Me being a writer from Philly i think we have the best hand...but i can understand how outta towners dont like our "wicked" hand styles...they can be unreadable, even for me
Just moved from North Philly outta state and I will say some of the handstyles can be crazy illegible but the straight letter throwie jawns are where it's at.
As someone just down in Wilmington, DE, I’ve seen some Philly tags and I don’t mind them. Don’t come down here and look at the ones here. I.. it’s just bubble letters.. I’m sorry..
I think Philly handstyles are at the heart of graffiti. It really defines what graffiti is, manipulating letter structure to create uniformity while minimizing negative space. It doesn't get more graffiti than that, especially in terms of handstyles.
I grew up in philly….it took me 6 years to learn how to do a good wicked. It takes most kids like 4 months to do a reasonable piece. It’s so much harder than it looks
Philly hands #1. Alot ppl hate because they cant they cant do it. Especially 90s philly tags were untouchable. Alot other ppl in other cities tags are OKAY with the help of fat caps etc.. in philly it was all stock caps on those walls, flares and all. Most ppl tags would look bad without a fat cap helping them. Shout out to all my philly dudes. Real technique, real wrist game. Not the usual basic easy shit
IMHO, from a dude who's been immersed in the graff culture since 2003, if you call yourself a writer and can't understand or respect Wickets, to me, you ain't a real writer. Guaranfuckintee anyone who talk shit on wickets, can't do wickets. I can't. I ain't a Philly native. But I love Philly and Philly hands are fuckin 🔥🔥🔥🔥
When I first got into tagging it was before the internet and CZcams. I remember my early handstyles were a combination of calligraphy and what you call Philly. The first time I hit a spot with my tag, someone wrote "Biter" after crossing it out. I honestly didn't know of other styles other than what I saw in Style Wars. Which led to me meeting my mentor, because I wanted to know more.
i think the comment about black and chrome being wack on legal walls comes from the fact that you can do anything on a legal wall and you choose a super common color scheme instead of going crazy on a piece
in my city all the legal walls are mostly names that I never see anywhere else. I'll check em out as I walk by for sure, but even if the skill level is really high it's just much less interesting to me than even seeing tags
Philly hands today vs Philly hands thru the 80’s,90’s and early 2000’s are very different and can’t be judged the same. Philly pioneered the hand. We introduced wickets and the world can’t read them. A lot of what is seen as “Philly hands” today is likely the transplant dudes and/or the youngins inspired by the internet and other cities (ny). Historically Philly writers work to present a clean letter style while making that letter unique to their style. Over the last decade or so I’ve seen a lot of NY influence bleed in with swirly bottoms and whatnot. You really can’t just throw a generic statement like “Philly hands are wack” without defining what gave you that opinion. Ironically(?) you show Wacko. His hand skills would smack the shit out of most of the country, Philly style or not, he’s studied hands inspired me to step my game up a little.
Broo quick and to the point is my thing😂 but let me explain i like chrome black pieces but if you do them on legal walls its just mweeh i feel like you have to show of on a legal wall or hall of fame and probably underneath that chrome piece theyre could have been a full out burner and thats sad😢
Can you do an episode on New Zealand , Auckland , handstyles? I think they just call them ‘straights’ meaning straight letter tags. They are not exactly straight, there is a certain font they have that is unique. Popular amongst gangs, and commonly use calligraphy caps. I was impressed when I visited how much I saw when I visited. I believe they are influenced by LA street gangs and cholo tagging, but they created something of their own and is my favorite tagging style. I just can’t find enough about it online tho, very briefly mentioned in ones of NZ graff book publications. It’s a common hand style there and is really one of the best
Could you make a video explaining what the basics are since you always say “Keep it simple and practice the basics!”, but I don’t really understand what what I should practice because you haven’t made a video just saying them, just explain them for maybe like 30 seconds each and then link the videos on your tutorial playlist to the more in depth videos about those basics? I think that would help a lot of people since when you say “Keep it simple and practice the basics!” I think alot of people don’t really know what you mean by “the basics”. Thanks John!
hey buddy, i speak and even list the fundamentals in just about every other video to the point where anyone who watches consistently is pretty sick of hearing it lol. with that said, i have a whole playlist dedicated to teaching these fundamentals, im pretty sure i linked you this in the past but in case i didnt here's another link for you. I very literally hold your people's hand through it in the tutorials. and in all honesty, i teach this topic you're asking about so often im surprised you've never heard me speak of them individually. czcams.com/video/L44qLzz_FB0/video.html
@@Theartistblock Haha yeah, I can relate to being sick and tired of you saying that all the time, but I really appreciate it! I felt like you say it all the time but some people to some degree just don't understand what you mean by it, to some degree myself included. Also I don't want you to think I don't watch your videos, I always do haha.
