Daniel Ramos (graffiti artist)


Daniel "Chaka" Ramos was one of the most prolific American graffiti writers in the late 20th century. CHAKA tags were widespread from California, San Diego on up to San Francisco.
Authorities in Los Angeles County, California and surrounding areas throughout the West Coast ascribed to CHAKA between ten and fifty thousand unique incidents of him tagging the word "CHAKA" on various vertical surfaces of private and state property, primarily using spray paint, and incurring about a million dollars in monetary damage. His name was given to him by his friends who lived in the Aliso Village Projects in 1980, and was derived from the name of the proto-human "Cha-Ka" from the 1974 Sid and Marty Krofft TV series, "Land Of The Lost". Chaka tagged All City Wide Spread throughout the entire state of California. Chaka was eventually caught and tried and convicted in 1991 on these charges. He was sentenced to three years' probation and 1,560 hours of community service to be spent cleaning graffiti. Daniel "CHAKA" Ramos was accused of tagging the interior of a civic-center elevator as he left a courtroom. He was arrested and charged again.
In the music video for the song, "Smells like Teen Spirit," by Nirvana, Dave Grohl's drum kit has "CHAKA" written on it in white lettering, because he had seen "Chaka" written all over the place when he was driving down from Seattle to film the music video.
Ramos lives in Los Angeles, California. He had his first legitimate solo art show in April 2009 in the City of Los Angeles and continues to produce art.