Flying Lotus Interview from Obi ‘wun’ Mgbado on Vimeo.

Pharrell Keynote at MIDEM 2010 from thecashmerethinker on Vimeo.

Once again Pharrell crops up, he’s an interesting guy, and I stated when I posted about him and Kaws that he grates on me. No denying his intellect and cultural worth though.

www.MAURICEGARLAND.com Interview with 9th Wonder from www.mauricegarland.com on Vimeo.

I don’t want to say too much about this interview, I think you should all just watch it and enjoy. 9th Wonder is incredibly captivating, his depth of knowledge, his eloquence, and his overall persona just makes me want to listen to the insightful knowledge he bestows on all things Hip Hop. As he breaks down to Maurice in the interview, he’s currently lecturing a University class on Sampling in Hip Hop, I studied a little bit of Musicology as a wild course in the States and thoroughly enjoyed it. My limited technical musical knowledge hindered me somewhat, but I wrote on Hip Hop music, culture, vernacular and the like and found it thoroughly enjoyable. What I would give to hear and take part in a 9th Wonder class!

This is dope! Discussing early first studio sessions with Nas and shows with Biggie, talking about Biggie, naked in a hotel room, eating KFC! Pinched this from Fatlace.

Yo Gotti Interview from Baller’s Eve on www.evr.com from DJ DIRRTY on Vimeo.

This is a really great interview with Southern rap legend Yo Gotti†, the Ballers Eve guys hooked up with Gotti while he was handling some label business in New York. Ballers Eve have a radio show on East Village Radio, easily one of the biggest radio stations in the World in terms of quality music and eclectic coverage. Yo Gotti has been around for quite some time, coming out of Memphis, he’s been hustling the music game for a while, but has been grinding in the streets for a whole lot longer. His stories of large scale drug deals mixed with Southern ostentation and street lingo over some of the hardest beats you’re gonna hear, it’s set for a great journey into the world of a Country hustler. Gotti is garnering major support at the moment and a lot of interest has been coming his way, especially post Clipse feature and with being on that Kay Slay joint, a broader Northern listener is now starting to appreciate Gotti. I wish more people in the UK would take the time to watch out for guys like Gotti and the whole Southern movement. But as our playlists tend to be dictated to by whatever is big on the likes of Hot 97 et al., it takes all that bit longer for London to latch on.

Check out some classic Yo Gotti footage after the jump.

Big up Knite and Terror all day!

Secret Forts presented by ACL x Cole, Rood & Haan Co. from Michael Williams on Vimeo.

“I don’t want ten of something that is supposed to do one thing, I want the one thing that does it right.” – James Wilson 2009.

Raekwon SoShapeIt.co.uk Interview part 3 from Andres Albert on Vimeo.

Parts 1 & 2 after the jump.

Raekwon The Chef Interview Soshapeit.co.uk from Andres Albert on Vimeo.

Raekwon interview part 2 Soshapeit.co.uk from Andres Albert on Vimeo.

With the second Reset event set to happen tomorrow at Nike’s 1948 store in London’s Shoreditch, The Shape of Things to Come catches up with AC of rising brand ALLCAPS. Alex’s approach to clothing and art is particularly interesting, in Easter he showcased his line inspired by Charles Dickens’ Hard Times novel, and at 20 years old, he is one of the bright young talents driving London’s burgeoning street inspired creative scene. AC is one of the key individuals pioneering British Street Culture and the inclusion of his brand at Reset is testament to the success of the brand over the last couple of years.

Included in the interview is an exclusive look at the mood boards AC has created, offering an entry point into the creative process of ALLCAPS, an insight which is rarely exposed to the public with clothing brands.

Interview and mood board images after the jump.

So AC, what was it that first inspired you to start the line in 07? Can you let us know a little bit more about you personally, where in London are you from?