Philly has a style which is good in itself and they bomb which is the most important part. And my hot take is most people will paint for a little while and thats it . Longevity is key
I think the overdrip thing also goes for people who do basic lettering and a lot of drip as if parts compensate well exaggerated letters. You cant draw a person with 5 noses and call it a caricature😂
Lol I purposely only showed philly tags I liked to show examples of great philly tags. I agree, I don't think they suck either. I do think many people aren't good at doing them but the ones in the video are good lol
Philly will out hand the world, let’s see ya try a Philly hand in the wild it consist of many techniques that many can’t seem to grasp but us. The hands I see in just a 5block radios in my neighborhood is better than anything in the world a lot of other places b straight bs plain n simple no flow yeah you have your places w some dope hand style but still no match to Philly
absolutely insane thing to say about a dude that's been bombing for longer than you've been alive. And you would choose Cope2's snitch over him... gotta be dumb as shit
3:32 its wack cuz chrome and black is the basic pack of writing in the streets Once you are able to make a ilegal piece in the street you instict will tell you to grab chrome black to paint ilegal
My hot take is that chrome pieces are lame, my reason being it would take the exact same effort to just use an actual colour or two and it would look so much better in my opinion. I know thats gonna offend some people and they would say it makes your letter structure itself to stand out forcing you to have good letters rather than relying on nice fill and details, but I think even if you have the sickest letters it still looks better in colour.
I'm from NY and I got Philly hands, Philly approved. But I Rarely use them. Phillys are for writers, not for onlookers if that makes sense. They'll only really legible to other writers.
im toy asf but i kinda agree. I think 'undistinct' is the word i'd use though. If It's illegible but I can still recognize it from tag to tag then I'm down. The ones that are illegible and undistinct, like every time i see that tag I can't recognize that it was the same tag as the last one I saw, then it does feel kinda pointless. Seeing a familiar tag and being like "hell yeah that dude got up here too" is a big part of the fun for me, and if I can't recognize or read the tag then I won't have that reaction, just looks like some paint on the wall, which in the end I guess I am down for anyway.
Philly hands aren’t “illegible”. They stick to consistent letter structure more than most styles, no matter how complex they get. After a while it kinda just boils down to your ability to read that style
Cornbread was factually not the first not by a long shot. Not even close. There is enough documented graffiti that debunks that. NY had graffiti earlier before the boom of the trains and before cornbread, UK and LA also had graffiti earlier than NY and Philly. So iv done my homework, time for you to do yours
My hot take is graffiti doesn’t belong everywhere! It might seem nice to be the biggest and baddest writer but stick to urban areas it’ll save you a lotta trouble.
