Can't Stop, Won't Stop Chapter 8

Zulus on a time bomb : hip-hop meets the rockers downtown
by: Katherine Fenstemaker and Stephanie Carpenter

This chapter was more about the evolution of hip hop as a culture in the Bronx. Henry Chalfant played a large role in bringing this culture to the public through his photojournalism. He took pictures of the graffiti art and then put the photos on display in a gallery. Crowds came from everywhere. This chapter also talked about Fred who became a part of the FAB 5 and worked with Lee Quinones who was the most famous graffiti artist in town. The FAB understood that this movement was becoming a culture because it now had a dance (bboying), a music (rapping/DJing), and it now had a visual art (graffiti).

In 1973 the United Graffiti Artists was created and they started to make money by selling graffiti on canvases. These sold for as much as $10,000. It was cool because each graffiti artist had their own style and focus. Graffiti was brought overseas when Fred and Lee went to Italy with this art.

Henry Chalfant became the manager of the Rock Steady crew and had them perform a staged battle at one of his gallery shows. Everyone started to talk about the new style of dance known as bboying and were linking it together with graffiti. It showed the public how these gangs were dancing instead of fighting.

He eventually made a movie “Style Wars” which was a documentary of graffiti and bboying. It was popular on both the east and west coast, but some citizens were angry because they felt that it was promoting vandalism.