The 25 Greatest DC Graffiti Writers

Written by Cory "EON" Stowers.

For over three decades the DC graffiti scene has been something of an enigma. A strange mixture of homegrown and visiting graffiti writers who’s combined efforts helped to spawn a small tight knit scene.

As in most cities, the graffiti scene in DC has always centered on youth culture and music, for DC that includes its own musical exports go-go and hardcore music, in addition to hip-hop and punk. While most of the early writers have put the can down to pursue other avenues, their influence has stayed within the styles of the subsequent generations of writers that continue the tradition to this day.

Check out the 25 Greatest DC Graffiti Writers.

NCQ3, which stands for Never Can Quit 3, is one of the original bombers to come out of Prince George's County, a Maryland suburb to the east of DC. Beginning in 1990 NCQ3 painted many themed graffiti pieces in PG and on the DC Metro system's Red Line, which brought attention to his name. Most famously he is known for writing his name on the Washington Monument in the early '90s. In addition to pioneering a number of spots in PG County, NCQ3 is a founding member of FBS and DSV crews and has mentored a number of young writers in the mid-90s, including CRI and UNKNOWN.

PEAR gets around. Emerging from the ranks of 2DK L.A.B. in 2005, PEAR quickly made a name in DC. Soon after, PEAR was rolling with HOA crew and painting spots with partners AMEN and REZIST. But DC would not be able to hold PEAR for long, and over the last four years PEAR’s name has popped up around the country and internationally as well. With a solid understanding of the basics of traditional graffiti style and regional variations, PEAR continues to set the bar for the newer generations of DC writers, as the name PEAR appears next to some of the culture's most high profile writers.

Storied member of the LADY CHRONICALS, the female version of legendary DC street gang, Gangsta Chronicles, LISA of the WORLD was a tough chick with a tougher attitude. In addition to getting up in some of DC’s most dangerous areas, Lisa is notably famous for getting mad shout-outs on P.A. tapes, — go-go music live recordings that circulated the streets. Lisa’s involvement with graffiti was short-lived and after a few years of bombing she moved on to other things, but she is arguably the first lady of DC graffiti.

CAVE is a native Washingtonian who began writing in 1997, and got down with the 2DK L.A.B. Mentored by KAOS, a prolific Red Line writer in the late '90s, CAVE became known for his breakdown of traditional letterforms, a style which sets him apart from many of his contemporaries. His no-nonsense reputation has been galvanized by a number of high profile beefs, while he has always been content to let his work speak for itself. His influence on writers in the DC area grows every year he continues to paint, and particularly within DC’s current generation of young writers to whom CAVE has become a mentor and teacher.

EVER made his mark in DC in the mid '90s, but his initial influences were not in the go-go or hip-hop scenes. Instead he was a part of DC’s decade-and-a-half-old hardcore scene, from which many suburban kids from Maryland and Virginia got introduced to name writing. While many of these writers focused on sharper letterforms, EVER was schooled by EKE who was developing a softer form of letters that maintained the structure of a complex piece. The result was EVER’s take on traditional graffiti lettering that had an air of playfulness when compared to pieces with sharper letter styles, which helped his work to stand out. He also was one of few writers who incorporated character elements into his pieces. EVER also executed several Metro train missions, which were rare for the time. Potentially EVER’s strongest contribution to DC graffiti lay in the many murals and advertisements he painted around the city with his crew END.

Northern Virginia’s FELON got started painting two-tone characters influenced by ETCHR and JOKER. Usually accompanying the pieces from members of his crew ELW. Soon his skills were such that his characters stood alone, and as he bombed more, his letter styles developed further. Felon painted in DC for several more years before heading to the west coast and contributing heavily to the San Francisco graffiti scene. His character style is still emulated by many.

An infamous duo known for getting up, COMA and NORE are inseparable. Both began their graffiti careers as members of 2DK L.A.B., the large hip-hop based crew from P.G. County, Maryland. For several years they were primarily low-key members of the DC scene, until in 2001 they began to bomb heavily in DC and the surrounding highways. They founded A.T.B., a crew that would come to be known for saturating areas during bombing missions with tags and rallies of fill-ins. While they were putting DC on smash, COMA and NORE also spent time in the freight yards sending their names across the country. As A.T.B.’s reputation grew so did their level of aggression toward other writers who they felt didn’t bomb enough or respect their work. All that added up to a lot of beef for A.T.B. who consistently found themselves at odds with many prominent writers from DC. The duos influence remains strong in DC as new members of A.T.B. continue to bomb the city and surrounding areas.

