Obey is not a sell out.....he is not an artist either.....but he is a thief and a copy n paste person (photoshop). This guy steals peoples original ideas and tries to sell them off as his own....and yes I have proof.....
one of my friends was actually just talking about Fairey the other day and told me he read somewhere that he doesnt own a single piece of clothing that he has made or something because he feels like it would seem arrogant or something along those lines so it seems to me like he's a pretty humble guy
I think Obey cashed in when he thought the time was right...And perhaps he did the right thing (for him)...But I do see him as a sell out in general. Never really got on the hype of Obey at all.
I still like him. The message sent by his line is the same DIY ethic. And if he managed to make a few bucks off of it good for him ya know?
i don't like the guys stuff but he's making money and you're just jealous i'd sell out for his cash gimme it
now im gona have to set these fags straight (yawn) you see fairy (as in obey to newfags) he thinks diffrently you see hes not really a graffiti artist .. and dosnt want to be you see he was walking into town everyday looking at these ads on billboards , on bus stops , on buses and just everywhere so he thought why the fuck just because you have money are people able to do all this advertising so he adopted their ways turning it against the the he kept getting arrested and charged with all the damage he done so what does he do turn it to a "posse" so he cant get all the blame (like what happened JA ) then he needed money and he done what he done (he still puts most of everthing he owns back into making more stuff and improving ...... i still dont like him that much but he has more balls than i ever will so R.E.S.P.E.C.T
^^True that, This dude got up hard all over the USA and other countries, to the point of getting arrested multiple times. If you've ever been through the legal system for your art and still feel the need to continue getting up, than you get mad props in my book. I personally know that shit is hard and therefore Shep Fairey is an artist I look up to. Even if his art is based off the computer, he still got up on mad billboards and roof spots that at least 99% of the haters on this thread will never do. If you think his work is wack then quit OBEYing the law and get up! Pho Reel!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpxMm7WSMGw FUCK YEAH HES A SELL OUT... HIS CLOTHING IS JUST BITES... HE SELLS HIS SHIT IN PACSUN
Prioir to the election of Obama, I was a huge supporter of the Obey movement. in fact, being a grafitti artist myself, I never cared about the fact he steals most of his ideas from many war propoganda publishings or the fact that the art is computer generated stencil based prints and uses no actual raw creativity when is applied. I was a supporter because on his message, " Andre the Giant has a Posse" he made a staement thru his art that those who have been exploited by corporations, the government and was very anti- capoltisim. When he created the image of Obama with the word Hope in red, white and blue. He got noticed by the mainstream and the Smithsonian Museum put the piece up and he received national acclaim. This was not for skill acknowledgement but was because Obama was the first black president and even though Obama continued the same BS polices and wars as those before him, many of us were just as hopeful. However Obey then became corporate sponsered and used the publicity to get product placements in retail rag merchandisers across the globe. This is a complete opposite of the original message and themes he had created. This is the perfect defenition of a SELLOUT. I am not following his garbage because he is no longer a part of Andre's posse. #truthaboutandrethegiantandwwf #graffitiwars #banksyvsrobo
This thread is full of some of the dumbest armchair quarterbacking not knowing past/current history ridiculous crap I've seen in a minute, most of which is not worth responding to or debating. One response I will make- while he was getting some shine for that Hope poster he was also getting arrested for vandalism at about the same time, so Obama basically ran part of his campaign based off a vandal's ad.