I Was a Graffiti Artist for a Day

1985 saw the last time I pushed paint from an aerosol can onto a wall. By that time, I had stopped bombing or tagging buses with mops (a large marker that drips when you write) as well. Tagging was actually my second Hip Hop profession; I had made a lateral transfer from B-Boying (the dancing counterpart to early Hip Hop commonly known as Break Dancing and doing the Electric Boogie). I had style and some moves but I had neither improvisational skills nor the flexibility to hang with the pros. And I simply could not windmill, a fundamental move in B-Boying. Because of this and the fact that I was still in use of my ego, I stuck to small ponds.

At this point the atmosphere of Hip Hop was so thick it was easy to breathe in other disciplines. I was from the Boogie Down (Bronx) where everybody did something in the culture. So I became a writer. My tag was “Rekster” but I wrote “Rek” or “Reker One,” more often than not. The general rule for creating your tag was anything less than four letters was wack and you would be considered a toy. My two best friends were writers; Chris, who wrote “CM” and Mike, who wrote “Melster.” Our crew was FBK. It was an acronym for many things but my favorite was “Forever Being Kool.” Mike came up with that one. He also had the more respected tag so when I came up with mine I fashioned it after his.

I was not a graffiti artist, I was a graffiti writer, a vandal. I would have given anything to have been a graffiti artist. Here’s the difference. A writer tags . . . on any and everything. The writer is a chemist and a technician. He’s like the IT of Hip Hop. When the writer is broke and can’t afford ink to make a mop, he gets a blackboard eraser, carbon paper, rubbing alcohol, a disposable aluminum baking pan, a black film canister, and a measuring cup. The writer snatches the conductor’s hat, badge, and transit keys to gain access to restricted areas in the subway system. A writer perfects several handwriting styles to create his name.

The graff writer is only concerned about one thing: Fame. Fame is achieved when all other writers refer to a writer as a “King.” And to truly have Fame you must be “All City”. An All City writer is known by writers in all five boroughs.

Graffiti artists create art. Their works are called burners, pieces, and characters. They have black books containing their art. They are as revolutionary with their art as rappers are with their words.

I remember standing on the platform at 125th Street on the 1 line and watching a girl in a leather bomber taking pictures of, what I guess was, her boyfriend’s burner on the side of the train. Girls didn’t take pictures of tags and writers didn’t have girlfriends, but artists did.

So I tried my hand at being an artist. I went to the Major Deegan on 230th Street in the Bronx and put my very first piece up on a wall. I was proud because I knew that I had officially submitted my talents to the universal culture of Street art. The next day while riding in my mother’s car, I eagerly pointed out my artistic genius to my boy. And then I saw that someone had written “Toy” over my work. Reality set in and I made another lateral transfer and became an MC.