Medium

UNI: Beautiful Day

I’ve always been one to like my Cali raps more Ice Cube than Jurassic 5, or more Dogg Pound than Del the Funky Homosapien. Even other underground representatives of California don’t do as much for me as other people. Either way, I was pretty caught off-guard when I first heard the single for the Inglewood based group, UNI.

The group consists of Inglewood native Thurzday and Seattle native Y-O. Rapping together as a group since High School, the group is out promoting their street album, “Fried Chicken and Watermelon.”I think I might have seen references to the album a few weeks ago, but the title didn’t seem that appealing to me at the time. The second time I heard the group was on El Prez’s video for “Uaintuponthis!” that featured the group. Despite some quality rhymes, I still wasn’t put on by the battle raps and didn’t check into the group further. It wasn’t until I saw the video for the lead single “Beautiful Day” that my ears really perked up.

Video Link

It’s probably the high quality video, at least when compared to other independent rappers, or maybe that I have a weak spot for summer time/feel good sounding hip hop music. It seems to me a bit of a nod to Spike Jonez’s “Drop” but with the feel good vibe and tone of Cube’s “Good Day.” Either way, the video is officially dropping on Mtv Suckafree Thursday March 27, so don’t sleep. I went ahead and checked out the street album, and at first listen (although a bit rough around the edges) you can see that the talent, charisma and star potential is there. From knocking beat on “Lapdance” to the sense of humor from the group on “Fat Girls”, the album is definitely enjoyable. Let’s hope that they keep making good music and don’t just get lumped into to what appears to be a sudden rise of retro raps and get lost in the mess. Peace.

Downloads
Beautiful Day by UNI
Fried Chicken and Watermelon by UNI

Links
UNI Myspace
UNI on ilike

Graphic for story by The Honest Ape. Photo of UNI courtesy of UNI

Baltimore based graphic artist and dj, Logo has just finished up the teaser flyers for 2008 Baltimore Music Conference. I liked his illustrations since I first saw his work and this flyer really shows off the detail and intricacy of the characters and scenes he creates. Click the images below to see the larger flyers.

From the Buzzlife message boards, Logo tells us:

“Since this is a teaser flyer, the objective is to pique public interest in the BMC—sponsors, performers, and attendees alike. From the beginning, I knew I wanted to really emphasize the MORE MUSIC in “Baltimore Music Conference,” and since it’s a few months away, I thought it would be fun to add “IS COMING,” so that, at first glance, it reads “MORE MUSIC IS COMING.”

As soon as I thought about how those words would look on a flyer, I immediately envisioned a menacing Tripod War Machine from the War of the Worlds to kind of symbolize the approaching BMC.

Because the BMC showcases all types of music, I wanted the imagery to reflect music in general, and not get hung up on representing all types of instruments or audio equipment. So, morphing my SpeakerBot with a WOTW Tripod seemed like the way to make these two ideas work together.

H.G. Wells’ original story was written in 1898, and in 1938, a Martian Invasion mock news report was broadcast over the radio, creating mass hysteria.

Aesthetically, I wanted my flyer to reflect the stylistic qualities of the 1930s, but with a bit of a modern twist.
Thus the neo-Art Deco typefaces and flourishes.
Be on the lookout for posters which will hopefully be going up soon!”

I’ll be looking out for the posters, I might just have to steal me one.

Links
Logo on Myspace
Logo’s design gallery on Flickr
Baltimore Music Conference on Myspace
Baltimore Music Conference on Sonicbids
www.BMCon.org 

This past Saturday, I had the pleasure of being one of three invited designers at the March installment of X. X is a monthly gathering of people that celebrate the creative culture in DC. The event usually includes an invited fashion designer, djs, visual artists, graphic designers and many others.

The three graphic designers that are invited are given three words by a curator and with those three words the designers must then go and create something keeping those words in mind and also being sure to include the X formula which is X = LIVE (PERFORMANCE + ART + PROJECTIONS + ELECTRONICA + FASHION) + YOU! Designers have a time period of 4 hours to create something while three projectors showcase each designer’s process and of course final product.

At the end of the event, the curator chooses a winning design. This month’s curator was Jesse Cohen from ArtDC.org and the words given to us were: Erotic, Halftone and Liquid. Below is the winning design, which I created broken down into small pieces. You can click on individual pieces of the design to see a larger version of that piece and see the details of the halftone.

The Design

The Process
I wanted my design to be a poster in case I wanted to print it out later so I started off with an 11×17 canvas in Photoshop. I first focused on the word “erotic” and researched images related to burlesque and together with halftone patterns was going to move into 1940’s and 1950’s pin up girls. I knew I didn’t have enough time to illustrate something, so decided to stick with photographs.

I used Adobe Kuler to come up with a burlesque colour scheme (Go to Adobe Kuler and search “Honest Burlesque” to see the colour scheme I started off with) I remembered I had an old picture of the pope that I had found on a trip to Italy and had scanned in, so for “liquid” I decided I was going to go with holy water and to make it more obvious I decided to put “Aqua Sanctum” which is Latin for holy water.

