Foufounes Breakers

Foufounes Breakers
Spray Paint Stencil'd on Canvas
30" X 60"
November 2010

Not so long ago, in the second half of this past summer, I went out to catch an afternoon movie in downtown Montreal. For the life of me, I can't remember which movie it was but i DO remember feeling very pensive after it was over and so I decided to go for a stroll under the gray skies and in the refreshing spittle in the air.

I ended up behind Foufounes Electriques to have a look at the graffiti born during the 2010 Under Pressure festival and stumbled across a crew of breakers that were unknown to me. I took a seat on the semi-dry pavement, reach for my camera and started snapping. After a few minutes I headed for home and more or less forgot about it.


This November, I filtered the breaker photos and found one which I wanted to use to make a painting. Also, there had been a blank 30" X 60" canvas taking up space in my studio for a long time and I figured: "What better time than the present to put it to good use?"

So here we are:
I asked one of the breakers, Ben, for his email address to be able to send him a picture of the finished product, but besides that, I don't know who these guys are. I'll be more than happy to post more info about them if and when I have some.


Growing up, I've always been fascinated by break-dancers but then at one point in the 90's it seemed to become about who could spin the fastest and pull the craziest stunts but there was almost no rhythm in it. Lately, though, I must say that the crews I've had a chance to see in Montreal have brought back the funk and soul and mix the head spins very well with actual dancing and all is well with the universe once more.


That being said... enjoy this piece and keep breaking!

[...]

Derek

I have a new website!!

Please click this link to find more up to date work!

www.kevinmxdermott.com

Thank you!!

Derek - GIFTED

30" X 36"
Acrylics & Spray Paint Stencil'd on Canvas
August 2010

People, meet Derek.
Derek, meet people.

You may know him better as Toronto MC: D-Sisive. He's been around doing his thing for a long time and has only just recently has he gained some well deserved recognition.

When he saw the piece, D's answer was:

"This is super overwhelming. I don't know what to say. It's an honor, sir. Makes me want to cry a little. I love it so much."

As an artist, it doesn't get any better than that. A paycheck pales in comparison to that kind of response.

I discovered D-Sisive when a friend 'shared' me "The Book EP" and "The Idiot: Hijacked Mixtape." Albeit dark, his music was very deep and pregnant with imagery so it was hard to turn a deaf ear. His lyric style reminded me of Buck 65 when he's on that "The Floor" vibe.

Needless to say, when the next album "Let the Children Die" came out I was very excited, but somehow it didn't have the desired effect. Something was missing. There are some definite standout tracks on that album but the whole package didn't do it for me. I reverted back to "The Book" in the meantime and waited patiently for more.

I wouldn't be disappointed. "Jonestown" [a free digital download] and "Vaudeville," his latest efforts, mix both the grim imagery, the crystal clear storytelling and the clever punchline rap very well and display perfectly his progression in all aspects of his writing as well as his vocal delivery. I recommend his music catalog to anyone and everyone, hip-hop fan or not.

You can read more about D-Sisive by clicking here.

You can get it straight from the horse's mouth [his blog] here.

You can download "Jonestown" for free [legal] by clicking here.

The original photo was taken by Tobias Wang. You can check out his Flickr page here.

Enjoy and share!