Subscribe
The Daily Grind Video
CLOSE

What you’re looking at is the first wholecar of the year. Wholecars were the moving museums of NYC in the 70s and 80s, canvases for a generation of youth battling the results of an ecoonomic recession that somehow found itself hitched to the Vietnam War and the rising poverty in many New York City neighborhoods.

Made by the legendary TATS Cru, the car was painted in honor ofBleu Nazario, 22. Nazario took a bullet in the chest and died at the scene, a barbeque in The Bronx last July.

Police have no suspects or motive for the shooting, one of four murders in the city that day.

TATS Cru became famous for their murals in the 1990s. Their subjects? Victims of senseless violence. Their artistry and skill became reknowned and soon corporations courted them for commercial projects. The irony of the sensless act isn’t lost on BLEU’s father.

‘I have seen so much tragedy like that, and I lost my son to a senseless act of violence. I never thought it would happen to him, ‘ Hector NICER Nazario, a founding member of TATS, told the New York Daily News last summer.

‘At first I asked, ‘Why him?” Nazario said. ‘Police confirmed to me he wasn’t a part of it, he wasn’t the intended victim, and it made things somewhat easier.’

TATS CRU has no plans to paint a mural in remembrance of BLEU. Instead, this wholecar tribute was painted. Usually wholecars get buffed as soon as they are discovered. It’s a rare occurance to see a painted car sitting in the yards untouched.

[pagebreak]

NICER of TATS Cru.

[pagebreak]

NICER painting BLEU.

[pagebreak]

A TATS Cru member in front of a mural.

[pagebreak]

Members of TATS Cru in front of a BIG PUN mural in The Bronx.

[pagebreak]

A TATS Cru DKNY mural on Broadway and Houston.

[pagebreak]

TATS Cru for M&Ms.

[pagebreak]

TATS Cru.

[pagebreak]

TATS Cru customized sneakers at SAKS.

[pagebreak]

A TATS Cru mural calling for the release of Russian Artist Collective VOINA.