Hip-Hop is Dead

From the hugely anticipated upcoming Nas album, Hip-Hop is Dead…The N, here’s the video to the single Hip Hop is Dead. Kinda sad that BET had to butcher much of the song by censorship. Nonetheless, I’m really lookin forward to this album, and hopefully I won’t be let down.

-phil

Kiyoshi Kuroda – DISCOLOR Exhibition

PingMag has a new piece on the DISCOLOR exhibition held by Kiyoshi Kuroda who is known for the use of combining analogue and digital techniques in his works. His exhibition will be held from December 2nd to the 29th at Nanzuka Underground in Shibuya, Tokyo.

501 Levi’s x Atmos Exclusive

Levi’s and Atmos have teamed up again to introduce two new exclusive pairs of 501xx and S501xx jeans. Both pairs of jeans have a unique design which makes this a must-have for all you Levi’s and Atmos fans out there. The 501xx and S501xx are available at Atmos Online.

– A style

Ltd Ed. Paul Smith x Bottega Montana Skateboard

Paul Smith and Bottega Montana has joined forces to create this amazing hand finished black walnut and white oak limited edition Corvetta 36 skateboard. Over time and use of the board will become more beautiful. This skateboard is only limited to 77 pieces in the world and is available for purchase at the Paul Smith online shop.

For all of you who are not familiar with Bottega Montana. Bottega Montana is the result of two brothers from Italy, Francesco and Marco Gillia and their combined efforts to create extraordinary furniture. The furniture collection of Bottega Montana has a classic feel, but the engineering details of the new joint system, add a modern flavor making their pieces immediately recognizable.

– A style

Mat Kearney – Nothing Left to Lose

An artist with roots from Eugene, Oregon, his music style is noted as being acoustic base with a touch of hip hop. Although one of many ‘one man guitar’ artists out there, Mat Kearney‘s sound is fresh and clean. Each song off of his 2006 release album ‘Nothing Left to Lose‘ is unique and different. His music has been featured on Grey’s Anatomy and Without a Trace. Be sure to check the title track Nothing Left to Lose and Where We Gonna Go From Here.

-e

Julian Red – Vulture Culture

High fashion jean maker Julian Red Jeans has just launched their new site Julian Red which showcases their Autumn/Winter ’06 collection. The site is really well done as the clothes are shown in short video clips with a touch of graphical animations while allowing you to adjust the time frames. Plus, the denim looks real good as well. Check out their site at Julian Red.

-phil

Philip Treacy For Umbro

After their successful collaboration with Kim Jones, Umbro is again working with another prominent designer for a new line. Philip Treacy, winner of the British Fashion Council award as British Accessory Designer of the year in 1991, showcased his new Autumn/Winter 2006 collection during the London Fashion Week held in February of 2006. This collection takes inspiration from the soccer iconology and is influenced heavily by traditional soocer colours as well as soccer jersey styling from the 60’s and 70’s. Treacy also uses luxury fabrics such as silk lycra and cotton jersey to give the clothes a more luxurious feel. The collection is comprised of a range of clothing, footwear and accessories for men. See more, including the Spring/Summer 2007 at PhilipTreacyForUmbro.

-phil

Vestal Wallets

Just came across these wallets at the Vestal website. I was really impressed with the designs and was actually more surprised at the low price that they’re selling for.

Flip the Script by Surface to Air

Surface To Air has released their 3rd publication which is comprised of 50 movie posters. 50 artists have been commissioned by Surface To Air to “recreate, reinterpret, reinvent, reshape, remix a poster for a film of their choosing”. The result is an impressive compilation of re-designed posters of movies spanning from the 1950s. The styles and techniques used for these posters vary greatly making this project all the more unique.

Jack Spade Slingshot

I’ve always been a fan of Jack Spade, because of their minimal design and lasting products. Their products are practical and geared towards the use in the everyday life, so I was pretty surprised when I came across this Jack Spade slingshot. Hand carved from cedar wood with strong rubber slings and a suede cup, I would loved to have had this back in elementary school. Nonetheless, at $40 USD, this doesn’t seem too expensive for a luxury item, and could be one of those really cool but useless items you have lying around the house.

-phil

SHOO BIZ – Shoe Store Setups

Over at The Cool Hunter, they have an interesting post on shoe stores around the world that have unique displays and merchandising techniques. Their readers send in pictures with some of the coolest setups and they will later feature the store in magazine print form. Check out their post with more of the few eye-catching displays here.

-phil

Logan Hicks x Evil Monito x K-SWISS Ltd. Edition

After sponsoring the K-Spray tour for the past two years, K-Swiss marks its commitment to the stencil art community by introducing the Logan Hicks-designed shoe. This marks a joint venture between Logan Hicks, K-Swiss, Evil Monito, and Blackbooks Stencils.

The shoe features faux patent croc leather, a translucent red mid-sole, and a premium pigskin interior. The fabric portion of the shoe uses one of Logan’s signature designs, which is also found throughout the packaging. The shoeboxes are hand-crafted through a multi-step process: using the same signature design in the shoe, the stencil on the box is cut by laser and then the pattern is applied by hand to the interior and exterior of the box. This unique approach ensures that no two boxes are exactly alike because of the variations that occur when stenciling. The box is then signed and numbered to guarantee the exclusivity of the edition.

