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A writer could just burn with a Top-to-Bottom, as seen here with the famous FLINT 707 candy-cane piece, done in the early to mid 1970's. This piece blew many writers away and even forced few into retirement. The true originator of the Top-to-Bottom is hard to pin point; some say JAPAN 1 started it, and others say SUPER KOOL 223.

By 1973, spotting a Top-to-Bottom running became a normal event that most writers saw. In the beginning, the first Top-to-Bottoms did not take up the entire subway car, but mainly half of its length. HUNDO 1 took this idea to a new level by painting extra large thick letters, that took up the whole train. Many Top-to-Bottoms consisted of bubble letter, straight letter, western letter and block letter styles. Outside tags were becoming a thing of the past. Numerous writers started doing larger, more elaborate letters just to keep two steps ahead of the rest. To a Subway Outlaw, the Top-to-Bottom writings were about dominance. It was how he/she could take over a line with the biggest and the best, as well as the most work that could hit the public (the next day). TRACY 168 took this honor for being a total package, on what a subway writer should be. He took over the lines with stylish Top-to-Bottoms, as well as with quick letter styles. His most amazing production was writing a Top-to-Bottom on the outside of a train with CLIFF 159, and one inside of the train. That truly blew many writers minds when they saw it!

Writers like SUPER STRUT who had a very long name, executed a Top-to-Bottom with their entire name. Various artists like LEE, of the THE FABULOUS FIVE, took off where FLINT 707 left off. As a result, he did some of the most memorable Top-to-Bottoms of his era. BLADE, an all time king of the 2's and 5's, was considered by many to be one of the all time kings of the whole car Top-to-Bottoms. SEEN UA pulled off dozens of Top-to-Bottoms in the early 1980's and took over, where BLADE left off. A writer truly over looked, was MIN 1 a.k.a. NE, who pulled off the most colorful Top-to-Bottoms (along with KEL and the RTW-WOW crew), on the BMT's. One of MIN's biggest products was a Top-to-Bottom wild style done for SHY 147 (R.I.P.), which ran on the RR train in the mid 1980's. DONDI's work was always a pleasure to be seen .... as it had neat, clean, large and colorful letters, that looked like they belonged on a subway car. The following are a few photos of our favorites:

SPIN

A Graffiti superstar from Brooklyn, who hit all four subway lines in the 1970's, was SPIN. This Top-to-Bottom was done before the invention of the 3-D. Here SPIN backgrounds his piece in red to help the letters stand out. For the early 70's this T2B was done nice and neat for all the eyes to see.

KING BOP

Early subway killer from the early 1970's, who wrote his name "BOP..BOP..BOP". This Top-to-Bottom was done in 1973 when style and the use of colors were at its beginnings.

ALE : "I was always a low-key writer in the 1970's. When I entered yards I would finish what I was there to do and then get the hell out. I never wasted my time on doing insides, because most writers got busted doing them. Nor, would I hang out in there with other writers and mingle. There were writers like JR.BIC 149 that ran around with his boys getting high. At times, JR BIC would jump into the conductors booth and start speaking into the conductors intercom .... "YOU ARE NOW RIDING THE JUNIOR BIC EXPRESS".

KT 3	JR BIC 149

RAVE 1 : "I started writing in 1974 on the Broadway line. I was just a young kid starting out and got ripped off by all of the older writers at the time. I knew the only way to keep from getting ripped off, was to hang out with writers much bigger than myself. KT 3, his brothers POT and VP 2 started taking a liking to me. They would watch my back and take me hitting now and then. At the time, KT 3 and POT were very big on the 1-line and were known for being two very crazy dudes.

PART and NOC 167

THE DEATH SQUAD

MIN ONE

RTW controlled the BMT's from late 1982 to mid 1984. The group leader was BILROCK 161 who originated the crew on the Broadway line, and passed it down to a younger writer, MIN ONE a.k.a. NE. Through his leadership the group went city-wide. MIN 1 did many Top-to-Bottoms in the 1980's.

BOE & MIN

The partnership of RTW and WOW, produced many productions on the BMT's in the 1980's, with writers like MIN, BOE, SAGO, RICH and KEL.

MASK TD : GHOST MAY HAVE BEEN THE FIRST TO PULL OFF A BACKWARDS, UPSIDE-DOWN, TOP-TO-BOTTOM. HOWEVER, MIN, THE RTW CREW AND WOW CREW, PULLED OFF UPSIDE-DOWN, TOP-TO-BOTTOM BURNERS IN THE DEWEY (TRAIN) YARD DURING 1983 AND 1984. WHEN RTW AND WOW JOINED FORCES, "IT WAS CRAZY!"

PRIOR TO THEM COMING TOGETHER, THE YARDS AND LAY-UPS THAT RTW WEREN'T ABLE TO GET INTO, WOW HAD CONTROL OF. ON THE OTHER HAND, THE LAY-UPS AND YARDS THAT WOW DID NOT HAVE ACCESS TO, RTW DOMINATED. AS A RESULT OF THE TWO CREWS JOINING TOGETHER, BOTH WERE ABLE TO ACCESS EACH OTHERS TERRITORY.