The Godfather of Modern Day Graffiti

The Godfather of Modern Day Graffiti

Cornbread tags Philadelphia one wall at a time

With this first post I thought it would be fitting to take a look back at the man that is considered the Godfather of American Graffiti. There were two famous graffiti artist before Cornbread (Kill Roy and Bird) though it was Cornbread that brought graffiti into the modern world.

Cornbread (Darryl McCray) emerged in 1969 throughout Philadelphia, after being released from juvenile hall. He was a mere 12 years old when he hit the streets of Philadelphia, though his actual first writings began along the walls of his juvenile hall at the young age of 10.  This story, along with the story that turned graffiti into an urban art started out as a story of a boy and a girl. Cornbread had met a girl in his class that he just couldn’t get out of his mind. Like many young boys in love before him he set out to impress this girl (Cynthia) the only way he knew how, with spray paint.

What started out as a way to get a young girls attention quickly gained speed and notoriety as it spread through the streets of Philadelphia and quickly moved on to New York followed by major cities across the nation. Cornbread’s graffiti gained media attention. During his time he wouldn’t often tag a specific wall after reading from media sources that “that it would be amazing if somebody tagged the Jackson Five jet as it landed in Philly.” Cornbread disappeared in 1972, as a result of his own battle with drug addiction, though his art lived on and continued to flourish with new graffiti artist popping up across America.