COOL CALM CHUCK wrote graffiti in the early '80s, as a south side “go-go” writer he primarily wrote his name as signatures. A highly prolific writer, his name adorned hundreds of buses and incalculable wall space. His penchant for writing his name large and legible made him a standout in his time. His style also serves as a bridge between the early signature style and multi-dimensional graffiti art. Chuck was known to paint his name in the stacked form with one large letter “C” to begin all three words, in addition he would frequently make the beginning letter “C” a two-dimensional letter, thus creating a piece that was a combination between the two forms of the practice.

SOME began writing graffiti in 1991, when he was 12 years old. As part of the northern DC/Montgomery County graffiti boom at that time, he bombed the suburban towns of Bethesda and Chevy Chase. His efforts drew the attention of a newly formed county vandal squad, which raided his home and arrested him for numerous acts of graffiti. SOME reemerged in the late-90s as a pioneering member of the END crew which went all-city in 1996. He is most noted for painting along Amtrak’s commuter train line from DC to Connecticut, with his partner RAZEL in the late 1990s. Since that time he has remained active presence in the DC scene as a member of 2DK L.A.B.

Of the many writers who were influenced by the early MCA crew, the work of KIER stands out for its apparent amalgamation of regional styles and his unorthodox letter structure. Beginning his writing career in 1990, he is one of the first writers from Maryland's Prince George's County to make an impact in the DC scene. He learned the ropes by watching MESK, JOKER and RUST. As he began painting more his style developed its own distinct look. As an avid student of style, KIER mixed graphic elements of other painting disciplines into his work. Heavily influential in P.G. County, where the 2DK L.A.B. picked up off of his lead in the late-90s, the full measure of KIER’s influence can now be seen, as newer generations of writers in DC utilize concepts KIER introduced in the late 1990s.

ONE9 has an abstracted graffiti style, which set his designs apart from those painting in the more traditional forms. His breakdown of the letter and image is truly unique. Additionally unique, ONE9 was instrumental in creating DC’s first legal graffiti initiative through the DC Department of Parks and Recreation in 1996. This program was responsible for the placement of several graffiti murals inside city parks and schoolyards. As founder of BOE Laboratory he also is one of the first writers from DC to start legitimizing their craft, and he was instrumental in bringing to fruition HEAD FLOWS the first retail store/gallery dedicated to hip-hop culture in DC, where writers could purchase magazines and caps.

Notorious for beefing and bombing, CAST was an all-city king. Bred in the District’s aggressive hardcore music scene, this writer from Northern Virginia would come to define DC’s street bombing culture. Known for bombing a variety of hand styles, bubble letter styles, and straight letter fonts, CAST rolled hard through the city’s graffiti and music scenes with his crew KGB. In 1998 an arrest and subsequent deportation to Argentina several years later ended CAST’s reign. CAST’s work still has considerable influence among street bombers in the city and in South America.

CHELOVE is one of the most prominent female graffiti writers in the Washington, DC area. Raised in Hyattsville, MD, CHELOVE began exploring DC while entering the city to attend punk rock shows at the age of 13. In 1987 she painted her first attempt at graffiti while hanging out with rude boys, mods, and skinheads in the Georgetown aqueducts. Not long after, she was caught painting the Motörhead war-pig logo and Specials 2-Tone character in the parking garages of the University of Maryland. In 1991 she met Bronx writer DAH, and selected the name CHELOVE. In a short time she became known for fly ethnic characters, clean letters and fresh color schemes. CHELOVE has remained active on the DC scene through numerous art commissions and her art and interactive company, Protein Media.

SIME was a military brat who cut his graffiti teeth in Berlin. Germany. After returning stateside in 1996, he settled in Washington, DC to attend school. No stranger to piecing and bombing, SIME found his way around and began burning it up. He soon linked up DEMON 202 and DEOS and formed DOT COM crew and helped to introduce 3D graffiti to DC. DOT COM crew painted several seminal large-scale graffiti murals, including a three-story retail store on the corner of 14th and U Street NW in 1998. SIME’s pieces would sometimes stretch out to over twenty-five feet in length, dwarfing most other writer’s pieces.

