Daniel Ramos
Daniel "Chaka" Ramos (Born August 27, 1972) in Los Angeles, California was one of the most prolific graffiti taggers of the late 20th century. CHAKA tags were widespread, from Orange County on up to San Francisco.
Authorities in Los Angeles County and surrounding areas throughout the West Coast ascribed to Chaka between ten and fifty thousand unique incidents of him "tagging" the word "CHAKA" on various vertical surfaces of private and state property, using equipment ranging from permanent markers to spray paint and incurring up to half a million dollars in monetary damage. Chaka was eventually caught, tried, and convicted in 1991 on these charges. He was sentenced to three years probation and 1,560 hours of community service to be spent cleaning graffiti. Ramos was accused of tagging the interior of a civic-center elevator as he left a courtroom. He was arrested and charged again. [1] In the music video for the song, "Smells like Teen Spirit," by Nirvana, Dave Grohl's drum kit has "CHAKA" written on it in white lettering, supposedly in tribute to Ramos.
Ramos now lives in Bakersfield, California. He had his first legitimate solo art show in April 2009 in the City of Los Angeles and continues to tag. [1]
References
- 1 2 "Chaka, long-lost L.A. tagger-artist, to have first legit art show" Mike Boehm, March 28, 2009, Los Angeles Times
In the Nirvana video "Smells like Teen Spirit" Dave Grohl, wrote Chaka on his drumset because he had seen "Chaka" written all over the place when he was driving down from Seattle to film the music video.