Equipto
Thanks to photographer Leo Docuyanan for sending in a few photos of Equipto rocking our NO SHAME New Era from our current Summer '12 collection. Queezy (Equipto) has been spreading the 8 for a minute now. And I love seeing him sport our shit. He's not only a cool ass dude but a true SF living legend. His skill and longevity in the rap game is unquestionable.
I never told him this story that I'll tell you right now. On September 9, 2001 my friend Juan took this photo of me and Giant. A few hours later I was on a plane to Atlanta, GA. REBEL8 wasn't born and I didn't have a damn thing going on in Frisco. I was still trying to fuck with my first clothing venture Teamwolf and most importantly trying to figure out what I wanted to do, who I was, and who I wanted to become. As you can tell from the date of my departure, 9/11 came - after a rager the night before on Peachtree. Everything changed. For the next 3 months I lived with my homie Cole and a few other dudes in Decatur sleeping on the back deck of his house. Every day I'd wake up fucked up around 2, walk to the gas station smokin' Kool cigarettes I got for free the night before at some weak club, buy an Icehouse 40, walk back to the house, paint, and listen to this album on repeat. As a side note, fuck Wikipedia telling me this album came out in 2002, I was knockin' the hell out of this slapper in ATL, in 2001, high as the dickens. Maybe I got an early release. Back to the story. So each day (seriously, every single day) I'd listen to Midnight Machine Gun Rymes and Alibis I got on CD from my homie Nathan just before I cut to the South and make art. It made me miss home greatly, but also carry on and survive in a completely different world. So, a big shot out to Equipto. Thank you for being amazing at what you do and safely bringing me back to SF just in time for mom's Thanksgiving so many years ago. Respect.