At the end of the 4 hours it turned into a real pimp pope hanging out with some really trashy twins and kicking back with his crew of real life pin up girls which are all begging to be blessed by the pope’s holiest of waters. I achieved the halftone effect by making copies of all my layers, desaturating them, then pixelating then turning down the opacity on all of the halftone layers. I used scanned images of papers to give the picture some texture and dirtied it up a bit more with some brushes in Photoshop. Here are some links to the final image:

1024 x 663 jpeg of poster
800 x 518 jpeg of poster
High Resolution PDF at 11 x 17 (Large File)

Thanks to everyone that came out and supported, thanks to X for inviting me and shout out to the other talented designers that I met Sarah Foster and Chris Spade, who also created some awesome pieces.

Listen to the entire mix Nintendbub by Squincy Jones (Running Time 40:46)

Tracklisting

Mario Ds Screwed Intro
Rogue State - Lions Paw (Metroid - Kraid’s Hide Edit)
Babylon System - Dancing Shoes (Draped Out Edit)
Walsh & Kromestarr - Panik Room (3 Kings Edit)
Marlow - Road Kill (Goonies Edit)
Benga - Zombie Jig (Wizards & Warriors Kryptonite Edit)
Rusko - Hornz Cru (Diet Kryptonite Edit)
Loefah - Disko Rekah (Goonies Pop Trunk Edit)
Unsolved Mysteries Theme
Chimpo - Lockoff (Freaky Girl Edit)
Nastee Boi - Bangorz (Knuck if you Buck Edit)
Mike Lennon - When Science Fails (Hektagon Remix) (that one broad Swing Edit)
Babylon System - Loaded
Dj Unk - Beatn Down Yo Block
Woogie - End Dub
Rustie - Response
DZ - Just Rolling
Rustie - Jagz The Smack (Zelda Edit)
Gerard McMann - Cry Little Sister
Kode 9 - 9 Samurai
Kode 9 - 9 Samurai (Quarta 330 Remix)

Yet another quality promo mix emerges from SXSW in Austin, this one by Houston based dj, Squincy Jones (aka Shane Rector) Definitely a great concept and executed well by Squincy. If you’re in Houston, check out Squincy every Thursday as he hosts Speakerboxx, a weekly party at The Backroom. Squincy describes the weekly Thursday night party as “… the house party your mom warned you about—it’s grimy, rowdy, and the kids ain’t alright. Yet the vibe is infectious, furious fun.”

“Nintendub” by Squincy Jones

Download
Nintendbub by Squincy Jones Running Time 40:46

Links
Squincy Jones
awwready.blogspot.com
Speakerboxx Thursdays

Artwork for Nintendbub by Haterzville

Listen to the entire Southern Soul Remixtape - Mixed by Dj Rapid Ric

Tracklisting
01 Intro - Chop Steak/Dj Rapid Ric
02 TI, Lil Scrappy, P$C - I’m A King (2020 Remix)
03 Young Jeezy ft. Mannie Fresh - And Then What (Chop Steak Remix)
04 Southbound - Close Your Eyes (20/20)
05 Lil’ Wayne - I’m A D-Boy (2020 Remix)
06 Ray Cash ft. Scarface - Bumpin’ My Music (Chop Steak Remix)
07 Clipse - Mr. Me Too (Chop Steak Remix)
08 Smitty ft. Lil’ Wayne & TwistaDiamonds Remix (2020 Remix)
09 Young Dro - Shoulder Lean (Chop Steak Remix)
10 Lil’ Scrappy - Money In The Bank (Checho Remix)
11 Slim Thug ft. T.I. & Bun B - 3 Kings (Checho Remix)
12 UGK ft. Outkast - Intl Players Anthem (Chop Steak Remix)
13. Slim Thug ft. Young Jeezy & Killa Kyleon - Diamonds Remix (2020 Remix)
14. Young Joc - It’s Goin’ Down (2020 Remix)

After about a year and a half of trading beats and acapellas, Soul 2020 presents the Southern Soul Remixtape, mixed by Dj Rapid Ric. Southern Soul is a side project for the camp and is out just in time for this years SXSW Festival in Austin, so be on the look out for Chop Steak going from venue to venue hustling it. Perfect for the sunny weather and barbecues going on in Austin right now. This remixtape is southern hip hop artist like Lil Wayne, T.I., UGK, etc over the soul-sample-heavy sound of the Soul 2020 production crew of Checho, Chop Steak and 20/20 and on top of that add the mixing of the one and only mixtape mechanic, Dj Rapid Ric.(who also serves as Chamillionaires tour dj) It’s really what I can only describe as a music-to-have-a-backyard-cookout-to. Should go perfect with that free SXSW beer you’re sippin on (or syrup). Texas people, get at Chop in and around Austin this week for a copy.

Videos