JUXTAPOZ 58

You will be the guest

of a gracious host
ARTIST NAME
ARTIST NAME

Interview by Shepard Fairey,

Lil Jon, and Evan Pricco
Portrait by Jon Dragonette ANDY HOWELL 59
 ANDY HOWELL ARTIST NAME
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Where does the list start? Zero Sophisto, Ma$$
Prophets, New Deal, Underworld Element,
Artsprojekts, pro skater, hip-hop musician,
curator, and of course, fine artist, Andy
Howell’s an original. To foresee—nearly two
decades ago—the power and relevance of
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fusing hip-hop, skateboarding, and fine art
has made Andy Howell one of the pioneers
of current popular culture. His creative and
business sense has indeed set him (alongside
a select other few in the industry) ahead of
the times.

King and Queen of Goodness

(pages 62–63)
Walking Amonf the Normal

The origins of Andy’s story
involve other innovative artists
that helped lay the foundation
for contemporary hip-hop and
art. On a February afternoon in
Los Angeles, California, Andy
met up with old friends Shepard
Fairey and hip-hop artist and
producer Lil Jon to discuss how
each one’s past has contributed
to the future and the way artists
relate to today’s mainstream mass.
Juxtapoz sat down with Andy
afterward to inquire more about
his past, present, and future of
the enterprise that is Andy Howell.
What’s biggest on the horizon? A
museum exhibition under his and
Artsprojekts’ direction that will
serve as a “passionate commentary
on the creative cycle of inspiration
and innovation incorporating a
cross section of artists, musicians,
directors, animators, and
trendsetting designers of couture,
action sports, and street fashions.”
In short, an exhibition that is
every bit Andy Howell. As Lil Jon
tendered to Andy, “You were always
in control of your own destiny.” The
mission isn’t even close to being
finished. —Evan Pricco
Andy Howell: The story of Lil Jon
and I goes way back, and Shep and
I go back even further. Probably
met Jon in 1991 or ’92. At that time
I was a pro skater putting graffiti
that I was doing on graphics, had
just finished art school, and was
about to start Underworld Element,
(today known as just Element).
Dude, Jon, how the hell did we
really meet?
Lil Jon: Atlanta had two main
skateshops. Stratosphere was the
shop that introduced contests to
Atlanta. Nobody was doing that
before them. I worked at Skate
Escape, which was a spot in
Piedmont Park where you could
rent skates and bikes, and if you
wanted to take your girl out and
rollerskate you would come here.
But they also had a skateshop
inside with all the hottest decks and
rollerblades.
Andy: I remember at the time we
were going to Piedmont Park on
Sundays to cool out and skate,
with beers and girls in tow. And like
50 dreads in a drum circle would
be on the hill passing around the
beat, and that was our soundtrack.
Before I met Jon at Skate Escape,
I’d bought an analog eight-track
recorder and a keyboard with
a 30-second sampler, which at
that time was insanely tech. I met
Gangstarr on a skate tour and got
some phone coaching from Premier
on how to sample beats and make
drum sets. But I was fusing Sesame
Street beats with GI Joe music,
and adding punk beats and making
this weird hybrid that ended up
sounding like carnival hip-hop
with ADD. I was listening to all the
experimental stuff like KMD, Native
Tongues, Del and Hieroglyphics,
and the first PE record. Somehow I
heard that you were making music.
Lil Jon: Y’all didn’t have a DJ so I
became your DJ. I remember sitting
in one of your rooms for hours
just looking for samples. You were
never in there because you always
had too much shit to do. You were
designing t-shirts, skating—you
 ARTIST NAME ARTIST NAME
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were running three companies.
Andy: I always dug your energy
back then; that’s why I went looking
for you at Skate Escape that first
day. I remember picking you up
at your mom’s house, down in
the basement bedroom with your
turntables. You were like “Check
this shit out,” and put on Cypress
Hill’s “How I Could Just Kill a Man.”
The crossover interests of different
kinds of music were influencing you
as well.
Lil Jon: Did you know we had a
record deal? Some overseas label.
I was like, “We had a fucking record
deal?”
Andy: Mo’ Wax, dude, before it was
Mo’ Wax. I spoke to James Lavelle;
he was the roommate of my
“ For me everything culturally,
artistically, and even
technologically has merged.”
It sounded like music and beats
that kids could be making today. It
wasn’t bad at all, which fucked me
up listening back to it. It sounded
really good for 1991.
Shepard: I remember seeing Andy
for the first time in a Thrasher
spread in 1987. Then at the
Savannah Slamma II contest my
friends and I saw Andy skating