Oooooo ya know, I agree 100000% as a kid, dem would take my partner in graffiti and I to different places, some classy places, some shows in nice areas, restaurants, so on so forth and he taught us this exact lesson. Graffiti doesn't belong everywhere. Leave some areas alone . Have some standard and class because in many of these areas graffiti just looks stupid as hell
BRUH YOU CAN'T MAKE A VIDEO TRASHING PHILLY HAND'S AND NOT SHOW PHILLY HANDS LOL THIS VIDEO IS JUST YOU SAYING YOUR OPINION AND NOT BRAKING NOTHING DOWN/SHOWING NO EXAMPLES FROM ANY OF PHILLY S TOP HITTERS, WHAT SEPARATES US FROM ANYWHERE ELSE IS WHEN WE FIRST GET INTO THE GAME WE TRY TO LEARN THE MANY DIFFERENT PHILLY STYLES AND THE AVERAGE PHILLY WRITER KNOWS MORE HANDS THEN MAJORITY OF PEOPLE FROM WHEREVER ELSE, WE DON'T JUST DO THE SAME 2/3 HAND'S OVER AND OVER WHEN CATCHIN REC, EVERY OTHER WALL IS A DIFFERENT STYLE MAJORITY OF THE TIME 💯 LIKE WHEN I DO A LONG HAND I HAVE ABOUT 5/6 DIFFERENT STYLES OF IT SAME WITH WICKEDS / FLOW / STIFF / SIGNATURE ETC, YOU CAN'T TALK ABOUT HANDS AND NOT TALK ABOUT PHILLY FACTS 💯
#1 this was the communities hot takes not mine. Number two I clearly state I like philly tags and I showed two I enjoy. Please stop being a drama queen overreacting to videos you didn't understand. Surprised you misunderstood such a simple video
Shouldn't make videos on a subject your not educated on bud, it's evident that you know nothing about Philly writer's, most of the hands you used in the video as an example are toy asf lol , and not just my opinion either, majority of the people who commented on this hot trash/opinionated video knows what's up, also how is this a hot topic or whatever you said when you seem to be the only one who feels like you do about the situation
Philly really don't got any real crew production out there.im frum the BRONX, an tell yoo I'll battle anybody frum Philly on walls,BLK 📚 s,.SERON MDI,OTB FYBI,S7 CRU..BOOM SKWAD 4 LYFE
As a writer from the Bronx , that Philly hand style is horrible lol . And I can read anything . The point is for other people to read it even if they write graff or not .
I'm from the bronx , I spent 18 years in philly, thats where I started writing. Only ny dude with a philly hand. Philly #1. Love my city but the tags out here in ny are wack..
I definitely understand, and I actually lean towards people understanding my graff. But philly style is not just wickets, and even so, wickets are advanced stylization. They are the core of taking lettering to new heights. I don't know you or your style preferences, but many Philly graff haters would probably hype up a wildstyle piece filled with arrows and extensions, which is undoubtedly just as illegible as a super-wicked Philly tag, if not more so due to all the 3D. But that's the fun part about graffiti. You get to play with and change your style, and determine your legibility.
Me being a writer from Philly i think we have the best hand...but i can understand how outta towners dont like our "wicked" hand styles...they can be unreadable, even for me
Sf
My shit was misunderstood I really like Philly style just if it’s done right
Just moved from North Philly outta state and I will say some of the handstyles can be crazy illegible but the straight letter throwie jawns are where it's at.
Same man. Hands are top tier. ✊🔔215th🫡💯
As someone just down in Wilmington, DE, I’ve seen some Philly tags and I don’t mind them. Don’t come down here and look at the ones here. I.. it’s just bubble letters.. I’m sorry..
I think Philly handstyles are at the heart of graffiti. It really defines what graffiti is, manipulating letter structure to create uniformity while minimizing negative space. It doesn't get more graffiti than that, especially in terms of handstyles.
I grew up in philly….it took me 6 years to learn how to do a good wicked. It takes most kids like 4 months to do a reasonable piece. It’s so much harder than it looks
fax
Philly hands #1. Alot ppl hate because they cant they cant do it. Especially 90s philly tags were untouchable. Alot other ppl in other cities tags are OKAY with the help of fat caps etc.. in philly it was all stock caps on those walls, flares and all. Most ppl tags would look bad without a fat cap helping them. Shout out to all my philly dudes. Real technique, real wrist game. Not the usual basic easy shit
My man ✊🤝🔔🫡
but in my opinion Philly got the craziest handstyles. LA got calligraphy on lock. And new york they stuck in the style wars era.
IMHO, from a dude who's been immersed in the graff culture since 2003, if you call yourself a writer and can't understand or respect Wickets, to me, you ain't a real writer. Guaranfuckintee anyone who talk shit on wickets, can't do wickets. I can't. I ain't a Philly native. But I love Philly and Philly hands are fuckin 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Love your videos man cant wait for that book to come out
Philly Hands are the best in graff hands down... If you can't do one, you haven't practiced enough.
