Robbo was a legendary graffiti artist back in the 80s. He became famous by tagging trains and buildings all over London, and his name was everywhere. He never got caught, and his identity remains a secret. He eventually decided to retire, because he has kids and he didn't want to risk getting busted and losing his life.
In 2009, Robbo was interviewed for a book and said he met Banksy once: "...he decided to get cocky and say 'I’ve never heard of you', so I gave him a swift backhand and said “you may never have heard of me but you’ll never forget me” and that was that."
Shortly after the book was published, Banksy painted over the last surviving Robbo piece in existence. This is considered a huge sacrilege in the graffiti community.
When asked to respond to Robbo's account of the "slap," Banksy said this: "Is this a joke? I've never been hit by Robbo in my life. I don't know who he slapped but I hope they deserved it." He also supplied this photograph of what it looked like when he painted it, and said, "If you want things to last, you shouldn't paint them under a bridge on the canal."
If you ask me, Robbo probably pulled his story out of his ass, and Banksy got pissed. I just got finished watching a short doc about this feud, and Robbo seems like an egotistical prick, and I wouldn't put it past him to lie for cred. And I think there's a message in what Banksy did, too. To me he's basically saying that the older generation of graffiti artists always get wiped out and forgotten by the city. And that makes sense to me, because there's already generational tension in the community between the older guys who focus on stylized lettering, and the younger guys who have messages and don't mind using stencils.
The graffiti community backlashed against Banksy immediately for what he did, and he's pretty much universally despised by them at this point. Robbo's come out of retirement, and has been vandalizing every Banksy piece he can find. Banksy's been being Banksy, and has been relatively quiet about it all. Meanwhile, Robbo painted over the wall:
A short time later, letters were added in the same style so it said "FUCKING ROBBO," but it's not known if that was Banksy or Banksy's fans. Then it just went back and forth, where the parties just kept painting over each other's stuff.
With Robbo in the spotlight again, he then (in my view) took advantage of it. He began submitting and selling paintings to art galleries (many of which bashed on Banksy some more). He went to Berlin, and agreed to paint on a wall to promote a movie that would premiere in the city -- right next to one of Banksy's most iconic pieces.
Banksy's a bit overrated, I'm not some mindless slobbering fan like every average joe who's ever seen a picture of his stuff on the internet. In fact, almost everything Banksy does, some guy named Blek le Rat did it all in Paris 20 years ago. But that doesn't mean what Banky's doing doesn't matter. I think his stuff is extremely clever and important, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. I even doubt that the "art" part of it is a very important factor to him, which I think is why the rest of the community despises him so much. If I were to make a guess, I'd say he's probably more into the anarcho-socialist circles if anything, and it's the message that matters to him the most. He admitted a long time ago that the reason why he uses stencils is to get in quick and leave before he gets arrested. I think he's basically trolling the graffiti community, just as much as he trolls the traditional art community, and society in general.
I think what Robbo ended up doing says a lot about what this feud is really about. In the end, Robbo painted an advertisement, a monument to a beautiful celebrity who didn't do shit to deserve it -- right next to a Banky mural meant to fight against that entire bullshit system. This is an actual screenshot from that documentary with Robbo on the red carpet at the premiere of the movie.
Robbo will get rich, but Banksy gets to continue being Banksy.
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