“I believe what I’m listening to.”

-?uestlove

Wake Up! comes out September 21st.

Jay-Z isn’t the only rapper who loves Brooklyn. Maino reps his hometown with the lyrics and video for his new track “The Brooklyn Way 2.”

Doze Green was born and raised in the upper west side of Manhattan, New York City and was one of the pioneers of the Hip-Hop culture. He first started writing graffiti in his neighborhood in 1974, and started painting subway trains in 1976. The following year he joined the Rock Steady Crew. The Rock Steady Crew were pioneers of a new style of dance known as breakdancing or B-Boying. The crew first started dancing at art exhibitions and galleries of Soho and the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

During this time Doze Green was also attending the High School of Art and Design, where some of the most talented and well-respected graffiti artists came from. Artists such as Lady Pink, Daze, Ernie Valdez, Seen TC5, , , Mr. Wiggles, Mare 139, and numerous others. In 1982 Doze Green showed his artwork in a well-known group show at the Fun Gallery. At this same time after appearances in major movies such as Flashdance, Style Wars, and Wildstyle, the Rock Steady Crew was launched into action and the limelight.

From B-boy to graffiti legend, Doze Green has gone to tagging the hallways of South Bronx projects to designing for clothing lines like Kikwear and Ecko. In the process, he’s become a proponent of the avant-garde “fusionistic” art movement. Best known for his characters, Doze Green has begun to concentrate on canvases that blend wildstyle techniques with metaphysical concepts. Doze Green is also known for his live painting performances. Doze Green’s work is in many public and private collections throughout the United States, Japan, Europe, and Australia. His works have been published in BlackBook, Anthem, Juxtapoz, Tokion, and Vibe and reviewed on CNN.

Information courtesy of the Jonathan Levine Gallery

“I took my street hustle and then I made it into working the art hustle.”

-Estevan Oriol

In 2005 Pharrell Williams, one half of the Grammy winning production team The Neptunes, along with his manager Robert Walker, partnered with Japanese fashion icon Nigo (founder of the highly successful A Bathing Ape / BAPE brand) to launch two lines of luxury clothing, Billionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream.

Pharrell is one of the most successful and prolific music producers of his time, producing and appearing as a vocalist on hits for artists such as: Madonna, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Gwen Stefani, Jay Z, Usher, Janet Jackson, Nelly and Snoop Dogg. Pharrell has also become a fashion icon in his own right, named Best Dressed Man of 2005 by Esquire magazine, he was the face of a 2006 advertising campaign for Louis Vuitton and collaborated with his partner nigo to design a line of sunglasses for Louis Vuitton. In 2007, Pharrell, along with camille miceli to design a highly regarded line of jewelry for louis vuitton. Pharrell is considered to be an influential part of A Bathing Ape’s enormous success in the United States.

The Billionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream brands are focused on high-end luxury sportswear. The lines consist of T- shirts, polos, sweatshirts, knits, denim, suits and shirts; outerwear in leather, down, cotton, and technical fabrics; hats, sneakers, underwear, socks and accessories. All of the items are produced in very limited quantities, using only the highest quality materials and are manufactured in Japan. Our smaller sizes are cut with our female customers in mind, and there are plans to launch a women’s line in the near future. The brands are known for their unique style, incorporating bright colors and innovative patterns, influenced by classic design and vintage style. The brands are credited for the introduction of the “all over print” sweatshirts, however they have moved away from that early look, forging ahead to set new trends.

BBC opened its first Flagship store in Tokyo, Japan in 2005 and opened two more stores (New York and Hong Kong) in the fall of 2007. The brands are very exclusive and are only available in approximately forty stores worldwide including Barney’s New York flagship and Co-Op stores, Fred Segal in Santa Monica, Colette in Paris, and other high end boutiques around the world.

Billionaire Boys Club is on its 11th season of defining hip-hop fashions. Learn more about the label and shop online HERE.

]]> http://respect-mag.com/billionaire-boys-club/feed/ 1 http://respect-mag.com/respect-self-portrait-series-zach-cordner/ http://respect-mag.com/respect-self-portrait-series-zach-cordner/#comments Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:00:40 +0000 Lauren_Schwartzberg http://respect-mag.com/?p=1478

“I can count on one hand how many times I’ve done a shoot with an actual, real permit.”

-Zach Cordner

Lorenzo La Roc is a native New York electric violinist, composer, and arranger. He began playing the violin at the age of eight, and though he was classically trained, he now plays a diverse gamut of styles, including jazz, rock and Latin music. He studied at the Julliard School of Music under the tutelage of Mary Jane Metcalf, the Guitar Study Center in New York City and at the Creative Music Studios in Woodstock. Very soon after graduating college, he was hired as a solo electric violinist to perform with Warner Brothers recording artist, Sheila E. It was then that he embraced Latin jazz.

After several years working with Sheila E., Lorenzo formed his own group of New York City musicians called Masterpiece. Masterpiece is now comprised of cutting edge musicians who have worked with many grammy-award winning artists such as Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles, and Whitney Houston. Lorenzo uses his signature trademark, a custom made five-string plexiglass electric violin. The intensity and passion with which Lorenzo plays his instrument expresses not only his musical versatility, but also his deep love and commitment for what he does. He hopes to bring the electric violin to a popular audience and to touch the hearts of listeners worldwide.