The shoes are limited to 216 pairs and comes with an embroidered felt shoe bag and matching Logan Hicks shirt. These babies are available online exclusively through the Evil Monito Store. Retail cost of the shoe is $150 which includes shipping within US. An additional 400 pairs of shoes are available through select retail outlets in Asia, Australia, and the US.

– A style

The Rejection Collection – Rejected New Yorker Cartoons

Just came across this while browsing Vice Magazine. The Rejection Collection is a compilation of cartoons that were pretty much rejected (my apologizes for a lack of a better word) from The New Yorker. The New Yorker, with a history of awards, mostly puts out stuff that’s witty and classy. Accordingly, some of these cartoons couldn’t be published because they were deemed ‘unappropriate’ or just simply did not make the cut. Well this book gives you a chance to take a look at them. Some are quite clever, but nonetheless most are good for a couple of cheap laughs. Check out some favourites by Vice and Eat The Press.

-phil

New items @ Methamphibian

Methamphibian has been known for his amazing artwork, crazy style and unique designs. Check out these new one of a kind items, including a jacket and short sleeve button-up by Methamphibian. They are available at their online store. Get your hands on them before they’re all sold out.

Also, Methamphibian has just announced the date for the first 2 colorways of the DC x Methamphibian shoes. They will be available on December 3rd at Brooklyn Projects in Los Angeles and In4mation in Hawaii.

– A Style

dunkxchange Update

A while ago, we posted about dunkxchange at Anaheim, California. Here are some pictures of the event from Nikeskateboarding.org.

If you missed the chance to go the first time, dunkxchange will be heading to San Francisco this weekend. If you’re in the area, be sure to go check it out.

Date: Sat November 25th
Time: 1PM – 6PM
Location: Club NV 525 Howard St. San Francisco
Admission: $10

For more information on specific dates and location, go to dunkxchange. More Updates to come.

– A style

Samsung Introduces World’s Thinnest LCD

Samsung has just developed the world’s slimmest LCD mobile display. Measuring at just 0.82mm thick and touting a 2.1/2.2-inch surface area, it features 240 x 320 QVGA resolution, 500:1 contrast ratio, 300nits brightness, and “i-Lens” technology. I can’t wait to see what Samsung has planned in the future as they give a good run to current mobile phones boasting ‘thinness’ such as Motorola’s RAZR.

[Techeblog]

-phil

Stussy World Tour Film Preview

A while ago, Stussy created a documentary film called the “World Tour” which takes a look at 16 artists who influence street culture around the world. Last month, there was a screening of this documentary at the Vista theater in Los Angeles. For the most of us who haven’t seen it yet, here’s a short preview of what you can expect. From the looks of this, it looks really well done.

-phil

Timberland’s 10061.COM

The Timberland Company recently announced the launch of 10061.com, a web site that celebrates the intersection of art and community. While 10061.com focuses on an online creative collaboration with designers, artists and consumers to use the Timberland boot as a canvas, the most interesting aspect of the site is the “The Boroughs Project”.

Under the creative direction of Jeff Ng aka Jeff Staple (as you might know from his work and blog), 10061.com features “The Boroughs Project” which brings together various designers/artists representing the five boroughs of New York City to each design a limited signature Timberland boot (which will be available for purchase, just in case you’re wondering). Artists include Jeff Staple himself, producer The RZA, painter Chris Mendoza, photographer Atsuko Tanaka and new media artist David “SKWERM” Ellis, created their own inpretation of the Timberland boot and incorporate their ideas/inspirations from the neighbourhoods of New York City.

Although I am not a huge fan of the Timberland brand or the boots created by the artists (i.e. The RZA’s glow- in-the-dark Tims), it is a very impressive campaign for Timberland in attempts to maintain its position in urban culture. The site alone is great to just explore. The ‘User Gallery’ features plenty of great artwork submitted by various people and as long as you’re at the site, my advice is to check out all the artists’ films in the ‘Art and Community’ section. It is essential. The short videos are well produced and entertaining. Definitely worth taking a look.

[ 10061.com ]

– Jon

Royal Ontario Museum – The Crystal

For those of you who are waiting on the renovations transformation project for the Royal Ontario Museum, Renaissance ROM, it looks as though it will be 6 months behind schedule. Designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind, this is intended to be one of several projects leading Toronto’s Cultural Renaissance, changing the image that the city is presented to the rest of the world. The Renaissance ROM is a $211 million project (estimated to be more now after the delay) which encompasses a 14,500-square-foot space known as The Crystal. This new expansion will be ‘a structure of organically interlocking prismatic forms, asserting the primacy of participatory space and public choreography’. The ROM hopes that they will not have to further delay their planned $50,000-a-table gala for June 1st, 2007.

-phil

Undercover ’07 Tee

Here’s a t-shirt from Undercover 2007 Spring/Summer collection. The graphic and especially the colours really caught my eye when I first saw it. Hopefully we will see more of the same high quality designs in the rest of the 2007 items. Original image/info from here.

-phil