Painting without Permission: Hip-hop Graffiti Subculture

238 Pages·2002·53.663 MB·English

by  Janice Rahn

PAINTING
WITHOUT
PERMISSION
PAINTING
WITHOUT
PERMISSION
Hip-Hop Graffiti Subculture
Janice Rahn
BERGIN & GARVEY
Westport, Connecticut • London
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Rahn,Janice,1958–
Paintingwithoutpermission : hip-hopgraffitisubculture / JaniceRahn.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-89789-810-9(alk.paper)
1.AfricanAmericanyouth—Sociallifeandcustoms. 2. AfricanAmericanyouth—
Socialconditions. 3. Hip-hop. 4. Graffiti—Socialaspects—UnitedStates. 5. African
Americanarts. 6. Youngartists—UnitedStates—Interviews. 7. AfricanAmerican—
UnitedStates—Interviews. I. Title.
E185.86.R28 2002
306'.1—dc21 2002016345
U.S.CIPinformationisonfileattheLibraryofCongress.
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationDataisavailable.
Copyright(cid:1)2002byJaniceRahn
Allrightsreserved.Noportionofthisbookmaybe
reproduced,byanyprocessortechnique,withoutthe
expresswrittenconsentofthepublisher.
LibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumber:2002016345
ISBN:0–89789–810–9
Firstpublishedin2002
Bergin&Garvey,88PostRoadWest,Westport,CT06881
AnimprintofGreenwoodPublishingGroup,Inc.
www.greenwood.com
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Introduction vii
1. The Structure of Hip-Hop Graffiti Culture 1
2. The Interviews 25
GENE 26
DSTRBO 37
EVOKE 49
SEAZ 61
DAES 76
SINGE 87
SHANA 98
TIMER 105
ACE 117
SWEP 126
3. Community, Collaboration, and Dialogue 137
4. Performance in a Public Space: Place and Change 165
5. The Pedagogy of Hip-Hop Graffiti 183
Bibliography 217
Index 223
Introduction
My first encounter with “graffiti” was in the spring of 1995 in Inuvik,
Northwest Territories, Canada. I was called by the secondary schoolprin-
cipal who asked if I could get on the next plane to teach art as an emer-
gency replacement until the end of the year. I had previously taught art,
music, and drama throughout the Northwest Territories before I returned
to pursue my masters’ degree in fine arts, and then doctorate in education
in Montreal, Quebec.
Upon my arrival I jumped into projects that stalled because I had not
taken the time to develop a rapport with the students. As I reassessed my
expectations, someone from the Department of Tourism asked if the stu-
dents could spray-paint images on garbage cans to be distributedthrough-
out town. I hesitated, since the stereotypes of tourism already influenced
theartssostronglyintheArctic.Iacceptedthefreespraypaintandgarbage
cans because it gave us an opportunity to work outdoors in the sunny
spring weather. A group of boys who had previously worked as a group
to disrupt the class now collaborated on a detailed stencil design of the
word “garbage” along with images of actual garbage. When it came time
to paint, they grabbed the spray paint and yelled, “Yeah, graffiti!” With
great excitement they literally danced around their can, intent on their
skills, especially in trying to prevent drips. They looked so out of control,
I had to turn away to resist my impulse to intervene. In the end I was
surprised at their intense motivation to paint on a garbage can and the
pleasure they took in painting the word “garbage.”Iappreciatedtheirony
viii Introduction
oftheircan,sincetourismwantedthepaintedgarbagecanstohidethefact
that they contained garbage.
Afterthecanswerepickedupanddistributed,thestudentscametoclass
animated in their discussion of where they had seen each others’ cans.
Again I was surprised at how excited they were to see their work publicly
displayed, even if it was on a garbage can. I knew nothing about hip-hop
graffitipaintingandhadnoresourcestobuilduponthisbreakthroughwith
the students. I still thought of “graffiti” as sloppily spray-painted slogans
that included racist, sexist, quasi-political, and pornographic words and
images. Graffiti to me was vandalism, no question about it, and its social
value was negligible.