When I first got into tagging it was before the internet and CZcams. I remember my early handstyles were a combination of calligraphy and what you call Philly. The first time I hit a spot with my tag, someone wrote "Biter" after crossing it out. I honestly didn't know of other styles other than what I saw in Style Wars. Which led to me meeting my mentor, because I wanted to know more.
i think the comment about black and chrome being wack on legal walls comes from the fact that you can do anything on a legal wall and you choose a super common color scheme instead of going crazy on a piece
in my city all the legal walls are mostly names that I never see anywhere else. I'll check em out as I walk by for sure, but even if the skill level is really high it's just much less interesting to me than even seeing tags
LA & Philly Got the best hands
man, i love john grim videos. been watching for a decade now
Philly hands today vs Philly hands thru the 80’s,90’s and early 2000’s are very different and can’t be judged the same. Philly pioneered the hand. We introduced wickets and the world can’t read them. A lot of what is seen as “Philly hands” today is likely the transplant dudes and/or the youngins inspired by the internet and other cities (ny). Historically Philly writers work to present a clean letter style while making that letter unique to their style. Over the last decade or so I’ve seen a lot of NY influence bleed in with swirly bottoms and whatnot. You really can’t just throw a generic statement like “Philly hands are wack” without defining what gave you that opinion. Ironically(?) you show Wacko. His hand skills would smack the shit out of most of the country, Philly style or not, he’s studied hands inspired me to step my game up a little.
Yeah we he say ^^^
Ayy thanks for using my comment! Big ups! - Jaguar from twitch
You need to do your studies on Philly wickets but you wouldn’t understand not being from Philly.
i understand phillys just fine. i have philly tags myself.
Philly style is my favorite so unique 😊
Broo quick and to the point is my thing😂 but let me explain i like chrome black pieces but if you do them on legal walls its just mweeh i feel like you have to show of on a legal wall or hall of fame and probably underneath that chrome piece theyre could have been a full out burner and thats sad😢
Can you do an episode on New Zealand , Auckland , handstyles? I think they just call them ‘straights’ meaning straight letter tags. They are not exactly straight, there is a certain font they have that is unique. Popular amongst gangs, and commonly use calligraphy caps. I was impressed when I visited how much I saw when I visited. I believe they are influenced by LA street gangs and cholo tagging, but they created something of their own and is my favorite tagging style. I just can’t find enough about it online tho, very briefly mentioned in ones of NZ graff book publications. It’s a common hand style there and is really one of the best
oath mbro from christchurch nz 🙌🤙
@@user-lf3xe6or2cYo Im from christchurch nz too.
Yup most common in roll calls usually flaring fat to skinny, beautiful style
being an out of towner i want to learn wickeds so bad but i don’t want to disrespect the philly crew but fuck it looks so fun to get loose
Could you make a video explaining what the basics are since you always say “Keep it simple and practice the basics!”, but I don’t really understand what what I should practice because you haven’t made a video just saying them, just explain them for maybe like 30 seconds each and then link the videos on your tutorial playlist to the more in depth videos about those basics? I think that would help a lot of people since when you say “Keep it simple and practice the basics!” I think alot of people don’t really know what you mean by “the basics”. Thanks John!
hey buddy, i speak and even list the fundamentals in just about every other video to the point where anyone who watches consistently is pretty sick of hearing it lol. with that said, i have a whole playlist dedicated to teaching these fundamentals, im pretty sure i linked you this in the past but in case i didnt here's another link for you. I very literally hold your people's hand through it in the tutorials. and in all honesty, i teach this topic you're asking about so often im surprised you've never heard me speak of them individually. czcams.com/video/L44qLzz_FB0/video.html
Straight letters
@@Theartistblock Haha yeah, I can relate to being sick and tired of you saying that all the time, but I really appreciate it! I felt like you say it all the time but some people to some degree just don't understand what you mean by it, to some degree myself included. Also I don't want you to think I don't watch your videos, I always do haha.
Philly has a style which is good in itself and they bomb which is the most important part. And my hot take is most people will paint for a little while and thats it . Longevity is key
Our city launched a task force to buff graffiti. love it :D.... but they coat some areas with anti graffiti paint wich makes the paint easy to remove
The Philly handstyles you show are just straight fire though. GANE and TEXAS get sick with the wickeds
Yea I wanted to share a couple I liked. These 3 are fire tags for sure.
