All good things must come to an end someday… and that someday has come for Tokyo Police Club’s “10 songs in 10 days from the last 10 years” project, but not without ending on one hell of a bang. Can you guess the closer? Your damn right it’s Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the U.S.A.”
We’re New Here the (insanely awesome) Jamie xx remix album of Gil Scott Heron’s I’m New Here doesn’t come out until the 21st, but the folks over at The Guardian have provided us with a full album stream this week! *Happy panda paws in the air!* I. Love. This. Album. So much.
The visual for Cee-Lo Green’s “Bodies” is not merely a music video but “an animated short motion picture,” which is kind of pretentious but as it’s Cee-Lo (and I love him) he gets a pass. The “animated short motion picture” was directed by Mikael Colombu and features appearances by Kerry Washington, Janelle Monae and Karl Lagerfeld. Bam. It’s an… interesting piece for sure, though the song isn’t my favorite off the album. Check it out below.
Redman has jumped off of stages and into crowds – and off of airplanes into clouds. It’s that kind of recklessness and willingness to take extreme risks that has enabled the New Jersey rhymer to sustain a wild rap career that has lasted nearly 20 years.
“It’s like my personality in the music,” says Redman during an interview from Def Jam Records’ New York office. Redman’s seventh album, Redman Presents…Reggie, was released on Tuesday. “It allows me to branch off into any area that I want because I’m open,” he continues. “I could be your hardest asshole and I can be the easiest guy to get along with. That’s what my music is. I have people music. I don’t just have, ‘OK, I’m a thug. I can’t smile.’ Or, ‘Fuck that. I don’t do that X Games bullshit.’ I don’t have that kind of look. I have the kind of look like, ‘Hey. I like that guy. He smokes. He pays his bills. He steps in his pants one leg at a time just like we do,’ and that’s the feel and the vibe that I give off to people, so when I do things like the X Games or a Gillette commercial people see me and be like, ‘Wow. Look at this dude,’ not, ‘What the fuck is he in there for?’ It was like, ‘Yeah, well, why not?’ It’s just his personality.”
Before he was throwing temper tantrums at the MTV VMAs and being labeled the biggest jerk in the history of hip hop, and before he released his critically acclaimed My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye West was producing some of the dopest beats the game has ever heard.
Kanye’s career as a rap artist didn’t exactly take off like a Gulfstream en route to the south of France. Prior to reaching superstar status as a rap artist, many labels were reluctant to sign Kanye West “the producer” to a record deal.
It took a 2003 car accident to inspire Kanye to write and produce “Through the Wire”, a track he recorded with his jaw wired shut. With critical acclaim, his career as a respected rap artist and eventual superstar was launched. For Mr. West, there was no looking back.
Luckily for you, we enjoyed history class in high school. So much so that we decided to take a look back and list our favorite pre-superstar Kanye-produced tracks:
Who says 13 is an unlucky number? ChinaShop contributor Carrie Tucker breaks down her essential 2010 list, from Crystal Castles and Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson (R.I.P.) to the best Scandinavian fashion, music and film.
When an artist friend returned from his first Art Basel Miami Beach experience a few years back he recounted a frenzy that made me think of Black Friday, only instead of flat-screens and digital cameras, the gate-crashing mob of insanity was hording multi-million-dollar works of art.
“There were people literally running from booth to booth,” he said. The best – and often most expensive – artwork was sold within 20 minutes.
That image of collectors sprinting from convention booth to convention booth has always stayed with me. And as I planned for this years event, I couldn’t help but feel that I, too, would be in a constant dash from one supposedly cool thing to the next.
2010 was a tremendous year for art. Take a look at the Top 10 Artists of 2010 (in no particular order) according to painter, pencil pusher, photographer, and Coilhouse Magazine co-founder Zoetica Ebb.
The Smashbox Face Off annual photo contest celebrated its fifteenth year last week with an opening bash held at Smashbox Studios – West Hollywood. The competition was originally conceived as a creative outlet for photo-assistants, but has morphed into a springboard for young photographers from all over. This year, a new “Motion” category was introduced, as well, with videos now being allowed into Face Off. This year’s entries’ technique and presentation were as diverse as the subject matter.
Twin brothers HOW and NOSM are on the move – constantly. Currently painting murals all over Rio de Janeiro, the graffiti artists return to their home base of New York very briefly before heading down to Miami at the end of the month to paint in Primary Flight, a mural project during Art Basel week.
Born in San Sebastiano, Spain, and raised in Dusseldorf, Germany, the brothers landed in New York in 1997, where they live and work (they are part of the . They paused just long enough to tell us what it’s like to be not only all-city, but all-world.
So & So is Amie Miriello, Brandon Rogers, Bana Haffar, Adam Hanson, and Jay Dmuchowski – who prefers to be called Raisin Higgins. The band came together when Amie, an established singer in the Los Angeles area, and childhood friend Jay teamed up with producer Rob Wells to form the ultimate songwriting team. It wasn’t long after that the duo sought out the perfect partners in crime and the project matured into a full-fledged band. With the addition of American Idol Season six contestant and soulful singer Brandon, Adam on drums, and bassist Bana, So & So came to fruition in September 2010. The feisty five and I sat down for some laughs as they discussed their new album on the horizon and big tour plans for 2011. In between interview questions and technically off the record, the band and I bonded over intimate descriptions of their colons and jokes they have painfully refrained from saying in front of Mormon audiences.