Cry of the City Trailer 

I met Jon Naar at the b-boy bbq this summer in philly..pretty cool guy, had tons of stories, he even hit my black book up.

Cool, I appreciate your enthusiasm as well as the healthy debate. I respect your opinion and was glad for the opportunity to hear another viewpoint. I hope you get a chance to see the doc.

That's a good suggestion. Debates like this are cool but as you can tell, there's always different contributors to a counter culture, it's the contributers with the unique stamps that we remember most.

I'm not trying to knock you or your film. I've also worked in film for years, for Emmy winning producers,on documentarys.ect.. but I am coming at this from a passion for art and art history. I know you are as well.thanks for the banter, hope your film kicks ass and good luck to you and cornbread. I know his story now.hope to see your film soon. peace.

Graf was around before the hip hop culture developed, it just evolved into being a part of it. So yeah, I've done my homework on this too while developing the documentary.

@azegas dont ever forget the pride Philadelphia has for its graffiti history!

Besides Kilroy you can also look at the work of Bobby Beck who was around between Kilroy and Cornbread. It's older than that. You can go back to Egyptian heiroglyphics and before that to cave drawings. He never takes credit for inventing it but did He popularize it and bring it into the public's eye. Talk to modern day graf artists and find out who their influences are. Then, talk to those artists and if you keep going back, you'll eventually find Cornbread among many of them.

Yep, just visit the Cinema Alliance website.

True, and some artists will credit Kilroy, while some credit Cornbread as the one that pioneered graf in other ways.

His influence was only somewhat based on style. He received more attention based on the amount of tags he made and where he made them. How many graf artists do you know that tagged a live elephant and the Jackson 5's jet?

and lets not forget the Mexicans in L.A. there script style, zoot suits lowriders they have contributed a lot to graffiti,its bigger than all of us and cornbread.kids need to know there history and have respect for there influences, that is all art can be today. cornbread seems to have lost sight of where he came from. respect to you Sean for trying.

the elephant is cool and the jet as well. Is there a photo in your docu.? dose not cornbread say what his influences are or dose he feel like he just thought this up? if he did just make it up, then I'm saying He didn't see that tags where already apart of counter culture. as big and far as his.

Who needs books, some " independent research" is just a few key strokes away. thats what makes this debate so funny. I would argue that there isn't much that hasn't been done in the last hundred years, in art, that is original. But I would like to know if there is something I'm missing. what's your insight?

I would like to see your documentary. how? can I see it on the net? or buy? yes your right hip hop is all east coast. but remember CheechandChong,the opening credits that came from the Mexicans and about the same time as the east cost. spray paint on walls. see the dates and photos of L.A. in the news paper.

finally, to associate cornbread with modern day graffiti,I would have to see somthing more than his tag. It looks like so far he isn't really an artist. so how is his work even close to what we see today as graffiti? Who did the frist wildstyle? or even bubble letters? lets see the pictures of the elephant. maybe that is a first. but credit for the other stuff,no way!

@azegas thats respectable:D

that is what I'm saying.a little homework gos a long why. "kilroy was here" started in the 40's it was nothing more than tagging. it was legendary the places that it ended up.cornbread wasn't even a graffiti artist but he takes credit for being the big time tagger. but really by the time he says he started it had been in play almost 25 years thats not even close to being frist.not to mention graffiti is litterly thousands of years old.

u know cornbread was the first guy EVER that did graffiti in a big city (because egyptians and cavemen did it too .. duh) graffiti doesn't mean, bomb with a spraycan, it means carved letters... cornbread IS a legend, he started the somewhat most popular art movement in history

and graffiti isn't just a hip hop thing hip hop didn't start tagging just like hip hop didn't start lowriding. but you would have to be old enough to know your history. or look it up online.

maybe he should be more specific and say first hip hop tagger? Kind of like Miles Davis didn't invent jazz but he changed it 5 times alone. or Picasso started cubism, but he was influenced by Cezanne. even if kids in P.A. or NYC. didn't know about it it was already deing done. thats not just hearsay. its in the history books,all of it.

yeah cornbread was the first person to graff a city with spray cans and markers,the egyptians did carvings and shit but not with cans or markrs

" kilroy was here" WWII, Vietnam,Iraq." became a national joke" "the outrageousness of the graffiti, it was not what it said, but where it turned up." " It turns up repeatedly in popular culture" books, songs, movies and even on the sides of planes. this is all a unbroken established modern tagging. before cornbread, during(67 Nam),and till today

true you could relate most every concept to an obtuse lineage, go back far enough. But my point is that you don't have to look to hard to see that that is not the case here. People where writing there names around for a least a century before this guy. There was not a break in-between the practice. It was not new or novel. cornbread is a joke, for claiming credit as first tagger...hahah I say that respectfully though.

Incorrect according to who? Talk to graf artists and you'll hear different stories. He influence a lot more people than just in PA. He influenced many in NY and other areas of the US as well as Europe.

He may have influened kids in P.A. along time ago and had some national exposer, but to take any credit for being the godfather is incorect. in 1967 kilroy was already on its secound or thrid go around. it was well published ,international, and not even original when C.B. came along

Maybe you should see the documentary before you accuse Cornbread of losing sight of his roots. The LA movement wasn't around until long after Bread and the first wave of hip hop had already made their mark.

Maybe you should learn go pay more attention to what's being said. It doesn't say that he invented graffiti altogether, it does say that he's the father of modern day graffiti as we know it today. Many graf artists and hip hop artists credit him as the source of where it all started. You might want to do some homework of your own...