The Free Agents (FA) Crew was Established in 1985 somewhere between Washington DC, and Miami by Glove (aka Lucky Seven/ Beer). According to Glove (who had started his graff career in Miami as the founder of the legendary ATBO crew before attending college in the Washington area), the “Free Agents” name came from a hockey team in the D.C. area. Glove traveled between D.C. and Miami and as a result FA quickly established itself in both cities. Glove recruited SMK, Cha, Mesk, & Siek in the greater D.C. area, while Mega, Zec, Risk, Ask, Kae, Bones, Saint, Miner, and Dekay dominated Miami. Unlike most purely hip-hop based graffiti crews, FA was comprised of skateboarders, and punk rock kids as opposed to just B-Boys. The mobility of skateboarding coupled with the DIY attitude of the Punk Rock scene led to a huge immediate impact on the Miami graffiti scene.
The Free Agents crew enjoyed its place at the top of the Miami graff scene from 1986 to the mid nineties. Thanks in part to innovative partnerships with some legendary crews.
In 1988 Glove, & Mega started VS (Visual Systems), and Dekay took over the leadership of FA and added Omne, Style, Scoope, Lep, Crom, and Raven. Under new leadership, we united with the AIM crew, and launched an all out assault on every facet of the graff game. Street bombing, throw ups, silvers, illegals, and legals were being rocked on a regular basis. The AIM-FA partnership eventually evolved into the AIM-FA-RA partnership, which led to the AIM-FA-RA-WBB partnership. Recognizing that four crews was simply too much to write, we formed STV. In theory, we were supposed to put up our primary crew plus STV which represented the other three crews (ie., FA-STV actually meant FA-AIM-RA-WBB). In addition to the members of the four crews STV included two individual writers Bekay & DS both from NYC. Since then, STV has become its own thing, and includes no FA members (or RA-AIM-WBB members for that matter).
In 1990 with the help of EDEC, FA united with the Urban Warriors (UW) out of The Bronx, NY. The UW partnership led to a huge NYC presence for FA, which was unheard of for Miami writers (outside of Dash) until that point. Additionally, we added new recruits King Bee, Jew, & Merk.
In the mid nineties, FA partnered with Jacksonville Florida’s CTC Crew (Color The City), and further expanded the ranks by accepting Rezen, Slue, Kes, Smaze, and Ceaze.
In addition to partnering with crews, the crew itself was rapidly expanding. Raven started a Providence, RI subset (where he was attending college) with WizArt, Caesar, and Vase. In ’90 Dekay also moved away for college (Savannah, GA) and expanded the crew to involve Miami’s Ease (who was attending the same school), Ganz (from NJ), Cere and Raze (Savannah), Dask (Ft. Lauderdale), Maz (Panama), & Joice (Germany). In addition East Coast road trips led to the recruitment of Esher (Philly), Rogue (Pittsburgh), & Kemos (NJ), while West Coast trips brought King 157 on board.
In 1993 much of the FA starting line up (Ease, Rage, DK, Raven, & Shie) and fellow Miami Graff Allstars Dash, & Edec formed the InkHeads. FA was once again taking over Miami. This time it was FA-IHS.
The new millennium has lead to a different type of expansion for the crew. The founders are all well into their late thirties, and applying the same principals of all out war and aggression that we used in the Graff world to make it in the “Real” world. From the ever popular 12 Ounce Prophet/ AKA graff based websites and books that Raven is producing, to the innovative music being released on Mega’s record label “Inner Current”, or the fonts he’s producing through “Stereo Type Haus”, or Maz One’s award winning design studio “El Revolver”, or Dekay’s “Media Allstars” Motocross Team, or Dask’s “Color Fast Tattoo Studio”, or the fine tattoo work that Cere’s producing, or Rear’s “Rim” automotive Rim Company, or Dez’s record label, or Rage’s music releases, or the work that Caesar does in the special effects industry, or Zelot’s tattoo work, or just about anything else you can imagine; the same skill and motivation has carried over into the crew’s professional careers. With families, careers, and tons to lose, the majority of the crew is still painting.
Their have been over 100 members of the Free Agents crew. Outside of Miami, the crew has recruited members in Orlando, Jacksonville & Tallahassee Fla., Washington D.C., Atlanta, & Savannah GA, Providence RI, NYC, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, & Philly PA, Baltimore, & Bethesda MD, Boston MA, San Jose, San Francisco, & LA California, Phoenix AZ, Panama Central America, and Berlin Germany. In the 23-year history of the FA crew, pieces have been done in Panama Central America, Colombia, Costa Rica, Brazil, Europe & over 1/2 the states in the USA.