Graffiti has no rulebook, but it has rules. The most important one: never go over work you can't outdo. This post explains the unwritten rules of graffiti, the hierarchy behind them and what "toy" and "king" mean, through one real case from 2013.
In 2013, on a park wall, WEKX painted over a piece by SMITE.
SMITE is one of the most respected graffiti writers on the post-Soviet scene: a founding member of True Stilo, one of the oldest crews in Belarus, based in Minsk. His style is known for something rare: simple, solid letterforms that stay readable and elegant while carrying serious fill work. Clean, considered, the kind of writing that takes years to develop and longer to be recognised for.
WEKX in 2013 meant first experiments with volume style, early work, the confidence that comes before full competence arrives. The piece that went over SMITE's wall was one of the first attempts at something more complex, and it went on top of work that was, by any honest measure, stronger.
This post is about that. Not as a confession, but as a case study in one of the oldest and least discussed dynamics in graffiti: the gap between how good you think you are and how good you actually are, and what happens when that gap lands on someone else's wall.
The unwritten rules of graffiti — what going over someone means
Graffiti culture runs on hierarchy: an unwritten code of respect that decides whose work stays and whose gets buried. Going over graffiti is never neutral. Reputations are built or destroyed by exactly these decisions.
There's no rulebook, no governing body, no enforcement. Crossing someone out isn't an accident. It's a declaration. The culture polices itself through reputation: who you went over, and whether what you put up in its place was worth it, follows you.
On hierarchy the rules are clear:
- Throw-ups go over tags.
- Pieces go over throw-ups.
- Burners go over pieces.
- If you can't do better than the last person, leave it alone.
The hierarchy exists not to protect egos but to protect the quality of what's on the wall. When a weaker piece replaces a stronger one, the wall loses. The culture loses. And the writer who did it earns a reputation they didn't intend.
Toys and kings — the two ends of the scale
A toy is a beginner or a writer without skill, and the word is used as an insult. Going over better work is one of the fastest ways to get called a toy, whatever your actual level. A king is the opposite: a writer who has earned the top of a scene, a line or a style, through quality and time on walls. Nobody declares themselves king. Other writers decide it.
The most famous "going over" story of all is King Robbo and Banksy. In 2009 Banksy altered a 1985 Robbo piece by Regent's Canal in London, one of the oldest surviving graffiti pieces in the city. Robbo and his crew answered by reworking Banksy's pieces, and the beef ran for years. It shows the rule from the other side: even fame doesn't buy you the right to go over someone with history.
Why young writers go over people they shouldn't
The honest answer is not disrespect, or not usually. It's a specific miscalibration that happens early in a writing career: you overestimate your own work and underestimate the work of the person whose spot you're taking.
At a certain point a writer knows enough to see complexity in their own pieces, the hours, the decisions, the things that went right, but not yet enough to read the same complexity in a more experienced writer's work. SMITE's letters look clean and direct. To an inexperienced eye, clean and direct can read as simple. It isn't. Following the ethics of the culture shows others you're willing to give respect first. Going over people, especially while you're new, costs you respect across the wider graffiti community.
What you can't see at that stage, and what only time teaches you, is that the elegance of experienced work is the result of removing everything that didn't need to be there. Simplicity in graffiti lettering is harder than complexity. A letter that reads clearly and carries a deep fill while staying elegant is harder to make than one that's complex and busy. You learn this by watching writers you respect, by comparing your work to theirs year after year, and sometimes by going over someone you shouldn't have and understanding it only afterwards.
There's a footnote to this session. TASH was there that day, not as the main writer, but painting alongside, helping with the background and parts of the fill, the way crew sessions often work. At that point TASH had more experience and had spent more time studying writers, their styles and how they approached their work. That made the situation readable in a way it wasn't yet for WEKX: the piece underneath was by someone serious, with a reputation far beyond that park wall. The advice was to leave it, find another wall in the same park and paint next to it rather than over it. WEKX went ahead anyway. That's not a criticism. It's how experience gets passed on, or sometimes doesn't. You can have the information. You still have to be ready to hear it.
Graffiti respect — what it means and how it's earned
A real writer studies the city before touching it. Respecting the wall means knowing where you paint, why you paint there and what existed before you. The city isn't empty. It remembers.
Respect in graffiti isn't given for age or years in the culture. It's given for what's on the wall. Never paint over graffiti you can't outdo. SMITE's reputation, built over years, across cities, as part of one of the oldest crews in the region, is exactly the kind of history a wall holds. Painting over work of that quality without knowing that context isn't neutral. It's a statement made without enough information to make it correctly.
The WEKX piece from 2013 wasn't a diss. It was the work of a writer at an early stage who didn't yet have the cultural knowledge to read what was underneath. That difference matters, because intent is not the same as impact, but it doesn't change what happened on the wall.
What this means for writers starting out
- Know your city's walls before you touch them. Not just visually: know who painted what, when, and what their work means locally. Old-school writers get respect for being there when it all started. You don't need to imitate them, but never ignore them. Without roots, graffiti becomes empty decoration.
- If you go over someone, what you put up has to be better. Not slightly better, clearly better, in a way anyone who knows the culture would agree on. If you're not sure, find another wall in the same park.
- If you've already gone over someone you shouldn't have, the way forward is to paint better, consistently, over time. Reputation in graffiti isn't fixed. It's built. What WEKX painted in 2013 is part of the record. What comes after it is too.
FAQ
What are the rules of graffiti?
The main unwritten rules: don't go over work you can't outdo, respect the hierarchy (tags, then throw-ups, then pieces, then burners), respect older writers and their spots, and don't paint over memorials or work with history.
What does "toy" mean in graffiti?
A beginner or unskilled writer. It's usually an insult.
What is graffiti beef?
A conflict between writers or crews, usually started by going over someone's work, and fought out on walls.
P.S. Below is an example of SMITE's work, to give you a sense of the level we're talking about.
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