Question: what do you get if you cross Style Wars and In Bed With Chris Needham? Answer: the 2005 documentary about Australian graffiti writer/Bogan extraordinaire/rebel without plausible deniability Justin "Jisoe" Hughes. Who dat? Essentially, Jisoe is Slobbie Unkut: a bizarro world Robbie Unkut who loves graffiti and buges rather than Godfather Don and blogs.
While Jisoe is an archetypal Aussie outlaw who fancies himself as the Ned Kelly of Melbourne's Hip Hop underbelly, the reality is that he's more of a Toadfish Rebecchi in stolen POLO. Filmed over the space of a year in the early 2000s, the documentary catches Jisoe at a crucial juncture in life: living as a petty criminal and reigning as the All City king of Melbourne, but grappling with adult responsibilities as his long-suffering girlfriend Sal gives birth to their babby. You don't need to have dabbled in graffiti as a teenager to enjoy Jisoe, because it's bigger than one of the four dubious elementz of Hip Hop: this is a documentary about a dysfunctional savant struggling to adapt to the conventional pressures of polite society; in that sense, Jisoe the human being has as much in common with Maradona as he does with Dondi.
Extras mannish: Jisoe's police interview after gettin' busted for criminal damage is some of the best catchphrase-comedy you'll ever hear. Two words repeated to increasingly hilarious effect over the space of 9 minutes.
Nobody talks, everybody walks.
Jisoe is the realest.
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/omskinncdf/status/1115386708676059136
ReplyDeleteJisoe being homeless now is one of those classic unconfirmed graffiti rumours like Trap becoming a drag queen or Flo 2 being George Osborne's brother.
ReplyDeleteI also own the exact same red and black Polo Sport jacket as ol' mate which shows that the apple never falls too far from the tree in Melbourne town.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogsD3qde_O4 while the bars are there, the beat on this new Max B song is exactly the type of production he should avoid.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, yeah it just sounds like anybody could have made that song. Which misses the whole point that Max was so good because he didn't sound like anybody else.
ReplyDeleteEttelthun, Unkut interview with Jisoe?
"I looked at my baby and I was oh he's a conehead the poor dude, he's like got down sinners or somethin. I was like it's gonna be heartache."
ReplyDeleteTrap became a drag queen? Trap from Style Wars?
ReplyDeleteThe very same Trap.
ReplyDeleteThere's a pic of him from some 90s graffiti magazine where he's wearing lipstick and carrying a purse.
A Dublin label put out a Max B song a few months ago. I don't know enough about his prolific output to tell if it's not a reissue or something. Sounds good to me anyway. https://soundcloud.com/allcitydublin/max-b-flash-dance
ReplyDeleteOld song, lid. Off Public Domain 2.
ReplyDeleteThat movie ruled.
ReplyDeleteWhen my brother was a student at Cabrillo College near Santa Cruz, CA, he wrote a well-received essay about "mokies," which is what they call "buges" over there (and in Marin Country, where I grew up. My brother and I and many of my friends were hopelessly addicted at the time...the sight of Jisoe chopping up his weed with scissors and emptying a cigarette out on it made me nauseusly nostalgic). They also called them "molars." In Hawaii they call them something I can't remember. Here in Nevada City/Grass Valley CA (central California hill country) the teens call them "domes" and take them in their cars on lunch break. I'd like to see a comprehensive international guide/undercover report sometime. Are people taking mokies in the UK?
They aren't. Though, I've never really been into weed so I dunno what the U.K equivalent is.
ReplyDeleteMotherfuckers here used to Hot Knife hash back in't day. I assume that probably isn't a thing any more 😄
My one hippie friend in college (2006-2015) had some nice specialty "glass knives" for taking hash knifers but my other white trash friend insisted that you get a better dome rush from using a regular shitty kitchen knife. I agree!
ReplyDeleteI really hope Jisoe isn't doing hot spoons of heroin now.
ReplyDelete