AllMovie

Hip-Hop culture has always been about much more than just rap music; hip-hop embraced a number of vehicles of expression for youth in Urban America, and an integral part of the formative years of Hip-Hop was graffiti. As hip-hop culture grew, graffiti evolved from gang members "tagging" buildings to mark their territory to elaborate murals which often expressed the same issues of ghetto life reflected in rap music, as well as celebrating the hard-won joys of life in the inner city. Through the Years of Hip Hop, Vol. 1: Graffiti is a documentary which looks at the role of graffiti in hip-hop, and how it grew into a internationally recognized art form. The video also features videos for seven classic old-school hip-hop tracks, including hits by Run-DMC, Dana Dane, Queen Latifah, De La Soul, and Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock.