ICED OUT SKULL HEADS

some time last week jim jones unleashed the video for the "We Fly High" remix on the world.
ohhh man its an early Christmas, if you asked santa for ridiculous ass rap videos that make me almost spit my Welch's grape soda on my monitor.

firstly, its a well shot video and displays a fair amount of restraint as far as editing and set design. the white widescreen with gray backdrop works really well. kudos to you sir or madam director [but next time take the time to move shit out of the corners of your shots, or get bigger drops, cause i see some shit in the corners, like sleep in your eyes on a cold winter's morning. mise en scene motherfuckers! mise en scene*]. but really the kudos in whole need to go to the fine lead actors in this video namely jim jones aka oscar the grouch aka sean paul's dirty scumbag cousin aka the koufi smacker. and of course we cant forget your boy and mine
DIDDY.

this dude is having a tremendous year. videos on youtube of him taking a piss. shit talking jessica simpson and lindsay lohan because their face game wasn't up to par, an album i could actualy listen too, and now this pure comedic genius. i mean watch the video and pay close attention for such amazing things as:

- jim jones dancing. nuff said. bring back the grind let this dude host. ill buy a tivo and tape that shit. [n.h.]
- puffy juggling money into the whop(?)
- puffy's tender follow through on shooting the money J. its a sign that dude respects the form and foundation of the game even while ballin' thats something the kids can learn from.
- girls in the trunk, when the trunks in the front. mind blown.
- young dro's golf wear is an amazing look. i hope to see this look adopted by "the streets" (not the uk rapper) as a whole.
- jim jones balancing money on his head like a trained seal. thats it. that really happens.
- juelz's teacup poodle with the perm. WTF?
- odds and evens for stacks.
classic!

puffy's face during the money gatorade bath is worth the price of admisison alone.



*edit: after going back and watching the video for "Flava In Ya Ear" i realize the visible lights in the corners of the frame are part of the homage. well played sir or madam director. here's a link to said video for comparison's sake, and because hell its an awesome video.

Kelis - Kelis Was Here

Let's go back to the video for Bossy, specifically the "Diamonds on my neck, Diamonds on my grill" scene. In that maybe ten seconds of video footage we get a clear cut image of who Kelis is on "Kelis Was Here".

We have homegirl dead center in front of the camera in a black hoody with a white button up on. Multicolored grill in mouth, diamond encrusted necklace and charm pieces dangling. Hair did, make up made and she's looking fresh as hell. The make up and hair push Kelis' raw sex appeal, she's an incredibly hot woman.

We knew that when she brought all them boys to the yard. The hoody thrown up with the grill, they in part tell us homegirl is not above cutting a bitch. She's a lil tough, a lil street, but not in that weird "i think she wears underwear with dickholes in it" way. And the charm piece necklace with the diamond encrusted joint tells us that Kelis is getting her grown woman on but at the same time is not above rocking some cutesy throwback joints too [you might even catch her on a Sunday with a lil' Chanel bobo or some ish like that]. We get the idea that if you caught her in the club you'd be as likely to catch her grinding Mr. Jones in the middle of the dancefloor to "Sexyback" as getting buck with the dudes when "Bia, Bia" came on as doing the wop when the DJ rocked some Debbie Deb. And as you listen to this album you catch songs that fall into those categories pretty easily.

We all know the aforementioned "Bossy", huge 808 beat with the dainty harpsichord/xylophone(?) melody riding it. Big beat where Kelis comes hard on the chorus and still gives you a lil futuresex on the verse. This is getting buck and co-opting crunk and southern rap into pop/RnB without going the obvious route and making an entire song about candy paint or sittin' on 23's (i'm lookin at you Danity Kane). We get a less aggressive but no less cocky version of this formula later on in the album with "Aww Shit!" which has your girl talking big over a Timbaland-esque big beat with a weird alien sounding synth line and some big trunk rattling drums. Straight up hoody and grill material here [no fall BBQ].




