B-Girls 4 Life…

bee girls

My homie JULIE BEE and her graff grrl crew circa 1985 about to get it in. Please double click the image to see a full size view and study that shit. This chick is so hardbody NYC that you have no idea.

JULIE BURGOS is going hard in the paint for graffiti culture and if you have a few loose shekels I humbly ask you to support her efforts to put the Piecebook project into bestseller status.

Here’s the $20 Amazon link for Piecebook: Reloaded.

While you are at it why not cop the OG Piecebook?

The artwork in the book is more than outstanding. It is historical, dare I say canonical? If that is even a word that is what this book represents featuring the legendary artists that risked life and limb for the fleeting fame of bombing the trains.

My favorite detail in the book wasn’t even one particular artist’s ‘piece’ so much as it was the page they used to illustrate how Design markers would bleed through the page.

There are way too many masterpieces throughout these books. These artists were my heroes like anyone would follow the Batman or Daredevil comicbooks. These graff artists were daredevils for real too.

Respect the architects…

wish

46 Responses to “B-Girls 4 Life…”

  1. 40 says:

    My heart just fluttered at that picture… So cute…. So fresh…. I luh it.

  2. JuliBee430 says:

    On behalf of Dave & Sacha, good looks & big ups!

    On the real, I love you for this DALLAS! Now when is YOUR BOOK dropping?

  3. Good looks all around, reminds me 1) of a fave photo of an Erotica wall–

    http://www.whowalkinbrooklyn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/bronxerotica-wwib.jpg

    2) I need to hit the BX hard (ll) soon with camera and catch up on pieces there.

    Hate to admit that graf is at least 90% dead in NYC but if that’s so (why write when you can fucking “twitter,” no shots), I’d say at least half the remainder is in the BX.)

  4. Polotron says:

    Krylon…Rusto…and Sheepskin hats….

    hold up!
    Davey Crocket raccoon action????!!!!

    *faints*

  5. mercilesz says:

    lol that is so classic…r any of em actually b-girls? like can they dance? or just dress the part…u know run dmc had mad people talking about b-boys without dance. i dont know just wondering since writing has nothing to do with hip hop.

  6. the_dallas says:

    “since writing has nothing to do with hip hop”

    WTF are you talking about?

  7. Polotron says:

    Dude must have missed the term “b-boy(girls)” expanding to include all the elements…

    I got nothing for writing having nothing to do w/ hip hop…

  8. JuliBee430 says:

    The 3 Queens above were steady reppin for FSU, BYI and BTS, respectively, but definitely down with TNR, WIC, TNC, TFV, BTV, KT, CAC, AOK and many other crews.

    Graff girls carry paint & cameras, and hellz yes, trust we broke night, clubbed hard and (F)ame (S)truck (U)s, (B)eyond (Y)our (I)magination while we (B)ombed (T)he (S)treets with (T)hose (N)asty (R)ebels and (W)riters (I)n (C)ontrol. OK?

  9. Lion XL says:

    These youngins these days, don’t know the history yet wanna flap they gums…..

    Mercilesz…check out the temple of Hip Hop, it’ll teach you the truths of hip hop.

    Nine(9) Elements of Hip Hop:
    The Original 4 (or 5 if you include beat boxing as separate element)
    MCing
    DJing
    Break Dancing
    Graffiti
    Beatboxing

    PLus:
    Hip Hop fashion
    Hip Hop Language (slang)
    Knowledge
    and Ownership

    BTW…November is Hip Hop History Month, founded and recognized by the Universal Zulu Nation

  10. 40 says:

    @Julie Bee… I think I just had my first comments section crush. LOL.

  11. money mercilesz says:

    the original writers didnt listen to black music…..they listened to heavy metal dallas…..u could see hands of doom scrawled u could see black sabbath scrawled u could see slayer scrawled…..hip hop adopted writing…if anyone has any information to the contrary please write it. no dis to u dallas but its the truth. taki was greek and there wasnt one hip hop record out when he did his thing

  12. money mercilesz says:

    LION hip hop is music i cant hear writing…..does anyone have any info to the contrary….b boy or b girl means break boy or break girl…if u dont dance u aint no b boy/girl….u wait for the break of the record and let ur god self take over…thats bboying/girling not writing…again if anyone has info to the contrary let me know….run dmc ill tell ya.

