Hektad was raised in the Bronx, NY. Hektad started in 1981 at age of 12, hitting it hard in the Graffiti culture nonstop until 1999. The moniker, Hektad manifest as a merging of the tag HEK and the acronymTAD for ‘They Always Destroy’ which was the name of Hektad’s first teenage crew, established in 1984. Hektad remembers the early days when the, self-taught artists dropped works across the city and nobody seemed to care and certainly nobody seemed to value their work. In 1986 Hektad graduated from the High School of Art and Design east Midtown location at 1075 Second Avenue. It was an underfunded public school that seeded the cultural life of NYC generation after generation. In Hektad’s day, graffiti writers like Tracy168, Fab Five Freddy, George Lee Quiñones, Lady Pink, and Mare139 all graced the halls and tagged the walls of HSAD.

Hektad recalls his early days as a self-taught artist, creating work across the city at a time when street art was often overlooked and undervalued. In 1986, he graduated from the High School of Art and Design in Midtown East—an underfunded public school that quietly shaped generations of New York City’s creative culture.

During his time there, the halls were alive with the presence of legendary graffiti artists like Tracy168, Fab Five Freddy, Lee Quiñones, Lady Pink, and Mare139, whose influence helped define an era of bold expression and artistic rebellion.