on the street; he was the first guy
I’d ever seen in person do a no
comply off a parking block. We
thought, “Oh my god, this guy’s
so ill.” So I was a fan of Andy
through skateboarding. Then he
turned pro through Schmitt Stix
and did a sick board graphic for
them that I thought was fresh. I’d
heard through a few interviews that
you were starting Sophisto, which
started a year later in 1991.
ANDY HOWELL
distributor for Zero Sophisto in the
UK, and the deal he offered was we
had to record everything ourselves,
give them the finished product, and
they would put it out on their label,
which I think would have ended
up being the first Mo’ Wax EP ever
made. Pretty stupid in retrospect,
but coming from skateboarding
and art, complete DIY-type shit, I
didn’t really understand the music
industry at that time. With skating
or graff or a t-shirt company, all we
had to do was make a screenprint
on a tee in my room and we had a
brand that would develop virally.
We were able to cross promote
skateboarding and art and graffiti,
and even the music through my
distribution company, but the
industry really wasn’t sophisticated
enough to think outside of decks
back then.
It was the Pro Spotlight in
Transworld where you mentioned
that you wanted to do a book of
skateboarder’s art. You put your
address at the end of the interview
to accept submissions. I sent a
package out to Andy, and he called
me back at my parent’s house
and said he was into my work
and he was going to fax me some
questions. I kept thinking, “Oh shit,
this guy’s so tech—he’s going to
fax me questions.” We’ve been
friends ever since.
What I liked was that Andy was
taking control of his own destiny
and not letting a company dictate
what he was going to do. Also,
having Sophisto, which was about
conscious politics, was something I
really admired.
Shepard Fairey: Andy was the first
person I ever met who needed a
personal assistant. You would have straight off the press when they
one computer doing one thing,
another one doing another, delivery “Yeah, motherfucker.” We were just
guy banging on your door, and
I remember thinking, “Man, that
guy’s life is chaotic. He’s doing so
much shit.” This was the summer
of 1992. You were one of the first
people I knew who was using the
computer as a design tool, doing
both hand-illustrated work mixed
with typography that you created
digitally. Definitely ahead of the
curve on that.
Lil Jon: When I was around in the
early ’90s, New Deal was popping.
Then Underground Element was
starting toward the end of us
hanging out a lot. I remember Andy
had a t-shirt press in the living
Andy: Zero Sophisto started as
a reflection of Atlanta and us all
skating the city with everyone in our
crew. Skateboarding was universal.
All sorts of different races and
cultures together, and in the middle
of Atlanta? That was an anomaly.
Seeing how “normal” people in
ATL acted toward each other
really provoked me to call bullshit
on the establishment. I started
drawing graphics with crayons for
clothes to make it appear as if all
these political statements were
coming from a kid writing them
on the street in the middle of the
city. I wanted to show that this
new language, which I called Zero
Sophisto, was being created by
kids with skateboards and paint
cans. It pushed me. I felt lucky I
could speak out to so many people
like that through the company.
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room, and we would make Ma$$
Prophets t-shirts and wear them
were still warm. It would be like,
having a good time and making
music.
Andy: “Kids sneakin’, cans leakin’,
all the girls freakin’.…” We were
talking about things that related to
the skateboard and graffiti culture
in the lyrics, and of course about
girls. At that time, except for maybe
the Beastie Boys, there wasn’t
much out there like it.
Lil Jon: It would be compared to
some backpack hip-hop now. I
listen to our stuff, and if it came out
today it would still be relevant in
that world. The beats and samples
we used were like rock breakbeats.
:
Release
(page 66)
Gorilla
(page 67)
Titan Color
The New Deal logo and graphics
at first reflected that thinking, but
had to be watered down for Middle
America at the time.
I remember bringing Lil Jon to the
launch of Underworld Element at
ASR in 1992 and he DJ’ed in my
booth. Sen and Jaz had painted
this huge piece as a backdrop of
the booth. I shot a promo video
with all the art and skating and
hip-hop mixed together, and even
the team making explosives from
the book Poor Man’s James Bond.
There were a lot of guys who
came to the show looking to take
orders for their shops from this
new brand, and were blown away
by Lil Jon mixing records. At that
time hip-hop had nothing to do
with skating. People at ASR were
baffled, absolutely no clue. The