  13. money mercilesz says:

    ok JuliB if u danced u were definitely a true b girl

  14. JuliBee430 says:

    Gee THX 40 LOL. ::blush::

    Despite heavy NYC clubbing, I’m not gonna front like I could ever do a headspin or windmill, tho I’ve been part of a circle or 2 up in a NYCHA Community Center & I can still uprock a lil… I never went to a layup, but I’ve been down a subway hatch, have a skeleton key & went street bombing and benching with the boys… I can name that ol skool tune w/ any of the ol skool DJs I know, but I don’t spin, I shuffle… & RunDMC are the Kings Of Rock after all…

    My man DP is welcome to use any of my shots if I get props over here. True the above pic (taken by CHINO BYI in his room) is out of context- http://myboxmychoice.blogspot.com/2009/10/piecebook-reloaded-nyc-launch-1009.html

    Anyhoo, whatchu write, money mercilesz?

  15. BIGNAT says:

    i wish some of my stuff would be in that book. i was just a punk dropping stickers in your train station with my tag on it. then running back on the train me and my bro did that. on almost every stop on the 6 train and some on the 2 and 5.

  16. Tony Grands says:

    I’ve always admired the East Coast for how they embraced grafitti as an element of the culture. Out here in L.A., not so much. The closest we got to a graf legend was this crazy ese who write “Chaka”, & he was famous because the city of L.A. charged him hundreds of thousands of dollars to clean his vandalism, not because of literal masterpieces.

    I’d watch Beat Street & Wild Style….then Breakin’. Breakin’ was totally lost in the translation.

  17. With respect to all, I don’t think Money M. is right but he’s not entirely wrong either. Since graffiti pre-dates anything we’d even call “hip-hop”– even Kool Herc– I’ve never been totally comfortable with the whole four “elements” orthodoxy. Yes, there was lots of social overlap but also individuals much more interested in one or two of those activities than all of them– whether it’s the white Bronx Irish who writes or dance kids coming out of a more “Latin”/Fania Records background…

    Planet Rock is still the sure shot but there are always– and always should be– different creation myths.

    Tony, I can’t find a good picture of it right now but do you know the classic JA over Saber NYC versus LA beef?

    JuliB, Livonia Yard is calling your name even now– just say the word!

  18. the_dallas says:

    Mercilesz,
    I don’t think you understand the artistic movement of Hip-Hop fully to claim that Hip-Hop is only something that you hear. It is true that Hip-Hop has a soundtrack, but even that is a collage of rap, rock, reggae, punk and funk rhythms. You said that the original writers didn’t listen to Black music? WTF are you talking about?! Seriously, that was the stupidest shit I ever read in the comments section here.

    Graffiti has existed in many forms and depictions throughout history. Kilroy Wuz Here might be considered the earliest American graffiti. Is that was this drop is referencing? Did you really come here to waste my time to tell me that the masterpiece movement in graffiti doesn’t fall under the umbrella of the Hip-Hop artistic/cultural era?

    Could you be that obtuse? If so then I blame myself for not being able to describe to you how the confluence of working class cultures formed what has become Hip-Hop. It is much deeper than rap. The birth of Hip-Hop wasn’t simply a deejay stealing power from a lamppost to power his soundsystem.

    The birth pf Hip-Hop was the systemic disenfranchisement of the poor. The art that the poor and the working class created to make their lives fulfilling is the Hip-Hop.