Lorenzo has generated much attention form his televised win on Fox network’s hit variety show Thirty Seconds to Fame. He also fulfilled a life long dream to perform at the famous Avery Fischer Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City, which warranted national television coverage. He received several write-ups in the New York TImes documenting his artistic achievements. He appeared on a number of national networks: CBS, NBC, FOX, ABC, as well as CNN, and VH1.

Lorenzo has also performed at Carnegie Hall, The United Nations, the Jacob Javits Center, and St. John the Divine Cathedral. Some of Lorenzo La Roc’s corporate clients have included I.B.M., Pfizer, G.E., the U.S. Open, and Bloomberg Communications….. Lorenzo also performs extensively for all grade levels in the New York City Public School system. Lorenzo is establishing a non-profit organization called JFK (Jazz for Kids), an organization dedicated to providing musical instruments and scholarships to the children of families who otherwise would be unable to afford such beneifts. Jazz For Kids brings Jazz artists into the classroom and also provides an interactive website for children to learn about Jazz.

Learn more about Lorenzo HERE

10. Missy Elliott
“The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)”
[dir: Hype Williams; 1997]

The best debut video of the 90s, Hype Williams’ off-kilter tapestry helped codify and introduce not just the Missy Elliott persona but the axis of creative talent who would blow up and rebuild hip-hop and R&B from scratch. (Pitchfork)

See the complete list HERE

They were still a young art form when the 1990s began, but by the end of the decade music videos and video directors were arguably at their commercial and artistic peak. In 1999, MTV’s “TRL” was launching teen pop stars and serving as a better barometer of what Generation Y was listening to than the Billboard charts. Meanwhile, Spike Jonze– who almost single-handedly codified a generation’s idealized music videos by artfully employing Gen X totems such as irony, 70s nostalgia, geek chic, intertextuality, and trash culture– was being nominated for a best director Oscar for Being John Malkovich.

Throughout the decade, MTV– with a huge assist from Clear Channel– glued together a pseudo-music monoculture in the U.S. like almost nothing before. Songs like Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, Dr. Dre’s “Nothing But a G Thang”, and Britney Spears’ “…Baby One More Time” altered the landscape of pop culture so quickly in large part because they were delivered to all corners of the U.S. simultaneously by MTV. It wasn’t just inevitable hits whose influence was quickened by MTV either; oddities such as Folk Implosion’s “Natural One” or Danzig’s “Mother 93″ (or, say, Green Jelly’s “Three Little Pigs”, to name just one of many execrable examples) became out-of-leftfield hits for almost no other reason than someone at MTV decided they should become Buzz Bin videos.

MTV’s ability to place a song and musician into the pop music conversation was unparalleled at the time, and by the end of the decade that meant absurd levels of both financial and creative commitment to music videos. Creatively, videos at the time were dominated by a handful of visionary directors– Jonze, Michel Gondry, and Chris Cunningham– and there’s no getting away from that in our list of our top 50 videos of the 90s. (NB: Whenever possible we’ve chosen official videos to limit the chances those videos will be removed at a future date; the tradeoff is that those clips are more likely to have pre-roll ads.)

As always with a list such as this, commentary is kept to a minimum; the fun and joy should be watching the clips, whether for the first time or the first time in years.

After 10 years of hard work GZA has finally released the trailer for its highly anticipated “Wu-Tang Revealed” documentary. The documentary, with no official release date announced yet, appears to follow the clan on tour and gives us a nice glimpse into their lives of cooking breakfast, talking about money and rolling blunts. What else would we expect from these legendary music makers?

This post holds the information to one of the greatest genre-crossing collaborations of all time. I’m not talking about Lil’ Wayne on the electric guitar or Linkin Park trying to rhyme. This collaboration brings together two legends of their respective genres to teach us that when it’s done right, rap and rock can go hand in hand.

Tom Morello and Boots Riley have come together to form Street Sweeper Social Club.

“It’s revolutionary party jams,” said Morello of Street Sweeper Social Club. “It’s got huge steamroller riffs combined with depth, charge, funk, while Boots unloads clip after clip of incendiary rhymes rich with satire and venom.” Riley added, “This is a time when the working class is being fleeced left and right. More families will be homeless and more people will be jobless. They’ll need something to listen to on their ipods while storming Wall Street.” Good music and social activism. We like.

In case you didn’t know, Tom Morello is the founding member and electric guitarist for the bands Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave along with other well-received solo projects . He’s one of the most celebrated electric guitarists around, winning the 26th spot on Rolling Stones “100 Greatest Guitar Players of All-Time.” And of course, Morello  continues to be a widely recognized political activist.

Boots Riley makes up the hip-hop portion of this duo. He’s best known as leader of the group The Coup, who have been selected for top-10 album of the year lists by Rolling Stone, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times among many others. Billboard Magazine named The Coup “the best hip-hop act of the past decade” shedding light on just how influential Riley’s group has been. Born in Chicago and raised in East Oakland, Riley has been a community organizer throughout his life.

Street Sweeper Social Club has created the perfect mix of rock and hip-hop.