Kase2 (December 12, 1958 – August 14, 2011), also known as King Kase2 and Case2; born Jeff Brown, was a

graffiti Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...

writer and a significant contributor to the

hip-hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...

movement.

Biography

Jeff Brown was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. He painted his first

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

court in 1973 and by 1976 had painted over fifty major pieces on subway trains in New York City. In the 1980s he popularized his "computer rock" style, a form of wildstyle where letters are broken into boxes and scrambled. He was one of the most famous members of TFP Crew (The Fantastic Partners) along with Butch2. He also wrote with TDS (The Death Squad). The self-proclaimed King of Style, Kase was admired by other graffiti writers as having a natural flair for his art, his train pieces being creative and stylish. He was included in the original hip-hop documentary '' Style Wars'', which won the Grand Prize for Documentaries at the 1983

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

. Kase lost his right arm in an accident while playing when he was just ten years old. Kase explained what happened to himself in 'Style Wars': "It wasn't no severely bad accident, just that I got burnt by wires, that's all... electrical wires, and then they rushed me to the hospital and they just had to amputate... 'Cause my tissues and muscles was burnt bad." Kase died on August 14, 2011, at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center in the

South Bronx The South Bronx is an area of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The area comprises neighborhoods in the southern part of the Bronx, such as Concourse, Bronx, Concourse, Mott Haven, Bronx, Mott Haven, Melrose, B ...

from lung adenocarcinoma.

References

1958 births 2011 deaths American graffiti artists Artists from Manhattan People from Harlem Artists from the Bronx People from Mott Haven, Bronx {{US-painter-stub