    If you are truly Hop-Hop yourself you will be able to see it, hear it, smell it, taste it and feel it,

  19. Now that we’re going way way back…

    Maybe my favorite flyer in “Born In The Bronx” (page 173) is New Year’s 1982 party at the Beautifil Family, 224-13 Linden Blvd with…

    Jamaica’s Queens’s No. 1 Performers

    THE RAPPERMATICAL

    Mellow Goo, Tee-Ski, Chuckie, Chillie-C

    DOING THEIR HIGH POWERED DANCE SHOW

    The Best dressed Fly girl in the house will receive $50.00
    This contest is judged by the Party People

    ***

    Mellow Goo (ll) !!

  20. the_dallas says:

    Mercilesz,
    I stopped writing at XXL because someone wrote a comment that said something to the effect that Sting wans’t singing the hook on the song ‘Money For Nothing’. The commenter was like, “That isn’t Sting, that is the Dire Straits, duuh”. If the commenter did the knowledge he would have known that Sting is credited with writing some of the song (although he states his contribution was small) and Sting even joined ib the recording session for that track. I type all of this to say that most web-commenters lack an ability to create the context for shit even if they are lucky enough to own some of the knowledge.

    Hip-Hop culture is unquestionably where graffiti art falls under no matter what music the artist may prefer to hear. When the name Hip-Hop was first assigned to the music that was emerging from the NYC ghettos it was in order to make a commercial parallel to the avant-garde jazz offspring Be-Bop. Most people need labels in order to understand the commercial applications of things and therefore they can form their opinions.

    In all honesty Mercilesz I don’t know you well enough to understand why you don’t understand any of this. What the hell is Black music? Seriously, I don’t have time or inclination to address your historical and histrionic inadequacies on my Blaxberry. Maybe you could convince your school’s student government office to put a few dollars into prA’li and then I might could come thru and put the true school in session.

    Hip-Hop > rap. Hip-Hop is more than someting that you simply hear. You have to add more to that equation. You have to add +. What do you get when you add a + to the things you hear? You get heart. Courage and their heart was what all of Hip-Hop’s originators listened to. Nobody could tell these people what music, clothing, dance style or graphic expression was the one they had to foillow. So deejays cut breaks from any music that was fresh without the barriers that hold you back today.

    Graffiti will always be Hip-Hop’s graphic self-expression. A brother equal in import to any sound that Hip-Hop may offer.

  21. Lion XL says:

    Mercilesz…excuse me,…Money Mercilesz do you even read the shit you type or are you one of those dudes who argue just to argue?

    First, how old are you son? Not that it matters really, but I’m 43. I lived in every borough of NYC, I been to every club in NY/NJ area. I been to the Roxy when it was The ROXY. I’ve been to the Funhouse, the Garage. I’ve seen the GM Flash LIVE. I’ve seen Cold Crush LIVE. I seen LL perform live as a teenager. I remember Jimmy Spicer, Grand Wizard Theodore, I’ve been there, done that!

    I am not talking from some ‘this is how I feel about it’ angle, I talk from ‘this how I LIVED IT angle’.

    You may have your opinion where you don’t feel graf is part of Hip Hop, but thats your opinion. Just as I know some old fools who think Kanye is not Hip Hop.

    Rock has always been part of Hip Hop, we just changed the rhythm. Furious Five weren’t rock influenced? Zulu Nation wasn’t rock influenced? AFRIKA BAMBAATA, arguable the face of Hip Hop, wasn’t rock Influnced?

    Youngin’ you need a time out!

  22. The Teacha’–

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWa4UpajKTc

    Trans Europe Express–

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWlgbAc3bbM

    ***

    As much as Money M. is being put on blast here, I think it’s a useful dialogue because there are a lot of kids for whom graffiti is not AT ALL what they consider part of the culture; part of that is geography (different cities have greater or, usually, lesser, graf histories), part of that is changing demographics.

    In New York, we’ve seen either the evolution, or usurpation (take your pick) of graf by the wheat paste “street art” dorks whom I mostly have NO use for whatsoever (because they’re crying “art project” while that kid with a can is getting popped and run through bookings so Bloomturd and Kelly can wave cum stained CONstat reports to dumbass reporters).

    Further, the “street art” fucks seem to have little apparent interest in embracing the larger, multi-genre/ethnic urban culture upon which they’re trying to get up.