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Europeans and Japanese caught
on to it immediately, and the bigger
United States cities. It narrowed
our audience a bit from New Deal,
but I kept thinking, “This is next!”
Shepard: You were the first guy
creating the aesthetic of this hip-
hop/skate fusion. You were doing
graffiti/hip-hop graphics on decks,
really on the front end of that curve.
Andy: New York influenced me a
lot. I used to spend summers in
the Lower East Side at Jeremy
Henderson’s between ’89 and ’92.
He had original Keith Haring and
Basquiat drawings, was connected
with all the graff artists, and was
pro for SHUT. The hip-hop kids
in NY were really looking across
the club at that point and kind of
nodding to the skate kids. There
was no crossover, just a mutual
respect creatively. It was an infant
scene at the time of hip-hop kids,
skaters, and street artists. It was
even smaller in Atlanta at the
time, but there were a group of
us making beats and skating and
writing graffiti. Of course my graffiti
became skateboard graphics, and
then started getting into some of
the original art shows at Alleged
Gallery on Stanton and Ludlow. A
lot of my early graphics for New
Deal and Underworld Element were
inspired by NY graffiti.
Goodie Mob, Dallas Austin, Lil Jon,
and a few others were responsible
for creating a music scene in
Atlanta like NY was able to do. But
it was even more underground, and
just dirty and raw like the South
was at that time. Jon actually
ANDY HOWELL
branded the ATL sound in a way
with Crunk.
It’s crazy to think how far all of this
has come. Now it’s Shepard Fairey
of Obey, Lil Jon and the East Side
Boyz, me and my whole Artsprojekt
trip, Johnny Schillereff now runs
Element, all born out of, in some
way, a life of art and skateboarding.
And all of it’s part of a circle of
inspiration that a handful of us
were responsible for and now just
keeps turning and being renewed a
thousand fold every time.
Shepard: Seeing the connection
between music, skateboarding,
and art, and seeing how you took
creative control of the cultures you
were participating in was always
something that was huge for me.
Especially how you were one of
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the first people to really embrace
graphic design intertwined with
illustration. You seized the coming
of digital media and art really
seamlessly.
Andy: All three of us individually,
when it’s all said and done, played
major roles in first innovating
and inspiring new movements,
and later the sophistication and
commercialization of hip-hop
music, skateboarding, and certain
kinds of art. Back in the day that
would have sounded taboo, but
now it’s the driving force of this art
genre and pop culture. Jon, you
never thought you were going to
create a new genre of music when
you were listening to punk and
skating; Shepard never expected
to inspire a wheatpaste and stencil
movement when you first put up
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69

