STAY HIGH 149

Wayne Roberts was born in Virginia in 1950, his family migrated to Harlem in 1958 and the Bronx ten years later. By 1969 the New York City graffiti movement had begun and Wayne took an immediate interest in it; he preferred writers with a message or slogans like Pray, Worship God and Free Huey. His friends on the grand concourse began calling him STAYHIGH because of his penchant for smoking weed, he liked the nickname and in 1971 he added the number 149 to it to become STAYHIGH 149. In 1972 he completed the signature by adapting the stick figure from " The Saint " TV show, he gave it a joint to smoke and unified it with his tag. It was far and away the most stylized signature of its time. STAYHIGH hit the streets and trains with his ornate signature for two straight years, he was considered by many to be an all - city king. He became so famous that his face appeared in "New York" magazine in 1973, without the anonymity he was quickly arrested while writing in Brooklyn and he knew he h