Urban Scrawlings for the Wrong Reasons

I don't do this often,but i just had a few bumps of some really good blow and i though it was well due time i smacked a rant on the only board i read/frequent on a daily basis.:D

I feel i must bring up the issue of the role the media and mainstream have played in overflooding and in turn stangnating the field when it comes to graffiti in general,wether it be for artistic,advertisionnal or recreationnal purposes.

Hey look fellow writters,we're now more popular than ever before!!!We're now socially accepted,we're no longer fringe.

We're in movies,video games,i mean,for chris sakes,legal walls are spurting up faster in my city than kristina aguillera's unknown diseases.

Everyone's jumped on to the bandwagon now that "graffing" and being a "graffer"(god i despise those expressions....lets go "tagging..lmfao!) have become officially pronounced "cool" buy Rolling Stone (providing quality asswipe material for years)Every pimple faced kid looking to fit in(it used to be stand out...the irony) and his looser abercombie n fitch wearin'panzee upscale neighborhood,private school attending buddies want in .

these kids have never een a slum in theyre entire lives.They dont build and influence character and styles in theyre art buy the streets,theyre influences are all mags,videos and the net these days..Its payin' your dues,but its much more than that..It s exploring a part of yourself and understanding(or trying to)your motivations behind this and discovering your own style while being outwardly influenced buy what subliminaly surrounds you..

NOT bitting the latest letter styles from last months hot mags..Say what you will,id say this on any other forum..id read/glance at a very SELECT few graff mags.12 oz prophet's still hands down the O.G. of real rags and the only one still in-tuned with whats really going on on,and(in my opinion just bottom lined the illest)not to mention the only one id spend money on..

All the other "graff" mags out there mostly come from hipster wannabe art school fags and arent wurth the dried,sticky phlegm from the dried up glob of spit id hoark on em' if the store guy didnt make me pay for em afterwards

Im trying not to hate here,cause im really all for people just doing what they do,and ill NEVER be the one to tell a writter that he sucks.

Its just..well,like i said,be in it for the right reasons...For the love of the the art,the history behind it,and being creative and original enough to try to take it where its going..

Not buy bitting from the past,but on building from it..

After awhile,i mean,if youre not giving back,and doing this shit for yourself primarily,

but for our collective community/society as writters as a whole so that it can continue to evolve and grow.If these kids keep rapping this grass-roots(now debatable wether term is applicable here)culture,its going to suffocate itself.

You are theoritically(or at least in my,perhaps twisted,view of things)wasting your:

-Time,

-Creativity,(assuming you have any)

-$$$,

On something that in the end,is pointless and harmful to both your attention hungry(Or just deprived)ego's AND(and this is the part that gets me heated)harmful and disrespectfull to the integrity,dedication,effort that the people that REALLY matter in the aformentionned society put in on a daily basis to make this(12oz movement) and the your local scene

(fill in the blank____________ anywhere hicktown)what it is today.

All that is undermined and indirectly(sometimes directly)shat on consistently and constantly buy TOYS,TOOLS,TOM'S whatever you want to call them,they know who they are.

You know,the kid who walks into the walmart and BUY's(that alone makes me:lol:)whatever,cheap,generic paint theyhappen to be sellin' at discount cost buy the truckload due to poor coverage quality to go scrawl his "tag" COPE3 on his school and bus shelter so that he can say "cool" and "in" things like i went "graffing" and im down cause i graduated from being a "skater dude" to a "graffer guy".

You know them,i know them,and theyre not going away.

Most of us sucked at some point or another..I know i stank for years.My style blew chunks..but i kept at it,kept hitting those blackbooks.Why??cause i loved it..

Pure and simple,i had,and still have,a passion for this shit.So part of what im trying to say is that being a toy has less to do with raw/learned talent or skill as it relates directly to an individuals'motivation behind what and why he does it and his mindstate and opinions/views on our sub-level society.

I'd rather paint with someone who has no style or can control but has an ill,creative way of looking/doing his shit as opposed to some insanely talented writter who's skills are only outweighed buy his ego any day.But hey,thats just me.

Basically if youre an up n commin kid,do everyone including yourself a favour,iron,mold and flesh your style to the point where it at least appeals to YOUR eye,and go from there.

What triggered this rant was my walk home from the corner spot and 90% of the un-corporate sponsored/payed4(adds,banners,signs) shit was just weak and came off so uninspired,bitten or just ugly.

In retrospect,if you aint givin back and all you do is take,take,take all the time,whether its notoriety,spots,styles or just plain ol' reconition,youll just fade out and you dont mean shit and never did to the People,Movements and Mindstates that really form this shit...

So on behalf of them,and me,a big ol' fuck U if u Toyin' shit up

1

Wait... you also sound like a curmudgeon...

When was the last Rolling Stone graff article? JA? or did they do a thing on Irak about 2 years ago?

Originally posted by Smart

Wait... you also sound like a curmudgeon...

 

When was the last Rolling Stone graff article? JA? or did they do a thing on Irak about 2 years ago?

I guess i didnt make it clear to you that i prefer not to read the rollin stone rag.Im the wrong person to be asking

Curmudgeon: An ill-tempered person full of resentment and stubborn notions.

Why...yes...yes i guess i am;)

commercialism & graffiti

graffiti has a built-in mechanism which will keep it from being commercialized to a large extent. writing on walls is relatively difficult, plus it's illegal, and there is a real risk of getting caught, as opposed to getting caught smoking pot, the risks don't match the rewards for your average trend participant.

Of course,the fads will come and go,im just bitter about the means in this case, not the ends.

I can stand looking at unapealing vandalism,as a matter of fact,it dosent bother me one bit.

Its all the other eventual repercussions linked to the exploitation and abuse (baiting spots,bringin' heat to your local scene)

I was just blowing off steam..i did raise a few valid points amongst my ramblings that i stand by

That's not true. We are not accepted. I see no legal walls in my city. I see cops stopping kids and arresting kids for possesion of spraypaint, while baby fuckers go free.

Graffiti is a way of rebellion. There's a system that must be challenged.

How many threads like this are there in here?