Caldesac

I posted about Childish Gambino's new EP the other day, after having that on repeat non stop I went and got his first album "Caldesac." Grab it for free here. I also spent most of the weekend watching him in the show Community. Not bad...

OFWGKTA x The Neptunes

Odd Future are building a huge buzz as of late, and everything I've read about Tyler The Creator says he is as big as a fan of The Neptunes as me. So this image below has got me anticipating whatever they are working on.

Lover's Start

 This video popped up on one of my friends facebook posts, awesome song, awesome clip. Felt like sharing. By a dude who goes by the name "How To Dress Well". Has a 90's r'n'b slow jam mixed with Natin Sawney vibe. Dope! Also check out this, I don't know why but it reminds me of some ghostly Ginuwine/Aaliyah shit.


How To Dress Well - "Lover's start" from Jamie Harley on Vimeo.

How You Love Me

wsTalib Kweli never ever disapoints. His new album "Gutter Rainbows" pretty much came out of nowhere with some more dopeness. This was favorite track from the album so great to see it get the visual treatment. The BK MC gets his bedroom happy snaps on is this clip.

Rolling In The Deep

Adele is everywhere at the moment, her new album 21 is getting props from all over the musical plane, especially in hip hop. One dude who I have been getting very much into later is Jamie XX from the band The XX. He flipped Adele's new track "Rolling In The Deep" with a bit of a Chill Dub Chopped and Screwed vibe. It works, and it's dope.

Freaks And Geeks

This is why I love the internet, I come accross crazy shit like this. So this guy is a actor/rapper/singer/musician/dj/comedian... Talented much? He goes by the rap name Childish Gambino and he just dropped a new EP which can be downloaded here. This song is nice, and so is Lights Turned On. Haven't checked his back catalogue, but I definitely will now. Dope...

The Race...

When I think of Mr Amber Rose, I think being in the clubs in the states, and the whole place chanting "Black and Yellow Black and Yellow" even though my friend was convinced it was Black and Orange. I'm interested to see what his album is like, and this track is dope. On a Sunday cool ride high vibe. Download it here.

Mac Miller - Donald Trump

I first heard Mac Miller at The Hundreds store in San Fran. They were playing some awesome beat and I just caught the end of the song. I asked the guy in the store who it was, he told me it was some 18 year old kid from P-Burg named Mac Miller. That song was "Good Evening", his new one is "Donald Trump", and it's dope as hell. His new mixtape Best Day ever drops on the 11th.

Lovecrimes...

Recently there has been a heep of hype surrounding Tyler The Creator and Odd Future. I hadn't really looked too much at their stuff until I caught the Jimmy Fallon performance (Mos Def screaming 'SWAG' at the end was a definite highlight). So after a bit of research I came accross one of their band members Frank Ocean, the dope ass in house crooner for OF and his album 'Nostalgia/ULTRA'. Can't say enough of how awesome this album is. Lovecrimes is a definite highlight. Thanks to the shit management of his major label, he leaked it for free on his website. Download it here.

Back... Again

I know it seems like we go missing here a lot, but we are back... Again... With all the shit we think is dope.

Kenny West - Be Cleve In Yourself

Kanye (Kenny West) is featured on the first episode of the new season of The Cleveland Show. Now is it just me, or is this beat actually really nuts. Maybe a future Good Friday track?

The Real Akuma Prods

THE LOW DOWN



I am an old arcade and Nintendo head at heart, I don’t play too many modern video games outside of a select few, give me NBA Jam, Aliens V Predator and Street Fighter any day, Street Fighter II is a particular favorite of mine. So much so that on a recent trip to Tokyo I scoured arcades trying to find a machine with the game on it to try and set a top 20 score, I wasn’t able to find one but did manage to finish Street Fighter IV a few times through on a single credit and set a top score on Marvel Vs Capcom so that set my desire at ease.

That being said it’s fairly straightforward to assume I was excited to hear about the upcoming Nike x Streetfighter collaboration range but have so far been disappointed by both the Chun Li and Ryu pairs. Keeping my hopes high for the next in the series I was pleased it was going to be Akuma, my second favorite character to play (after Ken), but I am pretty steamed over how it looks. I must say that I am a P-Rod fan, I have about 8 pairs of the P-Rod I as it is one of my favorite shoes of the last decade however there has been little since then to get excited about in the range, for me at least.

The collaboration for me lacks inspiration, creativity and an overall sense of completion, I can see what the goal was for the pair, I understand the use of canvas to represent his outfit and his Kanji logo on the heel but when we have two powerhouses such as Nike and Street Fighter I can’t be blamed for hoping for more than just a Kanji and line art illustration on the innersole. This is just to GR for me.

SO MY PAIR

I have taken this opportunity to present my artistic interpretation of an Akuma sneaker using the P-Rod III as a base. I approached this custom from the perspective of a realistic production shoe. A lot of what we create as customizers is often unachievable in a mass produced environment, something I have learnt in my collaborative experiences and this is something I was intent on avoiding.

Since this was the case I have ensured that all embossed PR panels are of a single color and not detailed, that the graphics could be replicated digitally and that there is no multi-panel portrait or imagery going on. The main colour is Akumas flesh tone and the grey/blue represents the color of his uniform. On the frontal 101 panel there is a tear in the blue fabric in line with the way his sleeves appear to be nonexistent or even more likely ripped off his dōgi. The red gradient on the swoosh reflects his use of flames in his power moves and the red towards the back mirrors his hair color.

I have also added the kanji 'ten' (天) - meaning "sky/heaven", (all in the spiritual sense) which appears on the back of his dōgi after many of his fights just near the tear as there is no adequate place to put the kanji on the back of the sneakers without reconstruction work. The carnage pattern and its shadow were added to give the shoe a little more depth and reflects the viciousness with which Akuma approaches each of his battles. Finally the Vapor SB laces were included to tie in the design as he wears twine around his waist as he fights.

CHANGES I WOULD MAKE IF IT WAS A PRODUCTION MODEL

This is by all means not the be all and end all of custom sneakers but I am really happy with the custom colors I created and the composition of the design. If it was factory produced having reverse stitching, redoing the interior (color and material), adding a bamboo innersole and changing the outsole would be on the top of my list of things to change. Also on the back panel where the red embossed PR pattern is I would include an alternate material panel, something like long suede to more adequately show it was representative of his hair while still being embossed. All of this is of course extra, but extras that are easily achievable in a factory setting but to illustrate my point in a 2 day turnaround I think the custom still does the job very well.

SUMMATION

I am not doing this post to put Nike on blast, I am just sick of seeing all these shoes come out and then seeing what appears to be a last second thought to add a minor detail and call it a collaboration whether it’s the recent Superhero inspired skate shoes or this new Streetfighter pack. Maybe if someone like myself or another artist was involved with these kinds of projects and up and comers were given more opportunities to show what they could do I will eventually find that next release that I am actually going to want to buy, even at a retail price, which I am so hoping comes along again soon.

What do you guys think?