them got in at the same time. Then everything changed after that. - Immediately, when we joined the crew, I started realizing,
damn, this is bigger... It's bigger than three letters. It's bigger than writing
your name on something. That I have a family now. - And there was Exer, and
Lynk, and Skate, and Rob, and everyone just ridin' around. You couldn't go anywhere
without running into them. (uptempo hip-hop music) And they were just up all over the city, and they were tight, and
they loved each other, and had each other's backs. It was a real family unit. (uptempo hip-hop music continues) - At that time, all of them were crazy. Jesus! - [Crew Member] You know
what I'm sayin', Exer? - LA style Can't Be Stopped. - It was Lynk and Exer. They were b-fries, so they were inseparable. They were in trouble all the time. - That was something I always remembered, like damn, man, these cats are down! They just go balls out, you know? Middle of the day, I seen
Skate doing top to bottom, Can't Be Stopped, spelled out, you know? CBS top to bottom. - [Hex] Honestly, the guy who
connected it all with Skate, Aaron was a good guy, and he had this energy about him that you just couldn't deny. - It was more a thing about Skate, too. It was more about being around him. And he kinda just led us all, and I don't think the other
crews really had that, per se. - He's like, "Well, I'll
take you to the spots". "You just do the throw-up." "If anything happens", he's like, "I'll throw myself on a fuckin' cop car to make sure that you get away". - This car pulls up, and we're thinkin' it's some gang shit, so we're ready to throw, and it's a bunch of fucking
kids in a car with Skate, and we're like, what the fuck is this?! And that's when we kinda dubbed it as a children's bomb squad, 'cause Skate was like... He was like a god to these kids. - I think Skate was
really a conduit to just, yo, we're all sort of from the same hood. We're all kinda this White boy, rag tag, different nationalities kinda crew. We should be homies (laughs), and then we were. - We all got in in one big meeting, and it worked out good. And from there, it just kind of exploded. (uptempo hip-hop music) (crew cheering) (uptempo hip-hop music continues) (uptempo hip-hop music continues) - [Narrator] In 1989, CBS added
two key members, Crasher... - I'm out here to bomb! That's what I came out here for, to bomb! - [Narrator] And Mear. - Welcome to the CBS Comedy Hour, hosted by marijuana. - [Risk] Mear wasn't scared to be Mear. I don't know how to say it. - [Mear] Look into my eyes. - He was one of the
first Los Angeles dudes that developed into
their own signature style that you recognize a mile away. Wasn't New York, wasn't
LA, just, it was him. That's Mear. And he still has that to this day. And he was a force. Just a wrecking force for Los Angeles. - Damn, what the hell? Fuck! (upbeat heavy metal rock) What?
- It was a fertile land for a bunch of wild, (laughs) wild kids that were comin' of age, man. We had alleyways, we had walls, we had dumpsters to practice our tags on. We had nice places to get
into fights with people. We had stores to steal shit from. - [Crew Member] Hey, come down, dude. - It was like a playground.
(spray can clatters) It was like that fuckin'.... What is it? That Carnival Land in Pinocchio. (laughs) ♪ One ♪ ♪ Two ♪ ♪ Four ♪ (spray can hissing) (intense whooshing) - CBS was a lifestyle. We all came for broken homes. We all didn't have a curfew. We all could do whatever
the hell we wanted. - [Narrator] Graffiti gave
street kids an identity. Putting your name on a billboard or a freeway overpass was
a way to prove you existed. - There's a lot of kids, all they have is their graffiti, and that's a way for
them to build self-esteem in these shitty places, dude, where it's all fuckin' dirt, and buses, and fuckin' ugly fuckin' city, and you see a fresh piece, that's the shit, you know? - If you're on the bus,
and you're going to school, and you saw over the weekend a buddy of yours' name all
up and down Pico Boulevard or Westwood Boulevard, damn! It was like having your own marquee. - When you're kid, you're not
gettin' paid for this shit. You're just out there to do it to get respect from
your peers or whatever, or to be noticed, or 'cause your parents
didn't hug you enough. - We were vandals, and that was the point. We wanted to destroy, and make sure that everybody
knew we were there. (uptempo hip-hop music) Whether it was where you
live or where we live, you were gonna know we were there. - We were homeless guys
sleeping on Mear's couch, we were smokin' weed, we
were shoplifting for food, we were tagging all night,
we were drinking all day. we were just dirt, the true hardcore dirt
bags of Los Angeles, the nastiest crew around,
and that's the truth. (intense whooshing) - Racking means acquiring
things without cash or a credit card. - It was something that
we were doing every day. We were racking paint,
we were racking markers, and we're bombing everywhere we're goin', we're rackin' beer, we're rackin' clothes. You know what I mean? That was our day-to-day life. (paint cans rattling)
- We didn't have much money, so jackin' paint was a big ordeal of it. - I remember one time
Skate filling up a cart. - [Tren] He rolled this big
shopping cart full of paint. - I mean, he was putting
six pack after six packs in his cart. - Either that, or just
Skate would just gang bang, and just roll right out of Standard Brands with a whole shopping cart full. - Those guys were pirates. I mean, they really were. - We thought we were as cool as shit. We'd have four, like, yeah,
with a sweater around. Yeah, I got four cans. What'd you get? Oh, I got three cans. Oh, I got five cans. And you see Skate. What the fuck? He's got a shopping cart full of 50 cans, just six pack, six pack,
six pack, six pack, and then take a teddy
bear, and throw it on top, and just push it around
the store like this. - He kind of motioned to the cashier. Not quite a nod, but like it's goin' down,
and walked out with it. - Everyone was like, uh, uh, uh, (chuckles) nah, man, I ain't stoppin' him. You stop him. - And wee broke the window
on Hollywood Boulevard, and just started throwing cases in the back of my truck, all right? Just tons of cases of paint. I filled up the whole back
of my ranger with this shit, and drove off. First thing I did was, take about 10, 15 cases of this paint, mixed it all up, and gave it to Skate for fucking giving me the
blessing of stealing that paint. - But we would always be together. No cars, no money, go rack some beer, go tagging, but we would be always together. (intense whooshing) - [Narrator] Back in the day, the spot to kick it was the mall, and the place to be in Hollywood
was the Beverly Center. - All I can remember of Beverly Center, we played massive games of Hide and Seek, - [Crew Member] Go ahead! - and just terrorize that place. Shoplift the shit out of it. Stall every escalator, so
everybody would fall down. - What, Skate?
- Nah, G! - [Crew Member] The
king pin was here, dude. - Skate Boy!
