Kid Hazo

[SOUND OF STREETS, CHATTING]

KID HAZO: These are signs that look very similar to the ones that you’ll find in Philadelphia. The graphic design is an exact match, but it’s a little bit different, a little cheeky.

[MUSIC]

CONRAD BENNER, HOST: Philly artist Kid Hazo is installing street signs. Not official ones — even though they look real. The messages he creates are funny.

So it’s a sign, and it depicts a stick figure tossing out paper on the other side, or near a trash can, but in the trash can. And it says, ‘Don’t act like garbage. Throw out your trash.’

Kid Hazo makes what I like to call comedic street art. From parody street signs that mimic real ones, to bigger, almost sculptural installations in the public space. And this is a milestone year for him.

KH: It’s the 10-year anniversary. yeah. Literally the 10-year anniversary, yeah. The first sign I put up was March of 2013. And so this year’s been sort of, thinking about all the things I’ve done in the past and how I’ve grown. But I wanted to keep it really simple for the 10-year and go back to the start.

CB: Lucky for us, as he installs his anniversary series, we’re going along for the ride.

KH: And yeah, it should be fun. Blast from the past.

CB: Why do we create on the walls around us? From French cave paintings of horses created some 17,000 years ago to political graffiti on the streets of Pompeii, humanity has always longed to make art for everyone to see. The art we share is essential to who we are.

[THEME MUSIC]

There’s no better place to see this in practice than in Philadelphia. It’s the birthplace of the modern-day graffiti movement, home to the largest public arts program in the nation, and is often called the “Mural Capital of the World.”

This is Art Outside, a podcast from WHYY about the art in our public spaces — and the people who create it.

I’m your host Conrad Benner, and for the last 13 years I have been documenting these artworks for my blog, Streets Dept. I didn’t go to art school, and I’ve got no formal arts education. But I did grow up in a city that, over the last number of decades, has consistently turned its streets into an outdoor gallery. From works that are commissioned, like murals, monuments, and sculpture, to those that are non-commissioned, like graffiti, wheatpaste, and stickers — all of it offers a mirror to the city and our communities.

In this episode: we talk with Kid Hazo — who’s basically Philly’s own Banksy — about why he got into street art, and how he developed a playful persona while being completely anonymous.

You know, I want to start with the elephant in the room, which is this podcast is going to sound quite different than all the other episodes in the season, and probably pretty different than like most podcasts people listen to, and that’s because we’ll be disguising your voice. So Mr. Hazo, let’s talk about that. Why are we disguising your voice?

KH: Yeah, I think it’s always been fun to have the mystique of the character. Ten years ago when I created this, I really just wanted to focus on, you know, a mysterious artist and not focus on the person. And it makes it a lot more fun to focus on the art than actually people worrying about who I am, what I sound like, what I look like.

CB: Even though Kid Hazo keeps his identity a secret, his work gets people talking. Everything he does seems to go viral. One of his most famous installations targeted a common enemy in the city, The Philadelphia Parking Authority.

They’re so controversial here, they even got their own TV show…

[SOUND FROM ‘PARKING WARS’]

But the funny thing is, their own employees park illegally all the time. So Hazo decided to call them out in his signature way.

[MUSIC]

KH: And so I thought you know, I was like, man, this would be really good to catch a PPA car in the act, you know, parking illegally while giving out tickets for people parking illegally, right?

CB: Those who cannot do, ticket.

KH: Yeah. [Laughter] We finally find this car on South Street, and I was like, ‘perfect.’ So I’m gonna park across the street. I had, like, a hoodie on. And it’s super hot out. So I come out in this black hoodie and black mask. I look crazy, right? And I had this big trash bag. And so I walk across the street, and as I’m, like, walking across the street, I see the PPA person like, you know, they get out of the car, they’re walking on this side.

And so I walk up to the car and it’s like, the perfect moment. I was so excited. And I had this big black trash bag with the piece inside. So I take out the bag, and I pulled the piece out, like, almost like, unsheathed it, you know, like a sword. And I’m standing there just reveling in this moment. And I had this gigantic, windshield size…

CB: Windshield size.

KH: …ticket that I had made out of this, like corrugated plastic, like really firm. And it had like, it looked like a PPA ticket. It’s got the date, the month, and the year when it was done. And I slapped it on the windshield and I just stood there and I was like, ‘Yes, this is it.’ So for this gigantic, comically large PPA ticket on top of the PPA car.

