ERIC T-Shirt

UNDERPRESSURE X EINE STADT WIRD BUNT presents:
T-shirt “FUNK MUSIC”, with the legendary graffiti motif sprayed by ERIC in 1987.
Color: Black. 100% cotton. Premium quality in 200 gsm. Plus information card and sticker.
A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the “Ahoi Collective”.

ERIC – The Bridge Builder

He combined classical writing with political messages and, in the early 1990s, created one of the first meeting places for graffiti artists and hip-hop enthusiasts at the "Ahoi" on Hafenstrasse. ERIC is one of the founding fathers of the Hamburg scene. With this T-shirt, featuring one of his most famous images, EINE STADT WIRD BUNT and UNDERPRESSURE commemorate the writer, hip-hop, and Hafenstrasse activist, who died in 2009.

The bridge at the Rübenkamp S-Bahn station was still an innocent gray when, one night in 1987, ERIC left the words "FUNK MUSIC" and a B-boy with a boombox in his hand there. Hardly any other Hamburg graffiti artist reached such a broad audience as early as ERIC. For example, with the "lightning finger" at Berliner Tor. This striking piece was one of the triggers for the founding of the railway police's "SOKO Graffiti" in 1988. One reason for ERIC's fame was the political messages he skillfully placed around the city. Legendary: a silver "EAT THE RICH" with which he decorated a dark Jaguar X300 on Hafenstrasse.

Growing up in Bramfeld, Eric belonged to the generation of young people who saw "Wild Style" in the cinema in 1983 and somehow couldn't get enough of hip-hop films after that. He started spraying and created one of the first meeting places for the city's hip-hop scene in the early 1990s: At his initiative, writers, B-boyz, and rap enthusiasts from all over Hamburg came together for a few years at the Hafenstrasse bar "Ahoi" to draw and chat. DJ Mad and Eric himself were among those at the turntables, and beer, juice, and tea were available at the bar. In the years that followed, Eric continued to live and be together. He was involved in the "Volxküche" (community kitchen) and organized parties on Hafenstrasse, where he himself lived from the mid-1990s onwards. He continued to spray pieces and political statements, many of which have become etched in the collective memory of the scene.

On November 8, 2009, Eric suffered a fatal accident on the subway tracks at Jungfernstieg. With him, Hamburg's graffiti scene lost one of its most colorful personalities. Anyone lucky enough to have met him experienced a man who was always friendly and respectful to others. In this way, Eric not only built bridges between hip-hop and the left-wing scene, but also demonstrated what community means. With his positive attitude to life, he became a role model for many.

Thanks, ERIC! - REST IN PEACE.