    ***

    Verdict: the elements are an important (essential) reminder of where hip-hop came from and what it encompasses but, sadly, that is not, I think, the reality for the majority of the music’s listeners in 2009.

  23. Tony Grands says:

    @Willis

    Whatup?!

    Actually I don’t. Holler @ me…

  24. mercilesz says:

    naaa Im good Money…Juli I used to write POLO-KEN EPK LS TNFK…all jersey crews. Im 30 btw…you guys are missing my point totally. Taki wasnt listenin to rap. Taki was doin it before anyone ever scratched on a record. therefore Hip Hop has nothing to do with graffiti. It was there 1st(kilroy was here)white writers uptown listened to heavy metal. Heavy metal has nothing to do with hip hop. when i say black music i think u know what i mean….music meant for the black market….you know the stuff they used to play on lib,bls,kiss,wrl(black stations) i think u were just being facetious. Anyway my parents own alot of records that hip hop has sampled…does that make my parents hip hop…no it doesn’t. they hate rap and banned it in the house until i was 5 yrs old when they couldnt stop me from playing my copy of the show constantly. This is my problem with run dmc using the term b-boy but never actually b-boying…It is dancing not standin in one place. by them shouting b-boy stance and not doin anything close to b-boying in their videos most people dont know what a b-boy is. Thats like me sayin ima writer holdin a mic in my hand or cuttin sumthin up….doesnt make sense.The true b-boys get no love in hip hop cuz run-dmc said oh if u like rap ur a b-boy…thats bullshit. Since yall brought it to this whole cultural level lets go there. hip hop is a subculture of ny culture correct? then if it is a subculture it is a microcasm of something larger and pre-existing.therefore none of the elements hip hop meshes together to be hip hop needed hip hop to survive in the 1st place…it was already there. cant really say more or put it more concisely. peace yall

  25. Lion XL says:

    you obviously don’t wanna hear it from people that lived it….I know, you read, you heard , you saw… I lived it.

    “they hate rap and banned it in the house until i was 5 yrs old when they couldnt stop me from playing my copy of the show constantly” ….
    do you realize I was there when they performed it live for the first time.

    Do you realize in 85-86 when that song came out I was 18? I lived through the foundation, you only heard about is second hand…. I knew people who were in style wars.. I was almost in style wars….

    your opinion is yours, but its off base.

  26. mercilesz says:

    no its not offbase. its true. Hip Hop is a bunch of pre-existing elements put together into something else. my points are very simple and clear. new era doesnt make baseballcaps cuz rappers wear em…makes em cuz of baseball. timberland doesnt make constructions cuz rappers wear em, makes em so people can do construction, nike doesnt make sneakers cuz rappers wear em..makes em cuz of sports…all these things predate hip hop and would be there if there was no hip hop. btw the people in style wars were by no means the 1st writers in nyc…you and i both know that. this is not an opinion its a simple concise fact. we all grew up with hip hop but the things we embrace as hip hop were all ready there before anyone scratched or rap. therefore they are not hip hop. B-boying existed before scratching and rapping…so what does hip hop have to do with b-boying. the nigger twins were gettin it in way before anyone was scratching or rapping. i dont know its simple 2 me.

  27. mercilesz says:

    we all need to just accept the fact that this subculture we love so much is an eclectic mesh of other cultures put into something we like to see hear and do. hip hop is not resposible for any of these things…they are responsible for hip hop. think about herc coming from jamaica…if he had never come hear we would never have turntables a mixer and a dj toaster or as we know a toaster,a rapper.

  28. mercilesz says:

    Oh and Lion if u were a writer at the time of style wars im actually 3rd generation and your the second.subway graffiti was on its way out at that time.

  29. the_dallas says:

    Mercilesz, you still lack a wholistic view of Hip-Hop because of your age and where you come into the movement. You are right that your parents aren’t Hip-Hop. Owning records means absolutely nothing if you don’t use them for the aim of being Hip-Hop. A few years ago Karl Rove and some other Wghite House douches performed a rap at some press dinner. Does that make them Hip-Hop because they were rapping? Of course not.

