Graffiti & Pop Culture

AJ Vogt
Feb 29, 2016
2 min read

Graffiti was a significant aspect of Hip Hop culture and the hip hop revolution. Graffiti

a form of art, usually painted with paint cans.

Blondie, a popular artist, released a record titled "Rapture" back in 1981. It this record, she references many things about hip hop culture, even though she is a white female popular artist. Specifically, she says:

Fab Five Freddie told me everybody's high DJ's spinnin' are savin' my mind

Here she is citing, in her lyrics, one of the first, and most popular graffiti artists known as Fab Five Freddy, whose name was Fred Brathwaite. This was quite surprising to see a popular artist not only referencing, but also giving credit to a hip hop icon. Blondie also references Hip Hop culture, saying:

And you try to run but he's got a gun And he shoots you dead and he eats your head

Here she is talking about the violence of hip hop culture, and how prominent gangs are. The last lyric I want to point out is when she references hip hop directly, but stating:

Where he won't have a hassle with the human race And you hip-hop, and you don't stop

The idea of not only referencing Hip Hop culture, but also giving credit to a popular graffiti artist at the time was virtually unheard of. Not only was Blondie a female emerging, but she was also a popular music artist. Citing the artwork of someone else, I think, is of upmost importance. Credit should be given where credit is due. In the music video for "Rapture" Blondie walks through a set with all types of graffiti, with similar works to Fab Five Freddie, so not only is she singing about him, viewers can now see his artwork in Blondie's music video.

With this in mind, I think that popular music citing and referencing hip hop artists, in different capacities, significantly aided Hip Hop to gain popularity in American culture. With this so called "collision of cultures" this helped take hip hop past its simplified local scenes, to a more national level. Now that hip hop was seen by more of the American public, it gained potential to become a music genre of its own.

Check out Blondies music video for "Rapture" below and see the graffiti work and even the way she sings when talking about Fab Five Freddy.