MY NAME IS SIGN, PARIS IS MINE

“SIGN, a pioneer of French hip-hop, disappeared in the early 1990s. His friends lost track of him, and his family knew nothing of his graffiti past. In 2022, we discover that he’s been dead… for almost ten years. To understand what happened and to tell the story of this forgotten life, Karim Boukercha conducts an investigation that is as intimate as it is historical.”

MY NAME IS SIGN, PARIS IS MINE is the result and corresponding text and photo book to a ten episodes podcast about the three year investigation on the Paris legend. Just like a black book the publication combines texts, countless posse shots, never before published photos of tags, throw-ups, trains, line and tunnel pieces, rooftops, but also family photos, letters and drawings. Through the photo and text content we get to know one of the most important French writers of his era.

The member of the legendary CRIME TIME KINGZ and 156 crews was part of Europe’s leading stylewriting avant-garde. We are able to retrace iconic pieces in Stalingrad Paris, his travels to New York in 1986 and 1987 where he met T-KID and painted trains with JOEY and JONONE, and also the famous trip to Munich in 1986 with CAT22, SHOE and BANDO, with accompanying texts by CEMNOZ and STONE.

The rich photo content which mainly spotlights the time until 1989 captures unique moments of the European hip hop history with e.g. shots from the Beastie Boys or Run-D.M.C. piecing their logo while touring France in 1986. Also featured are SQUAT, COLT, SHEN, STEPH, Vincent Cassel, GRAFF2/SNEEK, MODE2, BOXER, JOEY STARR, SLAZE, SOLO, JOEY TDS, SCAM, TIM DOG, ULTRAMAGNETIC MCS, and many more.

The 226-paged book is a Pandora’s box on SIGN’s career and involvement in the scene that he sadly left for good. A photo index helps tracing the place and time of the numerous amazing shots and a QR-code directly leads to the podcast on which the hardcover is based on. The French text can easily be translated by using a photo translation tool. For fans of the Europe writing origins this one is a must!

226 pages, 20,4 cm x 14,3 cm, hardback with structured cover
Author: Karim Boukercha
Language: French
Release date: May 2025
ISBN: 978-2-35081-041-6
Publisher: Éditions L’oeil d’Horus