Six weeks later, my husband, Michael, and I returned to our home and
artpracticeneartheLachineCanalinMontreal.Ibegantotakeaninterest
in graffiti by documenting photographs of signatures written throughout
my neighborhood on any available surfaces from park benches to post
office boxes. Soon I began to recognize repeated signatures and would bi-
cycle across the city looking for them in other locations. I made maps
locatingparticularsignaturesanddistributedthemamongfriends.Through
this “research” I became aware of places throughout the city like train
yards, warehouse districts, and back alleys, that I’d never thought of vis-
iting before.
One day as my husband and I bicycled along the canal to the studio, I
noticed graffiti on the outside walls of an abandoned sugar refinery called
the Redpath Complex (see Figure I.1). We squeezed through a hole in a
barbed-wire, chain-link fence that enclosed a series of three buildings
aroundacentralcourtyardandenteredthenearestbuildingthroughadark
dampstoreroom.Windowswerebroken.Itwasasquietasachurchexcept
for pigeons scattering and the drip of water echoing in the high-ceilinged
room.
We left this large cold room through a brightened doorway at the far
end, to enter one of the most remarkable sites in Montreal. The walls of
the outside courtyard and inside much of the three buildings were spray-
painted with images that completely changed my preconceptions of what
graffiticouldbe.Theinvoluntarydiscoveryofbrightcolorsinthesunlight,
energetically and tightly drawn, was a wonderful experience. We had bi-
cycled past the familiar facade of this building for years without really
looking until we had become interested in graffiti.
The ruins of the Redpath formed a backdrop that contrasted with the
riot of color covering every available surface around the courtyard (see
Figure I.2). The site had the aura of a past civilization ora bleakfuturistic
one. Within the decaying buildings, cartoon images flaked off damp walls
to layer the sense of time and history. Michael and I returned a few times
over1996,toshowthesitetofriendsandtophotographnewpiecesasold
Introduction ix
FigureI.1.Layeruponlayeroftagnames,athrow-upletter,and
acharacterinsidetheabandonedRedpathComplexsugarrefinery
warehouse.
favorites became covered with new ones. This was an active, living site,
although we never saw anyone around.
This chance encounter with graffiti as mural art dramatically changed
myawarenessofgraffiti.Theexperiencepromptedmetobeginpreliminary
research into hip-hop culture in order to understand what motivated this
vigorous output of creative expression. Since I knew nothing about hip-
hop or graffiti, I could take nothing for granted. For a year before I met
Figure I.2. A piece by TIMER. This photo was taken in 1996 when I first discovered hip-hop
graffiti in the abandoned Redpath warehouse. Brightly painted pieces such as this one formed a
continuous friezearound the large open-air courtyard.
Introduction xi
graffiti writers (painters), I documented graffiti in Montreal, and read ex-
tensively from the World Wide Web, subculture magazines, and books on
the subject.
I could not find any written material about graffiti from an educational
point of view. There was substantial glossy photo documentation in mag-
azinesandinthebooksSubwayArt(Chalfant&Cooper,1984)andGraf-
fito (Walsh, 1996). Castleman’s book about New York subway art (1982)
provides the best descriptive introduction to what hip-hop graffiti was in
terms of its historical beginnings in New York. However, it lacksany crit-
ical analysis of the complex, often contradictory, social, political, and cul-
turalviewpoints.Castleman’sobjectiveaccountprovidesabackgroundbut
begs the question of why individual graffitiwritersaresohighlymotivated
within the broader historical context of education and youth subcultures.
The diversity of motivations are best heard through multiple narratives of
theeverydaystrugglesofyouthtoshapetheiridentitiesandtofindmeaning
in their lives.
I first made contact with graffiti “writers” on February 5, 1997, at the
vernissage (opening) of the first showing of Fuzion (a group of thirteen
Montrealgraffitiwriters)atadowntownMontrealcafe´.1Thiswasthefirst
ofseveralgraffitieventswhereIobservedandtalkedinformallywithmem-
bers of the graffiti community. Young adolescent “writers” gathered with
the pros to share sketchbooks and to ask for tips. From an educational
point of view, it was interesting to observe the enthusiasmandmotivation
to learn from each other. There was a supportive feeling of community
amongnewandveteranwriters.Thegraffiti-inspiredpaintingswereaback-
drop to groups of writers eagerly sharing stories as they passed around
sketchbooks and photos of graffiti.
