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DEDICATED to the bad, beautiful and bizarre. Tales, visuals and artists, who explores the night, the city, the forgotten and yet to be forgotten. Sometimes a bit rotten, odd, obscure and original phenomenons and through time misunderstood Subcultures. LIVE LIFE LIKE IS A WEBZINE PUBLISHED ONLINE ON A MONTHLY BASIS, BRINGING YOU STORIES, PHOTOS, NEWS AND MUCH MORE FROM THE SECRET WORLD OF OUR NOWADAYS SUBCULTURE. WE ARE ALSO A ONLINE BLOG WITH DAILY UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD WITH AN ONLINESHOP WHERE YOU CAN GET GEAR WE FIND IN USE FOR DIFFERENT SITUATIONS
LIVE LIFE LIKE DISASSOCIATES ITSELF FROM ALL SORTS OF ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES. THE EDITORS, JOURNALISTS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS IS TO STRICTLY CONDEMN ALL SORTS OF ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES. WE ESPECIALLY DISCOURAGE ACTIONS THAT REPLICATE THE ILLEGAL AND EVEN SOMTIMES DANGEROUS ACTIONS SHOWN IN THIS MAGAZINE.
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ALL GRAPHIC CONTENT ARE MADE BY ALEXANDER KREATIV ©
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PHOTOS BY: CPHCPH
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PHOTOS BY: CPHCPH
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PHOTOS BY: CPHCPH
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NIVS - YAS CREW COPENHAGEN / DK
INSIGHT IN A SECRET WORLD
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kandks How did you originally get into graffiti? Some of my friends tried to introduce me to graffiti but I was not interested until I used a marker and started to painting on a wall. The painting whetted my appetite for soon I had been all over town making tags. Then I tried spray paint and from that point in time everything just went wild. A year has gone by and I have not looked back.
What do you find fascinating about painting? It is an incredible feeling to do graffiti. I cannot explain the feeling and I do not think that other graffiti painters are able to do it. That is just how it is. The fascinating part of doing graffiti is the feeling of engaging in the art and spending time and money on making a tag or a piece, although the art you make most likely will be removed right after it has been made.
How would you describe your style? Fast.
How was your crew founded? My friend KOEZ gave me my first real tag which was ‘YAS’. But he was so deeply in love with the letter combination Y.A.S. so he asked me if we should do the name as a crew, and as you can figure out I said YAS!
What’s the meaning of YAS and what does the crew mean to you? YAS is just a name and does not have any literal meaning. Vi are just to graffiti painters who have joined as a team to become a name in the graffiti community. Together, we can do more than being individuals and it also makes it possible for us to do big pieces. The community is very strong and you build friendships and get to all sorts of personalities. The team spirit is strengthening our community and in other words it brings people together doing graffiti. That is just how it is.
How did you guys meet? Did you have an equal obsession in painting, or did one of you get the other one hooked? First time I met KOEZ was at a party many years ago. I did not know anything about graffiti before we met, and frankly I was not interested. As mentioned, we were just friends for years, before I tried using the marker and a new world emerged for me.
What’s your main target? Why? All surfaces that I pass on my way when walking around in the city. Having said that, I never do any tags or pieces on private houses or cars. It is more signs, walls, electric boxes in that awful green color etc., because these places are kept by the municipality and that way I also contributes to the cleaning when paying my tax.
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What motivates you to keep on writing your name and crew? When my things get buffed. It is so motivating to keep tagging, because someone erases or clean up my work. It’s like a race, where your day after day visit the same spot, just to make sure it is your tag that last. You can see this as a game. However, it does satisfy you, when your work is staying longer on a spot. My own perception is if you want to be seen, you must be very persistent and continue to overwrite the spot. So, essential it’s ok for me to know the other painters see my work, and this is very motivating. Because they see me and I see them all over the town.
What would be the wildest thing to do? A whole-train, that is an entire train set painted from top to bottom. However, this is totally out of the question for me, as I don’t have the guts to do it. Besides that, a rooftop in the city center of Copenhagen will be wild. A bit like what the 1UP crew from Berlin are doing. They are rappelling down with all their equipment, only to get the crew name visible.
