"How do you think graffiti has changed since you started writing, as far as culture and style?
Well I notice it has changed with the times. Back in the '70's there was a lot more easy going graff writers. You know, it was a little leftover from the hippies and the flower children and sort of like that. Real easy going and mellow and whatever you dig man, it's cool. But then it changed into the eighties little hoodlums kind of attitude. Everybody wants to be a little tough and carry a weapon, and you're not anybody unless you have beef with somebody or whatever. The attitudes changed with the times. Then it became more important to go around destroying peoples work and carrying a weapon than actually going out and doing something worthwhile to be noticed. By then, everything had been done and it was very hard to get noticed right away. So you didn't even have to be able to do graffiti much, you just need to be able to carry a sawed off shotgun and intimidate everyone. So it changed with the times and that's around the time I pretty much lost interest and didn't want to be bothered, when everybody was just busy being a little hood and a gangster. Which was different than when I had started, which was still a lot of fun. You know the yards didn't have as much tight security. And later on, you know everything just got a lot uglier, less desirable to be down. Lately graffiti's been so confused with hip hop and stuff that is extremely annoying. That phrase was coined in the early eighties by pretty much the media. They need to package and label everything, so they labeled graffiti, rap, and breakdance, as hip hop and stuff like that. Unfortunately, that isn't quite so. Everybody that is into graffiti isn't into hip hop, and that's unfortunate because whenever there's any graffiti event going on they're jamming that rap music down our throats, and we're not that happy about it. They lump us all together as little hip hop kids, and I'm not. I don't have anything to do with hip hop. "
yo! what do you think?? she says that Graffiti isn't HipHop. and by the way lady pink is a famous NY Graffiti Writer of the early eighties and she was the one to coin the word "wildstyle". you can find her in alot of old school hiphop documentaries. and if you didn't notice she also says that Hiphop was coined by the media.
anyway. how can graffiti not be hiphop?? I mean alot of early writers when she was doing graff was using hiphop slang? right? biting, wak, burn. etc. I agree not everybody into graff is into the music or the rest. anyway thats how some people are now a days. they may just like the turntable stuff. or some may just like the break'n but not the rest. and its a common thing cuz it all went underground and individually to form on its own. but she went full out and said it wasn't apart of hiphop.
when graffit died out the only people keeping it alive was hiphop heads. I think its wrong that she said that. and the sad thing is alot of people are agree'n with her. I think she is just getting a little to comfortable with it and now with all the internet age and graffiti is being accepted as an artform and getting alot of attention shes trying to rip it from its base and put it in a new spot to suit her.
