One of the coolest packages I got in the mail in the last year was a bunch of stuff from legendary seminal graffiti artist FUZZ ONE. If you are not hip to early NYC graffiti, just know that this dude was a major player from back in the early 70s, and crushed the Bronx back in the days. His real name is Vincent Fedorchak, and he also happens to be a real nice dude. He has two books out, and I suggest that you cop them both if you are as interested as I am in all things dark, grimey, and rugged 70s NYC culture.
His first book was simply titled "Fuzz One: A Bronx Childhood", and came out somewhere around 2005 or so. It was put out by a small publishing company, Testify Books. It is loaded with insane stories of a little white dude running around Subway tunnels and rough hoods just crushing shit, and primarily focuses on tales of the train yards and graffiti domination. As Amazon puts it:
"Description: FUZZ ONE is the staggering, outrageous, true story of a raucous and wholly unsupervised childhood in the Bronx of the 1970s. Through Vincent Fedorchak's hilarious deadpan narration of a wild existence wrought with adolescent braggadocio, we are taken on a rough journey through a deteriorating Bronx jungle-wonderland where property value was plummeting and kids ruled the streets. Whether executing a bizarre graffiti mission in another borough with all the insanity of a special ops soldier, fearlessly tracking down Satan-worshippers camped out in the old castles in Van Cortlandt Park, or being the first white boy inducted into the infamous Ebony Dukes street gang, Fedorchak never flinches. Filled with hundreds of never-before-published photos of graffiti art and Bronx cityscapes, as well as first-hand accounts of the exploits of legendary graffiti artists such as DONDI, BLADE, COMET, NOC 167, BOOTS 119, and others, FUZZ ONE is a guided tour of a heretofore uncharted Bronx underworld. This epic tale of youth gone awry fully captures an important era of cultural upheaval in New York City's history. It is set apart from other memoirs via the inclusion of more than 300 images, nearly all in color, that give the volume strong historical, anthropological, and cultural appeal. "
All I can say is I read that joint about five or six times. It is super entertaining.
Suffice to say that I was ultra hyped when I heard Fuzz put out a second book in 2007 on his own dime to help pay for some of his ailing mother's medical expenses. He called the sequel "Last of the Old School" and it is SO RAW. I had to hit him up directly to order a copy up when I heard that it didn't even have pictures and was full of nothing but the most hardcore NYC gritty street tales from the 70s.
Vincent/Fuzz is a super nice guy, and offered to send me some original artwork along with the book. I have to say, he loaded it up for me with pages of colorful art, throwups, an "Anthony" piece for me, autographs, mix CDs, stickers, etc. Peep some samples:
Ultra big ups to the one and only Fuzz One. Buy this book directly from the man. It is loaded with tales the likes of which you would not believe. Fuzz takes on Satanic cults, saves kids from kidnapping predators, and gets into all manner of adventures and debauchery as a little dude in the Bronx. Very fun to read, and will give you a picture of a time and a place you would never comprehend unless you grew up then and there.
It seems the only way to get this unpolished gem is to hit the man up himself. Please do.
He can be reached directly at: djfuzzone@yahoo.com
