Canadian Graffiti

By Hua Hsu

Some thirty+ years after Norman Mailer and others first floated this idea, it's somewhat heartwarming that graffiti writers--especially ones who get up 10,000x a month--are still abiding by this logic:

"I don't see other graffiti writers as my competition anymore," B.N.E. said. "Now I'm going up against the Tommy Hilfigers, Starbucks, Pepsi. You have these billion-dollar companies, and I've got to look at their logos every day. Why can't I put mine up?"

From a piece in this week's Times touting B.N.E. as the proud heir to REVS and COST.

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While researching a piece I'm working on, I came across this YouTube clip explaining Canadian gang graffiti featuring the most earnest cop ever:

See web-only content:
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2009/12/canadian-graffiti/31614/

"In order to find out exactly what that means, you would have to ask the person that put it up there what that meant."

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2009/12/canadian-graffiti/31614/