Cope2

Fernando Carlo, then and now.

Graffiti artist Fernando Carlo has called himself and been called many things throughout his long career – king, vandal, artist, snitch, and sellout – but the man best known as Cope2 is now claiming one title even his detractors can't deny: legend.

After 25-plus years of bombing and avoiding cops, the Bronx-born Carlo is now using his talent and name recognition to transition into the legit art world with books, graphic design and video games.

Cope2 began "writing" in 1978, after seeing New York City subway trains covered with the graffiti of BAN2, COMET, BLADE, and MITCH 77. Inspired, he quickly left his mark throughout the boroughs, bombing his way through – and eventually becoming the “king” of – the city’s 2, 4 and 5 subway lines. Decades of hitting up nearly everything in sight helped Carlo create a brand worth real dollars as well as respect. In 2005, Time Magazine paid the artist $20,000 to leave his tag on an improvised billboard in Manhattan. To Carlo, the transition to paid work on an authorized canvas is about survival, not selling out:

People will say I’m being a sellout, but I paid my dues. I destroyed subways, roofs, highways, streets, I beat niggas down, I can rack. I don’t need to keep doing that. I’m 37 and have another kid on the way.

From vandal to businessman, Cope2 has lent his brand to Converse sneakers, joined legends Futura, T-Kid, Seen and Smith in the video game Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure and is preserved for posterity in the book Cope2: True Legend. A true hustler, Carlo is now selling his work every which way but free.