Graffiti Hip Hop Culture
Although graffiti exists outside of and began before hip hop the two are linked in many ways.
Graffiti hip hop culture. Graffiti artists who are drawn to the art form for individual expression are much more creative with their work. Hip hop culture and graffiti today. This artificial link is still seen in the media and therefore also in the mainstream view of graffiti. Published in madrid on 8 november 2010.
The link between hip hop and graffiti evolved as a competition much like the dance moves of the hip hop culture. Another development of graffiti was its connection to the hip hop culture. About ten years after its inception around 1970 graffiti culture started to be linked with hip hop a concept coined by the media to facilitate the commercialisation of graffiti and other contemporary cultures. Graffiti began to show up on subways in new york and other cities as a form of expression of the culture who listened to rap music.
Graffiti quickly spread and was picked up by others. But once hip hop was presented with graffiti in movies such as wild style and style wars history took a different turn. Graffiti distiguished by tags or distinguishing marks of the originators and a way to distinguish or stand out from other graffiti artists. Graffiti in hip hop began as a way of tagging for one s crew gang and developed during the 1970s on the subways of new york and later expanded to the city walls themselves.
An age old practice graffiti holds special significance as one of the elements of hip hop culture. Graffiti as an urban art form has existed since at least the 1950s but began developing in earnest in the late 1960s and flourished during the 1970s. Hip hop punk graffiti the 1980 s saw graffiti and street art become inextricably linked with the emerging hip hop scene that helped to spread the graffiti culture worldwide. In the words of hip hop scholar jeff chang there is still a raging debate especially amongst older graffiti writers as to whether hip hop and graffiti are linked.
Several hip hop scholars and graffiti artists agree that this is when the graffiti movement melded with the hip hop movement.