Art of Mo’ Wax: Stan Green (8th Wonder)
Part of the appeal of a Mo’ Wax release, other than the music, is their amazing artwork, and the label became famous for their visually appealing packaging. This series will take a a brief look at some of the artists who worked with Mo’ Wax between 1992–2003.
Stan Green grew up in Davis, California and first heard hip hop in the early 1980’s. While he initially got into breakdancing, Stan he liked to draw too.
At the time he had gotten into calligraphy and would write people’s names for them in an Olde English style, but then he met a kid from L.A. who showed him how he did graffiti. This impressed Stan and he began researching graffiti at the library of UC Davis University, where his dad was a professor. Thanks to his dad, Stan was able to gain access to artbooks such as Subway Art (1984) and Spraycan Art (1987), two books which were hugely influential to the graffiti art community.
Initially Stan began practising graffiti with spray cans in his parents garage, and eventually snuck out at night to paint his first mural. Luckily he wasn’t caught, but when he went back the next morning to take a photo, the wall had already been painted over, and so his first large graffiti artwork was lost.
His first tag, at the age of 12, was K.I.D., which stood for the King In Davis, and Stan would draw a little crown over the top of it. But this was later changed to The 8th Wonder, a reference to how talented he felt he was at the time.
In Junior High, Stan took part in graffiti battles (on paper) at school, and joined a graffiti crew. After developing his style he became well known for his hand drawn illustrations and met a young Josh Davis, aka DJ Shadow. The two became friends in 7th grade after Shadow saw Stan had bought a book on breakdancing and they realised they were both interested in hip hop. By 1989, the two were pooling their pocket money to buy records and going on trips searching for breaks. As Shadow began perfecting his mixing, he put together a demo tape and asked Stan to create the artwork for it. Stan would individually hand draw the art for each tape and design artwork for the envelopes which the tapes were sent in.
These tapes, such as Hip Hop Reconstruction From The Ground Up, got DJ Shadow noticed, but people also noticed the artwork, and when Shadow sent a tape to KMEL they told him it was the artwork which made it stand out initially.
Stan began getting contacted from people who had seen his work thanks to Shadow, and he was asked to designs t-shirts, logos, several covers for Bomb Hip Hop Magazine, as well as a cover for The San Francisco Bay Guardian, a newspaper which was read across The Bay Area. He also created artworks for music releases, and one of his first credits was on Mr. Nice Guy’s It Ain’t That Type Of Party in 1990. This was closely followed by a flyer for DJ Shadow’s Lesson 4 which featured a drawing of Shadow wearing a big hat and boots which were popular at the time, though Shadow later noted he couldn’t actually afford the boots back then.
Stan has also said he was asked to design the logo for Death Row Records, the label started by Dr. Dre and Suge Knight in 1992. It’s an opportunity he still regrets he passed on, but at the time he wanted full time employment and knocked back several jobs like this as they came in.
As DJ Shadow’s career started taking off, Stan Green was right there with him. They hung out together at the KDVS studio where Shadow joined with Xavier Mosley aka Chief Xcel, Tom Shimura aka Asia Born (later Lyrics Born), Tim Parker aka Gift of Gab, and Lateef Daumont aka Lateef the Truthspeaker.
The group launched their own Solesides label in 1993, with Stan’s artwork featured on releases from DJ Shadow, Blackalicious, and Latryx. Of these, two were released by Mo’ Wax, DJ Shadow’s In/Flux / Hindsight in 1993, and Blackalicious’ Melodica EP in 1994.
Unfortunately, it was around this period that Stan and Shadow’s friendship came to an end, with the pair having a falling out.
According to DJ Shadow, Stan’s family disagreed with some of the elements of Hip Hop that conflicted with their values, but Stan has said that his parents never discouraged him, and while they didn’t always agree with the music, they encouraged his interests and pushed him to follow his passion for art.
Regardless, eventually Stan and Shadow’s friendship ended. Despites the falling out at the time, DJ Shadow still speaks highly of Stan in interviews and gave a shout out to him in the credits of Endtroducing, DJ Shadow’s 1996 debut album, where he wrote:
Special Thanks to…My partner in crime. 1984–1994. Stan Green a.k.a. the 8th Wonder for the countless hours of Hip-Hop philosophising, beat shopping and extreme tolerance. I owe my career to your support. I could never thank you enough.
After getting his Bachelor Degree in Studio Art at UC Davis, Stan Green became frustrated with California, and took the opportunity to move to Searcy, Arkansas on the invitation of some family. Enjoying the change of scenery, Stan began a Masters degree and studied at Harding University. After completing the Masters around 1996 he decided he wanted to help others find their talents, so he got a teaching degree and moved into teaching art, which he has continued with since.
Over the years Stan Green has kept fairly quiet and you won’t find much information about him online, apart from Discogs and a few other DJ Shadow related sources. But in 2019 Stan’s friend Jason White started a podcast called The Overspray Podcast, and spoke to Stan at length for his first episode. It ended up being the only episode released, but it’s an amazing insight into Stan’s life, and will make you wish there was more of his work online.
External Links
The Overspray Podcast Episode 1: The 8th Wonder — An extended interview with Stan covering his entire life.
The San Francisco Bay Guardian September 7, 1994 — Cover art by 8th Wonder
Mo’Wax — Where Are They Now: Quannum —On the early days of the Solesides crew and what they did next.
