Visit the real New York City — if you dare

NEW YORK — "I want to see your New York."

That's what people tell me when they come to visit me here. Maybe it's their second or third visit and they've already been to Ellis Island and taken the double-decker bus tour. Or maybe it's their first visit and they want to bypass the spoon-fed tourist experience and go straight for the nitty-gritty. To these people I say, "Go take a Soundwalk."

The Soundwalk audio tour takes you inside the city. It takes you to the places only a native could really know — and even to some places you might feel uncomfortable going. Take the South Bronx. Google the neighborhood and you get phrases like "dreaded," "nasty reputation" and "rough streets." Not exactly your average tourist destination, unless you're headed to Yankee Stadium. But with a Soundwalk CD and a set of headphones, you're on your way to seeing what the neighborhood is really all about.

I took the No. 5 subway train to the Bronx for a Soundwalk audio tour of Hunts Point called "Graffiti Walk." The narrator, Sotero Ortiz, also known as "BG183" of the Tats Cru, is part of a group of graffiti artists whose work has shown up everywhere from Jennifer Lopez videos to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

As I get off the train and fall into pace with the footsteps I hear on my headphones, BG gives me directions. "Move with me," he says. "We're gonna hit the whole neighborhood. You're gonna see the best artists in the world."

I hit the street and suddenly feel a little out of place. The open palm of a homeless man and stares from teenagers holding brown sacks on the corner greet me outside the station. Fading awnings scrawled in Spanish don't offer many clues as to where I am.

I try not to look lost — and just in time, BG's voice tells me which way to go. An easy hip-hop beat cuts in, helping to carry my feet out of self-consciousness and in the right direction.

Down a side street, I arrive at a wall awash in the bold colors and animated shapes of a graffiti mural recently painted by Tats Cru. BG's voice is joined by other members of the group to explain the meaning behind the mural, a piece on the war in Iraq.

Along the way to other murals that include memorials to friends and musicians who have died, I learn about the history of the Tats Cru and how what began as the thrill of tagging trains turned into a treasure for the community they grew up in. BG tells me where I can get the best hip-hop CDs and fresh tortillas, a Santeria love potion and live chickens to have slaughtered for my supper. The "vivero" is closed, but from the lingering smells in the air, I know he's not kidding.