Michael Lawrence Marrow, also known as PHASE II and Lonny Wood, was a prolific and influential graffiti writer and self-taught designer during the 1970s emerging hip-hop scene. He was born in Manhattan on August 2, 1955, and was raised mainly in the Forest Houses projects in the Bronx. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School, where graffiti began to spread rapidly at the time. With the influences of his cousin Lee 163d, Phase II began to write graffiti in October of 1971. He and the other students at the school would head over to the nearby Transit Authority storage yard to use subway cars as empty canvases for their writing.
As he continued to practice this form of expression, he moved onto different mediums and began promoting his typographic work in galleries. The first graffiti gallery show, a United Graffiti Artists presentation at the Razor Gallery in SoHo in September 1973, featured some of his work. He worked as an art director and writer for his good friend, David Schidlapp, at IGTimes (International Graffiti Times, now known as International Get-Hip Times), which was the first graffiti magazine. The two also eventually published a book on graffiti history book in 1996, called “Style: Writing From the Underground.”
During his career in the early 1970s to 1980s, PHASE II’s writing varied and constantly evolved every day, eventually innovating distinctive graffiti techniques and pioneering his styles. His most iconic style is the bubble-style letter that we still see in our city today. Moving away from the simple letter tags were these thick, rounded, marshmallow-like style of aerosol writing, known as “softies,” was featured in many of the graffiti pieces during that time. He painted in a variety of its substyles, constantly destroying his previous styles with new ones and giving them names such as “squish luscious” and “phasemagorical phantastic.”
Some of his credited innovations in graphic techniques include interlocking type, loops, arrows, arrow-tipped letters, icons like spikes, eyes, and stars. These unique and expressionistic developments later paved the way for the creation of other new writing forms called the “wild style,” a transition from simplistic scribbled words into the epic and marvelous artworks that are around the world.
Some of PHASE II’s other compelling typographic work includes this Earth Edge Flyer (1983), which was a hip-hop party leaflet influenced by Art Deco. He displays his attention in detail in the play and composition of the type, such as the tiny “s” in the title, the dancing type in “NYC BREAKERS,” the cuttings of the overlapping letters in “EDGE,” and the consistent tight spacing of some letters.
PHASE II’s legendary work has helped shape a crucial form of expression during the emergence of hip-hop culture.
There are Five Elements that define and provide coherence to hip-hop culture:
- Oral elements (Emceeing, Lyricism)
- Aural elements (DJing, turntablism, beat-boxing)
- Movement elements (breakdance, b-boying/b-girling)
- Visual elements (graffiti)
- Knowledge elements (history of the movement, consciousness)
The visual recognition, the impermanence of its tag, and its personal story are the essences and beauty in graffiti writing. PHASE II disliked the term “graffiti” and felt that it undermined the depth of its culture. While many writers aimed to achieve recognition with their tags, he was reluctant with his fame and preferred anonymity. He enjoyed the thrill of simply writing on subway cars with the duty of recognition, which came with the territory, describing this as “impact expressionism.” It is the act of public performance that gives the writer recognition through the performance of a signature, using a name that is personally designed with letter art that can be evaluated and even admired.
PHASE II’s styles began to influence a wave of writers during the mid-1970s. Many tags started to appear on the walls across New York City and the subway cars, with new overlapping pieces found each morning. They began experimenting with new lettering styles, embellishing their tags with graphical flourishes such as crowns, flowers, and stars. They progressed into “hieroglyphical calligraphic abstraction,” a term coined by Raw Vision’s John Maizels. These heavily decorative writing styles would eventually influence the introduction to decorative digital typefaces during the shift into the digital age.
Throughout the eras of modernism, many African-American practitioners may have been exempt from the list of influential designers, most likely because their work never appeared in advertising or commerce. This form of expression has met criticism from the start since it is usually performed without public permission. Many refuse to accept graffiti art as a profession and type of graphic design, but it is important to recognize that it is a part of a fleshed-out culture and a way of life.
PHASE II passed away due to Lou Gehrig’s disease on December 12, 2019, at a nursing and rehabilitation center in his hometown. However, PHASE II continues to play a significant role in hip-hop as it remains one of the most popular genres of music and cultures around the world during the following decades.
Caramanica, J. (2019, December 20). Phase 2, an Aerosol Art Innovator, Is Dead at 64. Retrieved June 09, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/arts/phase-2-dead.html
A History of Graffiti - The 60's and 70's. (2018, August 16). Retrieved June 09, 2020, from https://www.sprayplanet.com/blogs/news/a-history-of-graffiti-the-60s-and-70s
Morley, M. (2020, June 01). Celebrating the African-American Practitioners Absent From Way Too Many Classroom Lectures. Retrieved June 09, 2020, from https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/celebrating-the-african-american-practitioners-absent-from-way-too-many-classroom-lectures/
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