The artist Cope2 was born in the South Bronx, the birthplace of hip hop culture. He was introduced to graffiti in the late 1970s by his cousin Chris, who tagged under the name "Chico." Cope2 would practice tagging his nickname "Nano" in isolated areas. In 1979-1980, his cousin took him on subway trains to tag the interiors, exposing him to the tags of other prolific writers from that era. Seeing these large, elaborate tags on the outsides of subway cars inspired Cope2 to get more seriously involved in graffiti.

1. Anyone Recognize this artist?

2. Cope2
“I was born in the South Bronx.
The home, the motherland, the Mecca
of hip hop. I started writing graffiti
back in 78-79. Influenced by my
cousin Chris. He tagged Chico. He
wasn’t a huge writer, just a local. I
remember him always having a huge
marker called a Pilot. He always had
it in his drawer. At times I would take
it when he wasn’t home, go under the
stairs or the rooftop of my
grandmothers building and just tag
my nickname (Nano). Then in 197980 my cousin took me on the
subways… “

3. Cope2

4. Cope2
Bronx Mural
2010

5. Cope2

6. Cope2 and Buff Monster
Miami
2011

7. Cope2

8. Cope2
The 4 train was in my neighborhood. I remember taking the
back car from Mosholou Parkway to the last stop (Woodlawn
Rd). As soon as the doors would close he would make sure
the last car was empty and just start tagging all over the
train. On the ceilings, the doors even the subway maps. I
remember seeing other tags on the insides. Writers like Ban2,
2Rape, Ojab, Die, Lie, Duro, Dondi, Duel, Base2, Zephyr, Fuzz
one, just to name a few…

9. My mother and I traveled
quite a bit on the subways
and I was always looking
at the outsides, seeing
huge names really blew
my head. The writers I
remember were Fritos,
Mark198, Dr. Pepper,
Killer56, Comet, Blade,
Popeye, Tracy168,
Deli167 (who was Ban2),
Lee, Seen, Pjay,P-nut2,
Medisco92 and my idol
Mitch77. That’s what
really inspired me to get
deeper into graffiti
Cope2

10. Cope2 installing his work
at El Museo
The artist

11. One of his artist assistants
An Assistant

12. Cope2 - the mural progresses
In Progress

13. Cope2…still going…
The Artist again