- Skate around there! - [Crew Member] Beverly Center seekin'. - And there was a arcade up in the Beverly Center called Starky's. (arcade machine clacking) And there was no cell phones back then. So you could call the phones
at the Beverly Center. So you could call and
see who was hanging out. - [Crew Member] We didn't
give a fuck, shit head! - We'll break down walls. We fuckin' throw shopping
carts in the street. - We'd be chillin' in the Beverly Center, all of a sudden, you see
this fuckin' shopping cart fly over the fuckin' eighth
floor parking structure, crashing into the fuckin'
street on La Cienega. Just wild, stupid shit. - [Crew Member] Hey, let's ask
Information where Skate is. - Whoa, here was here earlier, actually, and I think he went with that
kid, (speaks indistinctly). They left somewhere. They went to go vandalize. - Just go fuck yourself, dude!
- Hey! - We would stay at the Beverly Center until they kicked us out, and then we would go to Taco Bell, and hang out there until
they kicked us out, and then it was off to Chevron
on Melrose and Fairfax. And that was, pretty
much, the three locations where we were at all times. - We'd be so fuckin' drunk, and stoned, and whatever, and broke, so to get back to Mid City, we would jump on the back of the buses, and ride the backs the
whole way down Wilshire. From fuckin' Westwood to Crenshaw, that's a long ass way on
the back of a bus, you know? - There's about a two inch lip where you could put your feet, and you'd have your hands in the grill, the cooling system of the
bus, and you would catch air. I remember getting bucked. We're lucky nobody's dead. (nunchucks clattering) (group laughing) - And, of course, we were
knuckleheads at the time, so. You had to be. We were 16, 17, 18, growin' up. (uptempo hip-hop music) (uptempo hip-hop music continues) (uptempo hip-hop music continues) - [Narrator] Skate's decisions
were rarely questioned, except when he started recruiting
kids from Beverly Hills. - They weren't really recruiting kids from Beverly Hills High School
to be in CBS back in the day. I remember Anger even
bein' a little sketchy when Skate was just puttin'
me, and Mek, and Plus, and Anger didn't like us a lot, 'cause he thought we were
maybe soft or something, 'cause we were Beverly Hills kids. - There was these dudes, Mek, and Met, and Plus from Beverly Hills. They were getting down. I was like, what?! Beverly Hills fools! Fuck that shit! - CBS is like Fairfax/Hollywood crew. Everyone was terrified of them. Back in those days, it wasn't necessarily about
having the dopest pieces, it was all out, just destroying the city. And when I did pieces, there were usually illegal
on a rooftop somewhere, or in an alley, where, if you got busted, you were going to prison. - [Narrator] As the crew grew, each member filled a unique role. - Crews were rough back then, you know? (crew members clamoring) People got stabbed, shot, all this stuff, and you had to have enforcers. Every crew had one, and Anger was one. And Anger's reputation preceded himself. - He became the muscle. He became the Luca Brasi of the crew. If you don't know who that is, you didn't see "The Godfather". You suck! - I had crossed out some
people in art class. I dissed their tags. And I went to school the next day, and my boy, Xzink, from
CBS, he was a senior. He was like, "Man, you fucked up". "Those dudes you crossed out, that's the football team, man." "They're gonna fuck your ass up." - Yo!
- Whoo! I seen Anger in the corner, and I didn't even know he
was gonna be there that day. I was like, damn, Anger's here. I forgot that he was gonna
pick me up from school, and we were gonna go
rackin' in the West Side. And he was hanging there, and he had his scandals rag out, wearing the full denim. He had the hair back in
the day, lookin' scary. And I walked up to him, and I was like, "Yo, man, those football players told me they were gonna jump me and fuck me up". He was like, "Those dudes right there?" And I was like, "Yeah". And he walked up on all of
them, 30 of 'em, big ass dudes, and he was like, "Yo,
you guys were gonna jump my little homie right here? And they were like, "Nah, (mumbles) nah". They all knew who he was. They're like, "Nah, nah, man, no, we weren't gonna fuck with him". - My fuckin' dumb ass
walks in here by myself through the other side over there, and, of course, I'm rockin' an NSA hat, and I just see this
motherfucker running up on me with long ass hair, and I got socked. (laughs) I got fuckin' socked. Fuckin' I just remember falling down, and my hat flew off, and I get up, and it was
fuckin' Anger from CBS. - I've always heard of Anger
being pretty loked out. I just heard some more stories
today about how crazy he is. I mean, obviously, he's got some issues. He writes, Anger. (laughs) (upbeat heavy metal rock music) (upbeat heavy metal rock music continues) (spray can hissing) (upbeat heavy metal rock music continues) - [Narrator] Gangs
ruled the streets of LA, and the temptation to
join can be overwhelming. From protection and street
cred, to power and belonging, gangs were a constant temptation. - At one point, before we got into CBS, it was maybe even gonna go another route.
- Dude, it really almost went that route.
- It was goin' a bad direction, where we were lined up
with the wrong kinda crowd. - People were gettin' shot and killed. (gunshots firing) I remember us throwin' up CBS signs, and some of the crew members would start hanging out with gang bangers. And, obviously, I'm a White boy, 5'6, I'm not gonna fuckin' go
get jumped into a gang. - I had a choice. When I first got in CBS, I was showing up to
meetings with low riders, and my homeboys from my neighborhood, thinking it was cool, and looking dope, and Skate was like, "All right,
you wanna be a gangster!" "Step out in the middle
of the field with me, and we're gonna throw down." And I was like, "I don't
wanna throw down with you". He's like, "But you wanna
be a gangster, right?" I'm like, "Yeah, but I don't
wanna throw down with you". "You're my brother." He just smacks me to the floor,
kicks me around a few times, picks me up, dusts me off,
says, "You ready for some more?" I'm like, "No!" Beats me up a little harder. And the whole crew's laughing. Everyone's sittin' there watching, and gets it into my head. He's like, "Dude, you're an artist". "You're a painter." "You're a dope artist." "You're a dope painter." "Quit fuckin' with this shit." And yeah, man, so that saved my life. - It's a tough thing. I mean, LA is no joke. It's definitely, you
have to be street savvy. You have to be smart. - This is a ghetto sport, and if you think you know, you don't, because you will get taken. You'll get hurt. - [Narrator] Rival graffiti
crews were another danger. Risk was shot by a member of a rival crew. - I got shot. So I find out who it
is, and I'm going nuts. I'm trying to kill him. He's trying to kill me. - [Narrator] Skate stepped
in and squashed the beef. - It wasn't because he was my boy, 'cause me and Skate had beef at that time. We had beef, 'cause he went over something
I did on Sunset and Fairfax, and we actually fought in the middle of the street
at Sunset and Fairfax. So we didn't get along at the time. So I was like, "Why did
you squash my beef?" And he was like, "Both of you
guys are too important in LA, and I can't have you guys gettin' killed". He was like, "So I squashed the beef". - We were on the streets and we had confrontations with people. I can go into a million of
them stories about Aaron, but also, he was like, dude, we gotta... Dude, this has gotta change, dude. We gotta stop tripping on each other. This has gotta end, bro! - And, of course, somebody
had beef with somebody, and this, and that, but Skate was always right in
the middle trying to mediate, really trying to solve the problems, and get on with it. Just do the art. Do the art. And that was, I think,
what he saw as his role. He was the master mediator, the big daddy. (intense whooshing) - 'Cause we need to go their hood! To Beverly Hills! To Simi Valley! Fuck it, let's go-
- 1992, the LA riots caused by
the Rodney King verdict, the whole city was in flames. - [Rioter] Light it on fire! Let it burn! Let it burn!