    You,ve done a yeomans job of obfuscating your original statements that graffiti is not part of Hip-Hop and I am telling you that you are wrong. The masterpiece artists existed in crews that spanned neighborhood borders and included breakers (who were different than B-boys) writers, deejays and emcees. Ffor your knowledge the B-boy was like the breakers hype man. The B-boy more than likely held the weed and the shank.

    Like I said earlier, get your school to throw some coins at the kid. You pay them tuition and they give you knowledge. I school you and you don’t put carfare into prA’li

  30. Lion XL says:

    Never said I was a writer, I just knew a lot of them (although I did tag, I don’t consider myself a writer, couldn’t stand up)…..when I say I was almost in it, its because I was at one of the shoots and they thought they might need an extra (me).

    And if all these parts contributed to creating hip hop, how does it have nothing to do with hip hop?

    ” many things that I saw did or heard about or told first hand but never word of mouth” — OC

    move along, nothing more to be said…

  31. mercilesz says:

    lol…cmon now. I wrote i make beats i dj. Hip hop is a product of our elders. not us. pre existing….u guys can say what u want but everything u like so much about our style was pre extant. im young but i make plain sense. is anything i said false?

  32. mercilesz says:

    writing is not hip hop created it is hip hop borrowed. every part of hip hop culture is borrowed. very simple guys. thats all. and b-boy doesnt stand for break boy or boogie boy? y did they dance during the break of a record? i grew up with b boys as probably all of us did. gang members carried weapons and alot of b-boys were gang members but that doesnt mean they didnt dance. the terms graffiti and breaking arent even hip hop terms they are package deal media terms. u will never hear crazy legs say he is a breaker.

  33. Lion XL says:

    mercilesz Says:
    November 3rd, 2009 at 1:41 pm
    lol that is so classic…r any of em actually b-girls? like can they dance? or just dress the part…u know run dmc had mad people talking about b-boys without dance. i dont know just wondering since writing has nothing to do with hip hop.

    is that not what you typed? ??????

    If me and my wife (who are pre-existing) have a son, are we not part of him? No one said hip hop created writing/tagging, but it is apart of hip hop….borrowed, stolen, raped, whatever…it is a part of Hip Hop, period. I am trying to see your point, but you keep playing word games and waffling on your original statement…

    your statements may not be false, but they are stretching and convoluted…not to mention your mutant ability to waffle the point….

    btw..when you reference your elders, that would be me!

  34. the_dallas says:

    Haha, Mercilesz you caught me man. I thought you were honestly confused about shit but you caught me and my overzealousness to speak my truth to the online youth.

    Hip-Hop stays borrowing, or sampling if I may, in order to create something new. The idea that something new can’t be crafted from bits and pieces that are sampled shows that you lack the wholistic reference point of Hip-Hop’s essence. This was created by groups of men and women who were socio-economically forsaken by America. They took what was left to them and they made it beautiful. They took samples and they made it peace.

    But to my original point, yes, the ladies pictured above are B-girls because I said so. All the proof I need is in that photograph. If you can’t see the truth because you can’t hear a photo then you ain’t built for Hip-Hop futurism that this website espouses. I’m sure that your idealogy has a community tho’. AllHipHop.com or maybe SOHH would be better for ther narrow-minded lane.

  35. mercilesz says:

    oooooh. u dissed me. Well whatever u say goes dallas…i mean this is your site. glad u guys can have a conversation with a youngin like me. i guess we have trouble understanding each others points because we want to get our own across. i guess my age is a factor. its been great debating with u guys. cant wait for a new fresh post. love the picture btw. peace yall

  36. mercilesz says:

    oh yeah never went away from my original statement…just tried to go more in depth with it. its cool. peace Lion.

  37. Tony Grands says:

    Good shit all!

