Almost got jumped by some fools in front of the now defunct graff store 1Hundred B which was down in Chinatown some years back. It would’ve been 1 vs. 4, so i used my words instead. Besides that one time, never really had graff beef. I didn’t get into graff for the beef and to be honest I totally feel that beef is holding back the culture in general. Don’t get me wrong, competition definitely keeps the art form progressing in new and exciting ways but honestly most graff beef (with some exceptions of course) is just dumb and can be avoided. (I usually stick with these guidelines: respect older/ established writers and only cap things you know for sure you can burn!) On top of that, the so-called “fair fight” is long gone in NYC and you never know who is strapped; unfortunately, ppl have straight up died over graff beef and that should never happen. The only graff beef I got right now is with the buff…At the end of the day, I’m a lover and not a fighter, but i will fight for what I love! With that said, there are many forms of violence we can choose from and physical violence is a form of last resort and self-defense for me personally. I’d rather use paint, words and images to do battle, cuz at the the end of the day, i personally find that graffiti is rooted in abstraction and the philosophical: its about language, communication, narrative, space, subjectivity, etc..
Honestly one of the more interesting questions ive gotten on tumblr yet mayne, definitely got me thinkin about why I like graffiti and got into it in the first place again, something i havent done in a while.
