Hip-Hop's Latino Connection

BRANDED FOR LIFE
Mr. Cartoon
Photo: Estevan Oriol
Words: Zio

From the outside, SA Studios looks like any other industrial building littered among Los Angeles’s infamous skid row. But like your mama always told you, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. And what lies inside here is an individual whom the barrio respects, hip-hop embraces, and the world admires: Mr. Cartoon.

Upstairs in the tattoo shop, the gold-and-crimson walls are freckled with photos in black, white, and overcast grays that were taken by friend and business partner, Estevan Oriol. While many of the photos bluntly capture the grim reality of LA, others are portraits of Cartoon’s clientele, which includes B-Real, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Fat Joe, 50 Cent, Kanye West, Nas, and Slim Thug.

Cartoon’s unique brand of tattoos and the high caliber of his work have attracted some surprising patrons. “I remember Dr. Phil walking into my tattoo studio one day,” Cartoon says as he outlines DaVinci’s Last Supper on the upper back of a client. “He wanted his son to get tattooed, and he wanted to bring him to a high quality artist. And that shit will put your ass in check ‘cause Dr. Phil ain’t got nothing to do with hip-hop or lowriders or that culture.”

But long before Dr. Dre or Phil were coming to his shop, Cartoon was tattooing in the kitchen, “homie-style and shit.” “We just had a lot of pride and a lot of hunger,” he recalls.

He admits that his career wasn’t progressing because he was spending too much time partying. Then in ’98, he and Oriol made a joint decision, one that they have both maintained for eight years — to stop drinking and using drugs completely.

“I got a job on Hollywood Boulevard as an apprentice, cleaning needles and setting shit up, learning,” Cartoon explains, pausing for a moment to look up at the mounted plasma screen to check the Lakers score before continuing. “I already knew how to tattoo, but I was starting over in a real tattoo shop.” After apprenticing for a year, Cartoon began working at a trendy shop on Melrose where he refined his skills. But Cartoon’s handiwork didn’t land on celebrity skin until Oriol, who was Cypress Hill’s tour manager at the time, began pushing Cartoon’s work to the celebs he would encounter along the road.

Cartoon and Oriol originally came together in ’92 to create Joker Brand, a line of clothes which has since become as much of staple in L.A. as the Staples Center. When asked how the line applies to Latinos, Oriol jokes, “This company eats more rice and beans then any other company that’s doing what we’re doing.” But on the real, Joker Brand was the first official clothing line created by Latinos for Latinos. “When we started doing clothes, we started doing it because it was obvious that there were clothes for Caucasian people,” continues Oriol. “Then the African- Americans had started their movement in the clothing industry with Cross Colors and FUBU. So we felt that the only thing missing was something for the Latinos.” And with the support of various celebrities, the Joker emblem, which was hand-drawn by Cartoon himself, has become as popular in the streets as baldies and creased-up khakis. “We’ve had a lot of good support in the entertainment industry,” says Oriol. “A lot of musicians have supported us from day one, as well as the random hotel robbers on Channel 9 News, or the graffiti writers, and we also had a couple of those high-speed car chase guys representing.”

“There’s a lot of gang life out here,” Cartoon says. “There’s a lot of pride and a lot of violence involved. But out of the violence, addiction, and poverty comes beautiful art.” Similar to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who filled the pages of 100 Years of Solitude with magical realism, Cartoon fills in backs, stomachs, and chests with a combination of raw, street elements and dream-like features. “I blend a lot of the artwork — I collage it,” he explains. “I’ll put a building in and I’ll put a clown and a woman, and all this stuff is kind of a fantasy. You know, in reality, it couldn’t really be set up like that, but in my brain I can do whatever I want.”

Doing what he wants has proven prosperous for Cartoon who, in the last year, has secured a number of deals with various corporate companies. He inked a five-shoe deal with Nike, created a limited-edition pair of Vans, worked with Oriol on designing the background for GTA: San Andreas, put out a custom T-Mobile Sidekick and just released a new custom phone with Metro PCS.

“We are constantly looking to improve ourselves,” Cartoon says, “and looking at what’s next and how to take it there.” And what’s next for Cartoon is a feature film. Originally made as a documentary by Oriol, who has directed 40 music videos, the film was picked up by Brian Grazer at Imagine Entertainment and will be turned into a movie.

“It’s a trip, man. I’m blown away. I’m amazed. That type of stuff isn’t supposed to happen to guys like us. We just regular fools out here, just working and grinding,” says Cartoon of the film, as he finishes the outline of the tattoo he has been so diligently working on. And while Cartoon may have finished The Last Supper, he’s definitely not done getting that bread.