    Didn’t even want to get in, just enjoyed the dialogue…

  38. Tony– Internets is being all retarded, or I am but JA over Saber, NYC King of bombers, JA had some beef with Saber… I don’t know Los Angeles but I guess he did some humungous piece in LA river basin that took months and months… Here’s a recent pic, after the buff–

    http://www.bombinmagazine.com/blog/?p=21748

    JA fucking ** destroyed ** the piece with as many fill-ins and tags as he could fit with the cans at hand. LA and art kids were outraged but New York just laughed, that’s the game, and everyone knows JA has the guts and wherewithal to do whatever he wants.

    Here’s a little video action too–

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BYqEQVYL60

    Beat btw is from the SECOND Group Home album, which nobody loves, or even likes– tho’ I’m a big fan of the first one, “Livin’ Proof” FTW–

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI264qcI2lo

  39. Jamal7Mile says:

    What can you do? He said writing “has nothing to do with Hip-Hop,” which is totally false.

    It was a good dialogue… but we can’t be rewriting the foundations of Hip-Hop due to an age gap. That’s dangerous!

    Hip-Hop is a Community that encompasses many things. It’s forever evolving, but it will ALWAYS have 4 original elements. Maybe one element isn’t as prominent as another one is. That doesn’t mean that it’s been phased out of Hip-Hop.

    Respect to you, Mercilesz. I just don’t see it the way you do.

    MAD RESPECT to you Dallas. Hip-Hop needs you and all of the above to help communicate what it is to younger generations. The last thing we need is to see the Community/Culture break apart into warring factions with their own set of rules and foundations.

    Oh wait a minute…

  40. DirtyJerz says:

    Willis, I argue with my homies about this all the time that Living Proof is Premo’s absolute BEST work. Granted, the Nutcracker & Lil Dap were wack, but Premo put them in the ranks of Mobb Deep, with them wig splitting beats. If I could just find this CD in instrumental, or maybe Premier can do like a DangerMouse/JayZ-type set up with Kimbo Price.

    Botswanna!
    Word is Bawn

  41. Lion XL says:

    Shout outs to Mercilesz for standing his ground!!!!

    We just see things different and leave it at that…….on to the next one

  42. 40 says:

    @ DirtyJerz & Willis…

    Imagine if Nas or BIG got that whole album…

  43. JuliBee430 says:

    Very enjoyable convo. Convoluted and muted as it is… WHAT is Hip Hop… ? Mercilesz is taking the existential route. There is no Hip Hop, only separate random elements configured into an umbrella term. True that, just as the universe is but a swirl of chaotic energy… For the vast majority however, it encompasses a movement in which graffiti is for the eyes what rap is for the ears… and much more. Art movements and musical genres are not mutually exclusive groupings, just a way to catalog. The spraycans, 2 turntables and a microphone all came much later than the urban blight they document.

    Everybody wins the semantic debate on the use of the B-girl title. It is employed here as 1/2 of a double entendre, since it’s my initial, and back in the actual day, anyone who had the above look would surely be considered a B-boy or girl. Why the need to label or libel, anyway? B-boy/girl, as mercilesz understands the term in its present definition, pertains to breakdancers who persisted once it faded out of fashion, and in that sense I never wanted to be one, I’ll leave it for the international wannabes practicing moves as they watch Carlos DeJesus emceeing The Big Break at the Roxy on grainy YouTube vids…

    Coming out the mean streets, both graffiti & real rap (don’t get me started on what constitutes real, but you can’t hear it on commercial radio) are controversial, attack the establishment, have rebellious natures and original renegade style. Both are fueled by getting that FTW point across, yet so was the Hardcore scene, which many of these Hip Hop Heads- of all colors- got down with too. Money makin Manhattan was the locus and mad shit overlapped in Greenwich Village. Is Fab 5 any less Hip Hop for working with Blondie? Is Aerosmith Hip Hop since they Walk This Way? How about Ice-T’s Body Count? Didn’t the men on the chain gangs start rap or was it the slaves & share-croppers?