I’m AC, sole-proprietor of the ALL CAPS brand, I’m twenty years old and I hale from the far reaches of North-West London, Harrow to be precise. I suppose, I was looking to do something along these lines from when I was 14, painting graffiti on trucker hats and selling them to my friends. Towards the end of ‘07 I just happened to have a bit of money stacked and I gambled it on doing my first set of tees which I sold at the LCC (london college of communication) Winter Market.

How has London impacted upon what you want to achieve with ALL CAPS, our style and Streetwear scene for want of a better phrase is fairly unique to us?

London as a city guides everything I do, it provides me with all the inspiration I need for prints in a most direct sense, and has shaped the person I am in attitude and politics which indirectly also influences the brand. What I hope to do with ALLCAPS is get the name onto the products that Londoners from many different walks of life use, its not just t-shirts for cool guys I’m doing baggies now
to spread the name through an un-tapped advertising medium and soon I want to start branching off in lots of other directions. One day I hope to open ALLCAPS off-licenses in every neighbourhood, ALLCAPS pubs with ‘4-20 friendly’ gardens, maybe even ALLCAPS record shops. So yeah London has impacted upon me to no end, and I hope, through the brand’s many, future, facets, I’ll impact upon London one day to the same degree.

What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced in launching a range of clothing and essentially developing your own brand?

The biggest challenge has always been funding it, as a 20 year old, art school drop out in no kind of full time employment the budget has always been tight and the runs small. Season by season though, one step at a time ALLCAPS is growing, and I’m happy with the gradual progression it’s nice to look back on. I would never want someone to think that what they see today is all the brand is, ALLCAPS is by all means a work in progress and those that understand that and jump on board early will appreciate it down the line.

The Hard Times collection, takes it’s stylistic keynote from the Charles Dickens novel, can we discuss that a little further? Dickens is as relevant today as he has ever been, you can really apply the motifs from Hard Times and A Tale of Two Cities to the 21st century and they still resonate. what is it about the novel which drew you to it for the collection?

I got the book for Christmas last year and while I was reading it, particularly because I took a long time about it, I thought a lot about the themes of the story in relation to the many grievances I have with certain attitudes of the public and system. In particular, the theme that run’s through-out the book, and pet-ponder of the character: Louisa, the theme of Fact Vs Fancy which I referenced on one
of the T-shirts. On the whole though, and minus a few other subtle references, it was just the name I borrowed, to title a collection based on the economic ‘hard times’ of today that, more-so at the time, you couldn’t go 10 minutes without hearing about.

A little known fact on the topic is that the look-book took 3 visits to the drawing-board, and on the second of these, Matt and I went all the way to sunny Preston, the town Hard Times is based on for the setting of iron-gate housing, classic factory-town alley-ways and all the great chimneys, but organisation was poor on my part and time: short, so we weren’t able to pull it off unfortunately.

The Jack Here T-Shirt, and the baggies! Weed seems to play a big part in your creative journey, without dwelling too much on the socio-political issues, drugs and art have often gone hand in hand over the years, does it help or hinder?

When I’m out and high and doing something extra-mundane and completely unrelated to the brand, I have all my finest ideas so I suppose it helps in that sense… where it is of real hinderance though is when I smoke a zoot while I’m working on something, telling myself it will be of help creatively, and just end up watching endless youtube videos or making elaborate munches or falling asleep. So in conclusion I think its all about time and place.

With many people simply on a whim it seems putting together t-shirt prints and claiming to have a brand, do you find this frustrating in that it potential dilutes the market?

No not really, I just pay them no mind, at least they’re people trying to start something from the bottom up. I find it a lot harder to stomach when big, already established companies like Boxfresh pour large amounts of money into transparent attempts at buying street credibility.

London, although one of the greatest cities in the world seems to really lack quality independent streetwear shops at the moment, how hard is it to find sales outlets right now?

Well for me so far, it hasn’t been hard at all because I haven’t been looking. Until recently I had been intending on keeping ALLCAPS strictly webstore (and Reset of course) only, until such a point that I could open my own space in order to keep the brand fully self contained and out of any pigeon hole that also houses some corny pigeons.