Been saying that for decades at this point. Better later than never though ;)
Lmao at the iCarly at 5:12 they’re in my city and I laugh so hard everytime I see them up. Such a funny name bruh. Probably a fun person.
Lol it gave me a good laugh while editing
I love the dumb shit man. Not taking writing too seriously and writing some dumb funny shit usually lands for me
Ayy cameo ✌️😎
I think the overdrip thing also goes for people who do basic lettering and a lot of drip as if parts compensate well exaggerated letters. You cant draw a person with 5 noses and call it a caricature😂
Anybody that thinks bad about Philly wickits… try them yourself & actually make it look legit.
lol I don’t think they suck 😂 thanks for putting me in your thumbnail tho lol
Lol I purposely only showed philly tags I liked to show examples of great philly tags. I agree, I don't think they suck either. I do think many people aren't good at doing them but the ones in the video are good lol
@@Theartistblock yea definitely the ones in the video were fresh
1:01 GJRLA Please Dont Buff crew est 1993
Philly will out hand the world, let’s see ya try a Philly hand in the wild it consist of many techniques that many can’t seem to grasp but us. The hands I see in just a 5block radios in my neighborhood is better than anything in the world a lot of other places b straight bs plain n simple no flow yeah you have your places w some dope hand style but still no match to Philly
shoutout to itsawaste
RD is not just a jerk but one of the biggest Toy
absolutely insane thing to say about a dude that's been bombing for longer than you've been alive. And you would choose Cope2's snitch over him... gotta be dumb as shit
Damnnnnnnn
Legend! Love your stuff!
Writers that don't like philly tags are mad they just can't do them...
3:32 its wack cuz chrome and black is the basic pack of writing in the streets
Once you are able to make a ilegal piece in the street you instict will tell you to grab chrome black to paint ilegal
My hot take is that chrome pieces are lame, my reason being it would take the exact same effort to just use an actual colour or two and it would look so much better in my opinion. I know thats gonna offend some people and they would say it makes your letter structure itself to stand out forcing you to have good letters rather than relying on nice fill and details, but I think even if you have the sickest letters it still looks better in colour.
Chrome covers faster and better than other colours. So actually no its not the same amount of effort
Yeah chrome covers way better n is faster lol Thats Why. If it isent a rush then sure
ngl you got some of the worst graff takes I've ever heard
Which ones, out of curiosity?
I'm from NY and I got Philly hands, Philly approved. But I Rarely use them. Phillys are for writers, not for onlookers if that makes sense. They'll only really legible to other writers.
Cool, I thought I was the only new Yorker with philly hands lol..
My hot take is that if your tag is unlegible geting up is pointless
If it’s only unlegible to non-writers I don’t mind tbh
I can understand that point for sure. Great hot take
im toy asf but i kinda agree. I think 'undistinct' is the word i'd use though. If It's illegible but I can still recognize it from tag to tag then I'm down. The ones that are illegible and undistinct, like every time i see that tag I can't recognize that it was the same tag as the last one I saw, then it does feel kinda pointless. Seeing a familiar tag and being like "hell yeah that dude got up here too" is a big part of the fun for me, and if I can't recognize or read the tag then I won't have that reaction, just looks like some paint on the wall, which in the end I guess I am down for anyway.
Philly hands aren’t “illegible”. They stick to consistent letter structure more than most styles, no matter how complex they get. After a while it kinda just boils down to your ability to read that style
@@Seasick333 we were speaking generally here, illegible tags in general, not specific to philly tags at all
I didn’t get this video, where was the people saying Philly is wack???
Philly have the sharpest handstyles…that’s the reason we always stand out…🫡🦅🦅
It’s sad that ppl don’t even know that graffiti stared in Philly NOT NY…due your homework,,, (cornbread)….best hand styles are from Philly…period 🦅🦅🦅
Cornbread was factually not the first not by a long shot. Not even close. There is enough documented graffiti that debunks that. NY had graffiti earlier before the boom of the trains and before cornbread, UK and LA also had graffiti earlier than NY and Philly. So iv done my homework, time for you to do yours
Always throw away empty can. Don't blow the spot by leaving trash everywhere
Carl1 icbm
Philly started this shit
False. This has been outright disproven by a difference of decades if we're being generous to cornbread. Cornbread is far from the first
My hot take is graffiti doesn’t belong everywhere! It might seem nice to be the biggest and baddest writer but stick to urban areas it’ll save you a lotta trouble.
