Graffiti as an element of hip-hop

Graffiti is one of the four main elements of hip hop culture along with emceeing, djing and break dancing. The relationship between graffiti and hip hop culture arises both from early graffiti artists practicing other aspects of hip-hop, and it's being practiced in areas where other elements of hip-hop were evolving as art forms. In America around the late 1960's, graffiti was used as a form of expression by political activists, and also by gangs such as the Savage Skulls, La Familia, and Savage Nomads to mark territory. Towards the end of the 1960's, the signatures-tags of Philadelphia graffiti writers Cornbread, Cool Earl and Topcat 126 started to appear. Cornbread is often cited as one of the earliest writer of modern graffiti. Around 1970-71, the centre of graffiti innovation moved to New York City where writers following in the wake of Taki 183 and Tracy 168 would add their street number to their nickname, "bomb" a train with their work. Bubble lettering held sway initially among writers from the Bronx, though the elaborate writing tracy 168 dubbed "wildstyle" would come to define the art.