As a pioneering member of MCA, JOKER put in work when DC was at its most gully. Known for impeccable letter forms and dynamic blends, his work represented what graffiti should look like. JOKER studied the regional graffiti styles of various cities and incorporated them into his repertoire. In addition, his stylized execution of classic graffiti art mugs would influence younger writers in DC for many years including RUST and KIER. Highly influential nationwide, his style has evolved from well-executed standard graffiti fare to high-end graphic art.

R.E. RANDY was a founding member of the Gangsta Chronicles, a late 1970s-early 1980s gang that had chapters around the city. He was the first writer in DC to go all-city; his signature adorned the insides of buses and the outsides of many popular music venues. The R.E. in his name was an abbreviation of the name for his favorite go-go band Rare Essence. Randy would write his name in the traditional signature style, however he pushed stylistic boundaries by incorporating the logo of Rare Essence into his signature. That logo, which has a connected “R” and “E” leaning forward, served as the main form of the signature with the rest of the letters following suit in a forward lean. Additionally he would add an outline of the “R” and “E” giving it prominence, and make the “R” and “E”, a two-dimensional object. No known images of R.E. RANDY’s signatures exist today, our knowledge of his work comes from COOL “DISCO” DAN who cites Randy as his single biggest influence to begin writing, and the work of LIL R.E. RANDY who continued on Randy’s style into the late '80s. Indeed, many old school go-go writers are quick to mention him as the king. Sadly, Randy never made the transition to painting the newer form of graffiti, he like many south side writers got caught up in the drug wars that afflicted DC in the 1980s and is serving time in a federal penitentiary.

Writing since 1983, ULTRA is arguably DC’s longest-running writer. He started his career as HOBO of Everywhere, a name he wrote in the pre-graffiti art signature form. The use of the associative device “of” is indicates an earlier tradition of writing that allowed writers to connect their public identities to locations or groups, this form of graffiti was present in Washington, DC for almost two decades longer than any other major city. Soon after ULTRA, now writing the name RAGE would become one of the only writers in the city to switch to the emerging graffiti art form of multi-dimensional lettering. He founded KGB crew, and in the mid-80s moved to NYC. Several years later in the early '90s he returned to DC to lead KGB crew as ULTRA and through the mid-90s they became one of the most up and feared crews in the city, before being arrested and incarcerated on non-graffiti related charges. ULTRA reemerged on the DC scene in 2008 and began rebuilding his KGB crew. Through 2010 they claimed the city by bombing hard and emblazoning the name into the public conscience. A high profile arrest in 2011 for acts of vandalism mark ULTRA as one of only a handful of writers from DC to actively bomb the streets for three concurrent decades.

These early piecing pioneers can’t be separated from each other for the simple fact that all of their documented works are team efforts. For HOA every mission followed a simple format: SER would draw the letters, GRIZ would fill them in, and REK would do the designs on the outside of the piece. This formula helped HOA carve out a space in the emerging DC graffiti scene. Interestingly the member’s individual tags show the transition between the schools of graffiti, SER AND REK had a hand style similar to writers from NYC, while GRIZ used the double stack “ go-go” style. Though this team was short-lived, painting all of their pieces in the span of about five years, their crew Hoods Of Art lives on strong for over 25 years.

Not many can boast a pedigree like CERT’s. A presence in the DC scene since the mid-90s, he has done it all: burning, bombing and busting heads. Mentored by SMK early on, CERT paints clean, big and precise. His style is based in the NYC tradition, although continuing the DC tradition of style-mastery he is versed in Philadelphia and California regional hand styles. He is only true King of the Red Line, a title he holds close, and has reemerged to lay claim to it over the last 15 years. CERT continues to be influential in DC as member of numerous crews including EL.W, FLY I.D., 2DK L.A.B. and D30.

SEK a.k.a. SOUTH EAST KID is the true bridge between the original form of signature graffiti writing practiced in the south side, and the mid-80s emergence of the graffiti art movement in DC. He began his career as GO-GO FASE a name that he wrote in the traditional signature style, soon however he was inspired by HOA to begin painting in the NYC-based graffiti art style. His transition into painting pieces serves as one of a handful of examples of writers from the south side continuing to move with the culture's evolution. His presence in the city for over three decades makes him the Triple OG, his passion for the craft has helped to make HOA one of the longest-running crews in DC, and his connection to 2DK L.A.B. has helped to ensure that crew's growth over the past decade.

