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Kingbee Uw

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UNDER COVER | ISSUE #1 | SUMMER 1993

At first glance, UNDER COVER looks a little underfunded.

A skinny little premiere issue out of Jersey City, New Jersey. Oversized black lettering on a white cover. Not exactly as thick as I like 'em. If you know what I mean.

Matter of fact, we're showing the entire magazine in this post.

Why? Because it fits.

Eight interior pages. Eight bucks, printed right on the cover.

A dollar a page.

Then you open it.

Boom. Full color. Every spread.

In 1993, self-publishing a graffiti magazine meant collecting the flicks, assembling the layouts, getting the photographs reproduced, and PAYING for all that color. Black-and-white was one thing. This was another.

Behind UNDER COVER was Ed Morris, aka T.DEE, a Jersey City graffiti writer affiliated with DF.

His day job? Printing.

Suddenly, all that color and print quality might make sense.

And look who's inside.

T-DEE. PAE 114. KING BEE. DOSE. SEAM. SHOK. NOMAD. ELI. SOLVE. SATER. SNOW. MADONE. KAWS. SUB. EMIT. ROM. KRENZ.

Jersey City. The Bronx. Harlem. Philadelphia. Florida. Australia. England.

Four spreads in all. One devoted entirely to characters.

Pretty damn good for a skinny magazine.

And it didn't stay thin. By Spring 1996, Issue #6 had put on a little weight: 25 pages of interviews, outlines, a writers' forum, and letters.

Those letters were part of the plan from day one. Tucked into this first issue is a typewritten invitation for readers to send photographs, outlines, opinions, and even letters telling the editors to go fuck themselves.

Today we'd call that engagement. Back then, it was called the mail.

Now flip to the back cover.

KAWS. Jersey City, N.J.

In a 1996 interview with Art Crimes, KAWS was asked about his early influences. His answer included a name we've already met:

“The first person who brought me out painting was T.DEE.”

The man publishing these flicks wasn't just documenting the scene. He was out there painting with the people in his magazine.

First he took KAWS out painting.

Then he put him UNDER COVER.

#TheAerosolArchive #UnderCoverMagazine #TDEE #KAWS #DFcrew

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How to ruin a finished MURAL…
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#hulk #mural #reactionvideo #graffitinyc #spraypaintart

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Happy Birthday my brother @nare_tng_official enjoy your day peace and blessings 🙌 Yes we were the first to do the snorks on a wall the rest its history ....#mutants #MSKREW #kgb #tngods #manhattanrebels ball busters..

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👑#kingbee👑 #booneavewalls #2026
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@kingbeeuw
@booneavewalls
#nycgraffiti #graffnyc

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