http://depositfiles.com/en/files/vvrar5wdu
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Cam'Ron - Crime Pays (clean version)...I'll have the Dirty in a few..
http://depositfiles.com/en/files/vvrar5wdu
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Complex magazine hollaz at Ye about the 'Air Yeezy's' (full article)
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE BIGGEST NAME IN POP CULTURE MEETS THE BIGGEST NAME IN SNEAKERS? SECRECY, RUMORS AND AN INEVETABLE DROP-DAY MASSACRE. IT’S FINALLY TIME TO MEET THE AIR YEEZY
Kanye West: MC, Producer, Hypebeast: I’ve always stressed my passion for design—and not just, “Oh, let me throw my name on this,” but to use my celebrity as an opportunity to jump into the design world—and in this case, to design my own shoe.
Mark Smith: Creative Dir. of Special Projects, Nike: I don’t really put my life in dates in a normal way. [Laughs.] So I couldn’t even say when everything went down, but one day I got a call asking me if I would work with Kanye on the project.
Kanye West: It was after the Air Force 1 “1 Night Only” event [in December 2006]. I sat there and drew countless forms of shoes, and a lot of them were inspired by Back to the Future, by the McFlys or whatever people call them—I just call them the Mags. All kinds of different ideas that stemmed from that and Robotech and all my other anime influences.
Mark Smith: What we wanted to do was really create something that was specific and unique to the two of us working together, so it wasn’t an entourage full of people on either side.
Kanye West: Nike is the No. 1 sneaker lifestyle brand, right? And I’m the No. 1 most influential cutural pop art brand: scarves, beards, plastic glasses, whatever. So you take those two things and you mesh that—it’s very exciting. I’m the Nike of culture.
Mark Smith: He showed me what he was into. I asked him about sneakers that he liked, what he was wearing and why he was wearing them; he’s very up to the minute on what he likes.
Kanye West: I grabbed all these Jordans from their archives, and I’m sitting in the office next to Tinker [Hatfield, Jordan designer] and Mark, just pulling out shit and putting it in front of him like, “I like this element.” We just vibed it out.
Mark Smith: He started just dumping stuff out, and I did the same thing. We did it in the Innovation Kitchen—Nike’s underground innovation center where tomorrow’s technologies are kind of getting bubbled up, so he actually was seeing a bunch of stuff that nobody else would see.
Kanye West: The types of shit Nike can do? I say, “Hey, use this sole,” and they have it? The possibilities are just endless.
Mark Smith: I always try to look at things through an athlete’s eyes—if you look at a basketball player, his or her performance is on-court in the middle of a game. The equivalent for Kanye would be to get onstage and rock it for a couple of hours. And he goes through a pretty athletic show, so we wanted to make sure these were super-comfortable performance shoes.
Kanye West: Every guy drew Nikes in fourth grade, so to really do it is a dream come true.
Kanye West: I’m aesthetics-first on anything. Even when I make music, I think about the aesthetics: Where will you be when you’re listening to this? Visuals first. I wanted to take the concept of the future pop colors and all this ’80s influence and make it wearable.
Mark Smith: I remember him saying originally that he wanted to create something that looked and felt like it had come from the past. I thought, That’s actually really cool, because back then it was very, very simple. There weren’t a lot of extras on the older stuff. So that kind of pushed that edge a little bit; instead of adding a whole bunch of today’s stuff onto it and super-technology or anything like that, it was more about keeping things simple. And if you look at it at a glance, it might look like it was a little retro.
Kanye West: We developed our own soles for the shoe also, which is the hardest thing and takes the longest—so long that there was a point in the design [process] where I just had to pick a sole that they already had. That was one of the days my heart got broken. [Laughs.]
Mark Smith: We never looked at one shoe and said, “You gotta take the toe from this and the heel from that and the bottom from this and slam it all together.” Kanye West: The original shoes were battery-operated, and they lit up. I have a version of the first shoe that has a push-button on the side, and it lights up and stays lit.
Mark Smith: We had a very futuristic-looking product for a long time. Then Kanye said, “Can we use something that’s recognizable?” So I think the elephant tooling, which was directly pulled from the Jordan 3, really rooted the shoe in that time period.
Kanye West: A lot of that patent stuff Mark came up with, like the strap—that’s when I was happy to be able to work with an O.G. designer like that.
