Am I just in another of my clueless states or is really a bad move? I know it could be due to forces beyond their control and that maybe they're hoping to get an after Christmas shopping bonus but it just seems very ill-timed.
Coming Dec.
26th, released to miss the biggest shopping days of the year but just in time for New Year's gift giving:
The Best of N.W.A: The Strength of Street Knowledge
Posted by Clyde on November 8, 2006 in A Boston Herald article on doesn't shed any new ground * but makes the point that, for rappers, the in-store is a fan-friendly medium between street corners and nightclubs.
As one retailer put it, We do it for the 18-and-under crowd, the people who don’t like clubs and the people who just don’t want to pay to get into clubs.
Though I tend to think about the artists when looking at in-stores, they're potentially a great way to promote your store and make it part of the community. Activities at Massive Records in Cambridge and UndergroundHipHop.
com in the Back Bay were considered for the article.
[* "shed any new ground" WTF!?
! Who wrote that?!
?]] Posted by Clyde on May 8, 2006 in The NY Times has a really odd piece about , a hip hop influenced upscale clothing shop in the Hamptons. The name is said to be derived "from 'Glaciers of Ice,' a rap song by Raekwon, a founding member of Wu-Tang Clan.
In it he describes customizing a pair of Clarks Wallabees with blue and cream paint, thereby rendering them wearable."
The clientele is described as "young, mostly wealthy, mostly white people" and the clothes are considered expensive though, with so-called hip hop fashions going upscale and constant reminders of how expensive everything surrounding Kimora Lee Simmons is, I don't really know how to judge what's considered expensive for hip hop. Except that I can't spend $400 on reissues of Nike's from the 80s.
But don't sneaker nuts do stuff like that?
The author, Alex Kuczynski makes a big deal of the clients' whiteness and the fact that he overheard white people saying "dope" and "boom." Um, that's kind of old news, at least the use of the term dope is, everybody does it.
Although the is a popular topic right now which I'll soon be addressing, it must be noted that much of American slang now comes from black people and is taken up by everybody else.
That's called cultural influence. Giving white people a hard time for being influenced by black people is kind of bizarre, in my opinion.
Having cultural influence is one way that an often oppressed minority group can have much more power than their numbers or political influence or financial resources would otherwise provide. But that's getting away from Alex's story and, really, the slight bit of cattiness is fairly common in fashion oriented writing, so that's cool.
To me it's not surprising to see upscale shops appropriate hip hop flavor, that's what upscale fashion does, translate the streets into something much pricier and less threatening.
If you want to get into interesting stuff about white people and hip hop influence, let me tell you about years ago hearing my white suburban nephew drop "boo yaa" in a story or seeing his younger brother last Christmas dressed like a thug and my brother and his wife not even recognizing the stylistic influence. I tell you, he looked totally cool and I can't wait to see where he goes with it.
Brita Brundage , a hip hop influenced boutique that includes batiked shirts in Norwalk, CT (I'm assuming the CT part, people don't put this stuff on their websites, cause nobody from out of state is supposed to be paying attention, right?
). The owners/designers seem to go by only their first names, Jahmane, John and Jay and the doesn't give you much more info on who these folks are. In fact, the website doesn't even seem to mention their new store.
Apparently this is their third location in the Norwalk area, after initially selling directly to vendors that they met through street festivals in places like Philly and DC. So they've been in the game for quite a while, ever since the late 80s. Though they're open to working with folks to set up shops in select locations, they want to avoid the mass market approach taken by labels like FUBU who eventually faltered.
are a fun mix of African and American influences though I'm not really a great judge of how well this sort of thing could do. And, like most of hip hop, they've got a Nike fetish. Actually, I could see this stuff going over well with jam band fans who follow the Dead or Phish (if they're still around), cause hippies love batik!
may be heading for a fall with blown deals and excessive expenditures. Although one of the deals that is no longer happening was with Eve's Fetish line, judging from the photo of Eve that accompanies the article at the moment, that may be for the best cause she is looking ridiculous.
Will Smith and Jay-Z recently announced that they were joining other celebs, including Steve Stoute who "spearheaded the venture," in investing in , a Brooklyn based cosmetics company.
Plans are to take the store nationwide with Jada Pinkett-Smith as featured model who can already by seen on the . Additional background and future plans are available from .
Supposedly inspired in part by seeing 50 Cent wearing a diamond bracelet, visits Jacob the Jeweler and purchases a $26k bracelet with "630 square-cut diamonds, invisibly channel-set in platinum.
"
A NY Times piece on the includes a few comments by Steve Stoute and namechecks Reeboks' "I Am What I Am" campaign with Jay-Z and 50 Cent.
Ever wonder what a company like Sean John uses? Currently it's a customized solution from .
I can't imagine what was more disgusting last night, the fake humans on or the fake VJs on . Fortunately, I don't have cable and so was easily able to avoid hearing an Apprentice actor try to . Even better was missing an appearance by the increasingly nauseating Gene Simmons.
Although the idea of may seem a bit odd, the passing of George Atkinson reminds us that he saw an opportunity that Hollywood execs didn't recognize at the time.
will be a juror in the late April Tribeca Film Festival in Manhattan. Robert De Niro is a cofounder of the .
I recently checked out in San Francisco on Powell near Market. In fact, I'm going to start doing little field trip reports based on visits to a variety of Bay Area retail outlets. Rasputin Music is a small Bay Area indie record chain with 7 stores.
The SF store has 3 stories on the corner of a block, although the second is really a small listening station with a translucent floor. Most of the cds are on the top floor and I'm pretty sure they had an elevator to get there.
This location had that indie rock dominated record store vibe that you'll get from shops around the country, particularly near college campuses, which was especially cool in an area known more for Nike Town and upscale shopping.
In addition to a large rock section, most genres seemed to be represented, though I can't say for sure. However, the hip hop section was quite substantial and covered a full range from underground/indie artists like the Def Jux crew to highly commercial entertainers like Snoop Dogg. An interesting mixtape section also caught my eye.
But my initial impetus for writing was the , a store related music magazine. Since I'm writing about charts and awards, I've been keeping an eye out for unique sources. The December year-end issue of the Manifesto includes The Top 40 Records of 2004 with a number of different writers contributing the descriptions.
I'm disappointed to not find it online. Maybe I missed it or maybe they'll add it later, but I'll hit the hip hop highlights.
20 - Terror Squad, Lean Back (Remix)
Note the high proportion of hip hop singles, 8 out of 20.
If your site has an alternative chart, best of list or staff picks list, please let me know. I can't promise to mention everybody but I'm very interested in such things, especially in charts that represent spins or sales.
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