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those stickers in Providence; and I
never thought I’d help influence the
fusion of art, skateboarding, and
hip-hop culture when I was rapping
in my high school art class. We all
ping-ponged ideas off each other
over and over again, indirectly at
times, which is really how popular
culture evolves.
Lil Jon: Skateboarding gave me
diversity in music. I wouldn’t
know Bad Brains, Steel Pulse,
the Moles, and there would be a
huge void in my music. That sort
of creativity and culture born from
skateboarding allows me to be
dropped in any scenario and hang
out with anyone and not feel out
of place. Skating gave me that. I
always admired Andy for taking
me out of Atlanta and showing
me a whole other thing by letting
“ I see so much creativity in
entrepreneurialism, so many
different ways to solve
challenges creatively.”
Yes, definitely. This is an Artsprojekt
exhibition called 43,000 Crimes:
The Collaboration Conspiracy. I
wanted to use an art institution as
the platform, effectively dissolving
the boundaries of what kind of art
belongs there. The show started
with discussions around my book,
Art, Skateboarding, and Life, and
the idea of exhibiting my paintings.
When I looked through the book,
the part I really wanted to elaborate
on was the collaborations with
other artists and brands. I talked
to painters, graphic designers,
animators, photographers,
fashion designers, sculptors,
graff artists, pro skateboarders,
film directors, new media and
technology engineers, musicians,
poets, even animatronics creators
about the concept of cross-genre
collaboration, and everyone was
ANDY HOWELL
me DJ. How you controlled your
own destiny was huge for me.
Owning three companies, doing
art and graphics for all three, being
a pro skater, and making music,
controlling your own destiny, it
always stuck with me. I always had
respect for you.
THE CONTINUING TALE
Evan Pricco: How does the role
of being a businessperson in the
world of being a fine artist overlap? exhibition, sometimes a product
Andy: Sadly for most artists it’s their with the fact that I’m both an artist
nemesis and they literally dread
it. That’s why big business has
been able to “pacify” nearly every
artist in the world with very little
reward for creativity. Most artists
just don’t want to deal with it, but
avoiding the business side doesn’t
excited about it. From mid-2007
until now I’ve been creating the
different exhibits and planning.
Some of the artists involved include
James Marshall, Shepard Fairey,
El Mac, Mars1, Tilt, Hello Karpa,
Luca Ionescu, Johnny Rodriguez
(KMNDZ), Jose Gomez, Marke
Newton, Lil Jon, Natas Kaupas,
Odd Studio, Luca Ionescu, KRS
One, Estevan Oriol, Dallas Austin,
Rob Dyrdek, Ted Newsome, Jeff
King, Andrew Jeffrey Wright,
Ben Woodward, Jeremy Fish,
Eli Gessner, Anthony Lister, and
Andrew Pommier, among others.
With this project in mind, where is
the genre going?
Individuals, as I remember it, forged
the roots of this movement as a
help in the long run. Somehow I
was given this weird right- and left-
brain combination. Warhol called
it Business Art. I see so much
creativity in entrepreneurialism,
so many different ways to solve
challenges creatively. In the early
’90s I resisted, telling myself “you’re
an artist, stay in the studio,” but
always found myself creating
complex ideas that needed a
sophisticated plan to achieve,
sometimes an idea for an art
or brand. Once I came to terms
and an entrepreneur, I was able to
minimize the time it took to move
from one side of my brain to the
other.
Is it of much benefit to go into a
situation as an artist and be able to
departure from the status quo,
so we’ve never had a concept of
limitations in terms of medium
or method. Early on we drew
imagery from the punk movement,
painted, then made graphics,
stickers, posters, and skateboards,
put spray paint on walls at 2 am,
created our own films, made music,
formed skateboard and clothing
companies, and made setups to
screenprint our own t-shirts in
spare bedrooms. In 1992, two
years after cofounding New Deal,
I created Urbanistics, a 2,000-
square-foot studio warehouse
with two live-in lofts, a screenprint
facility, a computer lab with four
Mac IIci’s, a music studio, and
offices to Zero Sophisto clothing
company and Underworld Element
skateboards (which later became
Element and Johnny overtook). I
ARTIST NAME
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flip the switch naturally?
It’s incredibly empowering,
and most traditional business
executives have had a hard
time believing that the person
negotiating with them could also
be the person providing the art and
creative ideas. It’s a rarity, definitely,
but something that has given me
incredible opportunities. I’ve been
able to learn and build working
relationships with very powerful
music, media, and mainstream
brands while still living my life
creatively.
The museum show you have
coming up has been a big
undertaking, so I wonder if having
both the artistic and business
sense has made this process
easier?
:
(page 68–69)
She Must Be a Machine
(right)
Heavy Medal
was inspired by the idea of bringing
everyone together creatively,
pushing the street art aesthetic
forward, and integrating this new
tool for digital art into it all. I thank
Warhol for inspiring that vision
through his creation of the Factory.
Picasso said something to the
effect of “whatever you can imagine
is real.” I have lived by that since
day one.
The success in manifesting our
own culture led us to believe that
absolutely anything was achievable,
so we created our own spoken
and visual language. That served
as an encryption of the culture,
which took the mainstream over a
decade to decode. In art school my
instructors were actually preaching
to me that the graff-style pieces
I was doing weren’t art, that they