Crack-era Washington, DC played the backdrop for MESK’s run of the city. Amidst the crumbling infrastructure and drug wars MESK and the MURDER CAPITOL ART crew made DC graffiti something to talk about. Drawing influence from not only NYC, but also Philadelphia’s and Baltimore’s regional hand styles and bubble letter styles, he made it important for writers to know and execute those regional styles. Mesk created original graffiti work that did not seek to recreate traditional graffiti art he had seen, while keeping some of the graffiti art’s stylistic nuances. His influence on subsequent generations of writers is substantial.

The graffiti of Washington, DC native DEMON 202 marks a significant stylistic change in the landscape of not only DC’s graffiti scene, but that of the culture worldwide. DEMON began painting traditional forms of graffiti art in the early '90s. He received mentorship from ONE-9 and participated in several of his graffiti mural initiatives. Soon his pieces and characters were proliferating AUP and the Red Line. He is a founding member of EBO and DOT COM crews. Since 1996 he has been painting in 3-D style, which requires painting with extreme skill to create dynamic works that exaggerate light and image form. Though no longer living in DC, DEMON has returned frequently over the last four years, painting large scale murals and productions with DOT COM and 2DK L.A.B. that have again set the bar for those in the practice of the craft.

SEVEN was one of the first transplanted writers to hit up DC. Originally from Florida, he came to Washington to attend college in the early '80s. Already bitten by the graffiti art bug, SEVEN wasted no time in scoping out some spots and dropping a few NYC-influenced conceptual graffiti pieces. Soon he settled on the name LUCKY SEVEN and began painting more stylized letterforms. These were the first real burners painted in the city. SEVEN bombed the streets with throw-ups and hand styles and placed numerous pieces on the Red Line. His crew Free Agents continues to this day and is highly influential within the national graffiti scene.

Scratch Master K is widely regarded as the principal influence for the early '90s explosion of graffiti in the Montgomery County area of Maryland, which borders Washington DC’s northern side. SMK has been in the game since 1984, when he was among the first generation of DC b-boys. In 1989 he took over EL.W crew from Brooklyn based writer HUMAN and began putting younger writers down with the science. His mentorship of those younger writers helped to elevate the skill level of the entire city, and his connection with crews nationwide during the '90s helped to solidify Washington, DC in the growing national graffiti lexicon. SMK is the only writer from DC to have a piece on a Metro car run the length of the Red Line. A longtime member of the revered Bronx, NY based FLY I.D., SMK continues to paint as one of graffiti’s traveling style masters. He has reemerged in Washington over the last decade to lend a hand on various projects with the 2DK L.A.B., as both a writer and DJ.

Any Washingtonian worth their salt will recognize Cool “ Disco” Dan’s moniker. Beginning in the mid-80s, Dan’s graffiti spans several generations and schools of writing. His simplistic legible style can be considered a throwback in the sense that it was influenced by the earlier public name writing tradition, which preceded the rise of the graffiti art movement sparked by Subway Art and Style Wars.

Dan’s initial lack of connection with newer forms of graffiti enabled him to study and replicate the stylistic nuances of the “go-go” writers. The go-go writers were primarily based in the poorer Southeast and Northeast quadrants of the city and followed the bands of DC’s homegrown go-go music scene. These writers had never seen graffiti on a train, or witnessed the evolution that name writing experienced in NYC over the previous ten years. Instead, they were replicating name-writing forms that they had observed in their neighborhoods over that same span of time.

DAN was of the last generation of writers from DC’s south side that experienced and participated in the writing culture en masse. In the early '90s, he began meeting and painting with the post-Style Wars generation of writers who came from the suburbs of neighboring Maryland and Virginia. During that time he solidified himself as a king by going not only all-city in DC, but spreading his name up and down the east coast — as far as Boston and North Carolina. He is a member of almost every notable crew DC has ever produced including: Gangsta Chronicles, MCA, ELW, HOA, KGB, NAA, EBO, 2DK L.A.B. and his own FFC and NTN. His reputation is such that his tags would remain undisturbed on walls for years. A new documentary film by Roger Gastman titled COOL “DISCO” DAN: The Legend of DC, is in the works, which will further solidify DAN’s status as DC’s most iconic name writer.

On a more personal note, I once climbed up a four-story building on DC’s Redline to paint a piece on this metal vent duct, after spending a considerable amount of time and energy getting to the top, I walked over to the duct which was the only paintable area on the entire roof. On the duct’s metal surface I saw some writing, written in black marker was the message: “RESERVED FOR COOL “DISCO” DAN. I took a tag on the backside of the vent, and climbed down.