36 Chambers is 20 years old today (Nov. 9). Ain’t that some shit. Not much else can be said about their debut album or Wu-Tang in general during their heyday. Classic imagery, sound, style, attitude.. all that. Shout out to the Wu-Tang for their ingenuity, savviness and classic tunes.
I know it's insane to imagine these days (even to myself), but it was definitely out of this world when Yo! MTV Raps hit the airwaves back in the day. That's where you went to catch rap music on TV, and they did a great job with it. Rap is all over the place now, but not back then (yes, I remember the stone age).
In the process of trying to sell you clothes, Stussy put together this sweet 2 part series on the show. There's lots of notable people in this, so check it out.
The other day I came across Complex's Magnum Opus series. In a nutshell, the series spotlights classic rap songs through the people who helped create them as well as the artists themselves. I love this shit!
The first one I watched was the one above, featuring “Come Clean” by Jeru The Damaja. I loved this song when it came out, and I still love it now. I'm a huge DJ Premier fan as well, so this was right up my alley.
There's only 4 episodes right now, but I watched all of them this morning and I suggest any fan of rap music to do the same. There's Lots of cool stories and info from notable people put together in a nice package.
Ghostface Killah shits on mainstream rap in part two of his 2013 “Top Ten Softest Rappers in the Game” series:
“When he aint startin pillow fights on tour n pollinatin flowers n shit son stays spittin wit that tenderized Stephen Hawking voice… Son could probably make you any origami animal you ask him to namsayin”
And that”s just a fraction of it. Pure comedic gold….
Travis Scott's new mixtape Owl Pharaoh has been on repeat… If you don't know Travis, he's part of the G.O.O.D. Music crew and has produced a bunch of tracks for Kanye. Funny story about the album cover. Travis and Nigel Sylvester are friends and Travis was super stoked on the photo of Nigel jumping the subway tracks, that was shot by 13th Witness… So Travis reached out to 13th Witness and he ended up shooting the cover… all because of BMX!
It’s been interesting following EL-P’s career all these years. I’ve always been a fan of his music/production and it’s good to see him reaching new audiences.
El-P and Killer Mike (who I only really checked for due to EL-P) make up “Run The Jewels” and will be dropping a free album sometime this month. Listen to 36″ Chain below. If you search the internets you can find more stuff.
A new piece I did on French Montana for Dazed and Confused just dropped today. It was rad to get to chill with French and I had a great time putting this piece together. I shot with him for a few days in New York, in the studio, at a photo shoot, at Hot 97, and rolled around in his Ghost… Check it out above and keep reading for a few photos from the shoot.
With the recent passing of Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman, I’m sure most fans went through and listened to a little more Slayer than usual. Same here.
While doing so, I kept being drawn to the amazing covers on some of these albums (specifically the ones above) and started wondering who made them after all these years. My research led me to Larry Carrol. Apparently dude keeps a low profile, which I kind of like. I did come across THIS rad interview which was a good read and had some great nuggets of info. I recommend.
New DOOM over Clams Casino. Not super duper in love with this after a few listens, but any DOOM is better than no DOOM. Love me some DOOM though. DOOM.
