When I first moved to New York I would see these strange funny phrases painted on walls ending with the tag SAMO©. I was walking home one late night and saw these two guys marking the walls and finishing with the tag SAMO© These two young guys both introduced themselves as SAMO. One of them kept on saying he was the real SAMO. I accepted him as SAMO. I met him many times after that. He was barely making ends meet and I took him out for a late breakfast several times. I enjoyed talking to him. He was funny and full of life. I didn't see him for awhile.
Not too soon after, I started to see the words "SAMO IS DEAD" written on the walls. I didn't see SAMO for a long time. Late one night, I was walking the same way home and I saw someone walking towards me, who looked exactly like SAMO. He was very well dressed and full of confidence. I called out his name and asked him how he was doing. He said that his name was not SAMO and introduced himself as Jean-Michel Basquiat. We shook hands and said goodbye. This photo was taken after SAMO/Jean-Michel Basquiat made some color xeroxes of some of his art work. He gave me several of the xeroxes. I have no idea what I did with them.