Style Warz
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During time of struggle and oppression, creative minds come together to make their presence known to those on the “outside”. In a 1980s documentary about inner-city youth, graffiti artists used their artistic abilities to get into the face of government. Style Wars ultimately depicts this youth as freedom writers, a generation that is fighting a cultural society through art, while trying to bring down an unfair label that has been haunting inner-city neighborhoods for years. This youth comes across as not just a talented one, but also one with a voice that is starting to get louder. Kevin Element, author of Hard Hitting Modern Perspective on Hip Hop Graffiti, states that this youth is “yelling out, not as immature youths, but rather as mature modern thinkers”. Element is right. In Style Wars, Graffiti artists come across as mature modern thinkers by the usage of their artistic abilities to fight back the cultural society and make their presence felt by all that have put them down for years.
The writers seen in Style Wars started out doing graffiti to get their name out. Writers were tagging as many territories as they could with their names and larger pieces. It was all about fame and power, as written by Kevin Element. It was all about the individual. When SKEME and his mom were speaking, he acted like he only cared about himself and he was doing graffiti because it gave him self-satisfaction and fame. The more pieces a writer had out, the more known he/she was. To the common commuter, this was an act of vandalism. Public property was vandalized by these markings. Society was outraged and harsher labels were inflicted onto the inner city. As this was happening, graffiti evolved into a whole other level.
Graffiti was used more and more as way to protest the government and express social isolation. Kevin Element writes, “Groups can use graffiti to push their agendas or generally make their presence felt, for it is an extremely easy means of communicating ideas and establishing a collective identity with the masses by putting the government on notice” By