When we get into the sexy Kelis we have "What's That Right There" produced by Will.I.Am from the Black Eyed Pea. The Black Eyed Peas are essentially the most generic pop-rap imaginable short of Nick Cannon. They sound like Gap khakis, if Khakis rapped about "lady lumps" but, they don't really have bad beats. And on this song we get a very vapid pop songstress approach on the chorus/intro and the song sounds like BEP but, as soon as that synth drops out we get alot of attitude from Kelis and the song is redeemed. Homegirl starts talkin about "girlies wanna fight me but you just wanna bite me" in a sexy snarl but then in a couple bars tells us she "put the shimmy on your coco puff".And right there we know that we do not have "lovely lady humps part 2". We've got something a little more esoteric here [maybe an h&m gaucho].

And while were on the topic of sexy Kelis we have to talk about "Like You". The chorus takes you back to whatever little junior high school jumpoff you had. On some Kevin Arnold/Winnie Cooper Wonder Years type of shit, with Kelis cooing "i dont just like you. i like you like you" on the chorus. Take in the exceedingly cutesy beat and we have a song thats sexy in a way thats innocent, and we rarely get that these days. That is until Kelis drops this line "first date is going real well, he's making me hot. or is it his cock?" followed by a coy laugh and a pause. Bam! Look! Look at your face! Just like that she let's you know she's a seductress and she knows exactly what she's doing with the cutesy shit. This is not a goddamn game. She in that one moment does Britney's schoolgirl bit 10x better than Britney. Britney is gross now anyway.

When we have the throwback Kelis on tracks like "Living Proof", "Weekend", "Handful" and "Trilogy" where she does an excellent job of channeling mid eighties electro girl groups like Klymaxx or any of the female Prince proteges (think the likes of vanity six here) and manages to update that sound for the 06. Sassy ass shit but still fun. Girls getting ready to hit the club type shit. Stiletto pumps in the club.

Admittedly while there's the occasional off track here and there this album is pretty damn consistent quality wise while jumping around a fair amount in the specific style employed. Overall we're left with an output that has alot of personality to it and the mark of "Kelis Was Here" all over them.

i cover the whole spectrum call me roy b. giv

the adicolors campaign has the focus of adidas activewear/sneakers placed on customization and creativity via color. the line is a throwback to/relaunch of the adicolor line that dropped in 1983. these kicks were white on white but came with a package of markers in (yellow,black,pink,green,red and blue) to allow you to customize em. the original adicolors inspired a slew of creativity amongst graffiti writers/artist and the generally stylish of the day. In '83 sneaker culture in the mainstream was still in it's infancy. Savy sneaker connoisseurs could trek to tucked away mom and pops to find kicks in various colors, while others would customize their kicks with spray paint or markers to get unique colors, but the masses were still relatively limited to primary colors. So to allow buyers to have whatever they wanted on their sneakers was a really BIG move.

adidas has expanded on that spirit of creativity in their revived campaign in a couple different ways. for their mass produced sneakers they've collaborated with a bunch of different artist from various fields. from the "Mr. Happy" Yellow kicks using a character created by british illustrator Roger Hargreaves to the Tron inspired Black sneakers, to the Green hightops designed by fashion designer Emilio Pucci alot of different creative fields are covered.

for their video presence adidas handed over each color to a different director/illustrator/animator/creative agency to create ads for. instead of going the more traditional route of a tv spot for what could be considered a rather niche market (designer sneaker buyers and streetwear connoisseurs), adidas instead has their collaborators come up with a 3-4 minute non sequitor video spot. these videos are the definition of what makes good viral marketing. they stand on their own as exceptional pieces of art, some focusing on humor others on being obtuse and odd, while some are merely sleek and sexy too the level of any hollywood production. no matter what their focus they all present the viewer with the same "what the fuck?" cool appeal. that appeal that inspires the early adopter, zero patient viewer to pass it on to a couple of friends or blog about it.

it would appear in the spirit of creativity adidas gave their collaborators little in the way of briefing or restrictions and let them each come up with pretty unique interpretations of their various colors.