- The looting spread into Hollywood, putting Skate and CBS in a new role, guardians of the neighborhood. - Skate, and maybe a
couple of the other guys, were actually protecting a shop or two, some of our friends that
had stores in the area, 'cause they didn't want
anything to happen. - This whole area is
basically owned by CBS. They are the police that we don't have. You could probably get a CBS
dude to come out and help you before the cops would show up out here. - Skate just really knew everybody, and a lot of people just
really respected him. - He knew the shop owners. He knew the ladies, the old ladies, that'd be walking around the neighborhood. He knew the young kids. He wasn't just a thug graffiti writer. He put together a crew of people, so that we all developed into something. (intense whooshing) - [Narrator] By the early '90s, CBS had all of Hollywood on lockdown. CBS was everywhere. - CBS was already the
entire Fairfax District, Beverly Center, La Brea,
Highland and Hollywood. That whole area was
kind of ran by the crew. - [Crew Member] Let me
introduce you to Martel Avenue. We are walking down fucking
old Russia Street and shit. We're busting out with
the tags on the poles. Who's up? Fuck that, I
don't know who that is. - You didn't walk
through our neighborhood. You didn't come paint our rooftops. You didn't come do anything
in our neighborhood. And if we saw you, you were either, you had to scrap or you had to bail. - We'd just really kill
different neighborhoods, just stalk it out and
just bomb all the spots. We'd go to different areas. Fairfax was our hood, and we just really killed
it on a day-to-day basis. - This is an area that we
used to terrorize a lot. That's how we first started really congregating up on Melrose. I would say, every fuckin'
rooftop we had throw-ups on. We used to chill there,
we used to smoke weed, maybe we would do some acid, trip out. - Crossing freeways, risking our lives to
hit those middle lanes, hitting highway
overpasses, bombing trains, running from dogs at the yards, I mean, that shit was
not gonna stop us, dude. We were just constantly active. - Man, writin' on everything, buses, fuckin' walls, man, freeways. Just taking trips on
buses for hours all day just to come back and act like we regular. You know what I'm sayin'? Pick up the little kids,
like I said, take them home, say what's up to Moms, just to get ready to go out on
a writin' mission that night. You know what I'm sayin'? Kinda fly shit like that. - Our crew was so big at that time, and everybody was so active. It wasn't like, just hang around. It's like, everybody in the
crew was busting their ass. - It was almost impossible
to stop its growth. CBS was so desirable at that day and age, that everyone wanted to be from CBS. - They stood in line to be a part of it, and we had to reject people, and put 'em through
rigorous tests, like I was, hazing to be a part of it. And
if you didn't fit the bill, you didn't fit the bill. - You had to bring photos of your pieces. You had to bring photos of your rooftops. You had to have proof. You couldn't just come back,
oh, yeah, I've been killing it! That shit didn't work in our crew. You had to have proof. - It was my goal to get
in CBS at that point. Skate was like, "All right,
I'm gonna give you five things you gotta fuckin' hit up". I was like, I'm gonna get
up on the Hard Rock car on the roof of the Hard Rock. But I got really lucky. I found in the second
level parking structure, I found an air conditioning
duct that I could crawl through right onto the roof! And I crawled through
the air conditioning, and I got up there, and I hit up all the way down
the side of the car, I think. Anyway, they were pissed. I think it was on the news or something. It was vandalism! And everyone was watching down from below. It was kinda hot. - [Narrator] Graffiti began appearing in underground magazines,
like "Can Control", books, like "Subway Art",
and films, like "Style Wars". Suddenly, graffiti writers
were underground legends. - Graffiti, at that time, was treated so superstar
status in a weird way in LA. (skateboards shuffling)
(boxes clattering) The skaters and the graffwriters were able to get into all the clubs, and get all the drink tickets, and get all the special
tables, and all the bullshit. Celebrity status, for real. No reason at all, other than being hoodlums. - [Female] Look. (giggles) - I mean, it was crazy. Nothing was taboo. You could do, and do anything, and we did, and it was nuts. - Yeah, it seemed like a lot
of ground was broken back then, and we were at the forefront of it, getting into magazine
covers, getting into videos, getting into music videos,
doing album covers, doing storefronts and store interior. Taking it way beyond graffiti art. - [Narrator] Hollywood became
a collision of cultures. Punk rock and hip-hop exploded. And spots like Beat Non
Stop and the HipHop Shop brought the worlds of
graffiti and music together. (uptempo hip-hop music) - The HipHop Shop was right
up the street on Melrose. I think it was early '90s, it really started cracking, and Hex decided he wanted to
open up a spot on Melrose. - I made it the epicenter of hiphop for the entire city of Los Angeles, and it pretty much went international, and I give a lot of love and
a lot of respect to CBS Crew for being right there in the trenches as we were getting this work done, bro. - Next thing I know, it
became kinda like a clubhouse. All types of people
started hanging out there. I ended up going up there
pretty much every day. (uptempo hip-hop music) - We would go and do the
HipHop Shop every Sunday, and then everybody would meet there, and get some food on Melrose, and kick it, and we would all throw all
of the black books around, and people would do pieces, and we'd draw, and do
throw-ups, and everything. - [Narrator] Skate's leadership and his ability to bring people together was a catalyst that helped shape future generations of musicians,
artists, and pop culture. - I was out with Skate painting
behind the HipHop Shop, and he knew Shot from UTI, and we're just paintin' in the back alley, and Shot came up, and he's like, "Yo, Aaron, you know anybody
that plays guitar, man?" And he's like, "Actually, my boy right here,
Ares, man, he plays guitar". (electric guitar strums upbeat tune) He hooked me up with Shot right then, and we just formed La Downset. ♪ To break down the walls ♪ ♪ Only to become a stage ♪
- Out of CBS, came Downset, (heavy metal rock music plays) Drunk With Power, Shape Shifters. ♪ Dividin' the vice crews
that don't go together ♪ ♪ Like a pervert virgin whore ♪ ♪ For a holy war or your ♪ - The Pain. (heavy metal rock music plays) Mickey Avalon, Crazy Town, DJ Rob-One. - This is Rob-One, and we're at the world's famous HipHop Shop here on Melrose. Yeah, we're doing a segment for the show called Hip-Hop Classics. - [Narrator] Rob One
was a graffiti writer, (records scratching) a DJ, and a force in the
early LA hip-hop scene. - I used to just go over
his house all the time, and there was no living room. It was just all crates of records. And he was the first dude
that really kinda inspired me. He was doin' four-track
mixes on a cassette tape. (records scratching) He used to just kick it hard, and I used to watch that,
and be like, wow, man! He had every record ever
and stuff, you know? - Oh.
