PHASE 2
Encyclopedia
PHASE 2 is one of the most influential and well known New York City aerosol
artist. Mostly active in the 1970s, Phase 2 is generally credited with originating the "bubble letter" style of aerosol writing, also known as "softies". He was also influential in the early hip-hop scene.
along with a number of other early graffiti artists. Many famous graffiti writers of the early 1970s would meet at a doughnut shop across from the school called the Coffee Shop before heading down to the subway station at 149th Street and Grand Concourse
to watch tagged trains on the IRT
line pass by. Phase 2 was mentored in graffiti by his friend and neighbor Thomas Lee aka Lee 163d!, one of the pioneers of graf writing in the Bronx.
He began writing in late 1971 under the name Phase 2, a moniker which had a rather mundane provenance. As Phase 2 would later recall, "the previous year we'd given this party. We were getting ready to give another one and I said, 'We'll call this one Phase Two.' I don't know why, but I was stuck on the name. It had meaning for me. I started writing 'Phase 2.'"
Part of the appeal of graffiti writing for Phase 2 was that it allowed him to get his "name" known yet remain anonymous. He noted later that tagging provided disadvantaged urban teens "the only significant vehicle to represent their 'existence.'"
It was in late 1972 that Phase 2 first used an early version of the "bubble letter" or "softie", a style of graffiti writing which would become extremely influential and is considered a "giant leap" in the art form. The puffed-out, marshmallow-like letters drawn by Phase 2 were soon copied by other artists who added their own variations. Phase himself quickly embellished on his original form, creating and naming dozens of varieties of softies such as "phasemagorical phantastic" (bubble letters with stars), "bubble cloud", and "bubble drip." He is also credited with pioneering the use of arrows in graf writing around this same time. Hip-hop journalist Jeff Chang
has noted that Phase 2's canvasses from 1973 have "been widely recognized as defining the early genre."
Over time Phase's work become more and more complex, moving far away from the simple tags of the early 70s to "hieroglyphical calligraphic abstraction." Chang points out that much of Phase's work involved "deconstructing the letter", transforming characters in the alphabet "into hard lines, third eyes, horns, drills, spikes, Egyptian pharaohs and dogs, pure geometrics." Another New York graffiti artist, Vulcan, remarked that "one of the things about Phase is that he was the only person at the time whose name could roll by ten times and each piece was different. That's what you noticed about his [work]."
In 1974 Phase 2 joined the newly created United Graffiti Artists, a professional graffiti collective which began to attract media attention. He was featured in an important essay on graffiti art by Richard Goldstein which appeared in New York
magazine and inspired a new generation of graffiti artists.
In the 1980s, Phase 2 began publishing International Graffiti Times, the first zine
about graffiti writing.
hip-hop scene in the early 1980s. He also continues to be referenced in hip-hop songs.
Phase participated in the legendary hip-hop shows organized by Kool Lady Blue during the summer of 1982 at the Roxy
nightclub in the Chelsea
neighborhood of Manhattan. These shows brought together the top DJ's, MC's, breakers, and aerosol artist from the South Bronx and introduced hip-hop music and culture to the downtown punk
and new wave
scenes. Phase 2 designed the flyers for these events and often did aerosol pieces live on stage. He was also part of the first "international" hip-hop tour when stars from the Roxy performances toured in England and France in November of that year.
Phase 2 was one of the few aerosol artists to be involved in the musical side of hip-hop culture as well. He had a background as a DJ in the very early days of hip-hop, though he never made a name for himself in that role. In 1982, as part of his involvement with the Roxy scene, Phase released two rap singles. "Beach Boy" was a collaboration with Barry Michael Cooper, who would later co-write the script for New Jack City
. "The Roxy" featured the Bill Laswell
-led group Material
and Grandmixer D.ST
, though Phase 2 would later remark that he was disappointed in the song and felt that it "wasn't done properly."