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would never be art. The funny thing
is as they were condemning me,
I was turning my homework into
skate graphics, which were going
out to a hundred thousand people.
That was in 1989.
In art there’s a visible movement
that sprung from a fusion of
contemporary fine art, street art,
and graphic arts, but is now its
own thing. Graphic design and
typography merged with illustration
and painting that in many cases
was a derivative of street art. Now
artists are moving beyond that
simple combination and have
integrated every medium into the
visual language. But we don’t
play by the same rules as the art
establishment, we never have. So
I think of it as a neo-contemporary
movement. It has inspired me to
: “The success in manifesting
Detail of Total Confusion is Popular
The biggest thing about family is
now there’s a reason to live. The
whole process of my son True
being born was amazing, surreal.
It was just as much me being
born; it just opened the possibility
for experience to a much wider
scope. I mean, he’s a collaboration
between us, directly from her and
me. I always lived in the zone of
the in-betweens, looking in at
everything, providing commentary
with my art. It was love at first sight
for us, and my wife Ginger (Che) is
an amazing artist and inspiration.
Our son True is the beautiful
connection we share. They’re the
loves of my life that give me a
reason to wake up every day and
go forward. It all makes sense now,
because she’s the only person on
earth who really sees all of me.
Before I was just floating out there
come up with new ways to enable
others to do the same.
As Shepard, Jon, and yourself
alluded to earlier, the lifestyles
you were leading back in the early
1990s has become the lifestyle
that defines youth culture in 2008.
You get high on your own supply
thinking about that?
Are you kidding? It’s amazing to
see that something we got ridiculed
for so many years has come to the
forefront. It’s hilarious. I’m grateful.
To me it’s all art; the fine art, the
commercial art, even the business
of art. I see creative challenges in
all of it.
Then what’s the next challenge?
There will always be the polar
our own culture led us to
believe that absolutely
anything was achievable.”
somewhere, and now with them
I’m here.
Now how much of your day do you
devote to painting?
I’m creating something every
second. Its not always painting.
I wake up with True and start
beatboxing, and he just starts
laughing. I get up and begin
making things, thinking, writing,
and sketching. I’m collaborating on
ideas with a lot of artists right now
because of the coming Artsprojekt
exhibitions. I’m working at home
and our art studio is less than a
mile from the house, so there’s art
happening all day long at one or
the other. Pieces in one stage of
completion or another are all over
the house, and usually there’s art
on the dining room table being
ANDY HOWELL
extremes of fine art and commercial
art, but I believe the most relevant
to today’s culture is a hybrid of the
two: the artist who understands
how to use the commercial world to
proliferate a fine art career, and vice
versa. Murakami has done a great
job of that in recent years, and
Damien Hirst, of course.
For me everything culturally,
artistically, and even technologically
has merged. Individuals demanding
that every aspect of life be
customized and instantaneous
dictate the speed of culture and art.
We want it all and we want it now.
So I challenged myself to combine
fine art, commercial art, and
technology to effectively liberate
every visual artist in the world.
Artsprojekt emerged as the
worked on. It’s everywhere. I’ve
been traveling a lot recently with
Artsprojekt, but when I’m in San
Diego I work at least 12 hours a
day. My favorite time is at night
when everything is quiet. All
nighters are common.
How often do you get bored?
I only get bored with needless
repetition. It happens. I like to
see things constantly evolve. For
the last 10 years I’ve been part of
the underground art movement
and the mainstream commercial
art world at the same time. The
bonding element is another passion
that I have been nurturing since
high school: entrepreneurialism.
Together the three power all my
creative adventures. Right now
I’m making and selling art with
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solution and vehicle for that
freedom of expression. It’s an
artist management, exhibition, and
commerce company that supports
emerging artists in all fine art and
commercial genres to navigate
through the murky waters of the
art world. Artists are represented
by a team of both institutional and
street level art pros who give them
time to focus on making art instead
of stumbling through the business
of art. The company creates and
manages exhibitions, sells art,
and utilizes an infinite on-demand
platform to allow artists and brands
to create and sell products with no
cost for production or inventory.
Finally the artist wins.
How has parenthood affected your
career?
amazing fine artists, commercial
artists, photographers, and brands
from around the world. Manifesting
freedom of expression. So I’m
good.
Anything to say to Lil Jon after
having us over to his house for the
interview?
Thanks for pushing the game
forward, dude, we’ll keep it moving.
You should’ve let me do that flip off
your roof.
For more information about Andy
Howell, contact Andyhowell.com or
Artsprojekt.com.