The new plan though is to, as of my fourth-coming drop, split the line into two categories; the deeper, more meaningful prints that I will continue to sell exclusively through the webstore (and Reset of course) and then the more logo based prints which I will look to throw about to as many stockists as possible. I think this approach is much better because it keeps what ALLCAPS is really about, where only the real fans will be able to find it, while the 15 year old kid who just wants to pick up a logo tee because it matches his Mishka hat can do that at their local spot. So I get payed and have some kid playing bill-board for free at the same time.

The reset was a fantastic event in Easter, the forthcoming day over the Carnival weekend is gathering a lot of interest, other than the sales element what do you find most beneficial about the day?

Mainly just the large number of people who come through for one of the other brands, more than likely Trapstar, or just for the event as a whole, and get to see ALLCAPS for the first time. And even with the people who are already familiar with ALLCAPS, it raises the visibility of the brand and keeps it in the front of their minds.

London’s young creative scene appears to be forging a strong bond, The Reset spearheading this, what is it about a collective mentality that you think can help?

Sheer power in numbers, as the small, independant brands and artists that we are no-one’s looking to help us, so we really do need to help each other. I think Jude’s really done something great in that respect because the community spirit and mutual support that you see in New York and Tokyo just doesn’t come naturally to us over here.

What have you been working on in preparation for this Reset?

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to have a-whole-nother line ready in time for this Reset so this time it’s all about upping the professionalism of the brand with each tee coming packaged in a big baggy with stickers and hand-screened ‘herb is the healing’ posters also inside.
Apart from re-packaging the same old shit, I’m also coming with 3 new colours of the long-sleeves from last time due to their massive reception, and a short sleeve version of the same print.

I’ve also put together a set of mood-boards to go up at my stall on Saturday, illustrating the themes I’m working with on the fourth-coming collection which i hope should be ready in a month or so.

Is there a desire to create an ALL CAPS cut & sew range? how do you feel about tailoring, and developing shirts and such forth?

I do have certain intentions of doing a few cut & sew bits in the future but I’m in no rush. I’ve said from the beginning; ALLCAPS is not ’street fashion’, there is no fashion element to it as far putting out trendy clothes for trendy folk. In fact I personally don’t even see ALLCAPS as a clothing brand, it just appears that way because T-shirts are what I sell at the moment but really they are just one of the
many mediums I intend to use in the future to spread the name and the ideals of ALLCAPS.

Are you an artist by trade? have you studied illustration and design?

I studied Art all through secondary school and sixth-form then went on to do a foundation degree at Chelsea but by January I dropped out because Chelsea just seemed more of a creche for moronic coke-head, rich-kids than the prestigious establishment I had duped into believing it was. Also I found my own artistic pursuit outside of education where quantity isn’t valued over quality, and I don’t
have to battle with an A1 portfolio on the underground everyday. But yes, I suppose one of my trades is art, what I most definitely am not though is a fashion designer…

Which brands have you always admired, owned and looked to for inspiration?

aNYthing, Rockers, Triumvir, Rogue status/ DTA, Irak, Stussy and Bape.

What other young brands, English or otherwise have you been keeping an eye on? Who’s making an impression?

As far as English brands, the only one I really care for is TooMuchPosse… I mean all the other brands at the Reset are cool people and, some good business men and women, but from a point of view of brand identity and also prints, TMP are by far the best for me. Actually, going back on that, despite the fact I would never personally wear the majority of their bits, I do have a lot of respect for
Cassette Playa, for their consistency, the bold, stand-out aesthetic and their strong use of themes. Elsewhere though, I’ve had my eye on the amazing progression of the Award Tour since before it was even the Award Tour, when it was thenucklepuckkid or whatever, and it really has been a fascinating journey and an enormous source of inspiration and encouragement, albeit sometimes sickening but only because I’m envious of a work-rate so high, mine is hopelessly low but I am getting better slowly but surely.

