Banksy's Mild Mild West defaced by anti-gentrification group

I love this. Anti-gentrification group Appropriate Media defaced Banksy's 'Mild Mild West' mural in Bristol. The genius double negative of using graffiti on graffiti to protest gentrification. Fucking amazing. It totally works too.

"I'm confused at the message from whoever did it"

said Oli Wells, who is the director of Coexist, the company refurbishing the area

"It's been cleaned by the community who sit outside and enjoy the artwork - street drinkers and local businesses working together so it seems to indicate the local community like having the Banksy there,"

Oli seems to understand it better than he's leading on. Appropriate Media say

"Graffiti artists are the performing spray-can monkeys for gentrification."

Word to mother.

LINK: BBC.co.uk

Joell Ortiz talks gentrification

Most people have no clue how frustrating and draining the process of "Gentrification" can be to working class areas. The fluctuating economy has kept a lot of South London protected to an extent but it's definitely affected the potential job markets for local people, the class war is very, very real in the UK right now. The current gentrification of music is having the same affect. It's become more and more frustrating to see the soul of the music I make ripped out because it's an "In" trend. Too many suburban college boys read the Russel Simmons and Rick Rubin Def Jam story for my liking, culturally we're stagnating in the UK and the US. There are hurdles we are told to tackle that have nothing to do with us. Club nights that have nothing to do with us dictate whether or not our songs are going to be supported in certain media circles. When did they get that power? When did we give it to them? In these times of limited record sales, extended media and short attention spans, the privileged few call the shots. I'm going to get into this heavy on my second album.

LINK: JoellOrtiz.wordpress.com- Brooklyn Bullshit