The Backdrop- a graffiti writers initiation.

Graffiti for me began around 1985-86 as an extension to my interest in hip hop- breakdancing,rap and electro music.

It was films like Beat Street,Wild Style and Style Wars that were an early inspiration, but for me the infamous book "Subway Art" by Henry Chalfant in particular had an enormous impact and after a school friend first showed it to me our school books were turned into sketchpads or blackbooks as a writers term.

Pieces that said things like poprock or wizard were the sort of thing we would attempt at first they would be bubble letters or lots of arrows but it was cool at the time ,then i remember being introduced to a pair of writers who also came to be my best friends in school.

I had already attempted a few pieces with others pals in dupli colour in my locality and was quite clueless,then my new friends Craze1 and 3Time introduced me to a hall of fame in windsor (we were from slough) and said "lets go there and do a piece" i was Step1 which was appropiate as i was about to learn the art.

My first experience of uk graff was on that day i will never forget, seeing pieces from the train that made an impact on my imagination,i couldnt decipher any of it at the time even the stuff in the subways of slough which had been around since 84 were almost cryptic!

This was before i ventured to london but the point is a lot of graff which was done by crews from the home counties and south east was to become the same thing as i later discovered so it is an integral part of what i term the london scene,but back to that day at the hall of fame.

Dressed up in our fila tracksuites and fat laces thinking we were something out of the bronx we took a large rucksack of carpaint and did a piece at the arches that said step,it was wack but it was my initiation into a crew and i was now a writer i just had to practice,thus we explored the local graff spots took photos learned that buntlack was what we should use and how to "rack up" and basically went on a complete rampage.Every day was spent hip hopin and rockin but every week we went to new places on the train or bus until it was graffiti or nothing!
local influences were a guy who wrote yoyo, yes ironic i know -but he was no toy he used to rock the walls and subways of slough in buntlack since 84 among other lesser writers. Then the windsor crews- the bombing boys,Dime,Sketch,Quest(later became SNC) and Jecta n 2Raze of Once Again were the Dons we tried to imitate, then there was the urban bombers of High Wycombe and Fast Bustin inc from Maidenhead oh and Est1 of Uxbridge,Da velvet agentz of Hounslow etc etc)and probably others.

All this had schooled me out before i even went near covent garden or the westway ,however i soon did and that is another story!

All City

Foreward

Welcome to All City the writers blog

The following content is an account though by no means authorative of the london graffiti scene with particular emphasis on its explosion in the 1980's its pioneers and champions from that time up to the present,content will be updated with any relevant facts pictures etc on a meritorious basis,contributions are of course also welcome.

Capstone