Friday's "Fitted of the Week"

FITTED HAWAII continues to kill it with their new styles coming for Summer '09, but being that I am a chess-head trying to promote in Boston, I give the space to Johnny Cupcake's newest line, and their first fitteds, coming out for this summer. In addition to the grey chess-board piece shown, they are putting out a grey wool "JC" cap, brown and gray tweed caps, and a slick multi-colored tweed hat that strikes resemblance to Eight-panels or Gatsby caps.

















The full set of release photos and more information are available at STRICTLY FITTEDS.
The website is JOHNNY CUPCAKES.

Brooklyn Bodega Round-Up

Obviously, I messed up on the countdown and missed the last day. Shit happens, and I'd rather be catching some great hip-hop than talking about it. The day I missed will not be made up, but a proper summary with videos and pictures is in the works.

For people who missed it, Brooklyn Bodega was June 20th in Empire Fulton Ferry State Park. Despite the nasty weather, the show went off and the organizers were able to fit a crazy amount of performers into a short amount of time and even had some special guests.

Here's some highlights from Death By Electro Shock

Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival 09 from Death by Electric Shock on Vimeo.

10 Days to Brooklyn Bodega Festival - Day 9 [Grand Puba]

Real name Maxwell Dixon, Grand Puba has been hustling to gain his reputation in hip-hop since starting the group Masters of Ceremony and releasing with them their first and last album Dynamite in 1988. After Masters of Ceremony disbanded, Grand Puba birthed the impactful alternative hip-hop group Brand Nubian in New Rochelle with Sadat X and Lord Jamar. This group would also prove to be a short venture for Puba, who was pressured to leave the group by Jamar and Sadat soon after the release of their acclaimed debut One for All in 1990.

Puba went on to kick off a solo career with the album Reel to Reel. This was followed by 2000 and then Understand This. The last flopped, and it would be more than seven years before Puba got back into the game, set to release his fourth studio LP in late June called Retroactive on the independent powerhouse Babygrande Records. In addition, the original members of Brand Nubian reformed and have continued producing socially conscious and politally charged hip-hop.

The video has Grand Puba and Lord Jamar talking about the good old days of hip-hop that cats are going to be revisting for a while. The two links are for new cuts, the first off Puba's new album, the second off of Sadat X's upcoming album Brand New Bein'.



Grand Puba - I See Dead People [f Rell, Lord Jamar]
Sadat X - Brand New Bein' [f Lord Jamar, Grand Puba]

10 Days to Brooklyn Bodega Festival - Day 8 [Styles P]

Bringing a more gritty style of music to the Brooklyn Bodega is Styles P. Along with fellow Yonkers, NY emcees Jadakiss and Sheek Louch, Styles P makes up the hardcore rap group D-Block, formerly known as the L.O.X. Styles is also a successful solo artist, having put out three LPs on top of his work on D-Block's three (soon to be four) studio albums. Styles P will definitely be the street's answer to the more alternative acts on the festival's bill, but he already has collaborations under his belt with the other acts such as Pharoahe Monch and DJ Premier. One of these collaborations is below, Pharoahe Monch and Style P's "My Life." The site is http://www.stylesp.net/.

10 Days to Brooklyn Bodega Festival - Day 7 [The Knux]

The brothers Lindsey - Kentrell aka Krispy Kream and Alvin aka Rah Almillio - make up the Knux. Originally from N'Orleans, LA, after being displaced by Katrina, these two made their way into the hip-hop scene in Los Angeles that is developing outside of the influence of the once-commercially viable gangsta rap stage. Raucous and bouncy, the Knux, which is short for the Knuckle Heads, are gaining notoriety for their intense live shows and this year grace the stage with the rest of the main-stagers. The link here redirects to the official video for their song Fire, off their debut "Remind Me in 3 Days..." At the Knux request, their videos cannot be embedded. The website - oh fish ull - is http://www.theknux.com/.

10 Days to Brooklyn Bodega Festival - Day 6 [Smif-n-Wessun]

Here's an update. Due to a lack of funds, the festival will not be setting up and running a second stage. However, the second stage artists will still perform, beginning at noon, before the main stage artists. Today's post starts up with the main stage artists proper.

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Things get complicated in the Boot Camp Clik. The Clik is headed by Brooklyn rapper Kenyatta Blake aka Buckshot, who also heads the trio Black Moon. Apart from Buck, there is the duo Heltah Skeltah and the trio O.G.C. The last quarter is made up of Tek and Steele aka Smif-n-Wessun coming out of Brownsville, Brooklyn.

