Los Angeles has long been a hub of entertainment greatness. The Lakers have called the city home since 1960. The Dodgers have been in LA since 1958. The city is also the beating heart of the film industry, anchored by iconic Hollywood. However, perhaps the city's greatest contribution to entertainment has been the music industry.
In particular, rap and hip hop would not be the genres they are today without Los Angeles. The city was, and still is, the hub of the West Coast scene. This was particularly important in the 1980s and 1990s with the rise of the East Coast-West Coast beef that pitted New York against Los Angeles. However, a mural memorializing that iconic history is now at risk.
Fans Fight To Save Mural Featuring Snoop and Tupac
Street artist Sloe Motions took to Instagram with a passionate plea to save one of their most iconic pieces. "SAVE THE LA MURAL IN BELLFLOWER! we recently received a notice to take down this mural in the city of Bellflower. I want to reach out to everyone n help get the word spread to keep this up. This is our culture and these are our city’s, government policies n politics shouldn’t have any effect on the peoples art or expression. I’m tired of the cities tryna stop artist and make things hard on us when we are the ones giving the inspiration to the community’s n giving back in a real way. this mural is also on the owners property." read some of the lengthy caption.
The mural in question, located on the side Speedy Auto Tint on Woodruff Avenue, depicts a number of LA icons. Most notably, these icons are legendary Dodgers announcer Vin Scully, Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, Snoop Dogg, and Tupac Shakur. A petition launched in defense of the mural notes that “At Speedy Auto Tint we are proud of our mural because we are a Latino/ family-owned small business, and we believe this mural represents the city of Los Angeles and the culture it embodies." Bellflower city officials have stated that the mural, "Does not comply with the established mural standards in the Municipal Code, and we have received complaints about that fact."
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