the sounds of kester's war drum: July 2008

The RAMM:∑LL:Z∑∑

INTRO:DUCT:ION (GO TUBE OF ENTRY)

The RAMM∑LLZ∑∑ was born in 1960 in Far Rockaway, Queens and developed onto the New York writing (graffiti) and hip-hop scene. He works with sculpture, drawing, and performance though most commonly acknowledged for his wholesome train burners and collaboration with Jean-Michel Basquiat and K-Rob to create a legendary hip-hop master piece, the ten minute Beat Bop. His acute senses of contemporaneous culture(s) allows him shocking abilities that provoke thought by remanipulation. Specific, long-term interests in the bible, cognition, lexicographic architecture, mathematics, and space (both outer space and physical space) have shaped a super hero with god-like mystery whose name means more than tangibly communicable however important clues proceed.

"Only thing I can say is he spelled my damn name wrong. I got two “L”s in Rammellzee. Rammellzee is a quantum mechanic equation, you don’t spell it with one L" (RAMMELLZEE INTERVIEW II).

RAM: the random access memory (RAM) system and mode of computer data storage that allows stored data to be accessed in any order, thus at random. Precisely any piece of data on your computer can be returned in a constant time, despite its size, physical location, its relation to the previous piece of data. Because this form of data operates in a binary form (it either is the single element of data in the array or it is not), nuances are pushed aside; the RAM censors the irrelevant information.

M:agnitude, measure of mathematical objects that provides relative testability by which it can be larger or smaller than other objects of the same kind; in technical terms, an ordering of the class of objects to which it belongs. Welcome to the Order Theory of Mathematics, the study of binary relations that capture the intuitive notion of ordering, providing a framework for saying when one thing is "less than" another. “Less than,” “greater than,” and “equal to” are functions based upon the order of numbers. Adjudge, adjucate, adjudication, adjunct, adjuration are ordered based upon the lexicographical order, also known as the dictionary order or alphabetic order. This style creates a sequence of letters (that is, a word) by which characters are mathematically arranged in an array: a1, a2, a3, a4, a5…ak

∑: ‘Sigma’ the sum of a sequence of terms, which can be finite or infinite. Thankfully, calculus allows the infinite to be studied as finite thus breaking down the barriers between finite and infinite. For example; RAMM∑LLZ∑∑ walks a block – divide his trip in half, divide the remainder in half, that remainder in half, and keep doing so… this sequence can be represented by:

Never to reach zero, an infinite amount of tasks must be completely in order to walk one block, but millions of people do so each day.

L: the longitude, the east to west measurement of global navigation and cartography. L:ongitude and L:atitude are the modes that we (New York), a particularly map literate culture view our ellipsoidal world. The Cartesian coordinate system allows for mass efficiency (mass transit) in a city such as New York City.

L: the latitude, the north to south measurement of global navigation and cartography. Held within the latitudinal lines are the boundaries of ecosystems (exploitable resources), which dictated the evolution of our ancestors and the spread of homo sapien from Africa to Southeast Asia, and eventually the globe.

Z: the Zig-Zag-Zig, or evolution from knowledge to wisdom to understanding in the Supreme Alphabet, a system of interpreting text devised by the Nation of Gods and Earths (the Five-Percent Nation) to find deeper meaning by assigning actual meanings to the letters of the Roman alphabet; turning the alphabet into icons. “THE RAMM∑LLZ∑∑… was given to me by Jammel-Z for and from the Five Percent Nation” (RAMMELLZEE Interview).

∑, ∑: the summation notation expanded often when computing points in the Cartesian coordinate system. The duplicity implies two separate but equal entities, most likely representative of both the finite and the infinite, reminiscent of the abstract letter identity W, double-you (doble v en Español).

STY:LE (FORMATION OF NAMES WITH THE EYES)

Early in the history of RAMM∑LLZ∑∑ he refers to himself as “not a king, but an assassin,” a monk, “a theologinist,” and “a wizard”. Extremism earned him hate and an outsider position from his writing (graffiti) peers who wrote for fame of name. “Writing for ‘fame of name’ is a poor excuse to be a monk and the reason why this culture is called sub culture” (RAMMELLZEE Interview). Writing (graffiti) begged for a revolution of style in the eyes of RAMM∑LLZ∑∑, the kind of intellectual, philosophical revolution the Artist role underwent in the nineteen sixties and seventies (RAMMELLZEE Interview I & II).

RAMM∑LLZ∑∑ invented a particular graffiti style now called Wild Style, but he calls “IKONOKLAST PANZERISM.” Baroque with harpoons and loops/extenders to fight against standardizations enforced by the laws of the alphabet, an important technique “CEREMBRIC NEUTRON HARPOON (Thought Lance) holds complete thought-processes to constructions and launches outline that can construct any shape energy it wants to construct in any dimension of physical magnetics” (ICONIC TREATISE GOTHIC FUTURISM). The more universal set of ideologies RAMM∑LLZ∑∑ compiled is called Gothic Futurism – ‘Gothic’ from the type-face and ‘Futurism’ as to anticipate future events and changing them by violently rejecting current philosophies. The near impossibility of extracting Roman letters or words in the thought lances demonstrates the unbinding of wordlaw and the evolution of the word to accurately represent its culture: “Evolution dear father [Grim reaper] I’m ready to partake for society, I will break and this earth I will shake” (RAMM∑LLZ∑∑, ACTS OF TERRORISM).

