Initially conceived in 1977 by Jean-Michel and his high school friend Al Diaz as a fictional “guilt free” religion, the name SAMO – which stood for “Same Old Shit” – was quickly adopted by the duo as their graffiti tag, anonymously spraying poetic, provocative messages around downtown NYC. Art critic Jeffrey Deitch called it "disjointed street poetry" saying "Back in the late seventies, you couldn't go anywhere interesting in Lower Manhattan without noticing that someone named SAMO had been there first." In 1978, writer Philip Faflick wrote an article for the Village Voice entitled, “SAMO© Graffiti: BOOSH-WAH of CIA?” which brought attention to the two young artists. In the words of Jean-Michel, “We can’t stand on the sidewalk all day screaming at people to clean up their acts, so we write on walls.” Ph. On the set of Downtown 81 (Edo Bertoglio / New York Beat Film LLC), 6sqft.com