The Light
I had an interesting convo with Sha Money XL,(formerly president of G-Unit) he's hosting his annual One Stop Shop Producer's Conference in AZ next month. If your hungry and still trying to get on, DONT MISS IT!
Smirnoff Mix Series Jumpoff in NYC
Beginning this month, the makers of Smirnoff vodka are launching the Smirnoff Signature Mix Series, a campaign pairing three acclaimed rappers with contemporary beat-maestros to create new versions of iconic hip-hop songs.
The artists tapped for the songs are Common, Q-Tip, and KRS-One, who will join forces with Just Blaze, Cool & Dre, and DJ Premier to remix Common's "The Light," A Tribe Called Quest's "Midnight," and Boogie Down Productions' seminal "Criminal Minded."
Each artist/producer pairing represents a Smirnoff mixed drink made by blending one of Smirnoff's flavored vodka products with a popular mixer. "The Southside," made with Smirnoff Green Apple flavored vodka and cranberry juice, is the inspiration for Common and Just Blaze's collaboration. "The Blueberry Abstract," made with Smirnoff Blueberry flavored vodka and lemonade, is linked to the partnership between Q-Tip and Cool & Dre. And "The Cypha," an exciting blend of Smirnoff Raspberry flavored vodka and pineapple juice, represents the collaboration between KRS-One and DJ Premier.
"I'm honored to have the opportunity to revisit one of my signature songs and give it a breath of fresh air," said KRS-One. "I'm grateful to Smirnoff for providing the opportunity to work with such great talent on such a ground-breaking idea and recreate hip-hop songs."
KRINK - A NYC Legend
In his 1999 book “The Art of Getting Over,” Stephen Powers (also known as Espo) profiled and catalogued the work of several dozen fellow graffiti artists. Among them was KR, known for drippy silver tags around San Francisco and also for the unusual material he made them with. “Krink,” Powers explained, “is a homemade silver ink” that was “developed in the KR kitchen.” Back then, KR, who says he stopped writing graffiti years ago and is thus more comfortable being known as Craig Costello, never figured his “Krink” would be known beyond that circle — let alone that it would become a brand name on his custom-designed ink and markers, sold in boutiques and specialty shops in the U.S., Europe and Japan.
“There was never, ever, ever the idea that I would make any money off it,” says Costello, who is 36 and lives in New York. “There wasn’t a brand, or a business plan, or a concept of anything like that.” Costello does a bit of freelance design work as well as various art projects. (The New York arts organization Eyebeam invited him last year to spruce up the facade of its Chelsea headquarters with copious amounts of Krink, as well as paint applied via fire extinguisher.) But today the Krink product line is his most steady source of income.
The evolution of KR’s ink from something a guy made to illegally tag city streets into a brand available in slick retail settings mirrors the way graffiti — or the graffiti aesthetic — has been absorbed into pop culture over a period of decades. Growing up in Queens in the 1980s, Costello was exposed to an earlier iteration of graffiti. This was back when a lot more people called it rank vandalism, and “street art” had yet to become a tactic used to market cars and electronics — or a look mimicked by tony fashion designers. Some at the time used home-brew ink markers; Costello recalls a recipe involving mimeograph paper soaked in alcohol overnight and mixed with a bit of nail-polish remover. A felt chalkboard eraser — stolen school supplies were a common base material — completed a tool for making a “mop tag” (the makeshift marker being the “mop”).
The formula he developed — he’s cagey about specifics — resulted in a metallic look and an expressionist drip effect. He sometimes scrawled the word “Krink” on the side of soda bottles that he filled with the stuff for friends, but that was more of a joke than a branding strategy. It wasn’t until around 2000, after he returned to New York, that the owners of Alife, a street-culture store on the Lower East Side, suggested it could sell. It did: 20 bottles, then 40, then 80. Over time, Costello started working with a manufacturer to make $10 “squeeze markers” (a bit like a shoe-polish bottle) and more penlike markers with wide tips ($8) that fill with ink through a pump-action mechanism. There are now nine Krink colors. There are also Krink T-shirts and sweatshirts made in collaboration with Alife and sold in various boutiques like the trendsetting shop Colette in Paris. (Colette’s Web site was recently decorated with a photo of Costello’s dripping Krink streaks.)
