Wild Style® writing was developed as a language - a cultural statement - and its home was the Bronx. To TRACY 168, one of the inner-city writers who created this genre of art, its meaning goes deep:

Wild Style ®
is what you do in your life.

Whatever you do,
do it to the best of your ability.

If you're not the best,
then find your purpose and be the best at that.

If you're an artist, postal carrier,
plumber or salesman, just be the best.

Eventually, TRACY 168 became bored by spray painting trains as he felt he had no competition. He turned to painting wall murals in 1978 and his first paid assignment was the side of French Charlys Bar on Webster Avenue in the Bronx.

Regarding memorial walls for victims of urban violence, for which he is "artist of record" on many, he knows it is only a matter of time before there is another mural to be painted and another mother crying. "Like they said in the bible," he was recently quoted, "The dead will walk the earth. Sometimes I wonder if it started happening. The buildings are starting to look like tombs, and the people on crack are the walking dead."

His murals quickly became recognized for their individuality because of his need to give back to the community. He would ask people for their ideas and he would plan his mural so that it would have some message of guidance. For the kids, a positive message - no violence, no drugs.

110 FT. MURAL Commissioned by MICHAEL ORTIZ
192nd ST. & GRAND CONCOURSE

It's time to start concentrating on the lighter, brighter side of mural painting. TRACY 168 feels his current work, which includes many cartoons, put people in a better frame of mind, and brings them to a better place. Many of his current pieces are commissioned by businesses who want to appeal to the locals and they have found his new approach to be vibrant, alive, colorful and playful. In TRACY 168's words, "this art form is what jazz is to music. A moment in time captured with the flair of the street people, most of all, alive!"

"REAL LIFE!!"

Commissioned by Dolan's Auto Parts

For TRACY 168, graffiti wasn't just rebellion or a gimmick to be heard in a society where you felt nobody really seemed to care--it meant creating something visual, with beautiful colors, to capture the city's audience in a medium never before used--the side of a NEW YORK CITY SUBWAY CAR.

"No media propoganda, no manipulating political intervention. It came from the hearts of its people. Us. We the people...the tail doesn't wag the dog, the dog wags the tail. The first time in history that what a citizen says isn't edited, changed, nor taken out of context. Thank ´GOD´ for this Art Form. And My talent, to be able to be part of it..."

KING TWO

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