The Basic Lingo: and
additional slang
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All-City: To go all over the
city. The effort to cover the most, with the
best.
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Bite: To copy another style,
to take someone's style and claim it as your
own.
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Black Book: A writers sketchbook,
sometimes referred to as a piece book.
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Blockbuster: Huge block letters
that take up an enormous amount of space. Larger
than throw-ups and used many times to cover up
another writers work.
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Bomb: The action of doing graffiti.
Painting or marking surfaces with ink and/or
paint. Putting up your tag. ie "Jimmy is
going to bomb that wall." In these politically
charged days, this can take on a whole new meaning.
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Bombing: To go out and write
graffiti art. ie "Jimmy is bombing that
wall." Again in these days be very careful
who hears you speaking like this.
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Bubble Letters: Balloonish
styled letters, easily rendered, very basic.
Often used for throw-ups.
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Burner: A full fledged piece.
Fully rendered letters with multiple color fills
and backgrounds, characters ,etc.
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End to End: A train painted
from one end all the way to the other. Can be
done as a massive throw up ,blockbuster, or a
burner.
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Fill-in: A throw up with a
filled in center, or simply thought of as the
colored areas inside of letter patterns.
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Flix: Pictures.
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Getting up: The action of going
out and tagging. Sometimes used interchangeably
with "bombing".
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Going Over: Crossing out someone
else's work with your own ,with the idea that
your work is better.
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King: The highest compliment
given to a graffiti writer. A person who has
mastered the form and established his dominance.
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Mad: Crazy, very advanced styles
or lots...ie "Jimmy has mad styles." or "Jimmy
has mad spray cans at the crib."
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Rack: To steal.
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Sick: Very, very good at technique
and has great individual style. Usually pronounced
as "siiiick!" ie Johnny has sick style.
Meaning Johnny is very good.
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Tag: A writers signature, his "nom
de plume". For example "Scape" is
my tag.
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Throw up: Your name in big
bubble letters. Done VERY quickly...Used primarily
to simply cover space and grab attention. Done
in no more than three minutes. Proving you were
there.
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Toy: An inexperienced writer,
or a writer that has not progressed. A term of
disrespect.
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Up: A writer that is active
and has a lot of work in circulation.
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Westside: A common phrase shouted
from many a parking lot, designating an affiliation
or allegiance to The West Coast of the US. Was
formerly a calling for and by gangbangers of
the westside of Los Angeles. Made popular by
rap records and now tends to lean on an affiliation
of all things West Coast Hip Hop.
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Window-Down: A piece that only
goes from the windows down on a subway car.
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Whole Car: A train car that
is painted from top to bottom, and end to end.
Covering all available surfaces, windows, etc.
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Writer: Someone who practices
the art of graffiti.
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