Krink’s packaging has a crisp, minimalist look that doesn’t scream graffiti, precisely to leave the door open to a wider audience than taggers. “This is an artists’ tool, a tool for creativity,” Costello maintains. His own gallery shows have included Krink on wood, on latex and on at least one trash can. Still, visit Krink.com and you’ll see plenty of Krink on public walls and mailboxes. (Krink “changed the look of vandalism” in New York, an expert on such matters, known as Earsnot, told Juxtapoz magazine not long ago.) “O.K., it has a history,” Costello allows. “But our future is about broadening out the audience.”
In fact, the next Krink product is a fine-point marker. And the brand does present a different image than much of what is in online stores openly selling “graffiti supplies.” (On the Run markers, for example, feature a logo of a shadowy guy running with a spray-paint can.) Plenty of young artists have told Costello they love the Krink look — but they’re not graffiti writers and don’t intend to start. So when he talks about expanding into a product line that will make sense in a Pearl Paint store, or even a Michael’s, it’s a sentiment with more pragmatic origins than avoiding demonization as a vandal supplier: the market for the street-art aesthetic and influence is far bigger than the market of actual street artists.
By Rob Walker
This was in the New York Times
Gillie Da Kid
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ATTENTION TASTEMAKERS, DJS, A&R'S, LABEL STAFF, MEDIA/PRESS AND EVERYONE ELSE...
RAPPERS IN PHILLY DON'T BEEF NO MORE..THEY GET MONEY!!!
PHILLY STAND UP!
GILLIE DA KID - BLACK DENIRO - OSCHINO -
PEEDI CRAKK - E. NESS
SUPERMAN REMIX
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http://www.badongo.com/file/7865448
BUMP (MAJOR FIGGAS)
FT. PEEDI CRAKK & GILLIE DA KID
PRETTY GIRLS IN THE VIP REMIX
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RZA & Frank 151
Tell Jay-z & Beyonce I was playin video games in their room...
A quick chat wit Cheri Dennis
Mikey: What’s up Cheri? So you’ve been signed to Bad Boy since 2001, and your debut album has been more pushed back more times then Bobby Brown’s hairline, is the album completed?
Cheri: It’s finished and will be out Feb. 26th. Portrait of Love is the 1st single and features Gorilla Zoe and Yung Joc. The video is playing on most of the major video networks. The album is called In and Out of Love, after listening to all these records I’ve made over the years that was just the overall theme of them all. Really, it’s about emotions and relationships. It has been a long, long process making the album, and I’ve personally been “in and out of love”. (laughs) Now, I’m in love again. Showdown” sounds like a very personal and deep records (laughs) Where are we going with that one?
Mikey: With such an emotional theme to this album, do find that singing songs you’ve actually written yourself to carry a deeper personal connection to you?
Cheri: I feel like when you sing lyrics you’ve written yourself, you can definitely connect with the song better. Only you know how to express that exact feeling and the vision of the song. I don’t have any problem though singing a song someone else has written, it just has to be something I’ve actually gone through or at least could’ve gone through. I don’t just sing records for the sake of a hot song. Believe me, I’ve past on a lot of great records just because they weren’t Cheri Dennis records.
Mikey: Can you break down a few songs from the album? “Showdown” sounds like a very personal and deep records (laughs).Where are we going with that one?
Cheri: (laughing) Hmmm….. Showdown is a very… well I’m grown. I won’t say I’m sexually charged or anything because that’ll put images in your head, but I’m not a virgin. (laughing) Come on, you know… that song is about sex, darling; that’s what “Showdown” is about. But I am dating someone and he’s been to the showdown.
Mikey: Gotcha, so has it been hard all these years to have faith in Diddy and Bad Boy and trust that they were actually going to put your album out? You’ve seen plenty of artists come and go on your label.
Cheri: I would be lying if I said there weren’t times when I felt discouraged or felt a certain way about the label and Puff, but there was never a time when I wanted to give up music. Even when I felt like I wanted to give up on Bad Boy but never on music, but never on the music.
