From Dear Kozak: the Rules of Graffiti
from Billy Wimsatt's Bomb the Suburbs
Cavemen did it, so did Romans and Egyptians. The Incas did it, so did Greeks and Native Americans. There was graffiti on the New York Subway a year after it was built. There's graffiti on the moon. If graffiti is vandalism, and vandalism is garbage, then man has left his mark with garbage all over the universe. So you, with your pathetic desire to be remembered, are in good company. The development of modern graffiti is too long to go into, so go ask your local expert and he'll tell you his version.CONTENTApplying paint to a surface illegally is not in itself immoral. Many surfaces such as lamp posts, viaduct walls, or dark rooms deep inside a subway tunnel aren't actually "damaged" by applying paint to them. Laws don't always make sense but anyone who disobeys the law should be prepared to face the consequences, including the possibility that the police will break the law to catch you. When caught, never let them punk you or sweet-talk you into a confession, even if it seems like they already have all the evidence they need. If they had all the evidence they needed, why would they be talking to you? Never for any reason give them any information about any other writers. Snitches and shit-talkers get stitches and need walkers.
Although being a new jack seems undesirable in any hip-hop art form, you should enjoy it while you can. At this stage you can bite all you want with no remorse. All your elders will say is "Aw, isn't that sweet, kootchie kootchie koo." So steal that freeze, rob that rhyme scheme, and loot whole letterforms. Don't worry about giving any credit, we'll pat ourselves on the back and brag how we're influencing the next generation. But style isn't a crutch or a schtick. It is understanding why the connection you bit flows or why the bassline you boosted bumps. Style is the process to an appealing end. Once you've studied it, you can reinvent your own style. Pretty soon, somebody will steal your secret sauce and the cycle will be renewed.
You may be good, but you're not that good. Keep your fat head to a reasonable swell and get back to work. Soon you'll be able to get a grip on your self-esteem and we'll all be better for it.
Too often, graffiti has become boring, conventional, irrelevant, and at its worst has contributed to the degradation of public transportation and of public life in the city. Too often, it becomes yet another incentive for people to ditch the city, crippling its tax base (which funds schools, hospitals...), and giving up on the ideal of America (not that it has ever seriously been followed) as a place where people from different backgrounds can come together for mutual benefit. Therefore, we strive to elevate our art in three respects: content, location, and process.
1) You suck until further notice. 2) It's gonna take a long time before we even acknowledge your existence, even longer before we can bear to look at that foul scribble you call your name. To speed the process, choose a clever name that means something to you, or defies the norm of simpleminded slang.LOCATIONStrive to be original -- not for its own sake, but because no one has seen things before in precisely the way you see them. Collaborate with MCs and writers to bring their words to the public. Five years from now, most of your work will be gone and forgotten. You might be too. So while you and it are here, make it as memorable as you can. Don't waste time or paint doing fill-ins and throw-ups. Always put your best stuff first. Don't save it. You could invent a whole new style, or have your eyes poked out, any day now.
Choose spots that maximize the good impact of the work, while minimizing its bad side-effects. Maximize public exposure, surprisingness and daring of a piece, while minimizing its insult, and cost to people of the city. The best targets for piecing are usually abandoned buildings, rooftops, and neighborhood permission walls, especially in unexpected places. Questionable targets include all public or private property that gets buffed and raises the cost of urban living. Racking from stores in the city is questionable too for the same reason.PROCESS...
Also questionable are hall of fames and practice walls where graffiti loses its public importance and adventurousness. The worst targets are those which in addition to the cost of buffing have added bad effects. Bombing windows blocks peoples' view. Bombing houses and stores in the ghetto burdens people who have enough burdens already. The best places to bomb are rich areas, especially rich suburbs.
Try to find fresh walls. Where possible, avoid going over other graffiti. Never go over anything by a dead writer unless he was your friend and out of respect you decide to re-trace his piece for him to restore it. Pieces go over tags and throw-ups. Tags and throw-ups never go over pieces, not even over the background, not even in a war. Avoid piecing over pieces, especially the beautiful or historic. There are too many walls to be doing that. Only go over a piece with a better one, and only if you have a good reason, and ask permission first if possible.
If you do a permission wall, it should either be because you need to money or because you have something you really want to express at that location. Most people who seem like they're being nice by giving you permission walls are really exploiting the hell out of you.
The process of graffiti should like its technical aspects to a greater hip-hop vision. Cleverness and risk are prized. Creative use of space is prized. Ambitiousness is prized. Care should be taken to match the piece with the wall, to paint the whole wall, or to unite multiple walls in series. The writer should constantly ask himself: Who exactly is my audience and how can I possibly move them?