{"id":107199,"date":"2025-08-24T19:19:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T19:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/107199\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T19:19:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T19:19:09","slug":"graffiti-artists-face-off-in-battle-4-the-city-competition-this-is-pure-passion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/107199\/","title":{"rendered":"Graffiti artists face off in Battle 4 the City competition: ‘This is pure passion’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Less than 20 minutes after sunrise Saturday, artist Rahmaan Statik<\/a> was already 16 feet in the air with a spray-paint can in hand.<\/p>\n

He was among dozens of artists on Bloomingdale Avenue between Humboldt Boulevard and Kedzie Avenue below the Bloomingdale Trail for the sixth rendition of Battle 4 the City, a timed graffiti competition on the border of Humboldt Park and Logan Square.<\/p>\n

And between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday, they were all in the running for a $10,000 prize for the winning crew. IKS Crew from Mexico were named the winners.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Battle<\/p>\n

IKS Crew from Mexico was crowned the winner of Saturday\u2019s competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just excited to be out here with everyone,\u201d Statik said. \u201cThis is hip-hop. \u2026 It\u2019s like a game of basketball \u2014 we play till the clock is out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The contest started eight years ago at Project Logan in Logan Square with about a dozen artists facing off individually, but it has expanded to a quarter-mile-long international affair in Humboldt Park.<\/p>\n

Teel One, a graffiti artist who grew up in Edgewater, helped launch the competition and has continued it annually since. He has loftier goals for the competition, saying it\u2019s ripe for reality TV, but ultimately, he wants to take it to other countries so he can bring winners back to Chicago.<\/p>\n

A graffiti artist since 1988, he said the competition is an opportunity to give artists creative freedom with prize money attached and an opportunity to learn. Stationing creatives next to one another means they get to observe other artists\u2019 processes firsthand \u2014 with some playful trash talk in between.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re big believers in the idea that \u2018blade sharpens blade,\u2019\u201d Teel One said. \u201cWe bring guys in from other places and push them to be better, and [that] makes us better every year.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Artists with CISA TRIBE compete in the Battle 4 the City graffiti art competition in Humboldt Park along the 606 Trail Saturday August 23, 2025.<\/p>\n

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\n Violet Miller\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

An artist with graffiti group CBS CREW competes in the Battle 4 the City graffiti art competition in Humboldt Park along the 606 Trail Saturday August 23, 2025.<\/p>\n

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\n Violet Miller\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

Paint cans sit in boxes at the Battle 4 the City graffiti art competition in Humboldt Park along the 606 Trail Saturday August 23, 2025.<\/p>\n

|
\n Violet Miller\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

Local graffiti artist DTek competes in the Battle 4 the City graffiti art competition in Humboldt Park along the 606 Trail Saturday August 23, 2025. Violet Miller\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

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\n Violet Miller\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

This year, artists from Canada and Mexico joined those from around the U.S. while DJ Mos Def blasted tunes that made the pulse of the countdown palpable. Also at the festival were food vendors, a barber shop and mural artists not competing but taking their time with pieces on extra walls the city gave the competition permits for.<\/p>\n

Statik and his crew RK had something a little different in mind. He usually paints to inspire, in line with his motto \u201cBe your higher self,\u201d but not having direction from a commission, they decided on something else.<\/p>\n

He described his style as \u201cnuclear,\u201d or more precisely: \u201cIf you made Caravaggio the Incredible Hulk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hysterical, aggressive and dark all in the same piece,\u201d said Statik, a first-time competitor in the contest. \u201cA lot of the stuff we do is community uplifting, but this is something more. We get to be selfish now. \u2026 The people who don\u2019t know art, that\u2019s who it\u2019s for. It might inspire somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Local<\/p>\n

Local graffiti artist Rahmaan Statik competes in the Battle 4 the City competition in Humboldt Park on Saturday.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how local graffiti artist DTek got his start \u2014 he used to drive trains and was inspired to get into graffiti by seeing the tags pass him by. It made bringing the supervillains of his childhood cartoons to life on what used to be the wall of an elevated rail line even more rewarding.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis brings some good memories back,\u201d he said, reminiscing on how his father, another of his inspirations, used to draw him as he watched the very same characters he was painting pop out of the TV.<\/p>\n

To help plan out his part of the piece, DTek used an augmented reality headset \u2014 similar to virtual reality but with clear lenses, so that it modifies the wall in front of him to show outlines of images he chose as references ahead of time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to freestyle and bring a wall to life. \u2026 This is pure passion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Even painting for themselves brings something out in others. DTek said his crew CAB, known for their CABOOM pieces<\/a> around the city, are often trying to help steer the kids \u2014 who remind them of their younger selves \u2014 away the darker paths in life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like opening a flower and blossoming,\u201d DTek said. \u201cThese kids have tons of opportunity, but when they\u2019re closed in a bubble, they can\u2019t see it. It becomes a rough life \u2014 some kids never get out of their neighborhoods. Graffiti brings the brave out of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"BATTLE4THECITY-082425-8.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Several artists spray paint a wall while competing in the Battle 4 the City graffiti art competition in Humboldt Park along the 606 Trail Saturday August 23, 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Less than 20 minutes after sunrise Saturday, artist Rahmaan Statik was already 16 feet in the air with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":["post-107199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}