Jean-Michel Basquiat And His Influence On Developing Graffiti

In the year of 1976 Jean-Michel and his family move back to the states where they built a new life in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. Once again, Jean-Michel runs away from home, but this time in his leave of absence he experiments with the psychedelic drug lysergic acid diethylamide, also known as LSD. LSD is an illegal, but common, drug sold off of the market and is known for its hallucinated side effects. According to the official drugs website, “LSD is a mind-altering drug. It is thought LSD causes its characteristic hallucinogenic effects via interaction with the serotonin receptors in the brain. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that helps control your behavior and mood, governs your senses, and moderates your thoughts.”

As Jean-Michel reflects on his experience with running away from home and trying the drug for the first time, he says, “I left home at 15, and went to Washington Square Park I just sat there dropping acid …. now that all seems boring; it eats your mind up” (Basquiat) It seems as though acid wasn’t something that he would try again, he seemed rather bored with the entire experience. It’s no surprise that he wasn’t a fan of a predominate drug that controlled his mind because Jean-Michel was a very liberated young man. He was never one for dictation, and he could be described as a free thinker. His lesson was learned after his father found him two weeks later, and though he left the acid alone that wasn’t the end of his rebel phase.

During his high school years Jean-Michel dipped into his creative side and joined a drama group known as Family Life Theater. The group welcomed Jean-Michel with open arms, one group member in particular being Al Diaz. Basquiat and Diaz were two peas in a pod, and they were known for their mischievous, but artistic, after school festivities. The two would often tag the D train in lower Manhattan as a way of relieving stress. This stage of Basquiat’s life is where SAMO (Say-MO) was born, SAMO being a personification for Same Old Shit. SAMO was known for an abundance of things one of them being a political figure known for some, and a fake religion to the public for others; something for people to believe in. In a scholarly essay written by Henry A. Flint Jr. he explains the time period when SAMO was created he writes:

In 1978, a wave of graffiti appeared in downtown Manhattan—each one a statement about SAMO© or a statement signed by SAMO©. 1 When comprehended as a sequence, in their public locations on buildings, the graffiti expressed a substantial cultural message. Areas in which the graffiti appeared included SoHo, the new art quarter of New York, and the Lower East Side, an ethnic neighborhood which was also the site of New York’s bohemian ferment. Inhabitants of these neighborhoods automatically became the graffiti’s viewers.

​​SAMO was for those like Basquiat and Diaz who needed an outlet from the political world. During the seventies, many young adults were in a position of feeling like their voices were going unheard, SAMO gave those people a voice and with perfect timing. In 1967 graffiti gave its official debut and since then it’s been ongoing controversy surrounding the intent and influence it has had on our youth. Politicians may argue that graffiti is brainwashing children into thinking that vandalism is the only way to get attention, but according to artist and muralist, Lady Pink, “graffiti is young, cool, creative, – let it happen.” In The NY Times opinion pages, Pink says, “If graffiti is inspiring, it’s because it’s fun, cool and does not take formal training.”(New York Times) Basquiat was fighting from becoming stagnant, this is why Diaz and Basquiat took charge and became the voices for the new world.