CB: It’s not you copying and pasting or photoshopping. You’ve designed your own ticket to look like a PPA ticket, and it had your signature. What did it say? Like, Hazo, something?

KH: Yeah, it’s like, street art department and like, it said my name on it, had the logo on it and then, yeah I slapped it on there. The violation, the big blue and white violation box at the top that you always see.

CB: So this is one of those posts that went super, super viral. The Inquirer wrote about it. People still talk about it to this day. But the PPA also had a reaction. But immediately, because as soon as you put it down, we see the guy start walking towards us.

KH: Yeah. Yeah. Because I mean, it was on South Street on a Sunday, right? And it’s like, in the middle of summer. So there was a lot of people out there and they just, like, didn’t really know what was going on. But then as soon as they saw, everyone took out their phones and just started snapping away pictures. And then the PPA officer comes back to the car.

CB: And they’re famously not known for being kind.

KH: Right, well, I, like, ran away. And then someone took pictures of them taking the… It was like, I think that was the best shot. There’s a picture of the PPA officer taking it off the windshield and putting it in the back of the car. He had like a sort of sour face on, where everyone was like, ‘Yeah, someone got the PPA!’

CB: Before social media, there was a lot of mystery around street artists. But now, it seems most of them are pretty public. Many have a ton of followers on Instagram and TikTok, where they offer a behind-the-scenes look into their lives and art careers.

Still, for Hazo, the mask remains. But there’s another, more straightforward reason for his anonymity. Keeping his identity a secret helps him stay out of trouble.

At the end of the day, you’re doing work that is noncommissioned. You know, you talk about being anonymous because you want to make it about the art, but I’m sure part of it also, just the same way a lot of street artists, particularly before the modern era, where like, now street art’s beloved, you know, anonymity creates a bit of protection. You know, is that part of the reason why you’re anonymous as well?

KH: Yeah, yeah, it definitely helps to, you know, do the things that you want to do, especially when you’re spoofing ads or corporations. Like, it’s just easy to sort of come up with the thing and then make it more difficult for anyone to call you out for it.

CB: Over the years, Hazo has added some clever tricks to his bag in order to avoid unwanted attention.

[MUSIC]

KH: I was doing the work initially installing it at night.

CB: Right.

KH: And then I would do it in the middle of the night, and then I would…

CB: Which, you could not look shadier by doing something in the the night.

KH: Well exactly.

CB: It’s like you want to get noticed.

KH: Yeah. Yeah. It’s like, it’s like you shouldn’t be this at 3 a.m. in the morning, you know? And I thought, you know, that was probably a little dangerous. I shouldn’t do this. And so then, I was studying sort of what was happening. And, you know, in the U.K., they just have, like, you know, like, literal, like, cameras everywhere. And so the idea for them to be able to install this in the middle of the day and especially a lot of the stuff Banksy did, they had to dress up in, you know, construction uniforms or like they, you know, belong there. And then they could sneakily install a piece and then walk away.

And so that sort of hiding in plain sight idea, I was like, OK, this is actually, let’s see if this works. So, you know, I grabbed this Dickies overalls and, you know, made it look a little dirty. And then, you know, had a bandana and a hat.

CB: Literally, you just look like a sign replacer.

KH: Right, yeah.

CB: City people, Center City people were just walking by, you know, like, ‘Oh, he’s doing his job.’

KH: Right. Exactly. [Laughter] And actually, one of the city workers helped throw the trash away. And I thought that was so interesting because the contrast of, you know, when I would walk to work in the morning, I’d be dressed nice and business casual. Sometimes I’d wear a tie, right?

And then when I had this sort of, you know, these overalls on, how people completely ignored me. For a while I was like, ‘Wow, this is, you know, kind of crazy how society, you know, will treat blue collar workers, where they just sort of act like they’re invisible, you know, in a way.’ And I was like, ‘OK, well, you know, that worked really well. So I think that’s the move.’

[STREET SOUNDS]

CB: We witnessed his process firsthand when we went out with him to install some of his original signs. In addition to his usual coveralls and a bandana over his face, Kid Hazo had a backpack full of some simple tools.

[SOUND OF TOOLS JINGLING]

KH: Yeah, just prepping some of the bolts to put onto the signs, to attach them to the poles. Just want to line up the right size here. Typically, I mean it should take me about a maximum of 60 seconds to install the sign, in and out. Real quick. I don’t want to attract too much attention. Make it look like, you know, I belong here. I’m supposed to be here, almost like a city worker.