Phase was also an early b-boy and claims that his dance crew pioneered the uprock
(or "battle rock") style of dance despite claims that it originated in Brooklyn
. He was thus actively involved in all of the traditional "four elements" of hip-hop culture.
Though he did not have a role in the production, Phase 2 did apparently influence the classic early hip-hop movie Wild Style
. In the DVD commentary for the film, director Charlie Ahearn explained that, when thinking about the key character named "Phade", he had Phase 2 in mind (either to actually play the part or simply as a model) because Phase was a legendary graffiti writer from the past who was also involved in the hip-hop scene, as was the character of Phade. The role would ultimately be played by Fab 5 Freddy, himself a graffiti artist who along with Ahearn was the major creative force behind Wild Style. Phase 2 did take on an official role in another early hip-hop film when he worked as a graffiti consultant on the 1984 movie Beat Street
.
In his 1995 song "Out for Fame" - an homage to graffiti artists and culture - KRS-One
implores his audience "in the name of Phase 2" and fellow Bronx graffiti legend Stay High
to "grab your cans and hit the streets." Several years later Mos Def
mentioned Phase 2 on his widely respected debut album Black on Both Sides
, specifically on the track "Hip Hop", in which he noted that hip-hop itself was "all city like Phase 2" - presumably a reference to the ubiquity of Phase 2's graffiti pieces on trains throughout the city during the early 1970s. In 1996, he appeared in the song I Messaggeri Pt.I contained in italian artist Neffa's album I Messaggeri della Dopa.
Aerosol
Technically, an aerosol is a suspension of fine solid particles or liquid droplets in a gas. Examples are clouds, and air pollution such as smog and smoke. In general conversation, aerosol usually refers to an aerosol spray can or the output of such a can...
artist. Mostly active in the 1970s, Phase 2 is generally credited with originating the "bubble letter" style of aerosol writing, also known as "softies". He was also influential in the early hip-hop scene.
Graffiti career
Phase 2 is from the Bronx, and attended DeWitt Clinton High SchoolDeWitt Clinton High School
DeWitt Clinton High School is an American high school located in the Bronx, New York City, New York.-History:Clinton opened in 1897 at 60 West 13th Street at the northern end of Greenwich Village under the name of Boys High School, although this Boys High School was not related to the one in Brooklyn...
along with a number of other early graffiti artists. Many famous graffiti writers of the early 1970s would meet at a doughnut shop across from the school called the Coffee Shop before heading down to the subway station at 149th Street and Grand Concourse
Grand Concourse (Bronx)
The Grand Concourse is a major thoroughfare in the borough of the Bronx in New York City...
to watch tagged trains on the IRT
Interborough Rapid Transit Company
The Interborough Rapid Transit Company was the private operator of the original underground New York City Subway line that opened in 1904, as well as earlier elevated railways and additional rapid transit lines in New York City. The IRT was purchased by the City in June 1940...
line pass by. Phase 2 was mentored in graffiti by his friend and neighbor Thomas Lee aka Lee 163d!, one of the pioneers of graf writing in the Bronx.
He began writing in late 1971 under the name Phase 2, a moniker which had a rather mundane provenance. As Phase 2 would later recall, "the previous year we'd given this party. We were getting ready to give another one and I said, 'We'll call this one Phase Two.' I don't know why, but I was stuck on the name. It had meaning for me. I started writing 'Phase 2.'"
Part of the appeal of graffiti writing for Phase 2 was that it allowed him to get his "name" known yet remain anonymous. He noted later that tagging provided disadvantaged urban teens "the only significant vehicle to represent their 'existence.'"