- It was fun as shit, man! I feel sorry for these kids now. I mean, we had breakin',
graffiti, rappin', Djing. All that shit was like,
you know, it was poppin'. It was fun. (rap music plays indistinctly) It was dangerous, but fun. - Not only were we diverse, though, the thing is, you had guys
all at the top of their game. So when we'd show up and go in, it was like, wow, now the party's here. We had the DJ, who was hosting the party, and the freshest artists that
were there painting the walls where everybody was partying at. And it's just the whole thing we did. We showed up, and
collaborated all together, and created this giant city
bomb squad that everybody knows. - [Crew Member] You rockstar, you! (crew laughing) You rockstar! (intense whooshing) - [Narrator] Pioneering companies, like Gypsy and Thieves,
Tribal, and Conart, took graffiti and blended it with fashion in a way no one had ever done before. - I guess around 1984 is
when I started doing graff. A couple of years later, I kinda saw the concept of
putting graff on clothing, and Skate was like, "Dude, you gotta meet some of
my cats from the CBS crew". Mear was probably one of
the first cats to get down. And then it was Xpres, and Axis, and Tren. And so Skate kinda
opened up the floodgates. CBS became the backbone to Conart. - Every hip-hop dude
wanted the cool clothes, the real clothes, so they were wearing it. The clothing was the catalyst, to me, of, this is way bigger than our subculture. This is worldwide. - [Narrator] Skate was
constantly connecting the dots, putting people together
to make them better. - All of these different crowds, man, gave Skate such respect. You had the nerds, you had the skaters, you had the graff writers,
you had the thugs, all of 'em gave him respect. He was able to make it all into quan, because he was who he was. You know what I mean? He was the knot that kept
us all together, you know? - He would be there reaching
out to writers, lovin' 'em. He was working with a lot of homeless kids that were linked up on
Hollywood Boulevard. He would work in the East Side. And he was just all over, man. On the buses. You see this big Magilla Gorilla, overgrown viking, man, with a heart the size
of, man, of City Hall. - [Narrator] Skate laid
down the rules for the crew, and everyone was expected
to follow the rules. - We had rules, specific rules, about what side of the street to walk on, where to be at night, and how many people were
supposed to be with us. And he would stay up and wait
for us to show up back home. If we were out until four
or five in the morning, he would wait. He wouldn't
go to bed until we showed up. - I used to take pictures,
come all the way down here, and take pictures of the alleyways. And I read about Skate in the newspaper, and when he got a presentation from the City of Los Angeles
for a beautification project, and that's how I first learned
about Skate, which is crazy. So I sought Skate out. (upbeat hip-hop music) - Painted his ass off more than
anybody in the crew, always. He was painting every single day. And he taught everybody something. Even Mear, he would teach Mear shit. And whoa, he'd teach
Mear something, you know? But Mear had to be taught. - I think a lot of us lost our fathers, and we are that generation, and so that's where the gangs come from. That's where the violence, and
the anger, and the aggression and the graffiti, graffiti
came out of that, you know? Not having a dad there at nighttime when you come in at two in
the morning to whoop your ass. - [Narrator] When some members
started ignoring the rules, Skate threatened to leave CBS. - So I was at the meeting at Wattles Park, where Skate came up. He was there. We were all there. And he said he was gonna leave the crew. And we're all sitting there
like, "What do you mean, man?" "What are you talking about?" And he didn't like some of the things that were going on with
certain people in the crew. - Well, it was hard enough
for him to get to a point to where he had a crew
and a family with us, and then we started runnin' wild, and jeopardizing everything
that he had built, and he couldn't control it anymore. - I trotted down the hill, I
caught up to him, and I said, "What do you mean?" "You can't leave the crew!" "You're the crew." "What do you mean?" And he just looked at me, and I... (exhales loudly) He just
said something like, "Oh, I don't know", or
whatever, and I gave him a hug, and that was it. That was the last time I saw him. (female speaks indistinctly) - [Crew Member] Whoa! What? (female chatters indistinctly) (intense whooshing) - Nobody wanted to do walls anymore. Everybody was just a hot
thing to do a freight, 'cause who knows? Your freight might make it to New York. It might make it somewhere else. Somebody else in a different
state is gonna see your piece. So it was like moving art, so everybody wanted to do it. - It wasn't huge. There wasn't a lot of people
painting trains back then. It was just a handful. - One of the first times
I'd ever seen a train car with graffiti on it was this gigantic train car that
said, "Cotton Belt Slayers", and I had no idea what it meant, but it said, "Cotton Belt Slayers", and it said "Can't Be Stopped". It was this giant thing that I saw from 500 yards away or something, and I just sat there next to the train, next to the road, and I was just like, I wanna do that. That's what I wanna do. - It started getting
more and more popular, and by the early '90s, we were going out at least
a couple times a week, and doing freights pretty much more than we were doing walls. (upbeat hip-hop music) - It was a serious thing. I mean, not only you had
to watch out for cops, you had to watch out for gangsters, you had to watch out for bomb. You were there to do what you need to do, and get out safely.