[MUSIC]

CB: I remember the thing that struck me originally about your work was when I saw it online, I thought, ‘OK, that’s probably like cardboard or something.’ And then when I went in person, I was like, ‘Oh, this is like real street sign material.’ So you went from like, nothing, to very complex installations, even the early street sign stuff.

KH: Yeah, they’re real. They are all real, and they’re, like, printed material that they last. And that was the thing, I wanted them to be able to last on the street. So I would, like, play around with a couple things. And then I was like, ‘Oh this is actually how you would make them. And then the print will stay on the street, not fade for a long time.’

CB: And can you talk about, like, how those are installed?

KH: Yeah. So essentially they’re the same length and width of an actual street sign. And so, then you just sort of take carriage vaults and you put them on there, both them on, and yeah that’s it. Just sort of put it up and walk away.

CB: Coming up on Art Outside, we’ll talk about how Kid Hazo got into street art and developed his unique style — and what keeps him motivated after 10 years. That’s after the break.

[MIDROLL BREAK]

CB: This is Art Outside. I’m Conrad Benner.

How did Kid Hazo become one of Philly’s most talked-about public artists? His journey started way back when he was an actual kid, growing up in Philadelphia.

How would you describe your life growing up? And like, who were you? Who were you growing up?

[MUSIC]

KH: Yeah, I guess I was a very… I was a kid that, you know, always did his own thing. I never really fit into different groups of people, especially in high school. I mean, I don’t know how many people had good high school experiences. [Laughter]

I mean, I definitely didn’t, you know, really fit into any of those groups there. And I sort of, I was always off doing my own weird thing. And I really liked, you know, the hip hop culture of, breakdancing, deejaying, graffiti, emceeing. Like, I was really into that. And there were not a lot of people that were into that element of it. So I always liked street art because it is made for the public, you know, and it’s something that the public can enjoy.

That felt like I could do basically anything I wanted to. So I think, feeling that, you know, my creativity was being suppressed for so long, I really just decided to do a lot of things. And that was one of the personas that I came up with, where I was like, ‘OK, you know, I think I want to give this a shot, and have fun with it.’

CB: Speaking of kid you, how did you pick your name?

KH: Oh, yeah. So in hip hop, the kid sort of prefix is very, very well known. It’s sort of a thing that happens in hip hop, and you have DJs like Kid Capri, and you have…

CB: Like Kid Rock?

KH: [Laughter] No, oh my gosh. Alright, I’m dropping it, dropping the ‘kid’ now. Thank you, Conrad. But yeah, the kid, sort of, that’s a thing in hip hop. So I was like, OK, the fun aspect and the, you know, the childlike, as you mentioned, humor, and, you know, the joyfulness of that, right? I wanted that. So I start with the kid. And then I was like, Oh, I’ll just say, let me see. Kid Hazo, like hazard, and Hazo. So I just went with Kid Hazo.

CB: Right away, Hazo created his niche, making a kind of street art that no one else in Philly was making.

KH: I was always good at mimicking things, right? So I could look at something and mimic it in a different way. And I think that’s what the street art signs are, like, interesting, because they’re so simple, right? They’re pretty minimalist signs. But, you know, if you can just mimic it in the perfect way where you just don’t, like, people won’t notice it at the first glance. I like that idea. I like, sort of, like, you know, integrating it into the environment where, you know, it’s a little sneaky and stealthy. And so, you know, that idea is just pretty fun, especially because street signs are something that people will walk past all the time, you know, and they just don’t pay attention to them, because it’s just something that’s constantly telling you what the rules are. [Laughter]

And, you know, it’s just something that’s just so mundane. You’re just like, ugh, you know? You look up, you’re like, ‘I can’t park here, I can’t do this, I can’t do that.’ And then, you know, if you see something that’s blended into the environment and, you know, if you’re actually paying attention, which is something where a lot of people are just on their phones all the time walking around the city, I think that was the bonus, where we could get people to be distracted from their phones instead of being distracted by their phones. They, you know, will get a little bonus in their day if they sort of looked up and paid attention to what was going on in their environment.

[MUSIC]

CB: After his original street signs took off, Hazo was unstoppable. He started experimenting with larger-than-life installations, poking fun at outdoor ads, other public artworks, and even city institutions. Like the one that he did at the oldest art school in the country, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts…

One of the ones that I always think back on, you took the Claus Oldenburg sort of paint dollop, and turned it into something. So on on North Broad Street, right at PAFA, there’s a big Claus Oldenburg’s statue. It’s a paint stick…

Outside of the art school, there’s a huge sculpture of a paintbrush, created by the late Claus Oldenburg.

