WTF is a Legend Anyways?

The word 'legend' has become blasé in today's world of Hip Hop. It seems if you painted for a couple-few years, you're a legend. If you were in graffiti for a minute, back in the day, and now you start getting back into the culture, you can consider yourself a king and an OG, a dope authority on the game, if only because you knew so-and-so, or you were there when so-and-so painted such-and-such piece. In fact I think you can now claim the crown without ever having earned the crown.

It comes down to a lack of structure. You can call yourself a style supremacist, even if many people don't think you are. We don't have any set rules in place or benchmarks to determine when someone qualifies as a king or queen. Are you a king simply because you say you are?

I guess you can be a king if you post flix of your tags on flickr. With technology these days, you can upload a bunch of flix to flickr or facebook and you're up. We no longer have to go around town to see who got up during the week. We can just sit at our computer. I've heard some youngstas say things like, "You seen my flix? I'm up on flickr." OMFG. "Up on flickr?!" Like that counts? I never took flix of my tags or throwups, 'cuz back then, they weren't worth the cost of the film developing. I'm from the early days of the internet (pre-CSS for you tech geeks) where you had to hand code your website. We didn't waste time with insignificant images. Now you can tag something and immediately upload a photo of it from your phone.

Perhaps after a writer's 100th piece, we should have a ceremony, like a quinceñera, where everyone comes together and you get to wear a little tiara. It's a right of passage after which the writer is officially Hip Hop royalty.

So What Does It Mean to be a King? Yo E, Lay it Down

In my book this is a King or Queen:

1. Painted dozens of pieces. That's right; dozens, not five. I think someone maybe a king when they get to their 70th or 80th piece. We respect daring and commitment.
2. Developed at least one distinctive, fresh-ass style.
3. Follows the basic rule of hierarchy: throws burn tags, pieces burn throws, productions burn pieces. Productions go over productions.
4. Has done it all: tags, throw ups, pieces, productions.
5. Comes with respect for art and other people.
6. Doesn't side bust.
7. Writes for the love of the art, and for the love of gettin' up.
8. Continually works on her/his styles and techniques.
9. Doesn't call herself a queen. Dope writers start calling her that.
   

The All-City King/Queen is another category of King/Queen. This is the writer who never went heavily into piecing, but got up all over the city. She/he seems to have their name on every street, and definitely in every neighborhood of your city.

To me there's a step up from being a king, and that's called a Graffiti Master. In addition to meeting all the criteria of being royalty, a master also:

1. Rocks letters, characters, backgrounds and concepts.
2. Has painted well over 100 pieces.
3. Gives back to the culture (e.g. teaching, mentoring, throwing events, writing books, publishing magazines, etc.).
4. Does not bomb homes, places of worship, and cultural monuments.
5. Does not diss productions (unless that fool dissed yours).
6. Has invented or developed techniques that are used by other writers.
7. Has experimented with different styles, color schemes, etc. We value creativity, and a Master obviously burns with it.

The top of the food chain is the Living Legend. This is a Graffiti Master who:

1. Has been in the game for more than 15 years.
2. Has hundreds of burners.
   
3. Has several significant burners in his/her portfolio that impacted the graffiti scene in major ways. Some examples of these historical burners include Dug's "Psycho Cidy" production that named that famous locale, or Dream's "Best of Both Worlds" that showed the bay area he could rock new wave and funk, letters and characters. Both writers have several scene-altering productions to their credit.
4. Has a name that is spoken of in reverence by both young and old writers. A legend can be loved or hated, but there's no denying that person rocked it hardcore for decades.
5. Is confident in their own skills, so they aren't a jealous hater.
6. Will be painting for their whole life. For them painting is pretty much a religious and spiritual practice, a form of meditation.
   

What does it all mean? Translated it means a queen has painted for years before we recognize that she's ill. It means a king has discovered his own voice, and isn't biting other people's concepts or letters. It means becoming royalty isn't only being recognized for your painting skills; it is also acting with respect and being a leader, so that we and the youngsters after us can continue to push the culture forward.