Born in Staten Island, New York, in 1976, SEMZ first started to look at graffiti in 1983. “I was in second grade,” he recalls. “I rarely paid attention in class because I was constantly sketching graffiti in my notebook. During that time, when I was seven years old, I traveled to my grandparents house in Brooklyn every Sunday for family dinner. On the way there, the Belt Parkway had a stretch of thousands of feet of graffiti covered walls. Some of the names I remember were FIB, JIS, DC, SPIN BUST, and JENZ. I saw these names as a book I would read, telling a story of a soldier trooping though the city, leaving his name on everything in his path until there was no more ground to conquer. I conquered my ground and I am happy. I am SEMZ, the only one.

“I really started writing, or got good at my lettering, around 1990. Every school night, I stormed my neighborhood with markers I would steal from the local pharmacy. In the mid-90s, my name was a diseased plague all throughout the borough of Staten Island. I was obsessed and I knew I was good at what I did. My heart and mind were there, so I took it All City in 1997. Little did I know, at some point around the year 2000, every writer in New York knew my name.

“There have been great times of endless nights and jobless days. Out of boredom, in the mid90s, I would get a 40 oz of swill or two and signature the entire downtown area of New York. I met up with the notorious IRAK. Some of the first members were EARSNOT, SACE, SETUP, and CINIK. we met every night, taking over downtown like roaches infesting the projects. There are too many stories of great times to tell, but I will never forget those days, nor will I forget those guys and the times we had being young and reckless. ‘We dreamed and we did it’...just like any writer who had maybe made a name for themselves.

“My career started to slow down around 1999–2000. The so-called Vandal Squad would tap my phone, watch my house, and even follow me to the corner store when I went to grab a pack of smokes. They tried and tried to shut me down. ‘All they did was slow me down.’ They chased me for about six years. Since the age of sixteen, I have been arrested about thirteen times, although no serious charges seem to stick. Until the summer of 2002, I was drunk, dancing through the streets like Batman wrecking gates on the Bowery. Shortly after, on Prince Street, I was apprehended and taken into custody for four hours of questioning. ‘I did it. It is me. I am SEMZ.’ I couldn’t deal with the stress so I cracked, ending my illegal escapades for a lifetime. An E felony finally stuck to my joyride of ‘phantom freedom,’ as I call it. P.S. I don’t regret anything.

“As soon as I got out of jail after a week, I started buying materials and stretching my own canvas. I’ve been painting and drawing like a machine ever since. I now have a collection of about one thousand works all based on my knowledge of New York graffiti style. I’ve done local gallery shows featuring all styles of my work, from wild styles to nudes. I’ve been featured in magazines including Dazed & Confused, Shout, YRB, Mass Appeal, New York Magazine, and Vice, among others. Last summer, I had my first movie roll in Bomb the System, a New York-based graffiti film which will be in theaters soon.

“Although no matter how much I have progressed with my work, I have never had much luck with the art world, except for some small coffee shops and a few art bars. I am broke, dead broke, but I still think of myself as a great artist and songwriter, rather than a poor janitor. I guess I am just waiting to be discovered.”