Any adrenalin kicking story? or action with YAS you especially remember? No, we consider us as so much Ninja ☺. However, your heat does pump the blood with a bit more speed when we are on a mission. If I should tell you one story it would be last year when we did a rooftop (painting the wall on a building from the roof), right next to a train station and the security guard house. It was 1 AM, just after midnight, and we were hiding for more than an hour on the roof, tracking all routines and activities from the security officers, passengers getting on and off the trains as the train drivers. There was a couple of trainsets just next to us where 2 employees from DSB (the train company) was starting to clean the trains. We waited another hour and decided to go ahead, despite the huge risk element. I was so surreal painting the “rooftop” 20 meters above the two employees, less than 10 meters from us. Suddenly one of the DSB employees exits the train, and we immediately threw us to the roof and was trying to figure out if he did see us. The heart was pumping, and luckily he did not see us, so we di finish out job. What a night.
Did graffiti ever cause any problems in your life? Well so and so, not yet -touch wood. My mom is a bit frustrated or pissed, because of all the stains on my clothes. Besides the damage of my clothes I don’t experience greater trouble, but it’s a very expensive hobby and your circadian rhythm is totally upside down, but when I compare it to a night out with the boys visiting bars etc, I would rather spend my money on this.
If you stop writing one day, what would you do then? Day one after stopping I would probably get a good night sleep – and the weeks after. Financially it would help me save up for other priorities, but asking me today I can’t see myself ever stopping, as for me it is a sort of daily (nightly) therapy.
What is your best piece of advice? Always look over your right shoulder – and look again. You need to be in a state of paranoia – despite I not are good at it, all the time. Thanks to NIVS for letting us in his secret world - one of the hidden sub cultures...
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PHOTO BY: YARDFLICKS
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PHOTO BY: YARDFLICKS
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PHOTO BY: YARDFLICKS
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PHOTO BY: YARDFLICKS
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PHOTO BY: YARDFLICKS
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PHOTO BY: YARDFLICKS
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PHOTO BY: YARDFLICKS
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HARRISON HEAT NOT YOUR USUAL DJ
You’ve probably seen him before if you like us, have attended one of the several parties in ’ME You haven’t? well kid just look for a wild afro on top of a big pair of glasses and the whitest col We sat down to get the story behind how he found love for UK Garage, House and Disco instead
Music has always been a big interest for me… But dance-friendly music and music with cool groov I come from a home where there was stacked up with disco, funk, reggae and hip-hop. That’s why with wicked rhythms and pumping beats. Especially disco has fulfilled my interest for dance-frien always played records with Chic, Kool and the Gang or Donna Summer, and since then I’ve also be then.
In high school I found a great love for the house sound. I could not, share it with others, because t as ’hardcore’-music and something that always had bin associated with drugs. So I just cultivated mendous knowledge about it and its history. And to discover it actually had roots in the disco mus For many years i have been clubbing in the city centre of Copenhagen, but was searching long tim mething more challenging than the usual radio hits. I quickly became critical with most of the clu single dimensional music profile.
After high school I started at University, and I began to find home parties with something more un techno. I went to some underground venues and after some time I began to check out the dance fl Copenhagen’. In particular, I remember one evening, which kickstarted my dedication to be a hou very cold January 3 years ago. There was a special night where an Armand van Helden number, ‘W as I remember. A insane house track from 1994. The dance floor was instantly packed with enthus outstanding experience of hedonistic wildness!
A couple of tracks after a different number was being played: Outlander with ‘Athlete’s foot’. I rem is rave house track! It was the night my DJ alias, Harrison Heat occurred. Now, it was the time for me to take a major step towards being a solid and famous DJ. My dream s finally realized.
I was the DJ, known and associated with house and disco. At the beginning I played with an USB s boring very fast, and by virtue of my upbringing among many vinyls, I found it natural to move on Some would argue that I do it to be a hipster or to impress the other DJ’s. That is just pure nonsen because it is such a huge part of who I am – a symbol of my consciousness about music.
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EAT PACK DISTRICT OF COPENHAGEN’. lgate smile you’ll spot in the night life. d of the classic Sunday DJ.
ves, I just always had a fondness for. y I have always had an ear for music ndly music. When I was a kid my father eing playing all of his vinyls from back
the genre was heavily misunderstood d house music for myself and got tresic, just made me even more interested. me for the clubs where there was soubs in Copenhagen by virtue of their
nknown, like hard kicking house and floor in ´The Meatpacking District of use-DJ. It was an evening on ´Bakken´ a Witch Doctor’ was being played, as far siastic dancers having a blast. It was an
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stick, like many others, but that became n to vinyl. nse. Vinyl is very close to my heart,
HARRISON HEAT. FRAME 21
FU
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-MAC MILLER 2015
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3 DECADES OF HUSTLING FRAME 24
RICKY POWELL He’s real, he’s raw, and he might just be the best-known lazy hustler on the planet. Ricky is best known as the unofficial photographer of the Beastie Boys, and has photographed rap legends Not a bad resumé for a guy born and raised in New York City and who has made the streets of that glorious city his own personal studio.
