Remember Your Roots w/ @Rootcheck Vol. 2 ~ Koos Cafe – The 90’s Gateway to LA for OC Writers

Rootcheck Vol. 2 @ LA TACO
Vintage Koo's Cafe - OCxLA

If you were painting in the LA/OC area in the mid 90's, you probably remember Koo's Cafe. For OC writers, Koo's was the place to be considering there wasn't as much culture in Orange County as there was in LA. Hence the exodus of writers that CAME from OC, that have now infiltrated LA. At Koo's OC heads could end up meeting and even painting with their favorite LA writers randomly. Koo's stood out as a middle ground, where Los Angeles and Orange County merged in a beefless fashion. In those days people still had ciphers, you could stroll through Koos on any given day and find someone like DJ Babu cutting for a circle of 10 kids.

In those days, passion was high, money was low - and "street art" was not a term all were familiar with.  There weren't many legal walls in Orange County back then. When LA heads came down to paint legally their first stop was usually Koo's. This way, Los Angeles styles migrated into Orange County. Hell, there was once talk of a super city, combining the two counties. The same way LA style migrated on to Orange County walls, OC writers migrated into LA. At first there wasn't much love for people who ranked on their city, in time it became so redundant it was almost unnoticable.

It took a lot for the dudes from OC to work their way into the system of LA graffiti, depending who they were. To get any sort of fame in LA, OC cats had to do twice the work of most residents. Many lost sight of their roots once dedicating their lives to trying to make it in Hollywood.To those left behind, Remember Your Roots dedicates these vintage views of Koo's in the Mid 90's.

Find shadows of Koo's @KCETartbound on Twitter.
Follow @rootcheck for more glimpses of the past.