Oooooo ya know, I agree 100000% as a kid, dem would take my partner in graffiti and I to different places, some classy places, some shows in nice areas, restaurants, so on so forth and he taught us this exact lesson. Graffiti doesn't belong everywhere. Leave some areas alone . Have some standard and class because in many of these areas graffiti just looks stupid as hell
Yo
BRUH YOU CAN'T MAKE A VIDEO TRASHING PHILLY HAND'S AND NOT SHOW PHILLY HANDS LOL THIS VIDEO IS JUST YOU SAYING YOUR OPINION AND NOT BRAKING NOTHING DOWN/SHOWING NO EXAMPLES FROM ANY OF PHILLY S TOP HITTERS, WHAT SEPARATES US FROM ANYWHERE ELSE IS WHEN WE FIRST GET INTO THE GAME WE TRY TO LEARN THE MANY DIFFERENT PHILLY STYLES AND THE AVERAGE PHILLY WRITER KNOWS MORE HANDS THEN MAJORITY OF PEOPLE FROM WHEREVER ELSE, WE DON'T JUST DO THE SAME 2/3 HAND'S OVER AND OVER WHEN CATCHIN REC, EVERY OTHER WALL IS A DIFFERENT STYLE MAJORITY OF THE TIME 💯 LIKE WHEN I DO A LONG HAND I HAVE ABOUT 5/6 DIFFERENT STYLES OF IT SAME WITH WICKEDS / FLOW / STIFF / SIGNATURE ETC, YOU CAN'T TALK ABOUT HANDS AND NOT TALK ABOUT PHILLY FACTS 💯
#1 this was the communities hot takes not mine. Number two I clearly state I like philly tags and I showed two I enjoy. Please stop being a drama queen overreacting to videos you didn't understand. Surprised you misunderstood such a simple video
Shouldn't make videos on a subject your not educated on bud, it's evident that you know nothing about Philly writer's, most of the hands you used in the video as an example are toy asf lol , and not just my opinion either, majority of the people who commented on this hot trash/opinionated video knows what's up, also how is this a hot topic or whatever you said when you seem to be the only one who feels like you do about the situation
XO -> TODO -> CAR -> YSI
if it looks cool it don't matter. I'm glad where I'm from nobody really cares about this typa shit
2nd place!
Philly really don't got any real crew production out there.im frum the BRONX, an tell yoo I'll battle anybody frum Philly on walls,BLK 📚 s,.SERON MDI,OTB FYBI,S7 CRU..BOOM SKWAD 4 LYFE
If you want to call bad aim and poor can control "style", well then, yeah... "Philly Style" I guess.
you absolutely do not understand how simple to complex Philly style can range
STOP H8ING NERD. WE STARTED THIS
Lol Scribbles?? SMH. You lost me there my man
going over other people is a first world issue
100% fact lol love it
Graffiti is cool and all but the culture has too many egotistical and prideful writers.
As a writer from the Bronx , that Philly hand style is horrible lol . And I can read anything . The point is for other people to read it even if they write graff or not .
I'm from the bronx , I spent 18 years in philly, thats where I started writing. Only ny dude with a philly hand. Philly #1. Love my city but the tags out here in ny are wack..
I definitely understand, and I actually lean towards people understanding my graff. But philly style is not just wickets, and even so, wickets are advanced stylization. They are the core of taking lettering to new heights. I don't know you or your style preferences, but many Philly graff haters would probably hype up a wildstyle piece filled with arrows and extensions, which is undoubtedly just as illegible as a super-wicked Philly tag, if not more so due to all the 3D. But that's the fun part about graffiti. You get to play with and change your style, and determine your legibility.
HOT TAKE: Brazil's handstyle is waaaaaaaay better than Philly's, both stylistically and spatially.
Brazil hand is just a simplified wicket