Drum n’ Bass

Victor Wooten – renown bassist in the music industry for his beats and rythms – and Carter Beauford – drummer for Dave Matthews band – jam a little. Easy to appreciate if you fall under the following categories:

• play the drums
• play the bass
• have ears

-e

Jay-Z Endorses Armand De Brignac

As you may all know, Jigga is back. With a new CD, “Kingdom Come”, on its pending release in November, Hov’s first single, produced by Just Blaze “Show Me What You Got” comes with a newly released music video. To no surprise, it’s very typical Jay-Z music video. There’s the nice car (Ferrari 430), the exotic location (Monte carlo, South France), the boat, the money, hm whatelse, hot video girls and of course, Crist… wait. What used to be a staple in his videos, particularly “Big Pimpin’”, Cristal, the prestigious champagne, was shunned by Jay-Z in the “Show Me What You Got” video.

Managing director Frederic Rouzaud of Cristal recently said the people in the Hip Hop culture were affecting its marque in a negative way. In retaliation, Jay-Z publicly denounce Cristal saying he will not drink the champagne nor will he promote it. As well, the various clubs that he owns will not serve the product either. Replacing Cristal in his videos was the French champagne, Armand De Brignac. Armand De Brignac is a lot more expensive (about $ 1000 US per bottle) but expect the company to see large profits due to Jay-Z’s name dropping.

Don’t expect all the rappers to do the same but Diddy already said “Fuck Cris”. Could this be a new trend? I guess it won’t be long until we see video girls getting drenched by Armand.

Click to view Jay-Z new video “Show Me What You Got”
Offical Website of Armand De Brignac

- Jon

Sneaker Pimps Toronto 2006

Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and A Tribe Called Quest blasted in the background while a huge crowd of people gathered around the artists for a live painting. For many, one eye was focused on the artists as they skillfully painted, while another eye suspiciously and discreetly checking out everyone else’s shoes. With hundreds upon hundreds of customized Dunks, Air Force Ones, Chuck Taylors, and Superstars, a cold and shitty October Friday night in Toronto seemed like Christmas for any avid sneakerhead in the city.

Withdrawn on a very quiet street, 99 Sudbury was the perfect venue for Sneaker Pimps, the largest worldwide Sneaker tour. It was a vast improvement from the much smaller location last year at the Spin Gallery on Queen West. Although the legendary Pete Rock cancelled last minute, I must say it was a huge success and the huge crowd signified the large streetwear/sneaker fan base Toronto has. Dave White and Jordan English impressed the crowd with their live art installations. Apparently even Samuel L Jackson (yes, Samuel L. “Royale-With-Cheese”, “Get these motherfuckin’ snakes off the motherfuckin’ plane” Jackson) came to take a look at the exhibition.

And then there was the shoes. Well… I won’t explain any of them. I’ll let the pictures I took describe them.

Here are some of the pics I took at Sneaker Pimps:

Undercover x Vandalize

TK from Sillything shows us snapshots of a jacket produced by Undercover and Vandalize, two Tokyo based brands. The MA-1 styled jacket has a vest that actually fastens onto the jacket giving it an ‘outdoors look’ if desired. I love the detailing on this jacket, which includes a ‘U’ and ‘V’ symbol on the sleeve. This unique jacket will be available at the Undercover store in Hong Kong. See more pics here.

-phil

LOST – Los Angeles graffiti

PingMag has a nice piece on LOST, which is a small run magazine out of LA illustrating the graffiti in the area. From what is shown here, LA graffiti has a lot to offer in terms of diversity. Aside from just showing the best graffiti that LA has to offer, LOST also has features with photos to other cities. The eye-catching graffiti artwork showcased here is absolutely impressive to say the least, and the magazine does a good job of showing the subcultures that exist from these designs. To see more, check out the whole interview by Ian Lynam.

-phil