Mark Smith: You have to make sure the lines, the materials, the direction are all intact—and then once you get those broad strokes in, then you really start applying the storytelling, the textures and the unique aspects that make it something for Kanye specifically.
Mark Smith: If we did our job right, we could take this shoe and put it in the line or a catalog from back in the day, and it would just feel like it was part of the lineup. But when you bring that shoe forward into today, it should also feel a little timeless; it’s yesterday and today slammed together
Kanye West: Conceptually, it was made for a person that was walking on another planet. So it’s like almost a shoe-like space boot.
Mark Smith: There was never a design brief or a color brief; it was very fluid. He had some really great ideas coming into it with neutral browns and tans and keeping it a very monotone color and then letting the interior have a little bit more pop to it.
Kanye West: I wanted to give the Yeezys their own colorway. You wouldn’t have a whole fuchsia wall in your house, but you might have a little Jeff Koons piece of art that’s fuchsia and small. So I do it small, on the inside of the tongue.
Mark Smith: Throughout the process we probably did a couple hundred color studies, and I think we only showed him a couple; it was more like he was giving us his insights into color and then we’d play with it. Like, “What if this black was a suede,” or “What if this black was patent leather?”
Kanye West: I got like 12 different colors at my house, just colorway samples we were trying. I’ve worn them at certain events—the all-black ones I wore at the Grammys.
Mark Smith: I think we really started hitting our stride when we had real samples to look at.
Kanye West: It expresses my sensibility of design: what I want to do with clothing, with hotels eventually. The type of colors that I live in.
Mark Smith: We agreed that any time we wanted to add something to the product, we had to take something else away so that it wasn’t just adding, adding, adding—it was just one of those things where it can get down to as little as possible but make it as functional and comfortable and cool as possible.
Kanye West: We had a lot of conversations like, “We wanna just put it on eBay,” and I’m like, “No! People need to be able to get this shoe!” At first they were only gonna do 3,000 pairs. Now they’re doing 9,000, which is still limited. It’s not like it’s 200,000.
Mark Smith: We’re real happy with the result.
Kanye West: Oh my god, they’re gonna be out of there! Toot! [Laughs.] They’re not even gonna hit the ground. The boxes from the truck will literally not hit the ground.
Raekwon x DJ Absolut - Blood on Chef's Apron
http://rs476gc2.rapidshare.com/files/229958656/Raekwon-Blood_on_Chefs_Apron-_Hosted_by_DJ_Absolute_-2009-CLX.rar
ILL Heels...
From The Designer:
“I’m interested in designing objects that ignore or challenge conventions in order to make the product-design world less generic,” says the London-based designer. “l rethink what an object can look like or how it can function. There can be more to clothes.”
Lost scenes from Kanye West's College Dropout video - Spaceship
'FakeShoreDrive.com'...Thanx Andrew!
Once upon a time, all the way back in 2004, there was a video created for one of the most memorable songs from Kanye West's The College Dropout, one that featured two of Kanye's GOOD Music starters, GLC & Consequence. The ode to finding a better way (no Lil Troy), the soulful and introspective "Spaceship".
The video was a big budget affair (you know how Kanye does videos, especially back in 2004 when the climate of the biz was much different) and an all out masterpiece (at least in my opinion), but for reasons only known to Kanye (apparently he didn't like the finished product), "Spaceship" never saw the light of day.
Well, never say never. Now thanks to Kanye's closet crony, GLC (and GLCityMusic ), we can finally get a sneak peak into the "lost" video for "Spaceship".
I know this is five years (yikes!) after the fact, but I really hope Kanye one day decides to release this video. It would have been the ultimate introduction for both GLC and the Cons, but they're here now, so it really doesn't matter.
Hit the jump for more shots from the indefinitely shelved, "Spaceship"
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
De La Soul x Nike - Are You In? mixtape
01. Mornin’ Rise ft. Raheem DeVaughn
02. Good Morning
03. Big Mouf
04. Attack of the Stet
05. Pick Up the Pace (Run)
06. Poetic Greed ft. Gina Loring
07. Greedy Man ft. Billy Ray
08. Victory Laps
09. We O.D.
10. Forever
http://rapidshare.com/files/229379629/De_La_Soul_-_Are_You_In_Nike___Original_Run__2009_-turbocity.rar
Monday, May 4, 2009
The Invisible Car
Sara Watson, an English art student, turned a car "invisible" with a lovely trompe l'oeil paintjob:
Sara Watson, who is studying drawing at the University of Central Lancashire (Uclan), took three weeks to transform the car's appearance.
