Come out and network with the 420 event, Friday, September 29, 2017 7pm to 12am. Located at Black Hollywood 8916 Western Avenue, Los Angeles California. With special guest DJ Choice One from 93.5 KDAY-Back in the Day Hits!
Live Graffiti Painting by KCC.
See You all there
Much Love & Respect,
Monica Smiles Tobon
If you missed L. A. Live last friday, here is a little recap of what went down in our beautiful city of Angels. Because as you know; our lives are lived in the most spontaneous and extravagant way! Los Angelinos West Coastin’. Frida, Pryer, Evol, Wendy Randon Chavez, Vyal One and Mr. Blackbrain were the highlights of our crazy night. (for those of you that were there; you know what I mean). I had a very special date as Frida and Pryer and myself came out to enjoy a family art night with our friends; especially to support Evol TSL, the 7th. Letter and for the first time to meet Mr. Blackbrain, an artist I had previously mentioned on this site with his awesome art and prints for sale at Haven Studios.
As we drive to Downtown Los Angeles, we can already hear the “Ghetto Birds” (LAPD helicopter) on a high-speed chace. The sounds of sirens and fast driven LAPD cops was just the way to enter the night with a Krylon on his hand and a bottle of Rose Moscatto on mine. Lil Frida came with her B-Girl jacket to bust some moves on the dance floor too! To my surprise, the event expanded three times its size from the last time we attended when my girls Petal & Blosm were live muralist. Therefore, there was more art, live artists and vendors. I was a bit disappointed on the DJ music since they were different areas for music. They did have a few dance crews performing on the floor and as you know our little Frida just had to show her moves to the entire event. She was a bit shy at first until a lady from the audience gave her a $20 bill, then Frida wowed the crowd as they all cheered on for her. We Love you Frida! As the night progressed, my dear friend and talented photographer Wendy Random Chavez and we got to sip on some wine and take photos of the night. Thank you for coming thru friend.
It was good to catch up with new upcoming artists as well as supporting those that are always relevant to the Art movement here in our city of Angels. And as I had mentioned before, one of the main reasons I needed to attend this art night was to finally meet Ariel Vergez aka. Mr. Blackbrain. and I must say he is a very talented but most importantly humble person and that is key in this movement. To be humble, eager to learn and not think you got it all figured out because that is how an artist becomes greater with time. Thank you for my awesome Malcolm X from your upcoming Malcolm X-Men series prints. I will cherish it forever. Really looking forward on working with you in the near future.
A special shout out to the Container Yard for their Los Angeles installation.
Please enjoy this cute video clip from our Lil Frida shocking the crowd with her freestyle moves!
Much Love and Respect;
Monica Smiles Tobon
Kalm Oner SKA STP takes the winning title on January 11, 2014 at the Silver Battle which started off the New Year for all Graffheads and Graff lovers. I must say even though little circumstances such as the cops trying to shut us down and take away the dopest sounds of Huskey Radio; we all made it a success.
The line up of Graffheads that battled out for the Silver Battle couldn’t have any better than First time Winner of the Silver Battle ALOY MSK, SKA, FTL, KALM STP SKA, OCP. CLOWN TITS, ACME SH LOD, FISHE KOG, SER LA YR, VERSUS LTS. Along with the special appearance and for the first time representing for the Ladies at Silver Battle, MISS REDS CBS AM7. With some heavy hitter OG judges in the game such as SKILL STP, UTI, WCA. ZUCO K4P & MURAL STK. The event was hosted by yours truly Smiles and my lovely friend Uzi and occasionally with the help of Swan UTI STP. Thanks Swan for your MIC Voice! Abraham and his family had the grills and drinks coming throughout the entire event as well as Besk Uno’s beautiful daughter. And of course Besk Uno and Inkstainz were running around working hard making sure everything went smooth. As you all know the rules and guidelines for the Silver Battle Graffiti, which is only Silver and Blues Colors, no usage of futuristic effects, characters or any other feature to alter their Graff pieces. The Silver Battle has been successful to bringing back the essence of True Writing and taking it back old school where the skills in lettering is what matters the most. The contestants still did what they know best and brought their finest skills to the wall panels for judgement. Shout out to our sponsors such as Montana Cans, Vose Water, Jarritos as well as our vendors such as Kush Life Brand, STP Foundation, Ezra One.com, Magnus, Soul Siderz, Tits Crew, Smog city, Inkstainz, DSTRD Crew and many more.
As I mentioned earlier, we had a bit of complications with the police and although they attempted to shut us down; they were only able to shut down our music and it’s really upsetting because it is only MUSIC!…go back to really catching crimes why don’t you. Anyways, that still didn’t stop us and it did not bother the contestants at all, they still kept on pushing till the very last moments of completion of the judging piece. I was very excited to see MissReds partake on the Battle, since you all know I am always pushing for the Ladies to rock walls, canvases and have a strong presence in the Graff Art World. MissReds is one of my top favorite ladies in the game right now and she never leaves us hanging; her pieces are majestic and leave you wanting more! Thanks Loka for coming to our Silver Battle, you are now in our history; First lady to rock a Silver Battle Wall.
In my personal experience, an event is never quite complete if you do not have your crew members and fans cheering you on and it was great to see how all contestants had that along throughout the battle. I love hosting because it gives me the opportunity to talk and mingle with everyone and get feedback on how well we are doing or how we can do it better for future Silver Battles. With all that being said, towards the end of the battle, contestants had to push to the very last-minute of allowed time for completion to prevent disqualification. But we all already had our favorite pieces on mind to win and not only because they are family, but my heart was with Kalm and Aloy…shoot, MissReds should have battled it out too ..hahahaaha! I had the honors to sit in the judging room and I must say that the support, professionalism and feedback from the judges were outstanding and they allowed for everyone to publish their worksheet results for every contestant. I must admit by the time we had to announce the winner I was pretty smashed..lol..from the heat and drinking with every contestant and public..I guess everybody that witnessed my hosting can agree that I was really proud and excited to announce the winner! Keeping my mouth shut till the moment of truth, although I already knew who the winner was; I made sure everybody felt as anxious and excited as me and the Silver Battle was. The moment was finally here,,the winner of the Silver Battle 2014 goes to Kalm Oner SKA STP! We are all proud of you brother and we are all looking forward more of your skills in Arte and Tattooing!
I was able to recap with Kalm One in regards to his triumph at the Silver Battle 2014 so stay tuned for the Sit Down with him……to be continued.
Much Love & Respect
Monica Smiles Tobon
On August 3, 2013 Inkstainz Brand ans the SB Battle brought to the streets of Los Angeles yet another historical event for the books! The event of the year took so much hard work from all the SB Battle Team and I must say that I am very proud to have taken part of something so real to the Graff game right now. It does not get any better than the Silver Battle for Los Angeles…as we see the badest and most notorious Graffiti Crews that have came out of Los Angeles battle it out for the winning title.
Check out the amazing recap of how it all went down! It is always a great time to see out family and friends under one roof with the same love and respect for the Graff Game. We love you and and we are all thankful and humble for all the support we have been receiving!
