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Rap Quotes ATL: Dirty South Edition

In March of 2013, urban artist Jay Shells launched his “Rap Quotes” project in New York, whereby he installed street signs emblazoned with rap lyrics in the specific locations that said lyrics called out. The series was so well received by the public (and the rappers he quoted) that, he went for another spin around […]

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Jay Shells Expands His Iconic Rap Quotes Art Project Into Murals

After getting New Yorkers to clean up their act with his etiquette campaign, artist Jay Shells has been memorializing iconic hip-hop lyrics with the Rap Quotes project. For the project, Shells identifies specific locations mentioned in rap songs, paints them on street signs, and posts them at the intersections they identify. It’s a way to […]

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Rap Quotes: Philadelphia Edition

“Let’s face it. What I’m doing isn’t really vandalism,” Jay Shells tells ANIMAL after a weekend of putting his site-specific Rap Quotes around Philadelphia. “But the questionably legal act of installing signs became trickiest around City Hall and the Liberty Bell where an abundance of bored security guards are waiting to flex on a smart ass like me.” But he got it done. […]

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Jay Shells Takes “Rap Quotes” to LA Gallery, Rappers Show Up

On Saturday night in Los Angeles, a crowd filled 1988 Gallery for an exhibition of “Rap Quotes,” a series of works by Jay Shells. The right side of the gallery housed the artist’s New York City street signs, which he’s been hanging at specific locations mentioned in hip hop songs since last year; the left […]

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More Jay Shells “Rap Quotes”

So far, artist Jay Shells has installed a total of 68 site-specific “Rap Quotes” in New York, with more coming. Yesterday, just like old times when we first covered the project, ANIMAL followed Shells as he put up 21 new uncanny signs with hip hop lyrics that shout-out street corners and locations in Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, the […]

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Jay Shells Drops “Rap Quotes,”
His Most Site-Specific Street Art Project Yet

After schooling New Yorkers on etiquette via numerous unsanctioned interventions, artist Jay Shells channeled his love of hip hop music and his uncanny sign-making skills towards a brand new project: “Rap Quotes.” For this ongoing project, Shells created official-looking street signs quoting famous rap lyrics that shout out specific street corners and locations. He then […]

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Artist eL Seed Updates Ancient Art Form Of Calligraphy With Graffiti Inspired Sculptures

“I think this is the first Skype that I’ve done at the top of a building.” ANIMAL interrupted eL Seed, who was in the middle of painting the entire facade of a building thousands of miles from New York, on Didouche Mourad Street in Algiers. The French-based graffiti artist had recently returned from the opening […]

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William S. Burroughs’ Scrapbook and Other Artists’ Notebooks

Here’s a page from William S. Burroughs scrapbook — the 20th century artists’ proto-Tumblr, a diary-like collection of notes, quotes, news clippings, snapshots and other ephemera that eventually forms the inspiration for definitive work. A collaboration with Brion Gysin, Burroughs’ book features early iterations of the “cut-up technique,” later popularized in sections of his loopy […]

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Artist’s Notebook: Jay Shells

ANIMAL’s feature Artist’s Notebook asks artists to show us their original “idea sketch” next to a finished piece. This week, Jay Shells — of Rap Quotes fame on both coasts — talks about his New York-centric, labor-of-love-intensive wood burning series, on view March 7th-9th at the Fountain Art Fair. A little over two years ago, while walking my dogs […]

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