A few years ago I was blogging about graffiti crews and the open door policy of crews. One way to understand Hip Hop culture as told in the Gospel of Hip Hop by KRS ONE is of Hip Hop as a saving force. Anyone can be saved and everyone gets a chance. Even though some graffiti crews have gotten a bad name for letting certain people use the saving force of Hip Hop for terrible crimes, the intention of getting into the crew (no matter its aggressive title) was made available for the production of art (also political anti-establishment [tagging etc]) rather than human destruction. Graffiti uses the terms ‘bombing’ and other heavy names but the actual acts are only destructive against the system itself, not the desecration of precious lives.

It could be said, why give these kinds of people a chance in the first place? Well, the door was open before they did those crimes, or if they are hardened criminals the door is open to give them something positive to focus on. Hip Hop is the door to peace and unity, not destruction and calamity. Anyone who thinks otherwise doesn’t know that Hip Hop can save you from ruining your life or the life of others. Most expressions of violence in the artform are meant to be just that, an expression but never the act, these expressions are not the pinnacle of the form but part of the expression. Graffiti crews could never be perfect because perfection is an individual choice, people would hopefully reach an understanding that the art form was Hip Hop acting on them.