Piece by Refa One

Graffity has been around since man encountered his first stone wall. Much of what we know of the world's early history comes from pictures and symbols scrawled centuries ago."

"...contemporary graffiti began it's career as a formal civic nuisance, yet it remained a modest urban irritant until a Bronx-inspired explosion in the 70's allowed graffitists to refine themselves as artists. Early in the decade, a community of graffiti artists began gathering in and around De Witt Clinton High School in the Bornx. Clinton is located just blocks from a Transit Authority yard where out-of-sevice subway cars are stored. Scribbling obscenties and doggerel on and inside the subway cars has always been a pastime of the young and idle, but armed with Krylon, Rustoleum, Red Devil spray paint, Flowmaster Ink-and a relatively new bit of technology, the felt tip pen- Clinton students and their peers used the tools of the painter, art student, and teacher, not to defile but to create guerilla art."

"Since this activity was as illegal as it fun, these teens gave themselves flamboyant new names, called "tags", that protected them from discovery and gave their work an air of mystery. Phase 2, the tag of Clinton student Lonny Wood, became one of the first to gain citywide renown as it appeared on subway cars up and down the IRT line. The lanky, light brown Wood is African-American but many of the key early graffiti writers were Puerto Rican and white. The display of a distinctive personal approach quickly outstripped racial background as a delineator of style. Not that the racial identity of graffiti writers mattered to the average New Yorker. Most presumed it was the work of the idle, and likely dangerous, youths. In fact, for many residents the surge of graffiti in the city's public life crystallized their fears about New York's decline. It made them feel things were out of control and proved to be a very strong argument for moving to Jersey, Florida, and elsewhere."

"To those young or observant enough to see beyond the nuisance caused to travelers, graffiti was the voice of kids using spray paint and Magic Markers to scream for attention and make art. For mayors John Lindsay and Abe Beame, graffiti was a public policy nightmare. For those looking for manifestations of rebellion, for some last gasp of public defiance before the '60s spirit completely died, graffiti fit the bill-which was why by 1973 a gallery exhibit of twenty giant canvases won tremendous media attention, though many of the reviews were condescending and some downright contemptuous of claims that graffiti was art."

"Hip hop is nothing, however, if not resilient. While snubbed by highbrow critics, graffiti art found new followers in cutting-edge circles. This was partly the doing of several art-savvy promoters, including a young entreprenuer-artist born Fred Braithwaite, but better known to the world as Freddie Love and eventually as Fab Five Freddie, who started organizing graffiti artists and promoting them on the downtown art scene then blossoming in tandem with the punk rock club scene. His point was that this living, aggressive art was a perfect fit with the same antiestablishment attitudes that ruled at punk landmarks like CBGB. If punk was rebel music, this was just as truly rebel art."

SOURCE:

Hip Hop America
by Nelson George
$11.16