    Graffiti’s contribution to Hip Hop is geographically determined, and without the NYC Subway, it couldn’t have happened. TAKI 183 is predated by Cornbread, a black man from Philly, whose musical tastes are unknown to me (and don’t matter), as well as many others. Mascots And Mugs, by Todd REAS James and Dave CHINO Villorente offers more insight on how and where it started. http://www.amazon.com/Mascots-Mugs-Characters-Cartoons-Graffiti/dp/0972592040 Plug One, Plug Two, but Three Is the Magic Number! 😉

    West Coast graffiti is/was much more gang-centric & territorial, while over here the idea was being OUT FOR SELF taking over the whole city. It was normal to be in multiple crews, and an ally squashing beef between members was as common as the 1-on-1 fight. I can’t say nobody ever jumped in, but no guns, no RIP Derrion Alberts, blades just in case… Once the target got sufficiently stomped, they’d break it up & everybody just broke out. No retaliation drive-by bullshit, we hopped trains! Kids need to understand the real man will always fight his battles mano-a-mano, words before fists, no need for suckerpunches, low blows or guns/gangs.

    As for the breakdancing, ticking, tocking, popping, uprocking & locking, we can all appreciate the human body pushing itself to extremes and the acrobatic aspect remains sexy, but back in the day we thought seeing a posse 10 deep in the same outfit was mad fkn corny! You can’t get down with dude if he’s performing routines dancing with himself. Trust nobody had breakdance battles to determine who was king of the streets or lay ups…

    No doubt JA is truly one crazy ass mo’ fo’ who takes no shorts, and I know him since way back too.

    Peace out and dammit, DP! Write dat mthrfkn book!

  44. damn DP! this is why i spar wit u!!!!

    homegirl JulieBee hit the shit dead on the head! let it be known and shown that Graffiti started in PHILADELPHIA in 1967 by CORNBREAD. thats my oldhead and i have his number in my phone right now. graff is special to me. i used to write DENSKE, and i’m in the QD3 movie “Infamy”. i got a resume. i was the bonafide KING of PHILLY. ask ESPO who i am. i’m qualified to speak. and ‘Bread still loves him some James Brown… sorry Merciless, graffiti started to the sounds of black music.

    what we all need to understand is that graffiti came FIRST. Kool Herc and Sedgewick Ave. didnt pop off until 1975,76. that was the birthplace of the hip hop dj, cause disco dj’s were in effect during those times. in that same place is where the MC developed. the rappers were LAST. alternative culture was defined early by the graff heads, who were the first to seek fame outside of being a pimp, pusher or prostitute. lets be clear; HIP HOP is from THE GHETTO. it is hardcore from it’s inception. the oldtimers were talkin bout jewelry and cars just like these dudes nowadays, just with more style and originality. it was a way to be from the street and not be in the streets. but be clear; it was the graff writer who said that i can carve out my identity without being crime related. or at least the type that sent you to Graterford or Sing Sing. but imagine being a criminal for the sake of pure artistic expression. it is truly a crime of passion.

    this is why i call my self B-BOY CULT. cause when we was comin up, b-boys was the street dudes. but not the regular street dudes, but those who were down with the culture. even the term “break” is also an old Bronx slang that means to break on someone, or to go off on them. that aint dancin. unless you mean like boxin. thats hardcore shit. ghetto shit. our shit.

    a lot of the original hand styles came from gangster style writing. in fact, a form of that was brought to NY by a writer named TOP CAT 125, originally from Philly. him and another writer, PHILADELPHIA PHIL introduced the “Broad Street” style, (a major street here in Philly) that became “Broadway Style” in NY. this taggin style was a clear influence on the first pieces, which were just traced tags. pieces are undeniably a NY innovation.

    and JA was crazy. but let me tell you stories about CORNBREAD (who tagged the Jackson 5 world tour airplane in 1971, when TAKI 183 was just gettin known), DISCO DUCK, JS, TAN, KADISM and DENSKE at a later date…

  45. and that paint dont even exist no more. Rustoleum today is not what they are holding. ‘specially that high heat black! they used to have colors like Icy Grape and Pastel Aqua. who remembers School Bus Yellow? those were the days…

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