33third is behind Chaka’s first solo show: chakaone.com
Daniel Ramos, AKA Chaka, was 18 when he was arrested and charged in 1991 with 48 counts of vandalism, trespassing and causing $500,000 in property damage. Chaka’s signature tag had appeared in a staggering 10,000 locations from Orange County to San Francisco. At the height of his notoriety Chaka was demonized by mainstream media and culture as being little more than a prolific vandal. At the same time he was celebrated by street artists who admired the ability of a teenager from the projects to literally make his mark on the vast, glitzy LA cityscape in such a ubiquitous manner. He is credited with breaking away from the New York “wildstyle” popular at the time and introducing clearer, more blockish lettering into tagging. Chaka was one of the first to create a reputation as a recognizable individual tagger, and spawned many imitators. However Chaka was not just a lone operative. He was part of the LOD crew and as such, his work in reclaiming hard to reach places of the cityscape (freeway overpasses, walls, trains etc) on behalf of his crew is recognized by fellow taggers as a selfless achievement for LA’s graffiti scene as a whole.
A legend of LA tagging. In the early 90’s to mid 90’s tagging was huge in LA [check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykCdvyrs1bs ] you couldn’t go anywhere without getting hit up ‘where you from?’ by tagbangers / crews, and Chaka was the legend of all legends. They didn’t mention the part of the legend where he even tagged in the courthouse while he was being charged with those 48 counts of vandalism and trespassing.
Good post