She created the illusion in the car park outside her studio at Uclan's Hanover Building in Preston.
The car is now being used for advertising by the local recycling firm that donated the vehicle.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Saturday, May 2, 2009
<
1st look @ the Generation 3 Iphone/Ipod Touch...2010!
This bad boy comes standard with 500gig or 1TB of memory. It's made of Titanium and scratch/smear resistant touch screen display. It runs on OS-mmX/Mac-OS backwards capability, Bluetooth V4. WiFi Upload for iTunes through your designated IP Address on your harddrive(no matter where you are), WiFi Earbuds, Hi-Def screen resolution of 1280x720, works vertically or horizontally. USB4 connectors with auto-locking mechanism. Options: 4GSM iPhone, Two-way iSight, GPS for navigation, weather, emergency beacon, Embeded Game System, Voice Playback.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Nick James presents 'The Nas Rmx's'
01 Intro
02 N.Y. state Of Mind Pt. 2
03 Ether
04 Purple
05 The World Is Yours
06 No Idea’s Original
07 You Know My Style
08 Flyest Angels
09 U Gotta Love It
10 Rewind
11 Dr. Knockboot
12 Book Of Rhymes
13 It’s Mine Feat. Mobb Deep
14 Life’s A Bitch Feat. Az
15 Black Zombie
16 Get Down
17 No Idea’s Original (Acoustic Remi
18 Purple (Screwed)
http://rapidshare.com/files/202040133/Nick_James__2009__The_Nas_Remixes-turbocity.rar
BET, MTV to launch Centric Network cable channel to compete for TV One audience
By R. Thomas Umstead
Multichannel News
Viacom's BET Networks and MTV Networks are combining channel resources to create a new programming outlet, Centric, set to launch in October, targeting African-American adults, network officials said.
The new network will take aim at Comcast/Radio One-owned TV One in targeting the 25- to 54-year-old African-American audience, while also reaching out to other multicultural audiences.
BETN officials say it will launch with 45 million subscribers, a sizeable base for a new channel. BET Networks will handle its operations, with BET J executive vice president and general manager Paxton Baker overseeing the new venture.
Multichannel News reported earlier this month that Baker would oversee a channel that combined BET J and MTVN's VH1 Soul, two existing digital networks that between them are in about 47 million homes, and that the announcement could come at BET's April 23 upfront in New York, which is when Centric is expected to be announced.
The story also indicated behind-scenes drama could cause those plans to change, though, and noted BET downplayed talk of combining the channels, indicating BET J would be "refreshed" instead.
BETN president and COO Scott Mills said Wednesday BET J and VH1 Soul are not merging. Mills said "we have within our universe today between MTVN and BETN existing distribution that is available to us to deploy against the launch of this network."
"What we're creating is a brand-new network targeted to adult, upscale, sophisticated and aspirational African-American and multicultural audiences," Mills said.
BET J (originally launched as BET on Jazz) and VH1 Soul are African-American targeted channels that complement each other with carriage on top U.S. distributors. BET J has key carriage on DirecTV and on No. 2 cable operator Time Warner Cable, while VH1 Soul and other MTVN digital channels have stronger Comcast carriage.
BET J, which features reality series and music content, is in about 27 million homes. VH1 Soul, with music video programming, is in about 20 million homes.
Potentially, Centric could start with BET J's distribution and annex channel slots allocated to VH1 Soul or possibly some other small MTVN service, rather than merging. In 2007, Gospel Music Channel's owners bought Black Family Channel, adding BFC's 16 million homes to Gospel's previous 10 million homes. Black Family Channel shut down.
Centric will initially feature entertainment/reality fare, but Baker said it could offer some news and public affairs programming in the near future.
Some original shows already slated for the channel include Model City, a reality show revolving around African-American models in New York City, and Keeping Up With The Joneses, which follows the exploits of a Houston-based female entrepreneur.
The network will also reinstate the Soul Train Music Awards, which has been off the air for several years. "The Soul Train brand resonates with older audiences, so by bringing that back we can really speak to that target audience of African-Americans," Mills said.
In addition, the new network will offer demo-targeted content -- including movies and music programming -- from MTV, VH1, BET and other MTV Networks outlets.
