Meet Ron ‘REZIN’ Lewis | graffiti writer – master wood carver – Hip Hop music producer – gourd artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ron ‘REZIN’ Lewis and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ron ‘REZIN’, what do you attribute your success to?
I honestly believe that the most important factor behind the success of any and everything that I do is my drive and tenacity to see a project all the way through to its completion.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I was born in Greenville, Mississippi in the early 70’s. My mother moved us to Los Angeles, CA right after I finished the 2nd grade, so I started 3rd grade in the Los Angeles Unified School District. So many things were different…especially the music that I was hearing. The early 80’s provided the sound track to what would begin my path as a young B-BOY. My ascent to where I am currently was definitely fueled and ignited in 1983. It was that year, in the 6th grade, when I made a firm decision to be FRESH! Junior High school was the arena where me and many of my friends that could draw started to write graffiti letters and develop characters and styles. This era led to me becoming a seasoned and commissioned graffiti writer. Catching tags around the city, black book sessions and working on full graffiti productions with other writers was surely something to make sure that your resume included.

In my 30’s, I could definitely add master wood carver onto my list of artistic skillsets. I was already a pretty good carpenter, so wood carving was an easy skill for me to merge into. From wood carving, my customer base started to request that I make custom sekere for them. A sekere is a hand held percussion instrument. Learning to make sekere did present a challenge as there were NO sekere teachers around to teach sekere making. It took me about two years of studying images and researching before I actually made my very first sekere instrument. Simultaneously, I was working on developing sewing techniques which eventually led to tailor-REZ (the tailor). Sewing Dashiki’s, making dresses, bucket bag purses, pants and custom hats had become my thing. My customer base often dictated what skills I developed based upon their requests. In order to always be able to capture videos and images of my works and projects, it was imperative that I added photography to the skillset. This was mostly a financial decision because If I took my own photos, that’s ONE less person that I have to pay for a service or skill.

After many years of being an available artist in the community, I had found my lane. Around 2020, I journeyed from Los Angeles, California to Memphis, Tennessee to remodel my aunts house so that she could sell it. During this timeframe is when all travelling had come to a screeching halt as COVID was the current big issue. I had to shelter in place in Memphis. This eventually led to me settling and relocating back to the southern states. At that time, there was a lady in Atlanta that I was fond of named Ajoke, and one of her skillsets was cooking. Her company was called MWAZA and she provided catering and meal prep services. I moved to Atlanta to be with her and start our artistic journey together. Now, I already knew how to cook good so it was easy to merge in with her hustle and bring out the CHEF REZ-ROCK aspect of me. Yeah, she had me hella cooking y’all lol… as we added some of my soul food recipes to her weekly menu options.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If I could take you all back in time with me, to a place that I would want you to experience, we would find ourselves heading north-bound on Crenshaw BLVD up to Exposition Blvd on any given Thursday night. This time frame would be in the early to mid 90’s. The legendary Leimert Park area of Los Angeles would be the location and THE GOOD LIFE cafe would surely be the open mic spot we would hit. This Health food cafe was also the home of one of the most important stages in Los Angeles’ Hip Hop history. It was at THE GOOD LIFE where emcees could (and would) go to perform and showcase new music. Then as soon as THE GOOD LIFE would end at 10pm, we pretty much went out to the parking lot to battle. After the parking lot battles, we would then head south on Crenshaw a few blocks to then go to PROJECT BLOWED…another open mic spot. PROJECT BLOWED was a second venue to hit if you wanted to perform and showcase new music as well. More than likely, we would have hit up CHRIS BURGER (which is no longer there), to grab a hamburger special somewhere in all of this. During this time frame, I would have been in my early 20’s and pursuing my interest in making beats and droppin rhymes and engineering studio sessions.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There is a plethora or people that have surely helped me along the way in my artistic journey however, I would like to offer a special shout out to my ANCESTORS that have supported me without fail.

Website: https://www.darkrezinarts.com

Instagram: @inkrezin

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/inkrezin

Image Credits
Ajoke Olanipekun