(spray can hissing) (upbeat hip-hop music continues) - Just when you walk in the
yard, it has a specific smell. It's like you smell
that old, rotting wood, and you don't know what
you're stepping on. There's dead animals in the yard. It's just like a whole
'nother thing, you know? Cuttin' through fences. And it just had a whole
different feel to it, you know? To me, that felt like the thing. (spray cans hissing) (intense whooshing) (eerie suspenseful music) Hit the yard, and he's
talking to some workers, so then we roll in, (eerie suspenseful music continues) and it was still too
hot to paint, you know? So you did a quick crash outline. (eerie suspenseful music continues) - We were supposed to go that night with him to the train yard. (eerie suspenseful music continues) - And that night, the yard was real thick. I think there's two running
lines, or three running lines, and then there's 10 or
15, just, tracks full. (eerie suspenseful music continues) And usually, there's a
couple of extra tracks where you're safe from the running lines. - You just have to be really careful of, you have the fast trains
going through there, like express trains. (eerie suspenseful music continues) - 'Cause that yard has the Metrolink and Amtrak running through it, and they don't slow down. They're doing 75 miles an hour. (eerie suspenseful music continues) - [Blosm] We did see the lights. - [Big 5] Green huge lights. Everyone saw it. We knew it was comin'. - We were all yards away from each other, meaning, me, Beri, and Skate. - Skate's like, "Let me get your camera, I'm gonna take a picture
of this real quick". And we kinda got into a little argument, like, "Dude, I don't wanna". "Let's just wait". He's like, "No, no, no,
let me get a picture". So I'm not gonna tell him no. (chuckles) So he grabs my camera, and
he's taking a couple pictures, and then the train, I hear the train honking.
(horn honks) - We weren't moving fast. Not as fast as that train was moving. - And then all of a sudden,
the train just goes by. (train clattering on the tracks) - We just kinda huddled up
against one of the trains, and then heard the braking. - [Big 5] And then it stopped, probably the end of the train,
and when it finally stopped, it was probably, maybe 200 feet
from where we were standing. - And Beri was able to
turn around and say, "I don't see Skate anymore". (helicopter blades whirring) (helicopter blades continue whirring) - [News Anchor] 23-year-old Aaron Anderson was killed about 10:30 last night when he was hit by a
northbound Amtrak train. Anderson and four
juveniles were reportedly tagging a freight car in a Southern Pacific yard in Van Nuys. Anderson was apparently
crossing the tracks when struck by the passenger train. Authorities say, "Taggers
are taking greater risks in their graffiti-ing, climbing
freeway overpass signs, and increasingly tagging railroad cars". - There've been tags
found in a lot of places where it's real dangerous to go, up on the back of freeway signs, the tops of buildings. The taggers have a tendency to call that going to the heavens. The more tags that they can
get in dangerous places, obviously, the more fame
they're going to get. - Through the years, taggers have felt they could roam the city and graffiti at will. Last night, they found out the deadly and final consequences of tagging. Joe McMahan, Channel Seven
Eyewitness News, Hollywood. - All right, happiness and joy for... So we can show the world
that we know what's up. - We had to identify somebody. They walked me out to the tracks to identify something, someone. And at that point, it was just like, how do you talk to Skate's mom? (intense dramatic music) - When I hung up the phone, my mom asked, "What was that about?" And I had told her, 'cause she had known Skate for the same amount of time that I had, 'cause he'd been a part of my
life from day one in my home. And I told her that
Aaron got hit by a train, and she stood up off the
couch, and she asked me, "Well, what are you gonna do now?" And I walked outta the house, and all I could think about is, what the fuck are we gonna do now? Well, what do we do now? - [Hex] I came home
about two in the morning, and I was listening to a radio station, just to help me go to sleep, and they were talking
about a graffiti artist who got killed, and they were talking about Aaron. - His last words to us was, "Go, go, go!" I mean, he totally... He must've seen the advance
of the train a lot faster than we seen the advance of the train. - I got upstairs to a phone
call from Anger of Anger crying, and Anger, basically, after a few minutes, being able to tell me what happened. So it was odd, because
Skate had called me, and left me a few messages
to let me know he was just, I don't know, going to paint, going to do a crash piece,
and saying what's up, or I don't know if it was a farewell, or what it was, but fuck.
- At that point in time, it wasn't really a good time in his life, but he might have been strugglin'. I don't know. There's different theories you
can think about it, you know? He always wanted to go out like a king. Always said he would. Did he do it? Who knows? It's everybody's theory. I think it's a possibility. I
think he might have got fed up and a little tired of everything. Other than that, the boy was bad. Who the fuck takes on a train? That's gangster. I made 60 of these, and if you had one of these, you're an OG. That was a piece of shirt he died in. I made about 60 of those, and I gave 'em to everybody
that was close to him, so they could have a piece of the shirt that Skate was wearing when he died. ♪ Skate-One ♪ ♪ Oh, yeah ♪ ♪ What up, world? ♪ ♪ This is Rob One ♪ ♪ Compensation of in and out ♪ ♪ To reminisce ♪ ♪ About the brother ♪ ♪ There is no other ♪ ♪ Ace rock the name of ♪ ♪ Sk8 One ♪ ♪ Word ♪ ♪ Can't be stopped ♪ - Skate was a big, important character for LA graffiti history. I mean, there's a few kingpins within LA. There's a few, and Skate is definitely in that list of the main people who
started graffiti in LA. - I think his life experience
did take a huge toll on him, and I think his identity
was totally graffiti, and perhaps, being displaced
was more than he could bear. - I remember him telling it one time, just, if it wasn't for graffiti, I wouldn't be nothin'. That was it. That was his focus. That was his focus in life. And he brought that passion
to bear in his work, and he obviously inspired a lot of people, not just from CBS Crew. - It wasn't a good time. It wasn't the most righteous end for him. It was a life cut short. It's fucked up. It's an ugly story. - Didn't have it easy. (dramatic eerie music) People used to really
punk him and mistreat him. That forging is what made
Skate the beast that he was. And had he not been forged (clears throat) into that man he became, I don't think that CBS
would have the strength, and the love, and the cohesiveness
that they have as a crew. And I never had a chance
to really tell the homie, I should have given you a chance, but I'm proud of what he did. (dramatic eerie music continues) - [Narrator] To honor Skate's memory, the crew went on an all out bombing spree. - I can't remember the number exactly of how many memorial
walls went up for him, but I remember some very heavy hitters at the time going out
and doing walls for him. No one asked them to. They just went and did
on their own accord. - I mean, graffiti-wise, we were stronger than ever almost, just to prove a point for Skate. We're gonna do the most damage we've ever done for Skate, you know? - I'll say this. I'd like
to say this on camera. I really would. I've never wrote R-I-P next
to his name, never once, back then, now, and I won't, because he's still here with us. He's still here with us. (intense dramatic music) - [Narrator] One memorial on the side of a Hollywood art gallery would open an important door for the crew. - We were over painting Zero One Gallery. It was a little bit
after Skate passed away, and it was the rest in peace wall that we were doing for him. - It was massive. I mean, Mear did this
character of Skate's face. Dude, it was giant. - It kinda flipped some lids. They weren't used to seeing
graffiti done like that. - [Narrator] Suddenly,
gallery owners wanted graffiti inside for sale. - That's where Mear started
doing some of his shows, and he started showing
with different people. - It was the beginning of
the new era of what graffiti, not only in the streets, but we were taking it to the galleries, and we were defending it, and it was getting out
to magazines, and videos, and out to the world. - [Fan] Keep on running
to your work all the time. - Yeah?
