August 31, 2007
Video of the Day: Vandal Squad vs Graffiti Artists
This is a pretty interesting clip from a documentary on hip hop called Beat This. In 1984 New York graffiti artist Brim talked about the Vandal Squad, Mayor Koch and New York's finest having a problem with things they can't control.
Beat This was directed by Dick Fontaine and includes footage of Afrika Bambaataa, DJ Kool Herc (and his original dance parties), The Cold Crush Brothers, Jazzy Jay and many more.
|
Advertisement: Gothamist Continues Below!
Post a comment (Comment Policy)
Incredible! He, Brim, is well-spoken and erudite. The cops sound like cops from any era. They are mutts. poorly spoken followers who are over empowered and under informed. morons. Like all NYPD.
Da man/ Da mayor/ da BS Motto:Control the image control the message control the $- some shit never changes....
Hip- Hop has always reperesented,In the spirit of all great art-- risk... takes heart!
BTW: WHY WOULDN'T HE BE WELL SPOKEN!?
You know, I gotta say that the kid really does sound compelling compared to the standard lock step reaction from the cops, although in the law's defense it really is marking something that doesn't belong to you.
Regardless, graf is one of the truest, most pure forms of American expression. Its something, love it or hate it, that came directly out of the consciousness of this county. We're a (comparatively) young land and we can't lay claim to the cultural forms of artistic expression that say..Germany or France or England can..but we can call this our own.
Yeah, Italy had Baroque and France had impressionism, but what do we have?
Graf..Rock and Roll..Jazz..Break Dancing..Blues..all from us by our consciousness.
And when you think about it..that's pretty damn cool.