…And then on the ground there’s a dollop. And what did you do with that?

KH: So the dollop looks exactly like the poop emoji.

CB: You said it. [Laughter]

KH: And it was just really funny and too easy to create the poop emoji eyes and the smile. So that morning we went there, we put it up, just slapped two eyes on it and a smile. And it, you know, obviously it was an orange dollop. So yeah, that was a fun one, because it was just too easy to slap that up there. I think people liked that one a lot because they were like, ‘I knew it, yeah, that’s exactly what that looks like.’

CB: You can’t not see it now. It looks exactly like that emoji. That was one of those ones, with your installations, with a lot of the street art, but particularly with yours, like usually we go out in the morning, and I just get so excited about what you’ve done that I have to, you know, you drop me off at home or I run home, and I get the post up immediately. And that is one of the ones where I remember, like, even by the time the post went up, people were like, ‘I’m going to run over there.’ And then they’d be like, ‘It’s not here anymore.’

KH: Yeah.

[SOUND OF THE STREETS, BIRDS CHIRPING]

CB: It’s really common now for artists to start by making noncommissioned street art, and then move into commissioned work with brands or galleries and museums. Many of them go full time even.

But Hazo maintains his anonymity and sticks to the streets. You might wonder why he goes to all the trouble.

Just creating street art that’s joyful is important to you. Can you talk about that a bit more? Why is it so important to just create? You could be doing anything with your time, but you’re making comedic street art just to bring smiles to people’s faces. That’s really interesting.

[MUSIC]

KH: Yeah, I think, you know, it’s just, having something silly or, you know, seeing something that’s just lighthearted and just nice to change up your day, I think it’s important that, you know, we’re always laughing and we’re always having a good time. People have pretty hard lives, you know, depending on what’s going on, and if they can, you know, that one little thing just changes what they, how they feel.

CB: Sometimes making someone smile is reason enough to create.

KH: You know, I think that’s really important. I mean, yeah, people can put up really horrible things and hateful things, but, you know, this, it makes it fun, because it’s something that everybody can enjoy.

[MUSIC]

CB: Next time, on Art Outside…

[SOUND OF SPRAY PAINT CAN SHAKING]

JUSTIN NAGTALON: We are about to get some spray paint on the wall, and get some new art added to this side.

CB: We’re talking with El Toro, a muralist who’s also one of the founders of Philly’s hand-drawn sticker scene. We’ll hear why he got into street art.

CB: Was moving to the U.S. hard then?
JN: It was. Basically like I was the 1% Asian in that whole community or the whole town. And I think that’s where art became my best friend.

CB: We’ll meet his signature character.

JN: I’ve been describing him as, like, a male Hello Kitty, which is also cute and kawaii, but also has a little mischievous side to him, a little bit of a vandalism side, you know, make it a little saucy.

CB: And find out why he recently came out of anonymity.

JN: Before, I was not comfortable to share that, just because I don’t want you to think X, Y, Z. But I think now that I’m more comfortable in where I am and who I am, I think it’s just healthy for me to show it and be present.

CB: That’s next time, on Art Outside.

[THEME MUSIC]

This is Art Outside. I’m your host, Conrad Benner.

Our producers are Michael Olcott and Michaela Winberg. Our engineer is Charlie Kaier, with engineering help from Al Banks, Tina Kalakay, and Adam Staniszewski. Our executive producer is Tom Grahsler.

Our theme song is Snackmftime by SNACKTIME. Our tile art was created by El Toro, aka Justin Nagtalon.

Special thanks to Louisa Boyle, Naomi Brito, Aubrie Costello, Grant Hill, Mike Mehalick, Alejandro Miyashiro, Sarah Moses, Maiken Scott, Jason Andrew Turner, and Kayla Watkins.

Art Outside is a production of WHYY. Find us wherever you get your podcasts.

Executive Producers: Tom Grahsler
Producers: Michael Olcott, Michaela Winberg
Engineers: Charlie Kaier, Al Banks, Tina Kalikay, Adam Staniszewski
Mixing: Charlie Kaier
Tile Art: Justin Nagtalon
Theme Song: SNACKMFTIME by SNACKTIME

Special thanks to Louisa Boyle, Naomi Brito, Aubrie Costello, Grant Hill, Mike Mehalick, Alejandro Miyashiro, Sarah Moses, Maiken Scott, Jason Andrew Turner, and Kayla Watkins.

Art Outside is a production of WHYY.