- It started the beginning of who we are now. - Mear One.
- Yeah! - So it was a really beautiful time to get that mural going on, and kind of have that
ascension from the streets into the fine art gallery, and kinda help, I guess, in
some ways, further the art form. - I think that spawned a
little bit of the trend, the trend that was to come,
which was people getting, wanting to now make
money at doing their art. You know what I mean? And it wasn't only about
running out, and doing it, and giving the public a free show. - Let's get serious for a second, 'cause we all got some painting to do, and other things to-
- Yes, we do. (Anger speaks indistinctly) - [Narrator] Anger stepped
up to try and fill the void left by Skate's passing. - When Skate passed
away, Anger stepped in, and he became leader of the crew. He had these big shoes to
fill, and he filled 'em, and he was out there pushing the crew. - Someone had to. Someone had to step up, 'cause if not, we just
would've all just... I think the whole thing would've
just really fallen apart. - Creatively, you had Mear, Axis, Xpres, all these dudes out there doing these huge, incredible murals. So the crew was steam rolling. - He did take the reins, and started adding new members, and started wanting to
keep it the way it was. - [Posh] And you had people, really, out there crushing again, crushing the yards. Melrose back on point. People recruiting again,
and quality recruiting. Some of our best members came from, that are still in the crew today, came from that period of '95 to '99. - You do a graffiti tour. - [Narrator] A dominant
creative force for the crew was Skate's friend, Rob One. - Killing shit.
- Yeah, that's big Anger One right here. - One thing that Rob definitely passed on
to me was his passion. I mean, when he spoke about the crew, when he told stories about
the crew, you could feel it, like the way he felt. - Rob was, like I say, very inspirational to a lot of us, because he was this
big guy in the industry and in the hip-hop community. - What the fuck am I doing here? (laughs) - He didn't carry himself like that. He had so much love for the graffiti game, that when you were with him,
that's what he focused on. - What was so glamorous about CBS, it encapsulated everything
from punk rock, to hip-hop, to graffiti, to LA
hardcore street mentality. - CBS with Rob, Mek, man, that got CBS respect
all across the board. (records scratching)
- DJ Rob One. - That's when LA was at its peak, and Rob One was... He was a king. - I'm still here. - [Posh] Rob wasn't gonna talk about that. He was more an action guy. He's gonna do it more than
he's gonna talk about it. He brought some people around that, again, are people that are
still here to this day. - I just wanted to be a part of it so bad. And same with Skate, you know? He had the same ambition
and drive I think his... The forefathers of CBS saw that in Skate, and like Rob saw that in me, and he basically took me under his wing, a toy from the West Side trying to get down with
the Hollywood's elite. - [Crew Member] Rob One outta retirement-type-of-shit (laughs) thanks to my man, Bleek. Hey, who's that vandal? - He was taking out the
younger crop of guys, and getting them in the freight movement. He was continuing on
what Skate had started. (intense whooshing) - [Narrator] By 1995,
Rob One's creative energy helped bring important
new members into the crew, Bleek, Nicnak. - Yo, all right! - [Narrator] Haste, Plek, Quake, Esel, Mers, Craola, Atlas, and Cisco join the crew. - [Esel] I remember Cisco,
dude. I used to drive by, you'd see a wall full of pieces, multicolor, wild-style pieces, and then you would see a Cisco the size of six of those pieces, dude. No matter how hard you tried to look at what everybody else did, all you would see is a Cisco. - [Narrator] New members like Craola would push graffiti into fine art. - There's something
really free about saying, I'm gonna paint this
stuff that's in my head. There's a storyline
behind everything I do, and I don't need the rules
of somebody telling me what I'm gonna paint right now. - I'm at Anger's house, and I'm watching this guy named Craola paint these characters, and watching Axis teach Craola, and seeing all these
things, that in hindsight, are still this fantasy for me that I was so happy that I was a part of. - [Narrator] Atlas bombed LA hard. He became one of LAPD's most wanted. - Atlas was a phenomenon in
LA with intricate letters, and once he got arrested, he made a transition into doing something different than his lettering, which became cat-lyst. - [News Anchor] Here along the freeways, mostly on the East Side of Los Angeles, these cat faces are
staring back at motorists. - He kinda kinda reinvented a take from an artist in the '80s, who was painting manhole
covers in the LA River, and making 'em look like cat heads. And he took that, and just destroyed all of
LA with cats, cat faces. - [News Anchor] You
might have seen the tags all over Downtown Los Angeles. They're on buildings, and on freeways. They're the faces of cats. - Word up. What's up? Rob One, CBS Crew LA representing! - [Narrator] Rob One's
status in the music business would expand the crew
outside LA to San Francisco. - He always wanted the crew to grow, and he wanted to get out of LA, and become this just worldwide thing. - '97 Bum Rush Tour, LA to San Fran. - Yep.
- I gotta give a shout to Can't Be Stopped. Yeah, I gotta give a shout-
- You know, Rob traveled all over the place. He did promotions for rappers. He did his DJ thing. He traveled, would meet people. - He goes to San Francisco,
'cause he's DJing. He meets these dudes,
these dudes from LORDS. They're killing it with graffiti. He's like, let's trade some members. ♪ Rob One is on the microphone ♪ - One time, the Shape Shifters rap group, which was all made up of members of CBS, came up to the Bay, and I
do hip-hop music as well, so Rob One hooked us all up, and I started kickin' it with them. - [Crew Member] The mad
ass California Bomb Squad, read it and weep. - [Topr] And they started
comin' to the Bay and painting. - [Posh] That had a very
similar vibe to us at the time, and a similar approach to things. And eventually, we just ended up merging a lot of our guys into theirs, and they ended up with a lot
of members in CBS as well. - [Crew Member] Always
in front of the piece. Even though we're done, he needs to step. - We just got united under
that umbrella of doin' art, doing graff, and gettin'
into music and shit together, and that's the beauty of it, man. - Sister crews, I'd call it, or family-
- Brother crews. - Brother crews.