Ricky was in Stockholm to promote his new collaboration with Dedicated Brand, the Swedish sustainable lifestyle brand celebrating creativity and sustainability. Four of Ricky’s most iconic images are gracing a limited run of 100% Organic Cotton t-shirts and to celebrate the collaboration Gallery Steinsland Berliner hosted an exhibition of signed photographs from Ricky’s archives. Savvy Stockholmers quickly snapped up the framed images, giving Ricky and the gallery a near sell out show. Time to sit back, grab a drink, and have some fun with Ricky Powell in Stockholm.
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LIVE LIFE LIKE:
Welcome to Stockholm, Ricky! Is this your first visit here?
Ricky Powell:
Nah, I was here five years ago. I had designed some headphones for another company and did a slide show at the SNS sneaker store. Now, five years later I’ve met Johan Graffner from Dedicated, worked on the collaboration and now I’m here for a short trip. It’s been a lot of fun. Stockholm is a cool city and people are really nice and friendly.
LLL:
So how did this collaboration with Dedicated come about?
RP:
Johan [Graffner, CEO Dedicated Brand] reached out and sometimes it’s just like that for me. A lot of times I try to make things happen and it just goes nowhere, and then sometimes the best things I didn’t even imagine just come at me out of left field.
LLL:
So when Johan reached out had you heard of the brand?
RP:
No, I hadn’t heard of it but he was proper. He actually came to New York and bought some prints from me and that always scores some brownie points with me! He was cool and the collaboration developed. He said let’s do t-shirts, an exhibit, you show your slide show and I said, sure, let’s do it. I thought Johan had a funny accent – sounded like Kirk Douglas in The Vikings – but what the hell, it’s an adventure.
VS:
How did you go about deciding which images to use?
RP:
We both decided. Johan Graffner (CEO Dedicated Brand): Ricky has so many fantastic images and we wanted to find some that had a great flavour but that weren’t over-exposed. I think people are really familiar with Ricky’s work with the Beastie Boys but images like the Eazy-E ones are not as well known, so it was fun pulling those out.
LLL:
So you two sat down, went through the images and narrowed down your choices?
RP:
Yeah, we cosied up on a couch on the sidewalk. (laughter). Nah, he just picked – it was nothing mysterious. He told me what he liked and I had them. I’m very lucky that the material I shot has staying power. Here we are 30 years later and I’m still working, the work is taking me travelling and seeing new things. I’m very fortunate.
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LLL:
Is it surprising to you that a Swedish brand would be interested in working with you in this way, with the t-shirts?
LLL:
Yeah! It’s a humdinger, trust me. Anyone who reaches out is making me look good. It’s a beautiful thing. The bottom line is that I get to touch people’s lives and I love it.
LLL:
Tell us about the opening at Gallery Steinsland Berliner.
RP:
It was great! Dope! They presented my work ‘dopily’, the people were great, the crowd was fantastic and it was all good. The gallery owner was mad cool, the music was good – I’m just pleasantly shocked. I wish all my business trips were this good. I travel a lot and this was one of my favourites. I don’t mean to pontificate too much but I think with me it’s like this: if you want to categorize me as a photographer that’s fine. I come with a large slide show and do my talk. But really, I’m an individualist.
LLL:
But you’ve been called a street photographer.
RP:
Yeah, I like that. I mean, I was known as a celebrity photographer, a hip hop photographer but around 2000 I wanted to shed that and I said, let me just be a photographer. I like being called a street photographer: it has good cred, it’s real, and you don’t need a glamorous studio setup. It’s raw and I think, respectable.
LLL:
So have you taken any photographs here in Stockholm?
RP:
Yeah, totally! It’s for my Instagram. In my 30 years as a pro Instagram is the latest in my lineage. I use it as an outlet, my voice to the world. Before I got it I was on a flip phone and my friends kept telling me to get on Instagram, that it was made for me. And lo and behold, I like the idea of putting my images right up and I can put in my personality with the captions and hashtags. I used it as a gauge, a barometer for how things are received.
