Rammellzee

New York 1960 - New York 2010

Multi-media talent Rammellzee - a cult figure in the street art scene and a hip-hop pioneer - left behind an astonishingly varied and influential oeuvre. Like Dondi White and Futura2000, RAMM-ΣLL-ZΣΣ (Random Access Memory + a mathematical equation) began making subway graffiti in the late 1970s. He made his acting debut alongside Lee Quiñones in Charlie Ahearn's hip-hop film Wild Style (1982), before releasing the hip-hop single Beat Bop with K-Rob the following year. He exhibited with Basquiat and Haring. Rammellzee also produced experimental music, sculptural costumes (which he wore himself) and paintings on an on-going basis.

As a real iconociast, Rammellzee wrote his own universe, subverting power structures with futuristic storytelling. He called this 'Gothic Futurism', depicting the battle between letters and their symbolic struggle against the rules of the alphabet, which impose mediocrity.

• Jams (1982)
• Knowledge of the A (1982)
• Knowledge of the Square (1982)