From the Top

  



   When I was a teenager, the hip-hop phenomena came into being. Even though graffiti was not singular to hip-hop, the intensity of the four basic elements of the culture...the vocals, the music, the fashion and the art...fascinated me and I became a true believer. The art was based in the street, as were the rest of the traditions, and I was hooked as soon as I started putting pen to paper. 

I was never a pro, but I can get down a little

 I used to write with a couple buddies of mine all the time. I never was one to hit the walls with high intensity, but I knew plenty of cats who did. My buddy "CHIEF" was a notorious West Philly tagger...

   

   No wall in Philly was safe from cats like these. I could go anywhere, Manayunk, Cheltenham, South, West and North Philly and see some of the graffiti that all my boys lit up the city with.





   Greg Davis was a cat that my brother ran with. He went to Central with us and had a tagging crew called KCD. He used to write under the name T-Bone, but his style isn't what we're going to talk about here (even though his tags were vicious). He was one of the pioneers of the Philadelphia graffiti scene and there was a documentary made that documents some of his exploits. There are a number of the more well known artists spotlighted here, including Cornbread, the self-proclaimed "first graffiti artist".

                 The 80's is the decade that grew me up and this culture was at the center of it.