Driving westbound on the H-1 from Hawaiʻi Kai, just outside the Wilder Avenue exit is a golden mural of a portrait of Israel Kamakawiwoʻole and Don Ho with the letters reading, “Hawaiian.”
This was the first mural that grassroots art collective 808 Urban created in 2007 and would revisit five years later, as muralists who worked with graffiti were still being turned down and chased out of places.
John “Prime” Hina, the founder of 808 Urban, has devoted the past 17 years into seeing his backyard project unfold into a thriving business that has created over 1,000 large-scale murals beyond Kakaʻako, reaching other Hawaiian Islands and other countries around the world. Hina has continued to serve the local communities in Hawaiʻi, all while emphasizing the importance of pushing art forward in the context of culture.
Before Hina’s vision of 808 Urban came to life, he had his own journey as a respected tagger on the streets from 1983-1987.
“Growing up in Honolulu we didn’t speak our language. I loved hip-hop culture so much because it filled the void of not growing up with the Hawaiian culture, so hip-hop became that language and then graffiti became my outlet where I would just express myself,” said Hina.
After stepping away from tagging, Hina started a family and his children’s own curiosity would reintroduce graffiti back into his life.
“One day when my kids came home from school, my son had my daughter ask me if they could paint the garage with their friends,” said Hina. “Fifteen minutes later, I smell spray paint, and I open the garage door, and I see all these kids tagging my wall. I was like, ʻwhat are you guys doing?’ And they said, ʻoh dad we’re doing this new thing called tagging.’
“I was upset, but not because they were tagging, but because it was ugly. There was no thought in their letters. I broke it down for them, telling them about the dance and flow of it.”
Hesitant for his kids to go down the same path that he had, Hina wondered if there could be a change. He pitched the idea of teaching kids to use spray cans for good to various state government officials and department heads, but nobody went for it.
After 25 years of keeping his street identity discreet, he met with some of the “old time” graffiti artists revealing his identity for the first time and asking for their support. Anecdotally, Hina shared that they were surprised to learn that he was Hawaiian – they had always suspected that the artist known as “Prime” was Asian.
“They respected the stuff I did on the streets, but they weren’t keen on the idea of me doing something legal,” said Hina. “I was going to go do it, because the kids needed a different path and at that time, nobody understood.”
For six months, 808 Urban was in Hina’s backyard, where he made his own walls with pieces of plywood. The project quickly evolved from working with his own children, to their friends, and eventually to over 180 students.
“It became too much for my own personal space. I went back to the state, showed them the statistics I had of the kids showing up,” said Hina.
With the help of Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland (Senate District 13), Hina was finally able to find a home where he could teach and mentor young artists at the Pālama Settlement.
For two years, 808 Urban hosted workshops always intending to give back to the kids in attendance – and then the emerging art scene in Kakaʻako came calling.
“The founder of POW! WOW! Hawaiʻi came to me and asked for help. We formed a partnership, and I did the first mural in Kakaʻako. From that point on it just blew up,” said Hina.
“My whole thing was making sure the murals we do have a Hawaiian story attached to it. We have these amazing artists that come here from all over the world, and they don’t know anything about our culture – and if we don’t speak up about our culture, then they’ll never know.”
Hina and his co-directors Laetitia Kealakukui (Kukui) Mahoney and Ralph Dela Cruz began to develop their own mural process that would give more meaning to why they do what they do.
Inspired by microbes, fossilization and genealogy, Hina explains that the mural process can be broken into four steps. Manalima – or the power of the hand, participants placing their hand in the paint and then on the wall to show the genealogy of the community. Pilialoha – the collected water from the community mixed with the paint used in the mural. Moʻokāpala – the design or pattern. Moʻolelo – which he describes as, “doing a mural that is appealing enough to the eye but speaks a different language to the ones that know.”
As more murals have been painted, Hina is excited for 808 Urban to tap into their own merchandise by introducing the first-ever coloring pencil set, Waihoʻoluʻu, labeled in the Hawaiian language and Nā Mea Hawaiʻi, a collection of coloring pages that grew from different projects 808 Urban did for Queen’s Hospital’s adolescent psych ward, for Pūnana Leo, and for families during the pandemic.
“The intention was to further our culture by giving them the visual and our interpretation of a story. We took a lot of time to think about other mediums, so if you don’t have a colored pencil or crayon, you can watercolor the page, tear it out and laminate it, so the kids can put it on the wall.
“We didn’t just put something together; we thought about what else it could become afterwards to always keep creating.”
