Banksy vs. Robbo
December 29, 2009 ⋅ Uncategorized ⋅ by Staff ⋅ 2449 Views

Originally seen courtesy of MARE139, Revok recently brought to light what was deemed a gross oversight on the part of Banksy during his latest Regent Canal series of work. The action in question was when Banksy covered up an approximately 25 year old piece done by seminal London graffiti artist Robbo. However, Robbo has since returned to reclaim his place.

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  • http://banksy.co.uk Robin Gunningham

    Team Robbo also comes from the fact that both their names are Robin.

    Peace

    Robin No Banks today.

  • so_fresh

    this is a collabo folks! they came together to rejuvenate an old robbo piece, two artists of they’re stature wouldnt initiate beef! common people. they are trying to bring the graff and street art scenes together. team robbo, get it?

  • EDEN IS TOY

    ROBBO SMACKED IT. BANKSY SOLD IT. REAL RECOGNISE REAL PERIOD. EDEN SHUT YOUR MOUTH, DONT COMMENT ON SHIT WITH YOUR IDIOTIC IDEAS!!!!

  • Lone

    There’s an unspoken rule to Graffiti writing culture and that is to paint with respect.Not everyone follows, but those who got the knowledge, knows. I do not know if Banksy intentionally went over King Robbo as a form of disrespect but from the look at it he is inviting beef. The main point is, knowing that a piece had been left there by a King of oldschool, Banksy shouldnt have covered it no matter what the condition of the piece is.

    But then again, Banksy should have covered the whole background instead of leaving bits of Robbo’s piece exposed. If you all think that Banksy is uberly original, take your time and search for Blek Le Rat.

  • J.

    everyone should chill and stop bitching those robbo pieces were done in 85

  • EDEN

    Back @ Tom, It seems you really know alot about your buddy Sunrise…LOL
    I’m not trying to attack anyones way of thinking, all it really all comes down to is, we all like to draw on shit, It doesn’t matter where you draw it; on a building or a canvas or wherever, you do it because you do it. There are alot of reasons why alot of graff artists are taking there work into the galleries, we need to get payed, Isn’t that getting payed to do something you love? You guys bang on people who do it and call them sell outs, but if you were in there shoes you’d most likely be doing the same thing. I’m not here to argue about this any longer because I don’t feel like anything is going to be resolved because we all have a difference of opinions & that’s how it’ll always be, but if you want a clearer understanding about both sides of graffiti you should really check out the video “Bomb It” it really helps break down why some people change their mediums from the streets to the galleries & vice-versa.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/wilzone/ Thomas Wilson

    Banksy Wiped the floor with this Robbo Clown

  • Its Simple

    rich1r

    You’ve got the nerve to call people stupid when I’ve seen words spelled better in a bowl of alpha-bits cereal. Use spell check next time, that way you look like less of an idiot.

  • Giraffiti.

    Robbo’s shit looks amateur… Simple Block letters with some flashy, (fucking stupid) arrows. Are you kidding me?

    Banksy has long made a name for himself as a “street artist”. His shit is popular cuz it evokes emotion and causes a bit of a ruckus(socially, politically) with the public. Nice to see he’s not defacing other peoples graff, he’s just adding his personal style. Ya’ll wouldn’t be talking shit if he just covered Robbo’s shit up and did something from scratch.

    People need to learn that, like any art, Street Art/Graffiti comes in many different forms, and is everchanging. Just cuz your hood thought classic graffiti was the only way, doesn’t mean it is. If Dali copied Renaissance Painters, he would be a nobody. Open your minds.

  • rich1r

    u mother fuckr is stoopid..banksy is the truth..he went from graff to stencils…tlkin bout hes not graff. u mother fuckers is retarted…cop his book nd ull understand…if anything he put roobos name up for raggin him…real tlk…banksy is the truth…if u dont know bout banksy u dont know graff….u niigaas just cornballs tryna get into a convo

  • ODMD

    that was a diss …. you guys may night remember that that foolio buff monster was trynna pull some upper “class” art shit wit some real graff dudes n his shit was gett’n worked coast to coast..

    the street art vs. graff folk has been goin on for a min now.

    not a good look for street “art ” dudes..
    alot of graff dudes will fuck you up

  • Douchey Johnson

    TOM is so obviously Sunshine FLA haha

  • SEER.ONE

    Well it says “team Robbo” hmmmm… Think that means anything kids?

  • ongoodauthroity

    banksy planned the whole thing; and the whole order of events with Robbo.

  • kaplunkop

    I was going down billionares row last week in london and it suprised me there was NO grafiti in the surrounding area,,, people need to get down there.

  • Straight4Sure

    Tru dat

  • brendan

    i got respect for banksy, but this is a diss and robbo dissed him back, plain and simple

  • TOM

    At “eden”, YOU are the morron sir, saying that sunrise fla bitch is a fake cant hold a spray can blah blah, he clearly knows what he is talking about and seems to know his London graffiti history tho hes from LA…saying its not bad? it WAS beef and robbo left the stencil there as to take the piss, hence banksy wheat pasting a “king robbo” piece, so get clear before you have a hissy fit cos your prob a trendy art fag like the rest of the people that deem banksy as a “graffiti artist”

  • dayloo

    @skinofzeus – If you would have read the whole thing , it clearly says robbo went back to that spot as soon as he found out that banksy went over his “landmark” and just covered up the painted “wheat” paste and make it look like banksy , since the character clearly tells people that its a banksy “stylle , so its like showing people that banksy put up the “king robbo”. so it pretty much is a diss to robbo , then to banksy.

