ZAKI DEE 163 / T.C.A. / T.B’s / T.O.
Born & raised in London, Zaki started writing mid 1982 going on to form The Trailblazers (TB’s) in 1983. For the first several months he was the only crew member, painting track sides, walls and tags in and around west London; Hammersmith, Chiswick, Brentford and Barnes (also fondly referred to as ‘The Boogie Down’!). In the coming months further crew members joined: Eskimo and Zerox, closely followed by Mode II, Scribla and Artful Dodger.
In 1985 The Chrome Angelz where formed. Members included: Mode II, Scribla, Pride, Zaki Dee 163 and Bando (Paris). TCA went on to paint many of the iconic boards at Covent Garden, the infamous mecca of the UK Hip Hop scene in the 1980′s. As well as trips to Paris, where their paintings along the Seine where among the first pieces of graffiti seen there, TCA were also among the pioneering UK writers featured in Henry Chalfant’s seminal 1987 book ‘Spraycan Art’.
By the end of the eighties and into the nineties Zaki was moving into DJ’ing and producing records in the fledgling and underground UK house music scene, while working first in Camden’s Zoom Records (1988-1989) and then from 1990-2007 at Soho, London’s, Black Market Records.
In 1991, along with his long time studio and DJ partner Rob Mello, he went on to produce a series of highly acclaimed vinyl EPs under the guise “Disco Elements” on Azuli Records. In 1993 they started their own deep house record label called Luxury Service Records.
During the last few years Zaki has returned to the spray can and painted numerous walls in and around London. As well as continuing to put up TCA, he has joined up with fellow old school writers, Snatch (PFB), Jadel, and Chum 101 to form a new crew; ‘The Others’ (T.O.). In addition to this, Zaki has also recently been working with the brush and produced a series of self portraits in oils for the June 2012 exhibition: ‘The Chrome Angelz’ at ‘The Outsiders’ gallery in Soho, London.
Links:
Outsiders Gallery / New paintings: http://www.theoutsiders.net/artist/zaki
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zaki163tca/
Facebook / The Chrome Angelz Group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/324812464405/