Mikey: It’s got to be hard though to see Diddy doing the Making the Band thing, the cologne, Yung Joc got a album, Danity Kane, etc…
Cheri: Faith, I have complete faith in God. It’s bigger then Bad Boy, bigger then Atlantic. I really can’t tell you anything else beside, my faith in God. It’s probably the only thing that’s kept me sane throughout my music career. Music is my passion.
The P is still Free...
Courtesy of Jackie O. and HNIC2.com
The cell door clicks shut, and Albert "Prodigy" Johnson is stuck inside. He tries to get used to the idea, but before long he's had enough: "Get me outta here, man! I gotta spend enough time in this motherfuckin' shit!"
He's trying not to give himself any time to think. As Prodigy leaves Queens House to deliver some last-minute tracks from H.N.I.C. Pt. 2 - the follow-up to his gold-selling 2000 solo debut, H.N.I.C. (for "Head Nigga in Charge")-to his engineer, he's suddenly back in front of the jail, shooting a scene for another video. "We went nuts with it," says "Real Power" director Dan the Man, who's helping ensure that every track on the record has a video ready for release while Prodigy's away. "We did a video last weekend, one the weekend before that, and two this weekend. Meanwhile, we finish this video, I'm walking downstairs, and he's doing another video right there with Jordan Tower," he adds, motioning to another director who's been shadowing Prodigy around the clock for a documentary about his last days as a free man. "We don't have Prodigy for that long, so we want to put him in different environments and have him frozen in time. So that's the work ethic."
In the final week leading up to his incarceration, Prodigy has woken up with a jagged chip on his shoulder. But he shakes off the anger and heads out from his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his wife Kiki and three children. All the work he's put in since his conviction three months ago-joining up with indie label/technology company Voxonic Inc. as an equity holder; finishing two albums' worth of material (including a special edition of H.N.I.C. Pt. 2 featuring a cappella tracks, commentary, and a bonus DVD, all scheduled for release next summer); launching his interactive Web community, hnic2.com, and the "FREE P" campaign; filming videos for every track on the new album, and video blogging for the online hub kyte.tv-has all been leading up to this. "I gotta leave things well prepared for my wife," says the pint-sized father of an eight-year-old daughter, 11-year-old son, and 16-year-old stepdaughter. "I'd be mad as hell if I didn't. So while I'm in, everything's set up-all she's gotta do is call the shots. Kiki's gonna be Prodigy while I'm gone. We've been together for over 15 years. It's nothing. We can get through this."
Kiki concurs: "We're going to act like he's on tour," she says. "They'll visit me," Prodigy adds. "We'll talk on the phone. I'll write them letters. It's like a long tour, basically. My kids is smart; they don't believe in all that fairyland shit. They deal with reality."
Though he'll never feel like he's done enough, the race against time has helped to breathe new life into the 33-year-old rapper, who was in his prime at 19, when he and his partner, Kejuan "Havoc" Mujita, used their hardcore street stories to forever change the rap game alongside fellow NYC titans Nas, the Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, and Wu-Tang Clan. "It was the changing of the guard," Prodigy reminisces about the mid-'90s glory days, when Mobb's cautionary classic "Shook Ones Pt. II" was bumping on Every Block, USA. With lines like "I'm only 19 but my mind is old/And when the things get for real my warm heart turns cold," Prodigy transported listeners to the merciless, murderous hallways of the Queensbridge housing projects, where he migrated from Long Island as a youngster. "We were making ground-breaking hits for the 'hood and quickly becoming the most elite rappers in the world," he says.
FACE OFF
Watermelon Soju, step yo game up
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soju
America's number 1 imported spirit
50 years for the Grammy's...
Holy Hip-Hop!
Holy Hip-Hop! features life-size portraits Melamid painted of twelve iconic figures from hip-hop.
Making the Band 4
Puff let you sing this time?
All one label...
Elephant In The Room
Big man is thirsty.
2 Dope Boys in a Cadillac
Somebody please get thru to Britney!
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