Kool Kojak Talks Worcester Roots, Music, Graffiti and Film

Graffiti and Street Art Give Artists a Voice

By-Hank Stolz
Graphic-Radio Worcester/ Photo: LinkedIn

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Worcester, MA-Worcester-born multidisciplinary artist Kool Kojak sits down for a wide-ranging conversation about his decades-long career spanning music production, graffiti art, film scoring, and mentorship.

Born at Hahnemann Hospital in 1972 and raised in Worcester, Kojak graduated from Doherty High School before heading to UMass Amherst and eventually making his way to New York City in 1994 in pursuit of music.

There, a chance encounter with a Brazilian punk-bossa nova band led him to Sao Paulo, where a song he produced sold an estimated 16 million pirated copies on the streets of Rio and Sao Paulo, bringing fame without financial reward.

It also led to his name, after being told to come and sing with the band a botched haircut led to him cutting it all off and when he showed up no recognized him at first, “I show up the next day, no hair and nobody recognizing me. Finally, Louis Gasparro was like, ‘Hey, Kojak, what happened to you?’ And then I was just Kool Kojak in the band.”

Graffiti and Street Art Give Artists a Voice

He spoke about the philosophy behind graffiti and street art, “The origins of what we understand as graffiti modern day came out of the late ’60s, early ’70s in New York and in Philly…kids empowered themselves and gave themselves a voice by putting their name on the wall.”

“I make giant flowers and I will paste them up on the wall. And I have unsolicited art all around the world, gorilla art. In Worcester, I have some.”

Music for The Lorax and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Kojak discusses his contributions to major film projects, including writing “How Bad Can I Be?” for the animated film The Lorax and crafting the iconic subway graffiti scene mixtape for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

“Miles, who’s Spider-Man, Puerto Rican, black Spider-Man kid, goes with his uncle Aaron into the subways and they paint graffiti and they play a mix tape on a boombox…boombox, cassette, mix tape, graffiti in the subway tunnels in New York City. That’s my DNA right there.” and he said the music in those projects came right out of what he had been doing in Worcester.

Worcester Connections and Early Encouragement

One of his early advocates in Worcester was Bill Wallace, Director of the Worcester Historical Museum (now the Museum of Worcester) “Bill, I got to say, he really gave me some legitimacy and put a lot of wind in my sails…no one had ever purchased my artwork before. I was like, ‘Whoa, this is so cool.'”

He adds, “It went into his Worcester collection and that started our relationship and it just made me feel legit.”

Despite his global reach, Kojak maintains a strong connection to Worcester, returning for events such as the Worcester Music Awards and The Harvey Ball.