It was in late 1972 that Phase 2 first used an early version of the "bubble letter" or "softie", a style of graffiti writing which would become extremely influential and is considered a "giant leap" in the art form. The puffed-out, marshmallow-like letters drawn by Phase 2 were soon copied by other artists who added their own variations. Phase himself quickly embellished on his original form, creating and naming dozens of varieties of softies such as "phasemagorical phantastic" (bubble letters with stars), "bubble cloud", and "bubble drip." He is also credited with pioneering the use of arrows in graf writing around this same time. Hip-hop journalist Jeff Chang
Jeff Chang (journalist)
Jeff Chang is an American journalist and music critic on hip hop music and culture. His 2005 book, Can't Stop Won't Stop, which chronicles the early hip hop scene, won an American Book Award in 2005...
has noted that Phase 2's canvasses from 1973 have "been widely recognized as defining the early genre."
Over time Phase's work become more and more complex, moving far away from the simple tags of the early 70s to "hieroglyphical calligraphic abstraction." Chang points out that much of Phase's work involved "deconstructing the letter", transforming characters in the alphabet "into hard lines, third eyes, horns, drills, spikes, Egyptian pharaohs and dogs, pure geometrics." Another New York graffiti artist, Vulcan, remarked that "one of the things about Phase is that he was the only person at the time whose name could roll by ten times and each piece was different. That's what you noticed about his [work]."
In 1974 Phase 2 joined the newly created United Graffiti Artists, a professional graffiti collective which began to attract media attention. He was featured in an important essay on graffiti art by Richard Goldstein which appeared in New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
magazine and inspired a new generation of graffiti artists.
In the 1980s, Phase 2 began publishing International Graffiti Times, the first zine
Zine
A zine is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published work of minority interest usually reproduced via photocopier....
about graffiti writing.
Influence in hip-hop
Unlike some other pioneers of New York City graffiti, Phase 2 had a prominent role in the South BronxSouth Bronx
The South Bronx is an area of the New York City borough of The Bronx. The neighborhoods of Tremont, University Heights, Highbridge, Morrisania, Soundview, Hunts Point, and Castle Hill are sometimes considered part of the South Bronx....
hip-hop scene in the early 1980s. He also continues to be referenced in hip-hop songs.
Phase participated in the legendary hip-hop shows organized by Kool Lady Blue during the summer of 1982 at the Roxy
Roxy NYC
Roxy NYC was a popular nightclub located at 515 West 18th Street in New York City. Located in Chelsea section of Manhattan it began as a roller skating rink and roller disco in 1978, it was founded by Steve Bauman, Richard Newhouse and Steve Greenberg then acquired in 1985 by Gene DiNino until it...
nightclub in the Chelsea
Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District – which lies between the Avenue of the Americas and...
neighborhood of Manhattan. These shows brought together the top DJ's, MC's, breakers, and aerosol artist from the South Bronx and introduced hip-hop music and culture to the downtown punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
and new wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
scenes. Phase 2 designed the flyers for these events and often did aerosol pieces live on stage. He was also part of the first "international" hip-hop tour when stars from the Roxy performances toured in England and France in November of that year.
Phase 2 was one of the few aerosol artists to be involved in the musical side of hip-hop culture as well. He had a background as a DJ in the very early days of hip-hop, though he never made a name for himself in that role. In 1982, as part of his involvement with the Roxy scene, Phase released two rap singles. "Beach Boy" was a collaboration with Barry Michael Cooper, who would later co-write the script for New Jack City
New Jack City
New Jack City is a 1991 crime film starring Wesley Snipes, Ice-T, Mario Van Peebles, Judd Nelson, and Chris Rock. Snipes stars as Nino Brown, a rising drug dealer and crime lord in New York City during the crack epidemic...
. "The Roxy" featured the Bill Laswell
Bill Laswell
Bill Laswell is an American bassist, producer and record label owner....
-led group Material
Material (band)
For the rock band of the same name, see The MaterialMaterial is a musical group formed in 1979 and led by bass guitarist Bill Laswell.-1978-82: The band:...
and Grandmixer D.ST
Grand Mixer DXT
Grand Mixer DXT is an American turntablist. He was formely known as Grand Mixer D.ST. "D.ST" is a reference to Manhattan, New York City's Delancey Street on the Lower East Side...
