The composition has three elements. At the top, a graffiti tag in dripping red paint reads “iPOW”. Below it, drawn in a black and white stencil, is a rat wearing a New York style baseball cap, a thick chain around its neck, with a boombox beside it.

The word “iPOW” carries two meanings at once. On one hand, it reads as “Image Power”. On the other, it is a direct nod to Pictures on Walls, the publisher who printed the piece, that is, POW. In this way the composition brings together two forms of street culture expression side by side: the tag left on a wall, and the sound coming from the boombox.

The rat is a central figure in Banksy’s visual language. This motif, taken from the French artist Blek le Rat, represents the city’s unseen resident, unwanted yet everywhere. Dressing it in hip hop culture’s chain and cap instantly turns this underground figure into someone confident, someone who owns their space.

There is also a quiet joke here about the artist’s own position. Just like this rat, Banksy works at night, leaves his signature, and is nowhere to be seen by morning.

The artwork is a 2004 colour screenprint on textured paper, 50 by 30 centimetres, published by Pictures on Walls in London. The main red edition consists of 150 signed and 350 unsigned prints. Signed colour variants were also produced: 46 in pink, 20 in green and only 8 in mint green. In addition, ten each were printed in yellow, dark grey, blue, orange, lemon green and light grey, along with a single artist’s proof in red.