LLL:
Do you have a lot of followers?
RP:
It’s funny because just today I reached 24 thousand followers – but I block a lot of people. If I think they’re creepy or bullies or if they leave rude comments I just block them. No one needs that stuff. The numbers are nice and look impressive but I’m more into quality than quantity. I like touching cool people and I love making people laugh – not just look how dope my pictures are – so it’s a fun outlet.
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LLL:
How has your work evolved over the past three decades?
RP:
I just shoot, raw dog. If I see somebody or something I just go for it. There is no formula. I shoot what I like to preserve it and whatever happens after that? So be it. The reception of the work is up to other people. I use it to show people how my game is. Like last night when I was doing my slide show at the gallery a couple of people took my picture, so I took theirs and posted them on Instagram. It shows people what I’m doing, where I’m going, and they’re fascinated to see me in Stockholm doing a gallery show. I’m just a regular Joe. I don’t walk around flashing a camera. I use my phone a lot and just shoot what I like.
LLL:
It sounds a bit like [legendary French photographer]Cartier-Bresson…
RP:
Yeah, just take the shot and move on. No bells, no whistles. Just keep it real.
LLL:
So a lot of people know your story but tell us how this all started for you.
RP:
I had this artsy girlfriend back in the early 80s. New York was really interesting culturally at that time and we’d go to clubs – Roxy, Danceteria – and she’d bring a little camera. So I started going up to couples in booths and ask to take their picture. They were receptive and it was fun: hearing the click and especially the flash. I was using a Minolta at the time. It was a tumultuous relationship with the girl and when we split she dissed me for some corny dude. I was pissed, furious, insulted. A couple of months later I found a bag of her stuff in my room and there was a little camera in there. I looked at the camera and thought, ‘I’m going to take this camera and I’m going to use it, and I’m going to make her sorry after she did me like a wet tuna sandwich.’ That little camera opened many doors for me.
LLL:
When you got the early images back did you say to yourself ‘Wow, I’ve got something here’? Did you recognise your talent?
RP:
Well, my Warhol-Basquiat I shot that right away. It’s kind of like baseball when a rookie hits a home run. I started shooting clubs, gallery openings, and things like that and then magazines like Details and Paper saw me around and I started getting published. When I saw my first photo credit I was like wow! Doors started opening, people liked my eye and persona and things just took off. I was going to college to get a physical education degree and was a substitute teacher for a while but I just became The Lazy Hustler. I did different things, pooled all my resources, and just made it work. And it’s still working 30 years later.
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LLL:
You’re so synonymous with New York. Do you consider yourself essentially a New York photographer?
RP:
Yeah, maybe, but I’m just shooting my life wherever I go. If visuals pop up I shoot them. I use my cell phone a lot but still have my old little camera. I’m not into all the fancy equipment. Shooting is about the eye, the heart.
LLL:
So the images on the t-shirts, tell us about them.
RP:
I love the one of the girl smoking the blunt. I call it my gangster bitch. I took that picture at a Paper Magazine party in Central Park. She came home with me, too! The one with Slick Rick is from a video shoot. Run came to visit the set and I just took that one shot, which is what happens a lot with me. Just see it, shoot it, and keep it moving. I tell people I’m not taking a picture, me and you are creating an image. I’m the photographer, you’re the subject, and we’re doing this together.
LLL:
So today, what are you into?
RP:
I don’t like being grouped in with other photographers. I’m not trying to ascend the world of photography. I’m just being me. The accolades I get are great but a lot of people want to be famous and use the camera to get prestige. I’m not like that. I do it out of love and whatever happens so be it. I became fashionable by accident and if I can maintain and do what I do I’m stoked. I’m working on a new book – this one will have more text than my last four, as well as plenty of images – so it’s all good. I’m just a mad happy lazy hustler and the t-shirt collaboration with Dedicated Brand is nutrition for my soul.
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FEATURED INSTAGRAM: JUP.ONE
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Cr-Mo JAWS Great for cutting.
TYPE 440 STEEL For the muscles.
EPDM RUBBER GRIPS Safety first.
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JUST BECAUSE OTHER PEOPLE DON’T DO WHAT WE DO, IT DOESN’T MEAN IT’S WRONG
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