This pair has been in the game since '93, when they debuted on Black Moon's first album Enta da Stage. Their first two albums, released in 1995 and 1998, were benchmarks for hip-hop, even though they would be overshadowed by bigger acts in the New York scene. They have been working the underground, through cuts on Rawkus Records' Soundbombing and Lyricist Lounge. Now signed to the quickly growing independent monster of Duck Down Records, and sixteen years deep in the rap game, they're showing up for a set at Brooklyn Bodega. Below is a live cut at Southpaw, Brooklyn. The website is http://www.myspace.com/smifnwessun.

10 Days to Brooklyn Bodega Festival - Day 5 [Marco Polo & Torae]

More and more, Canada's hip-hop artists are aggressively imposing themselves on the American hip-hop scene. Marco Polo arms himself with not only an impressive selection of beats, but an extensive rolodex, recruiting many of rap's entrenched veterans for his projects. Teamed up with Torae, Brooklyn's own, the duo recently released "Double Barrel" on Duck Down Records. Below is the song "Hold Up," starring Masta Ace and Duck Down labelmate Sean Price. The duo's website is http://www.myspace.com/doublebarrel08.

10 Days to Brooklyn Bodega Festival - Day 4 [Tiye Phoenix]

Don't think that we forgot about the ladies. Among the ranks of the talented young emcees blessing the Second Stage is Tiye Phoenix. This woman is incredibly talented: a classically-trained pianist, producer, songwriter, and composer. Tiye was formerly signed to Rawkus Records, during which time she teamed up with DJ Spinna, Shabaam Sahdeeq, and Mr. Complex in the group Polyrhythmaddicts to release the album Break Glass in 2007. She recently released her album Half Woman Half Amazin' May 26th. Look down for her song "Killin' Everybody." The website is www.myspace.com/tiyephoenix.

10 Days to Brooklyn Bodega Festival - Day 3 [Nyle]

I fudged the entry today, got it in late. But the Pittsburgh Penguins are now the STANLEY CUP CHAMPION Pittsburgh Penguins. This lil' cat's excited.

Today's highlight is Nyle, a rookie out of Philadelphia that will be blessing the second stage at Brooklyn Bodega. Like the other two artists we have covered so far, Nyle is smart, and he has drive. A graduate of NYU's revolutionary BFA program in recorded music, Nyle already has two albums out and keeps working. The addition to Get Legs below is his video "Let the Beat Build." The website is www.nyleraps.com.

Friday's "Fitted of the Week"

Summer's here and the time is right for wearing the appropriate fits. HUF of San Francisco brings the table-cloth inspired set of gingham fitted hats. These come in red, black, and light blue with a black HUF ball logo on the front. They go on sale today, but so far it looks like only in their physical store fronts.

Suckers.
HUF's website is http://www.hufsf.com/

10 Days to Brooklyn Bodega Festival - Day 2 [Donny Goines]

Another second stage act, Donny Goines is young, and a recent newcomer. While other rappers are bragging about the fact that they have been rhyming since they first started to walk, Goines admits that he did not start emceeing until 2006, inspired by the movie "Fade to Black," autobiography of Jay-Z. Despite the late start, he has put out a lot of material (and check how nice the album covers and videos are designed and shot). Donny Goines is unsigned, you can check out his myspace here http://www.myspace.com/donnygoines and the video is below.

"What Happened" Directed by John Colombo from Donny Goines on Vimeo.

10 Days to Brooklyn Bodega Festival - Day 1 [Homeboy Sandman]

So, on the 20th of June, an organization that promotes the hip-hop movement will be putting on a very, very exquisite showing of some of real hip-hop's up-and-coming talent, established emcees, and veterans of the game in a show called the Brooklyn Bodega Festival. The festival runs from Thursday the 18th in various venues across Brooklyn, coming together for the main show at Empire Fulton Ferry State Park on Saturday the 20th. There will be some big names there, so the Get Legs team and friends will be getting down to BK to see it. As a lead up to the show, I'll be slapping up a preview of one of the artists each day til the night before.

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Today, it's Homeboy Sandman from Elmhurst, Queens. Both in and out of the AOK Collective, Homeboy Sandman (not to be confused with Sandman, formerly of Re-Up Gang) has ripped the mic on three full lengths and loads of mixtapes. Here's a warning, guy is completely out of left field and comes across corny at times, though mostly in a good way. In addition to being a class rapper, guy does some excellent work hosting and documenting some really great shows in the New York area. The website is http://www.myspace.com/homeboysandman and the video, from his series "Live From..." is below.

There were a lot of nice styles that surfaced this week, including a very fresh piece from FITTED HAWAII and two throwback joints to commemorate the "Battle of the Bay" (As a note, though your man hails from Oakland, I will never cosign the Athletics' color scheme. That just looks ugly). My choice for fitted of the week is Stall & Dean's Washington Federals cap. Stall & Dean's whole shtick is designing clothing for defunct teams from defunct leagues, the Federals being a member of the United States Football League back in the 80s. It's like fake history.
Stall & Dean's website is https://www.stallanddean.com/index.asp