In Memoriam

Groundbreaking Houston graffiti legend dies as a mystery: Taggers remember abadass rebel

NEKST's work is found throughout Houston, where the artist cut his teeth in thelatter half of the '90s. (Crawford and Elgin, northwest corner)
Photo by Tyler Rudick
Graffiti artists from across the country are contributing to NEKST memoriallocated at a soon-to-be-revealed site in Houston.
Work on the dedication started this past weekend. The memorial site will beannounced shortly.
Commuters on 59 will recognize NEKST's work on a warehouse across the freewayfrom Minute Maid Park.
Photo by Tyler Rudick

The graffiti world lost a giant with the death of NEKST — the prolific street tagger who got his start in Houston during the mid 1990s before making his way to the New York big leagues with the notorious Mad Society Kings crew.

As one might expect, there's not much in the way of biographical information about an artist whose career requires him to spend much of the time dodging police. And information about his death is equally sketchy with local artists saying they don't want to get into the cause.

"You know you're badass when half of your peers want to write with you and the other half wan ts to fight you."

Glasstire listed his name simply as "Sean" in a recent obituary while the Houston Press, which gave him its 2003 award for best graffiti artist, noted only that he began working in 1996 under the moniker "Next" and that he served a short but artistically-busy prison sentence in Dallas.

After that, details of NEKST's life and untimely death remain a mystery to those outside the tightly-knit graffiti community. Luckily, the rest of us are left with countless monumental works the artist plastered across the globe from EaDo to London.

"These days, it's all about using the Internet to get you name out to the world," Houston graffiti writer GONZO247 tells CultureMap. "But for NEKST, he decided to just write his name on the world."

GONZO, who'd known the artist for nearly two decades, recalls some of NEKST's early tags — one of which can still be seen covering a warehouse fire escape across from Minute Maid Park just east of the 59 freeway.

"He used to write in this crazy silver and black wildstyle before moving onto these bigger and bigger projects," Gonzo says. "Through the years, he inspired a lot of people and gained the respect of a lot of graffiti artists.

"You know you're badass when half of your peers want to write with you and the other half wants to fight you."

NEKST was known not only for his large and intricate murals, but for his ability to create them in the most challenging of terrain. "He wouldn't just climb a billboard and tag it, he'd cover the whole thing," GONZO says. "It's that kind of work that made him so well-known among graffiti artists."

This past weekend, as a tribute to the artist, graffiti writers gathered at a memorial site in Houston to re-create their own versions of a NEKST piece. The location of the dedication project will be announced in the near future.

Click here for a 100-photo NEKST memorial from alt-art magazine Juxtapoz.

unspecified

Concert News

Palestinian rapper Saint Levant brings Beirut style on tour to Houston

Saint Levant/Facebook

Saint Levant is playing three Texas shows in October.

Palestinian singer-songwriter and rapper Saint Levant is representing his namesake region on tour in North America, Europe, and the Middle East this fall, including at the Bayou Music Center in Houston on Thursday, October 8.

The Afandi World Tour will begin September 12 in Boston, Massachusetts, and end December 12 in Muscat, Oman. In addition to Houston, the tour will stop in Dallas on October 6 and Austin on October 7.

Marwan Abdelhamid, a.k.a. Saint Levant, is known for a smooth musical style that combines lyrics in Arabic, English, and French, plus several genres and world music influences. His breakout started in 2022 with the single "Very Few Friends," and he is now based in Los Angeles. Abdelhamid is also known for frequent collaborations with top fashion houses, including the Lebanese brand Elie Saab.

Layali Al Afandi joins the tour with a production inspired by '90s Levantine cabarets, a press release says. The performance has a narrative arc with music, storytelling, and stage design, all of which draw from Beirut nightlife, fashion, and other artistic elements of Arab cultural identities.

Tickets presales begin Wednesday, July 15, at 10 am. The general on-sale follows on Friday, July 17, at 10 AM via LiveNation.com or SaintLevant.com. VIP tickets are also available for early floor access, a meet-and-greet with Saint Levant, a gift item, and more.

Afandi World Tour Dates:

Sat, Sep 12 – Boston, MA – Citizens House of Blues
Sun, Sep 13 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount
Mon, Sep 14 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount
Wed, Sep 16 – Toronto, ON – HISTORY
Thu, Sep 17 – Toronto, ON – HISTORY
Sun, Sep 20 – Silver Spring, MD – The Fillmore
Tue, Sep 22 – Detroit, MI – The Fillmore
Thu, Sep 24 – Chicago, IL – House of Blues
Fri, Sep 25 – Chicago, IL – House of Blues
Sun, Sep 27 – Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of Living Arts
Wed, Sep 30 – Atlanta, GA – Buckhead Theatre
Thu, Oct 1 – Charlotte, NC – The Underground
Sat, Oct 3 – Miami Beach, FL – The Fillmore Miami Beach at Jackie Gleason Theatre
Tue, Oct 6 – Dallas, TX – South Side Ballroom
Wed, Oct 7 – Austin, TX – Stubb's Waller Creek Amphitheater
Thu, Oct 8 – Houston, TX – Bayou Music Center
Sun, Oct 11 – Denver, CO – Summit Music Hall
Tue, Oct 13 – Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern
Wed, Oct 14 – Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern
Thu, Oct 15 – San Diego, CA – SOMA
Sat, Oct 17 – Anaheim, CA – House of Blues
Sun, Oct 18 – San Francisco, CA – The Masonic
Tue, Oct 20 – Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom
Thu, Oct 29 – Dublin, Ireland – National Stadium
Mon, Nov 2 – Paris, France – Zenith
Thu, Nov 5 – Antwerp, Belgium – De Roma
Mon, Nov 9 – Cologne, Germany – Carlswerk Victoria
Wed, Nov 11 – Luxembourg City, Luxembourg – Rockhal
Fri, Nov 13 – Utrecht, Netherlands – TivoliVredenburg
Sat, Nov 14 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Melkweg
Mon, Nov 16 – Berlin, Germany – Columbiahalle
Wed, Nov 18 – Copenhagen, Denmark – VEGA
Thu, Nov 19 – Oslo, Norway – Rockefeller Music Hall
Sat, Nov 21 – Stockholm, Sweden – Fållan
Tue, Nov 24 – Zurich, Switzerland – Komplex 457
Thu, Nov 26 – Milan, Italy – Alcatraz
Sat, Nov 28 – Barcelona, Spain – Razzmatazz
Mon, Nov 30 – Madrid, Spain – La Riviera
Tue, Dec 1 – Lisbon, Portugal – LAV
Tue, Dec 8 – Athens, Greece – Floyd
Thu, Dec 10 – Istanbul, Turkey – VW Arena
Sat, Dec 12 – Muscat, Oman – Muscat Eat 9

live music concerts

In Memoriam

Groundbreaking Houston graffiti legend dies as a mystery: Taggers remember abadass rebel

Concert News

Palestinian rapper Saint Levant brings Beirut style on tour to Houston

New Heights pizzeria reveals intimate 16-seat upstairs cocktail bar

Chef Austin Simmons dishes on his newly-opened Woodlands restaurant

Posh Houston steakhouse books spot on OpenTable's best hotel dining list