, though Phase 2 would later remark that he was disappointed in the song and felt that it "wasn't done properly."
Phase was also an early b-boy and claims that his dance crew pioneered the uprock
Uprock
Uprock, or Rocking as it was originally referred to, also known as Rock, is a soulful and competitive urban street dance, performed in synchronization to the beats and rhythms of soul, rock and funk music, but was mostly danced to a specific and exclusive collection of songs that contained a hard...
(or "battle rock") style of dance despite claims that it originated in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
. He was thus actively involved in all of the traditional "four elements" of hip-hop culture.
Though he did not have a role in the production, Phase 2 did apparently influence the classic early hip-hop movie Wild Style
Wild Style
Wild Style is a 1983 hip hop film produced by Charlie Ahearn. Released theatrically in 1983 by First Run Features and later re-released for home video by Rhino Home Video, it is regarded as the first hip hop motion picture...
. In the DVD commentary for the film, director Charlie Ahearn explained that, when thinking about the key character named "Phade", he had Phase 2 in mind (either to actually play the part or simply as a model) because Phase was a legendary graffiti writer from the past who was also involved in the hip-hop scene, as was the character of Phade. The role would ultimately be played by Fab 5 Freddy, himself a graffiti artist who along with Ahearn was the major creative force behind Wild Style. Phase 2 did take on an official role in another early hip-hop film when he worked as a graffiti consultant on the 1984 movie Beat Street
Beat Street
Beat Street is a 1984 drama film, following Wild Style in featuring New York City hip hop culture of the early 1980s; breakdancing, DJing, and graffiti.-Plot:...
.
In his 1995 song "Out for Fame" - an homage to graffiti artists and culture - KRS-One
KRS-One
Lawrence Krisna Parker , better known by his stage names KRS-One , and Teacha, is an American rapper...
implores his audience "in the name of Phase 2" and fellow Bronx graffiti legend Stay High
Stay High 149 (graffiti artist)
Stay High 149 is an African-American graffiti artist. He was called a "superstar" of the graffiti world in the late 1970s. Widely considered to use one of the most famous graffiti tags in the world, his trademark includes a smoking version of the stick figure from the 1960's British television...
to "grab your cans and hit the streets." Several years later Mos Def
Mos Def
Dante Terrell Smith is an American actor and Emcee known by the stage names Mos Def and Yasiin Bey. He started his hip hop career in a group called Urban Thermo Dynamics, after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. With Talib Kweli, he formed the duo Black Star, which...
mentioned Phase 2 on his widely respected debut album Black on Both Sides
Black on Both Sides
Black on Both Sides is the debut solo album of American rapper Mos Def, released October 12, 1999 on Rawkus Records. Prior to the album's recording, Mos Def had collaborated with rapper Talib Kweli for the duo's studio album, Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star , which raised high expectations for...
, specifically on the track "Hip Hop", in which he noted that hip-hop itself was "all city like Phase 2" - presumably a reference to the ubiquity of Phase 2's graffiti pieces on trains throughout the city during the early 1970s. In 1996, he appeared in the song I Messaggeri Pt.I contained in italian artist Neffa's album I Messaggeri della Dopa.
Works cited
- George, NelsonNelson GeorgeNelson George is an African American author, columnist, music and culture critic, journalist, and filmmaker. He has been nominated twice for the National Book Critics Circle Award....
- Chang, JeffJeff ChangJeff Chang is a Taiwanese male singer, who performs sentimental Mandarin pop ballads.Chang was born in Yunlin, Taiwan. He started off his showbiz career by winning a singing competition while in college...
(2005). Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. PicadorPicador (imprint)Picador is an imprint of Pan Macmillan in the United Kingdom and Australia and of Macmillan Publishing in the United States. Both companies are owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group....
. ISBN 0312425791.