I haven’t seen any of these signs yet but Los Angeles is so big! Street artist Jay Shells has taken over the streets of the city, posting these red signs displaying the quotes of famous rap songs, at strategic places. He apparently did the same thing in New York City – but needed a car to accomplish the same thing in LA – and the goal is to celebrate places whose names are mentioned in songs by artists such as Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, Warren G, Jay Z, Action Bronson, Kendrick Lamar, Notorious B.I.G., and many others.
The sign showing ‘So I hooks a left on 2-1 & Lewis, some brothers shooting dive so I said let’s do this’ by Warren G is placed at this exact location, at 21st and Lewis, ‘It’s hella hot we pull up to Dockweiler. The scene is so lovely it make me wanna holla’ by Defari , is planted just in front of this Dockweiler state beach named in the song, ‘So now I’m down Rosecrans in a caravan, passin’ Alameda my gas meter in need of a pump’ by Kendrick Lamar appears on Rosecrans boulevard,… you get it! You can see many of them in the video below. Shells is using regular street poles and since there is not always one at that exact location, and he has to improvise.
How many are out there? How often rap singers refer to a specific street in their song? A lot apparently! And why is the guy only concentrating on rap? He could extend his project to other genres and get a good idea of the demographics of music genres: I bet rap lyrics would be concentrated around Crompton/Inglewood, rock lyrics around Hollywood and the Sunset strip, folk around West Hollywood and Venice beach, but I digress. It probably doesn’t interest him or the New York blog, ANIMAL, that he following him in his art enterprise.
Is it really art? The idea by itself is creative, but I wonder all long his flashy street signs are gonna stay there.