Graffiti Bombing Los Angeles

This post features graffiti bombs from all over Los Angeles.  Multiple locations from Melrose to downtown to your mom's house.

Click the jump to check out all the action

Shuttered Like No Other

A row of shutters along Melrose boasts big name graffiti writers from all over Los Angeles.

Featuring bombs from Bozoe, SYB, Hanos, KT and Hamok.

SYB Graffiti

The SYB Graffiti Crew gets up big all over Los Angeles.

Like here.  The crew letters going big down the middle with shout outs to Klean Yo Chakras, Movie, Hanos, Newt and DeeJ.

Riding under a giant Love Me roller on Fairfax.

Dirty Fairfax

Love the dirty feeling of this bombed out spot behind Fairfax.

All kinds of action from Movie SYB, Labby SYB, Hanos (SYB?), Bankrupt Slut, DOD, Boomk, Bukit, Smear, Rick and much more.  Including a couch tag from Katzoo, not to be confused with Katsu.

Doorway Handstyle

Some signature handstyle tags getting up in a Beverly doorway.  From KYC SYB and Hanos.

Homer Simpson Graffiti Easy Chair

Klean Yo Chakras paints Homer Simpson on an abandoned easy chair.  Seems like a fitting place for Homer.  Also with another one peeking out above from behind.

Joined by tags from Lukas, Fufy, Psue, Snail and more.

For You, I'll Do the Weirdest Shit

Sticker combo on Melrose with all kinds of cool little 'weird' stickers.

Action from Smear, 14 Bolt HCP OTS, Borat, Tame, Lukas, SYB, Reti, Ikon, Land of Sunshine and more.

Hanging On, Smiling

Movie SYB holds onto a rooftop graffiti spot on Melrose.

Didn't catch what happened in between, but you can see the red outline where Movie's previous piece was.

Riding with Avery to the side.

Dog Byte - Repeating Ideas

This piece is called 'Step and Repeat' by Dog Byte.  There is a funny story surrounding this piece.  The first time M&F saw Step and Repeat on the street, there was a money bag in the back hand of the child soldier, and when we told Dog Byte that we liked the bag element in the piece because it gave it context, Dog Byte explained that the money bag was not part of his piece, but something that someone else had added on.

Dog Byte then went on to lament how he felt like he was out of ideas, and couldn't come up with new material for stencils.  M&F always remembered this conversations because we thought that Dog Byte's saying this was so unusual, because almost every artist that we know has waaaay too many ideas, and the hardest part for most is finding time to actually do them.

That conversation was over two years ago.  Other than commissioned advertisements, this is the first time Dog Byte has got up in years, and he is still using the same material.  Apparently, Dog Byte is still 'stepping and repeating' ideas.

Movie THR and the SYB Crew add some street quality control to Step and Repeat with bombs down below.

Fewer Scripts

All kinds of different handstyles getting tagged up including Script WI, Fewer, Movie SYB THR, and many more.

Up on the Rooftop

SZO(?) THR and Avery SYB bomb a rooftop spot on Melrose.

With the face from a Phylo TSF paster still visible.

Get Up, Stay Up!

This spot gets grilled with all kinds of graffiti.

Bombs from Spor, SYB Crew, D8R, DOD and many more.

Tourist Graffiti

Graffiti bombs from MO! (Movie?) KYC SYB THR and Avery SYB.

The MO one says 'tourist' down the middle of the 'O'.

Best Graffiti Writer of the Year 2012

For most people, graffiti is a phase.  Many young hungry artists come charging out hard at first, only to eventually burn out, get bored, or get busted.  Getting up is a hard job with very little direct payoff, and even the most hardcore writers generally don't last longer than a few years on the streets.  Even then, the few brave graffiti artists who get up over a long period of time seem to switch back and forth between periods of getting up, and then down time, and then getting back up again.  But M&F has never met a graffiti artist who has a stronger passion to get up than 2012's Best Graffiti of the Year, Jaber.  To Jaber, getting up is a lifestyle.  Jaber gets up worldwide and smashes hard everywhere.  And his game is complete.  Jaber is perhaps most known for his graffiti pieces on trains.  But he also holds it down on the streets, even inventing new crazy fat tags, and Jaber stickers are everywhere.

