OWN A PIECE OF STYLE WARS HISTORY!!

Graffiti ain't an element of rap music.  Some of its pioneers say it ain't even an element of hip-hop. My formulation is that hip-hop is an element of graffiti, but that don't clear up shit if rap music is an element of hip-hop.  Disputed taxonomy aside, Style Wars is easily a top 25 documentary, and remains essential viewing for anyone interested in the era that produced this Thing we love so much.

Certain questions remain.  How did the mild-mannered Dez become the eternally agitated KAY SLAY?  Will "Zephyr & I" be on the next Streetsweeper tape?  If, as legend has it, Cap worked in a bakery during this time, does that mean he was frosting dainty cakes in between terrorizing New York's most elite mass transit vandals?  Was Kase2 sent from the future?  And was Min referring to the swoop on Cap's "a" or his actual hair when clowning his "Lucille Ball haircut?"

IDK, but I do know that u can cop some original stickers from Min for $25.  Perfect stocking stuffers for the documentary aficionados in your life, spesh if u lost the eBay auction for a feeding tube from Titicut Follies.

DRAKE COLLECTS ANOTHER ELEMENT OF HIP-HOP, ONE STEP CLOSER TO TURNING TEMPLE OF HIP-HOP INTO CONDOS

Yo, who said DRAKE ain't respectin the forefathers of hip-hop?   He bringin back the old school hip-hop elementals with this one, conscripting fellow Canadian JIM JOE to lend his fresh chickenscratch handstyle to the new LP.  Y'all might remember Mr. JOE for his adorable Yeezus cartoon, and you've certainly seen his work if you've had the misfortune of spending any time in Lower Manhattan lately. 

Now we all know hip-hop and graff are tied up inextricably, so it's real cool to see the brotha from the north goin back to the rec-room days.  The similarities between JIM JOE and DRAKE are uncanny.  They both Canadians whose commercial and artistic pretensions clash with the roots of their artistic forms.  The purists hate on em with the same passion, often for the same reason: they're corny carpetbaggers cloggin up the airwaves and streets in a city they got no claim on and their success sets a toxic precedent for the future of their respective artforms.  They even say JIM JOE would've been vicked for his YSL peacoat back in the bad ol' days just as DRAKE would've been laughed off as a Newjack Swing cornball.  I ain't one of these people!  Every generation needs to define itself against its forebears.  Aligning himself with JIM JOE, DRAKE is basically sayin, "Fuck the haters, I'm the JIM JOE of hip-hop!"  He's pouting to JIGGA, "Sit down, old man.  I'm da new king, and JIM JOE is my Basquiat."

So what it is?  Will JIM JOE be the next Cey Adams?  Has DRAKE been successful in ushering in the Microphone Friend Era?  One thing is clear: these aren't the artists gentrified NYC needs, but the ones it deserves.

INFORMATIVE POSTSCRIPT

It's extremely hard to Google specific graffiti pieces.  I can't find decent pictures of CAINE's Welcome to Hell whole car, or SANE's "nailed to a cross" Agnostic Front(?) inspired skinhead joint, but I found this Bieber burner with no trouble at all.  In my fruitless search, I learned the mother of leftist scion turnt conservative ideologue David Horowitz took a photo of the CAINE piece that hung in the Museum of the City of New York.  The more you know!  If anyone can send me good flicks of these pieces, you will receive an official RAP MUSIC HYSTERIA t-shirt (2015, Sharpie on Hanes).