R.I.P. 5 Pointz: Hip-Hop’s Grafitti Mecca Gets Whitewashed Posted by Nathan S. on 11/19/13 | Filed under Style, Rap Nerdery, Graffiti

(Photo by Nathan Tweti)

Today is a sad day for the culture as Queens' 5 Pointz space, quite possibly the largest and best graffiti space in the world, was completely white washed overnight to make way for a $400 million condo development project, in the process wiping out in a single night one a cultural landmark. 

The graffiti community fought the good fight, trying to have the space protected as a cultural landmark, but in the end it just wasn't enough to counter to counter the force of $400 million. In retrospect I'm feeling guilty for not spreading the world more to whatever humble extent I could; these R.I.P. posts are good and fine, but whether it's an artist or a graffiti space, we need to do a better job of celebrating and protecting the art we treasure. Fuck. 

Without exaggeration, this feels like when Pimp C passed; I never got a chance to see Pimp perform in person while he was alive, and now I never will. Similiarly, I'll always only be able to experience 5 Pointz in pictures and video, and the same goes for entire generations of hip-hop heads. In fact, the more I think about it, the more fucking worked up I'm getting. Not neccesarily about 5 Pointz specifically, ultimately that was a privately-owned property which makes things tough, but about the entire concept of graffiti and public space. These fuckers are going to fuck around and make me get my Banksy on: 

Man, I can't draw for shit, but I might just have to take a little trip down to the art store and get my Krylon on tonight just on principle. RefinedHype Nation will put together a KickStarter to post my bail, right? R.I.P. 5 Pointz, you will be missed. 

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