The first time M&F ever saw Jaber's graffiti was way back in 2005.  We were living in Boulder, Colorado at the time and Jaber caught a hot spot right along the freeway with one of his signature White Ninja graffiti heads.  M&F did not know this was Jaber's work at the time.  In fact, as we saw this head repeatedly over time during the years preceding and following, for the longest time we thought it was a general kind of iconic graffiti character, kind of like how many different artists will paint variations of Bode's wizard animations.  But that isn't the case.  Sometimes biters will copy his characters, but Jaber is the only one painting his heads all over.  He is just so prolific that it seemed like an army of artists painting the emblem that has now become iconic.  

Jaber started painting graffiti in 1991 and he hasn't stopped since.  With the current state of online graffiti videos and Youtube hustlers, sometimes young bucks appear to be seasoned graffiti veterans when really they are just better promoters.  Jaber has been going at this hard for longer than some young writers have been alive.  He has scored some incredible gigs like going on tour with Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Pharcyde, LL Cool J and many more.  Jaber is a legend within the graffiti community, but he has never gotten that pot of gold that some street artists hope for.  Still, Jaber keeps getting up and keeps painting.  Jaber has never left the streets.  He has never taken a break off for down time.  Why does he do it?  He does it for all the right reasons.  When M&F asked Jaber what drives his insatiable hunger to get up, Jaber replied that he does it because its fun, and if its ever not, then that's when he'll quit.  Hope that time never comes. Jaber has more than earned the award for Graffiti Artist of the Year.  Stay up!

Special shout outs to other graffiti artists and writers killing it this year including Agod, Fishe KOG, Hamok, Sand One, Glaboe, CBS Crew, MSK Crew, Grime Crew, Movie, Avery, KYC, SYB Crew, Love Krew, RTH Crew, Jew, LOK Crew, J4F Crew, Merch, Lukas, and Hanos.

Don't Cut Off Your Nose To Spite Your Face

This mural from entitled 'Happy Holidays' from KH no. 7 got tagged by graffiti letters recently by the SYB Crew.

Well, someone didn't like the graffiti addition, and it looks like they took a pressure cleaner to the wall to get the graffiti off.  The buffing did remove most of the graffiti, but it also took away the mural itself, along with several other layers underneath.  The end result looks like a giant scribble across the lower section of the mural, and the buffing is not an improvement.

No doubt that whoever did this was trying to save the mural.  But this looks like when the city buffs a wall with sloppy unmatching paint.  Sure, the offending mark is gone, but it looks messy and worse than before.  As the saying goes, 'Don't Cut Off Your Nose To Spite Your Face'.

After all that, ironically enough, the SYB tag on the right hand side is still riding.

On an unusually rainy day on Melrose--M&F got caught in a bit of a thunder storm, even with thunder and lightning!

KYC Syb Simpson

KYC from the SYB Crew claims a rooftop on Fairfax with this piece that mixes letters with Bart Simpson's head.

Bombed for the Holidays

The SYB crew bombs over KH no. 7's food themed mural saying 'Happy Holidays'.

Old Brainwash Building Slammed

The old building that this time last year was hosting Mr. Brainwash's Art Show 2011 is currently undergoing some massive construction.  And the skeleton of the old building keeps getting smashed with more and more graffiti.

Big bombs from Fail, Besto, Eder, KYC SYB, Verde, TOS and many, many more.

Bart Simpson Graffiti

This pieces with a Bart Simpson like character have been popping up all over the Melrose and Fairfax area.

From the SYB crew--anyone know what is the artist's name?

Bombing over an 'M' from Banksy's old assistant, Eine.

Movie & Avery SYB

Movie and Avery from the SYB crew bomb the backside of Melrose.