Writing your name on public property does not make you an artist. The act of tagging has many significant effects on society, but the impact is 100% dependent on the location.

The rise of bubble lettering and evolution of street art meant inevitably graffiti tags would migrate into the realm of fine art. Many creative types rose up making a name in this new urban folk-art style, but few became as well-known as Jean Michel Basquiat.

He began like many others in the early ‘70s spreading his tag across New York City. His personal tag was SAMO, a slang version of the phrase “same old __”. SAMO began as a shared effort between Basquiat and a friend, Al Diaz, while in high school. The tag was also part of a comic book style publication the pair was working on.

Unlike TAKI 183 and others, the pair's SAMO tag quickly evolved beyond simply repeating the moniker. The tag was often paired with provocative anti-consumerist phrases.

SAMO was always a sophomoric effort, as described by Basquiat and Diaz. The pair continued posting edgy phrases around lower Manhattan until the late '70s. Continued devotion to the bohemian lifestyle in NYC meant the pair were soon connected with other culture creators in the music and art world. Basquiat and Diaz had a falling out in 1980, and Jean-Michel held a melodramatic party announcing the "death of SAMO".

Basquiat transitioned easily to the art world, adapting his style to the canvas instead of the public wall. His work evolved past straightforward statements to incorporate more and more drawings. He had a tendency to focus on craniums and other rough abstractions of medial diagrams. He continued to use type in a less sensical way. The work has a clear connection to Dadaism and futurist nonsense of the 1920s. It could be said that his work, and others like him, were now making art that was a commentary derived from graffiti. The urban folk-art style could only exist in a world covered in graffiti, such as New York City in the 1970s.