YELLOW

Neill Blomkamp covers yellow with a faux trailer in the form of an action sci-fi movie. he interprets each color as a different make of cyborg, with the yellow model having escaped from the research facility and agents attempting to track it down. the trailer evokes Bladerunner with its treatment and reverence of cyborgs but feels as though it was directed by a post "Fight Club" pre "Panic Room" David Fincher or possibly a more subdued "Closer" era Mark Romanek. If this was an actual movie id be VERY interested in seeing it based upon this trailer. It carries a seriousness we don't really see in action movies alot but still has the kick assness of ROBOTS and KUNG FU. game over.





RED
for the color Red adidas teamed up with the least known of the Coppola clan, Roman Coppola. Roman creates "A Brief History Of Red" which uses simple cut and paste animation in the style of South Park to illustrate a absurd Monty Python esque journey through the story of the color red. the Rock Lobster was a particularly nice touch.




GREEN
the happy corp serves up a very Chris Cunningham esque short film for green featuring a group of elderly people in a drab, post nuclear winter future* celebrating a green holiday by getting blasted by paintballs. the slow motion combined with the quasi sexual narration and splattering of paint creates a uneasy feel throughout the whole work. but without ever getting smutty. well played happy corp, well played.

the links to the remaining four movies are below, each one a uniquely odd take on their given color. but all are captivating and well crafted. the RGBURL's are a nice touch as well.




BLACK





WHITE





BLUE





PINK

* there are really few things more badass than the combniation of words "post nuclear winter future". dave mustaine prolly has that exact phrase tattooed on his megadeth.

i love it when she rocks her hips from side to side

im in love with the [fairly] new crime mob song "Rock Yo Hips". it seems with *the mob being old enough to vote now theyve someone mellowed out a lil bit and have stopped threatening to "beat you ass", "get knuck", or "fuck niggas up". instead they just want a young lady to just "rock her hips". aint that sweet. no shake it like a salt shaker, no put em on the glass, no laffy taffy. just rock your hips. understatement. class. crime mob.

also the jam "Wuz up" with Bo Hagen and dude from D4L is next level. when dude starts talkin about seeing spaceships and shit... game over. and really at this point any song with princess and diamond from the mob on it, is automatically going to the top of my playlist.

check out the fight club homage video "I'll Beat Your Ass" as well. am i the only one concerned that princess or diamond might in fact beat my ass? sayin'







*im really pushing the mob as the official abbreviation of crime mob. disseminate it at will.

ruminations on the new superman

First and foremost if you werent aware the full length trailer for the new Superman movie [Superman Returns] just dropped on apple's site.check the technique. Bryan Singer [Usual Suspects, Apt Pupil, Xmen 1 & 2] is behind the lense on this new movie and frankly from this trailer it looks like itll be exceptional. From the shots shown in the trailer it seems as though hes really embraced the grandiosity and epic scope of the Superman mythology (peep the opening shot as the camera pulls into the ice of the north pole or the amazing interiors of the fortress of Solitude. This aspect was missing from the earlier 70's/80's incarnation of Superman, one would imagine because of budget/FX limitations. But it looks oh so pretty on film here. Like Alicia Keys pretty, you know "i keep fallliinnn innnn love..." type o' shit. The scenes of the daily planet reveal what seems to be a 40's inspired decorating scheme on that art deco tip. that with some of the clothing choices and the lighting in some of these Lois/Superman scenes seems to indicate a film noir feel for this movie which is very exciting. "why so exciting?" you ask?

Well, upon first hearing about an update/sequel to the Superman franchise the obvious question is "how do you update Superman?". hes always been a bit of a one note character. stongest dude ever/impenetrable/truth, justice and the american way. giant boy scout blah blah blah. how does that fit into the world now? the character feels extremely dated and irrelevant. You have the X-men movies which serve as perfect allegory to discrimination and alienation [racial, age, sexual preference etc] you have Batman Begins and V for Vendetta with their thoughts on revenge, hedgemony and despotism [which taking into account our current political/foreign policy/war status is very interesting] and you have Spiderman which incorporates the problems of the everyman into the world of a superhero. all very relatable ideas masked in well...masks and capes. But with superman you have a much harder concept to deliver, how many of us deal with the problems of being invulnerable and the burden of essentially being a God amongst men? not many. However judging from the trailer and materials floating around on the production/story it seems that Singer may have found a way to humanize and make relevant an extremely dated and foreign character. the movie deals with Superman returning to earth after an unspecified absence to find a world that may or may not need him and a Lois Lane whose got a kid and is married.