(crew member laughs) (group laughing) All right, hey, let's do that one again. (group continues laughing) (intense whooshing) - [Narrator] CBS was a family, but even brothers fight. - Hey, fuck you!
- Ahh! - Get in this shit, and get the fuck outta here!
- Hell yeah! - I think me and Anger began to start having some major falling
out after Skate died, and it seemed like tension was building up between other heads in the crew. - [Narrator] Disagreements
with members of the crew drove Mear from CBS. - Rob got into some shit
with Mear, and I was there, and Mear was just kinda at the end of of his tenure with CBS. - I left the crew at a place where I was super frustrated with it. Me and Anger, we butted heads a lot. - [Narrator] Mear's departure was not the only difficulty ahead for the crew. Lightning was about to strike twice. - You live another day. You know what I'm saying? Anyway, just a little somethin'. Peep the method. - One day, Rob comes home. I was living with him, and he comes home, and he thinks he has a hernia. He was workin' at Beat Non Stop, putting out records with 2Mex, and we were going to Hawaii. We were going to Mexico. We were painting. We were traveling the world
with Shape Shifters performing. He goes in to get a checkup the next day, he's diagnosed with cancer. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, what's up? DJ Rob One in your face. That's what I'm talkin' about. Feelin' kinda sick. - He did open up to me, and it was a sad thing, man, 'cause I experienced it with him, dude. I was there with him every day. I'd wake up with him, call it a night, see him before I fuckin' knock out, dude, and then just hear all this
he would've to go through. - [Posh] It was the most evil thing that could happen to someone that was, really, a very, just
a force, a positive force. - We did a Shape Shifters
and 2Mex show on Halloween in Pomona at the Fox Theater. Circus was dressed up like
a cop with a pig nose, and the security guards
were the Nation of Islam, and they weren't with that shit, and some conflict broke out, where they were talking shit to Rob, and Rob was talking shit to them. - He looked at us like, I know we're gonna get jumped right now, so I'm gonna say whatever
the fuck I wanna say. And that was just Rob. - Fuckin' beat him down for a second, and motherfuckers started rioting. Kids started breakin'
windows, and all this shit, and they fucked up his leg. - What hospital, man?
(gurney clacking) - I think he just finally
started giving up. When it was Skate's anniversary, his mother had just passed, and then he was just,
all at the same time, he finally just stopped fighting. - He knew it was his time to go, but he didn't feel no kind of way, other than he just hoped
everybody held it down. He was really in good spirits. I don't know if a lot of people know that, but it was a good thing to see. He wasn't all down and fuckin' out. - Déjà vu, you know what I mean? We're losing another one again, 'cause Skate and Rob were like... That was two and two. You know what I mean? That was like the guys who
were always repping CBS, and who showed us how to rep the crew. You know what I mean? And now this dude was the second dude that was about to leave us. - [Narrator] Mear and
Rob never had a chance to settle their differences. - When someone passes away, if you don't, if you haven't made it right, you're never gonna see them again, and so you kinda like, you live your life with this thoughts of, I wish I could have said this. So you end up living with some weight in your heart and your chest. - [Narrator] The impact
Skate and Rob had on CBS will live on forever. - We are at the grave
side of my man, Rob One, also known as Ager, from the CBS Crew. Some people know him as Robert Corey. And he was my friend. And he was one of the guys
I started doing this with. From the very beginning, he was there. Him and my buddy, Skate. (dramatic instrumental music)
- Think about it all the time. I wish he was here. I do. I miss Rob a great deal. He
was a good friend of mine, and I wish he was here to
see what people have done, and where they've taken the crew, because I do think he would be proud, and I think... Absolutely, I think he'd be proud. ♪ Yo, yo, yo, yo ♪ ♪ Hey, yo, Rob One ♪ ♪ Remember rockin'
Rapid Transit District ♪ ♪ And for 217 came by, you
know we had to dis it ♪ ♪ Steal a drop of sweat
over a hat to trade later ♪ ♪ When I bounce to the mic ♪ ♪ Yo, you stuck with the fader ♪ ♪ I see this pain on Melrose and La Brea ♪ ♪ You made the turntable more
than just a record player ♪ ♪ Player ♪ ♪ We was ditchin' Ja
World to steal paint ♪ ♪ My brother, you're immortal ♪ ♪ You're a hip-hop saint ♪ ♪ It's just two days
ago when old D told me ♪ ♪ About this record for the
wealth of individual health ♪ ♪ So I'm here ♪ ♪ Man, we family ♪ ♪ I hope this helps ♪ ♪ But I'm mad I didn't call
and ask you 'bout yourself ♪ ♪ From create to devastate ♪ ♪ In the pupils that dilate ♪ ♪ So you still can't be stopped ♪ ♪ While you loungin' with Skate ♪ ♪ You said, brother,
kick a clean cup for me ♪ ♪ Said, R-O-B, the O-N-E ♪ ♪ What ♪ (upbeat hip-hop music continues) - [Narrator] Members of the crew would take the lessons learned from Skate and Rob to become successful, celebrated gallery artists. - Got your CBS tag?
- Yeah. - Oh, yeah, Mear, Mear's doing great. Mear shows all the time. His paintings are fantastic. - To see it bleed into the fine art world, that was part of the quest, part of the whole intention on some of us, some of us more artistically motivated. - Craola is killing it. They're selling their shows out. (indistinct chattering)
(fan laughs) - It was just this magical thing. Graffiti was the voice
of the dissatisfied soul that would be heard by
millions of people, finally. - I've got to work with,
and curate projects with, the Getty Research Institute, with El Segundo Museum of Art. I have a piece in the permanent collection at the Getty Research Institute, but I would've never
imagined that'd be the case. When I was 17, 18, 19-years-old, no one cared about it. - Graffiti has given me all, basically, all my long-term friendships, and it's given me my life. It's given me a career. It's given me... Everything I have to this
day is through graff. So I owe that to the crew. - Oh, yeah, the one and only!
(Cisco laughs) - My buddy, Cisco, went on from being one
of the most prolific, crazy dudes on the street. He's a professor now, and I think he's written
a book about this, and he talks about this stuff. Gives lectures. I mean, it's incredible. - CBS is about guys with like-minds coming together to make
this phenomenon happen, and that doesn't involve money, that doesn't involve egos, that doesn't involve power relationships, it just involves coming
together to get the job done. (indistinct chattering)
- No one cares. - CBS!