Centric's older-skewing content would complement BET's younger-skewing programming fare, while providing Viacom a viable competitor to the four-year-old TV One service, which currently counts some 47 million subscribers.
"We think that we have a unique way of serving that demo that no one else can in the space," Baker said.
Centric is the latest in a flurry of new African-American targeted network announcements over the past year -- although it's the first to have major entertainment media company backing.
In February, Houston-based upstart Black Broadcasting Network announced plans to launch an urban-targeted entertainment network later in 2009.
Last November, BET founder Bob Johnson teamed with broadcast network ION Media Networks on plans to create Urban Television, an entertainment-based network targeting the African-American community.
Last August, hip-hop mogul Master P (Percy Miller) unveiled plans for Better Black Television, a family-friendly network providing positive content.
And last April, former U.S. Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) announced the creation of the Black Television News Channel, a 24-hour news service for African-Americans slated to launch sometime this year. The service has secured "a hunting license" with Comcast.
Multichannel News
Viacom's BET Networks and MTV Networks are combining channel resources to create a new programming outlet, Centric, set to launch in October, targeting African-American adults, network officials said.
The new network will take aim at Comcast/Radio One-owned TV One in targeting the 25- to 54-year-old African-American audience, while also reaching out to other multicultural audiences.
BETN officials say it will launch with 45 million subscribers, a sizeable base for a new channel. BET Networks will handle its operations, with BET J executive vice president and general manager Paxton Baker overseeing the new venture.
Multichannel News reported earlier this month that Baker would oversee a channel that combined BET J and MTVN's VH1 Soul, two existing digital networks that between them are in about 47 million homes, and that the announcement could come at BET's April 23 upfront in New York, which is when Centric is expected to be announced.
The story also indicated behind-scenes drama could cause those plans to change, though, and noted BET downplayed talk of combining the channels, indicating BET J would be "refreshed" instead.
BETN president and COO Scott Mills said Wednesday BET J and VH1 Soul are not merging. Mills said "we have within our universe today between MTVN and BETN existing distribution that is available to us to deploy against the launch of this network."
"What we're creating is a brand-new network targeted to adult, upscale, sophisticated and aspirational African-American and multicultural audiences," Mills said.
BET J (originally launched as BET on Jazz) and VH1 Soul are African-American targeted channels that complement each other with carriage on top U.S. distributors. BET J has key carriage on DirecTV and on No. 2 cable operator Time Warner Cable, while VH1 Soul and other MTVN digital channels have stronger Comcast carriage.
BET J, which features reality series and music content, is in about 27 million homes. VH1 Soul, with music video programming, is in about 20 million homes.
Potentially, Centric could start with BET J's distribution and annex channel slots allocated to VH1 Soul or possibly some other small MTVN service, rather than merging. In 2007, Gospel Music Channel's owners bought Black Family Channel, adding BFC's 16 million homes to Gospel's previous 10 million homes. Black Family Channel shut down.
Centric will initially feature entertainment/reality fare, but Baker said it could offer some news and public affairs programming in the near future.
Some original shows already slated for the channel include Model City, a reality show revolving around African-American models in New York City, and Keeping Up With The Joneses, which follows the exploits of a Houston-based female entrepreneur.
The network will also reinstate the Soul Train Music Awards, which has been off the air for several years. "The Soul Train brand resonates with older audiences, so by bringing that back we can really speak to that target audience of African-Americans," Mills said.
In addition, the new network will offer demo-targeted content -- including movies and music programming -- from MTV, VH1, BET and other MTV Networks outlets.
Centric's older-skewing content would complement BET's younger-skewing programming fare, while providing Viacom a viable competitor to the four-year-old TV One service, which currently counts some 47 million subscribers.
"We think that we have a unique way of serving that demo that no one else can in the space," Baker said.
Centric is the latest in a flurry of new African-American targeted network announcements over the past year -- although it's the first to have major entertainment media company backing.
In February, Houston-based upstart Black Broadcasting Network announced plans to launch an urban-targeted entertainment network later in 2009.
Last November, BET founder Bob Johnson teamed with broadcast network ION Media Networks on plans to create Urban Television, an entertainment-based network targeting the African-American community.
Last August, hip-hop mogul Master P (Percy Miller) unveiled plans for Better Black Television, a family-friendly network providing positive content.
