Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Hip-Hop Observation 2: Cool Disco Dan



The name says it all. Growning up in DC, one could not ride the metro bus or rail without seeing the tag "Cool Disco Dan" spray painted on some wall or bridge. I always wondered who this guy was, and why he never got caught (he's actually been busted many times.). His style wasn't anything to jump up and down over. He never used bubble letters, or fancy colors, however, he was just EVERYWHERE!!! Back in '91 when The Washington Post did a piece on him and crowned him, "The Urban Phantom", he says:


"It was kind of good and bad at the same time. It exposed me so i had to slow my graffiti down. If the article would have never came out i bet i would have written on the White House by now. But the article gave me the worldwide exposure I always wanted."


No longer lurking in the shadows, today Cool Disco Dan has his very own website (http://cooldiscodan.net/), where he shows off a ton of his scribblings, sells multi-colored printed paper bearing his name (Was: $35, Now $28), keeps in contact with his legion of fans via his blog, provides answers for your frequently asked questions (FAQ's), and touts his soon-to-be realeased documentary, entitled, "The Legend of Cool Disco Dan". What I find most interesting is not so much how he has taken his hustle to the internet, but rather how he sees his body of work, calling it "Go-Go Grafitti".




1 comment:

  1. That is good that he found a way to show off his work without breaking the law. I think that graffiti is art but I also agree that it can be annoying to have these marks on the walls outside stores or even on the outside of your home. But maybe the writers are trying to put out a message. Give them a way out, a way to show off their work so it benefits them in the end instead of the writers having to sneak around and run from the police. Its just not a good look and its a stupid reason to put dirt on someones record.

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