(group clamoring) - Whoa, whoa, whoa, you thought some. (upbeat rock music) (upbeat rock music continues) (upbeat rock music continues) (indistinct chattering)
(spray can rattling) - [Narrator] 2014, CBS invites
Mear back into the crew for a 30th anniversary show. - It comes with just a spirit for you, a want for you to be back part of CBS. - I think that some of
the work that myself, which eventually brought artists that are as good as Xpres
to the crew and Phever, with the help of Axis,
and a few other people, proved to, not only LA,
but to the entire country, that we put graffiti, in general, and the West Coast on the map. - I mean-
- There was a time when you and me could
have used our brothers to fuckin' help us. (Anger speaks indistinctly)
I'm cool, dude. - Word up.
- I appreciate- (both grunting)
Oh, shit! I appreciate the way you talk, and all, too.
- Me? I know, I talk-
- The reunion lasted only a few short weeks. The show was canceled. - I think their relationship is soured to the point where it's just... I mean, it is what it is. It's kinda like there were
good times or bad times, and now, there are no times, I guess. And I think that's where it is. - [Narrator] Despite the troubled times, heartbreak, and conflict, CBS can't be stopped. - It wasn't about our graffiti, and how dope Mear was, or how up I was, or how fresh Rob was a DJ. It was about our mindset
in all those capacities. In every single one, I'll whoop your ass, I'll burn you on the wall, and I can out-rap you or
out-DJ you on the spot. (crew member speaks indistinctly) - [Narrator] Bleek would take
the term, can't be stopped, to a new level. - My ambition was going
and killing the world. Fuck LA! I mean, LA is a buff. - [Narrator] He would push
CBS outside of California to New York and the rest of the world. (indistinct chattering)
- Yeah, yeah. (indistinct chattering continues) - [Crew Member] What is the top? - So I went to New Jersey, I went to New York, and I met people like Nace, and Chip, and my boys from Mayhem. - CBS is like, we were just talking about how many guys worldwide are down with the crew, 'cause this is like, it represented something
when we were kids, and it still represents that now, just like a brand that lasts forever. - Yeah, man, CBS Brazil. Please welcome. We have a lot of walls. - Wanto, CBS Crew Japan. - I'm Snuk One from Austin, Texas. I represent CBS Crew. - Publishers started to
jump on that bandwagon. I'm lucky I got in
early enough to do this. Lo and behold, the opening page here is,
indeed, a classic period of time with Big 5, and Anger,
and Skate, and Blosm, 'cause that was the time.
- What I had learned in the early '90s, being that we had a lot
of characters in the crew, we also had a leader, like Skate, kinda running the crew. And after he passed away, we wanted to, or I know I wanted to, make it persevere. I wanted to carry it on. I didn't want it to just stop. I liked the feeling of having meetings, of having a purpose and a direction for
graffiti artists to go. - When I go out and I hit
up those three letters, I hit up CBS, I have the weight of all those
people that came before me, and all the other people that are in the crew
right now writing that, 'cause I'm writing CBS, and I have to represent
that level of artistry. - We get a lot of love, because
we understand the integrity that those three letters
carry, CBS, Can't Be Stopped. - The loyalty that we had to each other, the common understanding of, what I have is also
yours, inside of our crew, we were always on the outside fighting our way into everything, or fighting our way out of something, and it was, oh, we can only rely on us, and I definitely bring the loyalty aspect into everything that I do. I don't have anyone to count on but these same people for all these years. - What Skate was very popular for was giving everybody a chance. You know what I mean? It was about letting people in the crew. We didn't understand it that much then. You know what I mean? But it's definitely
something that we carry on. A lot of people came and
went throughout the years. There's been homies that
have been gone for 10 years, and they've been back. Skate had this aura about him, that you wanted to be around him, and Nace was the same.
- Yeah. - Yeah, Nace was the real deal. - He was one of our new dudes that we knew we could trust leaving this family in his hands on
that side of the country. - It felt like they wanted to be part of a bigger-than-them-type of movement. - We met people like Nace and Next, who are passed on as well, through John, because they knew everybody
wanted to be around him, because his energy was so vibrant. The last thing he did
was painting day trains and never returned. Killed by a drunk driver coming home from painting
trains in broad daylight. - We celebrate him all the time. We celebrate him. We celebrate Rob. We celebrate Skate. We have more of a Hollywood story. It's worldwide. It's grown into a bigger and bigger brand. And we've taken it to Brazil. We've taken it to France, Japan, Texas, New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, North Carolina, Chicago,
Bay Area, back to LA. - It's become a monster, in a sense, because it's everywhere. It's global now. (upbeat hip-hop music) ♪ I'm insane ♪ ♪ Everyone got to make a livin' ♪ (upbeat hip-hop music continues) ♪ I'm insane ♪ ♪ Everyone got to make a livin' ♪ (upbeat hip-hop music continues) (upbeat hip-hop music continues) (upbeat hip-hop music continues) (upbeat hip-hop music continues) (upbeat hip-hop music continues) ♪ I'm insane ♪ ♪ Everyone got to make a livin' ♪ (crew clamoring) (upbeat hip-hop music continues) ♪ I'm insane ♪ (brakes screeching) (metal crashing) ♪ I'm workin' hard but I'm bein' used ♪ ♪ I don't know the faces
but I always lose ♪ ♪ So tell me, what can you do for me ♪ - You don't see it till
your a fuckin' Queen Mary. The fuckin' bitchy self, fits in here. Rip each side of the wall down, and squeeze us between it. Uh-huh, no way! - So basically, that was a transition. And...
(crew laughing) - [Crew Member] Say that again. - You need to save this,
because one day we'll be famous. ♪ Back of the line ♪ - [Crew Member] Do I tell
the truth right here, or do you want me to
just make up something, 'cause-
- No, no. - [Crew Member] Okay. Really, it's just a big ass truck. You're just rolling on the top of it, like "Teen Wolf", catchin' spots. - [Cameraman] Wow! (laughs) Like "Teen Wolf"! - [Crew Member] City Bomb
Squad, California Bomb, Can't Be Stopped, it's all the same. - This is what it looks like.
- Oh! (indistinct chattering)
- Holy shit! - No, no, no, that's fuckin'-
- Bad ass. - You wanna hear about the graffiti, eh? I got your graffiti, eh. - CBS. (cameraman laughs) - [Crew Member] Let's go. (upbeat hip-hop music continues) (upbeat hip-hop music continues) (upbeat hip-hop music continues)
