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THE TOP-TO-BOTTOM **************************************************************************************************** A writer could just burn with a Top-to-Bottom, as seen here with the famous FLINT 707 candy-cane piece, done in the early to mid 1970's. This piece blew many writers away and even forced few into retirement. The true originator of the Top-to-Bottom is hard to pin point; some say JAPAN 1 started it, and others say SUPER KOOL 223.
By 1973, spotting a Top-to-Bottom running became a normal
event that most writers saw. In the beginning, the first Top-to-Bottoms
did not take up the entire subway car, but mainly half of its length.
HUNDO 1 took this idea to a new level by painting extra large thick letters,
that took up the whole train. Many Top-to-Bottoms consisted of bubble
letter, straight letter, western letter and block letter styles. Outside
tags were becoming a thing of the past. Numerous writers started doing
larger, more elaborate letters just to keep two steps ahead of the rest. Writers like SUPER STRUT who had a very long name, executed a Top-to-Bottom with their entire name. Various artists like LEE, of the THE FABULOUS FIVE, took off where FLINT 707 left off. As a result, he did some of the most memorable Top-to-Bottoms of his era. BLADE, an all time king of the 2's and 5's, was considered by many to be one of the all time kings of the whole car Top-to-Bottoms. SEEN UA pulled off dozens of Top-to-Bottoms in the early 1980's and took over, where BLADE left off. A writer truly over looked, was MIN 1 a.k.a. NE, who pulled off the most colorful Top-to-Bottoms (along with KEL and the RTW-WOW crew), on the BMT's. One of MIN's biggest products was a Top-to-Bottom wild style done for SHY 147 (R.I.P.), which ran on the RR train in the mid 1980's. DONDI's work was always a pleasure to be seen .... as it had neat, clean, large and colorful letters, that looked like they belonged on a subway car. The following are a few photos of our favorites: |
To a Subway Outlaw, the Top-to-Bottom writings were about dominance. It
was how he/she could take over a line with the biggest and the best, as well as
the most work that could hit the public (the next day). TRACY 168 took
this honor for being a total package, on what a subway writer should be.
He took over the lines with stylish Top-to-Bottoms, as well as with quick letter
styles. His most amazing production was writing a Top-to-Bottom on the out
side of a train with CLIFF 159, and one inside of the train. That truly
blew many writers minds when they saw it!
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- in the early
1970's, most Top-to-Bottoms were done in the corners of a subway car, or
just done on half a subway car. HONDO 1 changed all that by painting the
whole train with large, thick letters, that had to be the first ever of its kind.
