Cornbread

"Cornbread Tags De Telegraaf: First Element of Hip Hop 1965", Acrylic on Paper

2021

Darryl McCray, known by his tagging name, “Cornbread,” is a graffiti artist from Philadelphia, credited with being the first modern graffiti artist. Darryl McCray was born in North Philadelphia in 1953 and raised in Brewerytown, a neighborhood of North Philadelphia. During the late 1960's, he and a group of friends started "tagging" Philadelphia, by writing their nicknames on walls across the city. The movement spread to New York and blossomed into the modern graffiti movement, which reached its peak in the U.S. in the 1980’s and then spread to Europe. Since his tagging days, McCray has developed a close relationship with The Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. He is a public speaker and a youth advocate.