The idea of a lover whose moved on and/or blowing a chance with said lover is definetly a relatable concept. It allows us to see Superman as a human for the first time as he is truly and completely fallable in a way we have all experienced. If we look back to the events of the classic Superman II [in which Superman relenquishes his powers so that he can have a romantic life with Lois Lane] and connect those with the idea of Superman being weakened [at least emotionally and id imagine to some extent physically threatened or endangered] by the new relationship of Lois Lane, one could make an argument [albeit a tenuous one] that suggest Lois is the greatest threat to the life of Superman sans kryptonite. And if we accept Superman as a representation of the superego* and Lois as a representation of women in general, could we extrapolate that women are the great danger to the idealized man????

i dunno, maybe i have too much time on my hands/think too much. either way im stoked to see this movie.

*i'm referencing the superego in the sense of holding social norms and idealized behaviors/morals NOT in the Oedipal sense.

TRUMPETS PLEASE

the only music thats been holding my attention lately is soundtracks. honestly why mess with any other music. soundtrack boil down all the grandiosity and moving bits of normal songs into delicious themed bite sized pieces. its one thing to be cleaning your apartment, or cropping a bunch of images. its mundane, thankless work that has to be done. thats life. but what about when youre cleaning your apartment and youre listening to Riders of Taramis from the Conan The Destroyer soundtrack? then it becomes the most epic herculean task you ever undertook. will you manage to lift the couch and stick the vaccum under there and live? only time will tell. what beasts await you in the cavern known only as The Bat Hrum? few have dared to enter and live to tell the tale.
I mean i strive towards the most epic and grandiose realization of my life that i can possibly achieve on a daily basis. and im doing OK on that. but when i have the music to back me up... kid im unstoppable. but there is one downside. if your feeling at all down and you put a soundtrack on blast with sad movements your done. losing your favorite pen will become the most crushing defeat known to man when you have a full string section lamenting its disappearance into the abyss.

heres what ive been listeing to lately:

- The Transformers: The Movie [Original Score]
- Conan The Barbarian Score
- Conan The Destroyer Score
- Me And You And Everyone We Know Soundtrack
- 2001: A Space Odyssey Soundtrack
- The Last Dragon Soundtrack

me and mrs. jones, we got this thing goin on....

this video is fucking up my christmas. your girl Kelis comes back on the scene and shes looking real good. i can understand why Nas cant rap anymore. now beyond simple, shes hot-isms lets discuss some of the aesthetics/fashion in this video.

- first off Kels (yeah Kels not Kelis. we good like that. shes my dun.) amazing asymetrical perm with the nice swooped bangs. I LIKE!!! looks real fun but also nice and sleek. extra good look.

- the pink bikini with the sides gone. ive seen it before but homegirl wears it hella well. the vinyl(?) trim with pink is just....yeah. hot. nice to combine grown and sexy with girly colors.

- the big shades in the bikini scenes. seems like big shades should be done by now but... shes killin it!!! girl gwan do ya ting. CUE AIRHORN!

- a lady in a McClarane. exemplary. it says "hey, yeah i could have got a lamborghini that was the obvious choice for my quarter million dollar sports car. but, i said no. i decided lets refine our tastes a lil bit. lets mess with this McClarane and get a lil more classy".

- the jeans 3/4 body outfit with the frilly top. what the hell! but what the hell in a good way.

- her shoes throughout the whole thing = double plus good.

- the ganster grill with the Mrs. Jones nameplate and the button up and tie???? YES!!! God is in the details on this one. the way the green emeralds(?) in the grill set off the green in the tie can only be described as Machiavellian.

- lastly the awesome lighting for the party scenes. im in love with the on camera spotlight type of deal that I first saw in Fiona Apple's "Criminal" and then saw again in Pharell's "Frontin" and most recently made a lil appearance in Michel Gondry's "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind". Im glad to see it come back. creates a nice level of intimacy without getting into some creepy Terry Richardson jumpoff.

way to go Kels, you have indeed put some back and some neck up on it.