Graffiti is one of the four main elements of hip hop culture (along with rapping, DJing, and break dancing).
The early trendsetters were joined in the 70s by graffitists like Dondi, Zephyr and Lady Pink. Bubble lettering held sway initially among graffitists from the Bronx, though the elaborate writing Tracy 168 dubbed 'wildstyle' would come to define the art. By the early 1970s, the New York City subway was the center for various types of innovative graffiti.
Towards the end of the 1960s, the signatures- tags-of Philadelphia graffitists Cornbread, Cool Earl, and Sketch started to appear. Kohl published an article titled 'Names, Graffiti and Culture' in The Urban Review describing how New York youth tagged their neighborhoods with their names and street numbers going back to the early 1960s. In America, graffiti was used as a form of expression by political activists, and also by gangs such as the Savage Skulls, La Familia, and Savage Nomads to mark territory. Graffiti, consisting of the defacement of public spaces and buildings, remains a nuisance issue for cities. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings. Graffiti are writing or drawings scribbled, scratched, or sprayed illicitly on a wall or other surface in a public place.