Hip-hop graffiti isanetworkingcommunitywhereeveryoneknowseach
other and communicates via word of mouth. Once I made a few contacts,
it became easy to meet others. There were people at the vernissage whom
Ialreadyknew,butIhadnoideatheywereinterestedingraffiti.Thisevent
wasaturningpointformeinmeetingwritersandintakinggraffitiseriously
as a topic for serious research.
Concurrent to my increasing fascination with hip-hop culture was my
“real” research for my doctoral dissertation, where I was questioninghow
to teach problem solving and self-directed learning of multimedia at the
university level. The teacher helped students to design projects related to
the content being covered in class. The students were required to network
and to learn from technicians in order to gain the skills necessary to carry
out their projects. I completely abandoned this research when I saw how
passionate and self-directed graffiti writers were about learning, without
theexternalrewardsystemofgrades.Ihadbeeninterviewingandobserving
about twenty multimedia students both inside and outside of class for a
year. Most of them, with all the support of the institution behind them,
xii Introduction
became motivated to complete their projects only when it was timeforthe
final exhibition and critique. There was often a lack of commitment or
senseofpurposeinbeingthere,otherthanprolongingtheinevitablyboring
nine-to-five job. The graffiti writers, on the other hand, were driven by a
“do it yourself” ethic based on real-world practice. They passionately ex-
ploredpersonalopinionsandbeliefswhilereachingtowardgoalsthatwere
ambiguous to me at the time and warranted a closer look.
I was reluctant at first to write about graffiti because I was consciousof
my subject position, being a white, middle-class woman within the edu-
cational system. However, my outsider vantage point allowed me to listen
withnopreconceptionsandtorepresenthip-hopgraffiticultureonitsown
terms. This book also allowed me to clarify and to make explicit my own
personal philosophy of education, in relation to writers I came to admire
fortheirtirelessmotivationandarticulatecritiqueofeducationalstructures.
I kept a journal of observations along with my interpretations and re-
flectionsthroughouttheresearchasanaccountofmyownchangingaware-
ness. I also took photographs and slides to document graffiti events. Isent
a copy of each transcript to the respective participants and followed up
with further meetings or phone calls to ask for clarification or elaboration
ofkeyphrases.Somewriterscirculatedtheirtranscriptstocreateadialectic.
My anxieties about writing as an outsider were relieved when SEAZ, one
of the participants, stayed up all night to read my manuscript. He phoned
intheearlymorningtodiscussitwithme,askingmetomaketwochanges:
a detail concerning his personal life and another about Krylon, a brand of
spray paint. I was very conscious of my relationship to the participants
throughout this study. As a documentary filmmaker, I was equally aware
of how I received more from my subjects than I gave in return. To make
some compensation, I sent copies of my videos to participants and offered
copies of written research. My work has always been received withenthu-
siastic support from graffitiwriters. Theinterviewsarethebestexampleof
how they love to communicate with each other and to analyze issues sur-
rounding their activity.
I continued to meet the participants at events such as the international
hip-hop graffiti conventions in Montreal in August 1998 and 1999. Al-
though I focused this book on individuals within the Montreal graffiti
community, I became familiar with writers from around the world while
making three video documentaries over the past two years.2
PaintingwithoutPermissionaddressesthecomplexissueslayeredbehind
a residue of signatures, characters, and text, illegally painted in public
space. The more I analyzed the interviews, the more I saw the diversity of
individual motivations in response to their particular community space.
Although graffiti is not new, the phenomenon of hip-hop graffiti has
evolvedquicklyinitsshorthistoryandispresentlyenjoyingasecondwave
ofpopularity.Thissubculturehasnowbecomeevenmoreofaglobalcom-