I looked around the web and found out that there are standard forms of graffiti. There is bubble art, that came from the Bronx and Wild Style that is the most common now. Wild Style Letters overlap and are 3-D. Many words are someone's tag, marking their territory.Apparently there are 4 main parts to hip-hop culture; graffiti, b-boying (Breakdancing), DJing, & MCing.
I found another web page asking the same question. One answer was, "there is a style that got big in the 80's called wild style graffiti that doesn't seem to want to die. there is a lot of history just like any art form. But the short answer is that yes they do all copy each other."
Some people look at it as an art form and think it should be respected.
I learned than ancient roman graffiti that is preserved helps give clues to how latin sounded, and the literacy of the era. There are graffiti preserved in Pompeii of political cartoons! Pompeii was the city that was destroyed by a volcano covering the city in ash, and preserving it in death.
I cannot find anywhere that translates it for me. I did find a glossary of words but it was just the hip hop culture. Perhaps I don't want to know what it means anyway.
Later my sister in law Rebecca helped me search. She read through this site. It was very crude, so be warned, but it helped her find some great sites and really showed the character of the culture that promotes graffiti.
http://www.wikihow.com/Draw-Graffiti This site suggest that there are legal boards to put up graffiti on, but if you are inexperienced you will be called a "toy" and shunned. In a sense they almost, without saying it, suggested you practice in the illegal walls until you get good enough.
http://www.wikihow.com/Draw-Graffiti-Names Was interesting. Well written. They suggest that you feel free to modify the letters beyond the point of recognition.
Here is an alphabet of characters that will help in translation.
Images from:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/16/Graffiti_politique_de_Pompei.jpg/170px-Graffiti_politique_de_Pompei.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/Thai_Breakdancers.jpg/200px-Thai_Breakdancers.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5e/KRESS.jpg/220px-KRESS.jpg
http://i937.photobucket.com/albums/ad214/rowlandprid3/Tat%20ideas/learn_to_draw_graffiti_letters_96.jpg
http://www.impactlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/graffiti-taxonomy-438.jpg
http://i937.photobucket.com/albums/ad214/rowlandprid3/Tat%20ideas/learn_to_draw_graffiti_letters_96.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2802/4019667744_2020d11c06.jpg
http://pad1.whstatic.com/images/thumb/4/42/Apology_485.jpg/180px-Apology_485.jpg
http://pad3.whstatic.com/images/thumb/0/0d/Graffiti_565.jpg/180px-Graffiti_565.jpg
hey,
ReplyDeleteI found your post very interesting. I do lots of legal work, and might be able to help you out a little. I don't mean to be correcting you, but it seems like you're trying to learn more about the culture of graffiti so here it goes I guess.
The majority of graffiti exists outside of Hip Hop as a separate art form, although the two tend to collide in the eyes of most people. Personally, I prefer rock and metal to rap, but it's all in the preference of the writer, not a stereotype of the whole art.
also, there isn't much to translate. The words are generally as they seem, and although some of them are difficult to make out and find the different letters, tags are just a name that writers come up with for themselves, such as: COPE, VERT, TOOMER and SEEN
I hope I helped out a bit, and keep up the good work!
Thank you M for your comments. I appreciate them. I did learn even more from your comments.
ReplyDelete