DLT Highlight

Darryl Thomson (DLT)

Musician/Artist

I had to prove to my family that a decision I had made was good.

About Darryl

As a child, watched a gang film called The Warriors-it was his first exposure to graffiti artists.
Soon after, saw a cautionary documentary on what the "ghetto" kids in America were doing.
Says it had an opposite effect on New Zealand's kids; "the next day, there were 100 graffiti artists heading down to the railways lines."
Right around that time, he was being "dissed" at school for the art-based subjects he'd chosen to study; hip-hop came around right in time.
One of his first graffiti "missions" was painting black idols-Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix-near billboards that primarily used white faces in their advertisements.
Says he wanted his hip-hop, art to stand up for underrepresented kids who couldn't fight for themselves-"come over here; I'll fight for you."
His family kept saying, "get a job," "grow up"; felt that he constantly had to prove that he'd made a good decision.
Says that if you remember the things you liked when you were growing up, before you were "business-oriented," those things will guide you.