More Graffiti Artists & B-Boys…Less Rappers

13 years ago view-show 812,691

graffstory

Over the past couple of weeks a topic has repeatedly popped up in my rap nerd conversations.  Hip-Hop needs more of certain ingredients, and less of others.  The problem is that everyone is a rapper now.  Everyone is a “producer”.  Everyone is a record label CEO.  A lot of chiefs.  No Indians.

The other night I was out in NYC and something dope happened.  Some dudes started break dancing.  It changed the whole vibe of the club.  It just made things more fun.  It also made me think.  When was the last time I saw B-Boys at a hip-hop show?  Where are the crews of graffiti artists?  I’m not seeing these types of people.  Should I be?  I like to think so.  So step it up “artists”.  Your medium doesn’t necessarily have to just be music!  There are other important elements to this culture than the people who make the music.  Let’s not forget that.

Sidebar:  There is good news!  it’s looking like graffiti is making a little bit of a comeback.  According to The NY Times:

SANTA MONICA, Calif. – Fresh blotches of graffiti decorate the backs of street signs here near the ocean. Tags have popped up on guardrails along the dirt trails near Griffith Park across town. There are, almost daily, fresh splashes on walls in the San Fernando Valley, on downtown Los Angeles buildings and on billboards along the highways.

And Los Angeles does not appear to be alone in grappling with a recent upsurge in graffiti, which is turning up in some unlikely places. A bumper crop of scrawls is blossoming in many modest-size communities across the country – in places like Florence, Ala.; Reserve, N.M.; Taylors, S.C.; and in larger cities like Nashville and Portland, Ore. – even as major cities like Chicago, Denver, New York and Seattle say vigilant antigraffiti campaigns have spared them thus far.