  • @SkinofZeusJeans

    it doesn’t seem as though this is a diss piece but more of a revival to the king… on if you see people have covered up the original and then banksy covered everything up and replaced that with “KING” Robbo

  • Zayd Bigavelli

    wowwwwww, that’s a crazy bitch move on Banksy’s part, I mean seriously, is this niigga really doing crosses at this stage of his career?

  • devin rtc

    fact of the matter is…for all those saying the old piece banksy wrote over was whack…
    you’re just judging by contemporary standards. graff has come a long way since the 80′s. The amount of style present and expected is so much higher. I think banksys work is pretty interesting but at the same time….in this situation it was in bad taste. If he was gonna go over it. He should of just completely gotten rid of it.

    The whole stencil, wheatpaste, “street art” revolution is kind of boring imo. Graff in so many ways has influenced this type of work and while lately it could be looked up as lacking……there is nothing that will stop it. Some guy standing in an art gallery will never understand the heart behind risking it all just to get your name up on a wall

    not every graff writer out there falls into the category but in all honestly. I appreciate most of the “street” art out there but is it me or is this new shit kind of “hipster” and bourgeois. Passing it self off as something it is not.

  • hmmmmmmmmm

    ps. i dont think its so much of a collab on Robbo’s part than a slap in the face at banksy.

    sure, he could have covered banksy’s character, but he chose not to. i dont think Robbo did this out of respect or collab with banksy. if he had covered up banksy’s character, then nobody would know what had happened on that spot. nobody would know that Robbo is one upping Banksy. that character is SO banksy, yet he’s painting Robbo’s name. its literally like Robbo took over Banksy’s spot. this would not have been conveyed by painting over the character.

  • hmmmmmmmmm

    @EDEN: Sunrise FLA BITCH just copied the text from the source article. but its cool, i still think he’s a moron.

  • decs

    Everybody here has points in there own right, except that Robbo looks pretty wack. @ Devlin, “1985″. I think the problem really lies in the fact that this is a landmark. Banksy brought about unwanted attention to it and it will now most likely get buffed regardless of who the final artist is. Not alot of work runnin for 25 years. I doubt, but am not sure, even the likes of Futura 2000, Lady Pink, Stash, Alli, etc. etc. have work runnin that long.

  • EDEN

    At *Sunrise Fla Bitch* You’re a moron. You probably wouldn’t even know how to hold a can of paint if someone gave you one, so there’s no future in your fronting because you’re obviously talking shit about people you call “Hypebeasts” but yet, you’re checking this site?

    Since that is out of the way, I don’t really believe what Banksy did was really that bad, if you can tell the piece was obviously dissed and I wouldn’t want my piece to ride with a bunch of other’s peoples names on it, Banksy looks like he tried to somewhat collaborate with him by giving the impression of him putting up Robbo’s wheat paste. Look clearer before you start judging, maybe there was a reason behind it?

    In part, both artists have some respect for each other somewhere because neither chose to completely eradicate the other artists piece, Robbo came back and left the character dude when he could have completely painted over it….

  • aesk47

    Banksy should get punched for this…

  • http://typcut.com cåche

    maybe Banksy is Robbo

  • Anthony

    Nice comeback Robbo. Banksy is the sickest artist ever! Hey Hypebeast.com people, can you guys put it in a timeline? It was a little confusing at first.

  • http://recluigloo.wordpress.com Greg

    evidently Banksy is an artist and not a graffiti writer

  • SUNRISE FLA B!TCH

    EDUCATE YOURSELVES:

    Anybody who has ever done graffiti quickly learns to appreciate the value of a “LANDMARK” -that is, the struggle to get your work to last anywhere in the street. Here in LA if you can get something to run for more than a month it is a achievement worthy of celebration. In London it is possibly more so since the buff is vigilant and very well-funded. One of the “Golden rules” in graffiti is to respect your elders; foremost by not going over them… Particularly in the extremely rare scenario where something has lasted nearly 3 decades(the graffiti equivalent to a UFO sighting) -I would assume Banksy would be aware of this rule, and respect it considering his roots lie in traditional graffiti… Apparently not.

    Banksy here went over a “ROBBO” piece, Robbo was a pioneer of london graffiti in the mid-80’s and he painted this piece in the Regents canal in Camden in 1985. Somehow this piece had managed to stay up all of these last 25 years… That was until Banksy decided to go over it.

    The original wall by Robbo painted in 1985…

  • http://www.nakedpresidents.net johngee

    def collabo…i woulda crossed that dumb character out if i was robbo

  • Devlin

    I smell a fight. Robbo looks pretty wack though

  • SUNRISE FLA B!TCH

    F$@# banksy’s cute little stencils and EMOtional ass political crap……GET EM ROBBO!!!!!!!!

    this is REAL graffiti…..hypebeasts dont know bout getting there hands dirty, only manicures….lol

    ROBBO

  • http://www.flagshiplabelmke.com chucko

    Dope!

  • http://myspace.com/viciousnobolicious noboru bitoy

    I smell a collabo… and my own pungent body odor.