In 1990, by the time the writing (graffiti) had stopped, RAMM∑LLZ∑∑ published a book called “ACTS OF TERROISM” through a Japanese publisher that demonstrates thought harpoons, a corresponding photo of Ramm, one of his twenty-one unique characters, its corresponding paragraph of text, and its English one word translation. Here it is apparent that what his late eighties contemporaries called “performing heresy” (RAMMELLZEE Interview) came to an aggressive, militaristic point. “Our friend who has no place in time [RAMM∑LLZ∑∑] continuously reminds our mind of an explosion” (ACTS OF TERRORISM). Three years after this publication in 1993, New York City would experience an explosion to the basement and lower floors of the World Trade Center and again in 2001 the complete devastation of the World Trade Center and American (New York especially) psyche, security, trust, and ultimately naivety.

RAMM∑LLZ∑∑ perhaps isn’t as crazy as he seems – clad in mask made from deconstructed plastic neon toys rattling what sounds like drug-induced esoteric jargon about our current existence and our relationship to the legacy (language) we create, “∞M x A = N has been placed by this unplanned structure colony math to do the concentrating of friction-formation. The equation G x O = D has placed two prophetic universal (not according to this word-formation UNIVERSAL) gambles” (IONIC TREATISE GOTHIC FUTURISM). After all there is a person behind this grand mythological performance who wanted to be a dentist before gaining notary with the release of “Beat Bop” and who is currently married, “And the wife wants to go everywhere you want to go, and she wants to talk a lot” (RAMMELLZEE Interview II).

All the nonsense about ‘lexicographic architecture’ calls attention to words on a page the same way graffiti does to a space. It makes the experience rely less on the stored memory (RAM) in our brains and rather the reexperiencing of the place or word as it is, in the (right) NOW. Who created the word anyway? He breaks up alphabet into Alpha Bet meaning “the first in a series of items or categories” and “to risk something…against someone else’s on the basis of the outcome of a future event” (Oxford American Dictionary) calling attention to the trust homo sapien sapien have placed in this system, the audacity. Homo sapien sapien have only existed for ca. 195,000 years, only left Africa ca. 45,000 years ago, and only had written language since 3000 B.C. . The key of Western philosophy tells us a precautionary tale about the power of language;

“Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech” (Genesis 11:1-9).

He reconditions the Bible, not to preach but to show similarities of the human condition through time. “He’s [K-Rob] very much into prayers and preaching … You have to catch these people” (RAMMELLZEE Interview II). His use of “these people” clearly demarcates him outside of the preacher realm. He is far more interested in methods of counting time, our time here, May 2008, just about 2008 years and four months after Jesus died. Time begins with Jesus’ death and effectively negative for all time before? No! Time begins with the open commerciality of the Internet; this is the year 20 IE. “I was once a spray master long before time could be written” (ACTS OF TERRORISM).

It is probably a dream of RAMM∑LLZ∑∑ that a mass catastrophe occurs and only all that is the RAMM∑LLZ∑∑ is preserved and exhumed by a new population who understand the context of his work. The city walls with RAMM∑LLZ∑∑’s burners and tags would be the pages for t:his new bible. No mass catastrophe needs to occur, the evidence of an emerging system of communication occupies the spaces we inhabit daily.

The building on the southeast corner of 10th St. between Fourth Avenue and Third Avenue is about two stories and bordered on two sides by ten-or-more story buildings, creating a beautiful geometric negative space that provides openness and sanity, a pathway for our eyes to send information to our brains that we area alive, not just urban ATP for New York City. This space would have been completely unnoticed unless there hadn’t been a huge burner, dripping white paint reading ‘moral.’ Such an abstract, intangible concept painted on the extreme physical exposed bricks of this building. This place reinforms the definition of moral, it separates the term from reality, making it completely anachronistic. Just as shocking, a completely painted C-train by RAMM∑LLZ∑∑ rides into downtown Manhattan from the Queens rail yard, pulling with it wind, letters, harpoons, the fresh smell of paint; it surely incites an emotional response by redefining the train ride, redefining expectations, arouse questions about the origins of the train changing the train and system forever.

RAMM∑LLZ∑∑’s constant references to lexicographical architecture begs the comparison of words to buildings. And the difference doesn’t appear much, Richard Shillcock and Padraic Monaghan, psychology professors and researchers at the University of Edinburgh recognize the lexical variables that occur during the interpretation of words. The average person may read a sentence and fully grasp its meaning even if a majority of the words are spelled incorrectly as long as the first and last letters of each word is correct. We do this everyday when we read, even when the words are spelled correctly we filled in the blanks. Due to the vertically split architecture of the homo sapien fovea, we see the beginning and end of the word first, so there are multiple factors that inform our interpretation of words. Dr. Shillock and Dr. Monaghan note that the most important aspects are word length, age of acquisition, concreteness, familiarity, word frequency, imagability, and meaningfulness (Sublexical units and the split fovea). Now, the average person may walk to their destination, reach it but notice nothing different along the way. If it is a path they have walked before and the change is insignificant to the relationship they have already established with the space they will not notice the change. If it is a new path they may be so fixed on the directional cues (signage and/or address) that their memory projects a relationship based on past spaces while they focus on the specific task. Similar aspects to lexical interpretations inform our spatial relationships and when done well, a small tag can attract more attention to the place you currently inhabit whether it is a frequented spot or in passing (Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience).

The city is the Beta bet (Betabet), a language of its own that transforms RAMM∑LLZ∑∑ into a like-mind of Byron or Keats. In Acts of Terrorism, under the thought harpoon for CITY he writes:

“I the father who ART in heaven, never hallow be my name, thy kingdom shall come on earth shall be done without our daily breath if we don’t save what is left.”

Though he’s still creating work, the legacy is already left and made its way into strands in contemporary New York culture. True fame grabbing graffiti exists but it’s easy to spot these and to keep the senses keen to the places you visit. The transversal register of New York City “depends not simply on the physical shape of a site but also on the totality of emotions, activities, and values that an individual locates in that site” (Creative Destruction of New York, 8).