Who is Cool "Disco" Dan?

Find out more about the street art legend who ruled the streets of D.C.

October 9, 2013

Image via Complex Original

Cool "Disco" Dan is a name that resonates in the city of Washington, D.C. During the difficult "Murder Capital" years of the late 1980s and early 1990s, his name could be found in big, legible letters, spray-painted on any and every corner. The name quickly became notorious for the omnipresence it had in the city and the mystery of the man responsible. It was a symbol of strength and survival during a time of intense hardship for D.C. Every resident of Washington knew the name Cool "Disco" Dan and couldn’t help but wonder about the elusive man behind this tag. Read about his story here ahead of the film's October 14 New York premiere.

Excerpts from the piece "Cool Disco Dan" by Caleb Neelon

The Beginning

"Cool 'Disco' Dan is an anomaly: He lived in the tough neighborhoods of Southeast Washington, D.C. during the height of the crack era, yet he never took or sold drugs. Though his father was abusive and died young, Dan was raised by a stable family, and only as a young adult did he become homeless. He witnessed at short range the spiraling street violence of the late '80s and early '90s that earned D.C. the dubious title of America's "Murder Capital"—yet Dan was gun shy and hated to fight."

Notoriety on the Streets

"At the same time, Cool 'Disco' Dan was an enthusiastic member of Gangster Chronicles, one of the most notorious of the District street gangs. In an era when gangs and crews (the terms are fairly interchangeable to Dan) were demonized, due to the brutal 1984 murder of Catherine Fuller by the notorious 8th and H Crew, Dan wanted in. The crews offered too much of a reputation boost to pass up. And so did graffiti.

'Graffiti is a good way to get out of hard times, and I wanted to be big. Like big big,' he says. 'I wanted people from out of town talking about me as much as people in town.'"

Becoming the Legend

"By the early '90s, Cool 'Disco' Dan was D.C.'s biggest underground celebrity after painting his moniker all over the city until it seemed as though no wall, rooftop or street sign had been forgotten. He wrote on every Metro bus, and took his name to every neighborhood, crossing socio-economic boundaries in a way that no other graffiti writer in the city had ever done. He was obsessed with making a name for himself with graffiti street fame, but at the same time hated the attention he got for it-including being sent in and out of institutions by his mother as they tried to deal with him throughout his teenage years."

Contemporaries of Cool "Disco" Dan

"In the mix of the story of Cool 'Disco' Dan are other fellow legends of Washington, D.C. The crack lord Rayful Edmond III, who led a $300 million-a-year operation at age 24, was king of the town, and provided the personal style blueprint for a generation of non-drug-dealing individuals to follow. And of course the other king of the town, Mayor Marion Barry, whose years of womanizing and drug use led to his downfall, though to most of Washington, he was still Mayor for Life."

The Legacy

"Dan is as much a fixture of Washington, D.C. as anyone, and it's his city. He knows the city like no one else: Even today, he has a better knowledge of D.C.'s streets and back alleys than any cab driver's, yet he's never had a driver's license. From the time he was 19 years old, he was homeless, largely by choice, for the majority of his adult life. Yet he made himself so much a part of his city that his spray-painted name is on permanent display at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, that he is a starring presence in the current exhibit Pump Me Up, and the subject of the new documentary film The Legend of Cool 'Disco' Dan.

Most importantly, the legions of his peers who are dead, incarcerated, or utterly adrift all speak to who Cool 'Disco' Dan truly is: a survivor who made it out alive. And in the process, he became a legend. Cool 'Disco' Dan's story is the story of the Washington D.C., completely bypassed on school field trips, that gentrification has all but erased and whitewashed-the real Washington, D.C."