And last April, former U.S. Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) announced the creation of the Black Television News Channel, a 24-hour news service for African-Americans slated to launch sometime this year. The service has secured "a hunting license" with Comcast.
A word form HOV....
A word from Hov
Last night I performed at the University of Arizona, I had a ball!! Through all the excitement and joking around (as well as the technical difficulties) I missed out on the opportunity to say something important..
On the show as well were Third Eye Blind and Kelly Clarkson.. I thought that to be the oddest pairing EVER but, soon realized, it's what I've always professed..There is NO such thing as BLACK music or WHITE music only GOOD or BAD music..It's stupid cool to like things that are not like you, and that goes for outside of music.. If you're an African American you can have a jewish friend. Wait, does Lyor having some Israeli mixed with his jewish count? (Sure they are paranoid but, so are black people after they've smoked weed, haaaaa, and plus the JEW fro and the BLUEprint fro are the SAME thing.)
I think concerts like this should happen more often. ( Outside of the one or 2 festivals a year or "Zootopia") I'm putting that into the universe..next up Taylor Swift and Uncle Murda!!
Sorry I don't "Tweet" (do I?) so this will have to do..
What Brands can learn from Jadakiss....Article by Rob Stone
At a time when artists are being cut from major label deals and scrambling to find indie labels to release their next albums, Jadakiss has far exceeded expectations with his new Island Def Jam release, "The Last Kiss." After a five-year layoff between album releases (usually a kiss of death for a hip-hop artist), Jadakiss' album sold over 130,000 copies in its first week earlier this month. In these challenged times of selling music, especially albums, that's a very sizable number.
Why and how is this relevant to brands? Let's explore the circumstances and the marketing that led up to Jadakiss' release and the parallels between the launch of his album and the challenges that a brand team faces in launching a campaign. Rest assured there are numerous differences between an album launch and a product launch, but extracting and highlighting what insights and lessons can be learned from his latest release and his initiatives are not as obvious.
Throughout his nearly 15-year career, Jadakiss has protected his reputation and authenticity with the heart of a lion, in part by passing up short-term successes and not succumbing to the pressure to make quick-hit radio records. As advertising dollars have dried up at radio stations over the years, programmers have been under pressure to play hit records more frequently and playlists have shrunk. Ten years ago, many stations' highest-played records were 45 plays a week, or six plays a day. Today it's common for stations to play top records over 100 times a week, which allows less room for records to make it onto playlists. Artists such as Flo Rida, with his monster radio hit single "Right Round," sold more than 2.5 million singles, but his album "R.o.o.t.s " sold only 55,000 copies in its first week -- a significantly lower amount than what Jadakiss sold.
What things did Jadakiss do to connect with his audience despite a lack of exposure on the radio?
First, he integrated himself into the places where his core lifestyle fans lived and became very accessible to them. He went on the road for seven weeks prior to the release, visiting clubs every night, sometimes performing, and other times just being there as part of the scene. He visited malls and had daily discussions and exchanges with fans through blogs and hip-hop sites. He visited radio and hosted tastemakers, DJs and programmers at clubs and played his music through a sponsorship deal wtih Ciroc Vodka. He showed up and performed for Reebok's 10-year anniversary event for basketball superstar Allen Iverson at the NBA All-Star Game in Arizona. He performed in Austin at the Levi's FADER Fort (a Cornerstone event) in front of a primarily alternative rock and hipster audience. He released videos on Youtube; not just music videos, but also funny, behind-the-scenes videos that spoke to his lifestyle and authenticity, which his core fanbase found entertaining. All of this was done to build anticipation for his album -- always feeding his core yet adapting to new market conditions.
Jadakiss played to his strengths. He knew the limitations of radio, and, much like brands today that may no longer be able to create a huge presence on TV and out-of-home, he invested in his core -- he got creative. Jadakiss made himself accessible to his fanbase by creating partnerships with brands, other artists and DJs, and also by utilizing the momentum of the web. Instead of a top-down national approach, he took to the streets -- connecting DJ to DJ, city to city, and building a national presence for the album.
~ ~ ~
Rob Stone is founder and co-CEO of Cornerstone, a full-service lifestyle marketing firm based in New York City. For over 12 years, Mr. Stone has executed customized brand campaigns for a roster of A-list clients targeting the key demographic of 15-34 year olds.
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