A massive thanks goes out to Alex for taking the time to answer the questions during a busy week of prep and graft. Make sure you attend the Reset tomorrow and pass through the ALLCAPS booth.

The most candid interview with one of the most candid rappers in the World. Shout out Pill and Derek and all my extended ATLien Family.

Raekwon interview part 2 Soshapeit.co.uk from Andres Albert on Vimeo.

The second installment of the Raekwon interview.

Ansel Adams noted that “photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art.” One such photographer driving this notion is Zach Wolfe. Quietly going about his business and producing some of the best Hip Hop documentation since Joe Conzo, Wolfe’s work is timeless, something to be treasured and truly admired.

In June I contacted Zach, and over the course of several emails throughout July he kindly answered my questions below.

I wanted to know a little bit more about Zach before he found the camera. You’re from Iowa right?

I am from a small town in Iowa (Mount Vernon, POP 3500) my town has a funny ass nickname “One Hill of a Town” cause my hometown is literally a small hill in the middle of a gigantic cornfield. Yeah I grew up surrounded by corn, that movie by Steven King about children of the corn never scared me, I lived it, haha. As you could expect from a small Midwest town, people are conservative. I was like most kids growing up; following what everyone else did playing sports and doing my best in school. If you didn’t play football or wrestle you were definitely considered an outcast. I didn’t know it but once I turned 16 I became one of those outcasts and thank god! I got caught stealing a bunch of shit, cause I was bored and almost went to a juvenile detention center. Thankfully I only got kicked off all the sports teams. That left me with some free time to say the least. I had to fill some classes so I took a photography class cause I thought it would be an easy credit. My high-school photography teacher was Donna Swenson (RIP) and she changed my life forever. In my town she would be considered ultra liberal. She persuaded me to do some off the wall photos of my other outcast friends. She gave me a Pentax K-1000 and a roll of film. I shot my buddies that day after school and I was instantly hooked. My parents, who are also considered highly liberal in Iowa terms, bought me a darkroom to help keep me moving in the photo direction. It was def a good move Mom and Dad. I spent every single free moment I had taking and printing photos. Donna and my family went on to helping me build a portfolio that would lead to me getting the fuck out of Iowa and enrolling in the photo program at the Colorado institute of art in Denver, Colorado. Thank You!

Atlanta is an incredibly special city, I have a lot of time for the place and it’s people, what drew you to the city in the first place?

I was drawn to Atlanta for one reason: Outkast! After I graduated the institute of art I moved to Hollywood, after being persuaded by my teachers. I interned at Smashbox studios for 6 months. Besides my internship I hated LA. I like it now but it was a bit much for a small town Iowa boy at the time. I moved back to Denver and Hated it, lol. I was stuck for 2 years in Denver trying to figure out what I was gonna do with my life. One day I was really trying to figure out what I wanted in my life. Outkast motivated me so much in my life at the time that I realized I had to move to Atlanta. And like I got in my piece of shit Toyota camera and drove to the A-Town. I remember clear as yesterday the first time I drove into downtown Atlanta on 75/85 bumping ‘Southernplayalistik’, I got goosebumps. I had never been somewhere that was telling me this is where you need to be. It felt right.

Atlanta’s metropolitan area is changing rapidly, are you interested in Documentary Photography and if so, how much have you captured of the city, and how much has it changed since you’ve been there?

To say Atlanta is changing rapidly would be a huge understatement. I drive down blocks all the time now and don’t recognize a thing. They are building more tacky condos here than they know what to do with. It’s horrible. I have been documenting Atlanta from day one. I met Lil Jon in 2000 and he had an office located in a half-burned down house in the Clark Atlanta area. I was immediately drawn to roam these poor neighborhoods and snap flicks. Someday I will get them all together and make it a section on my site. I am sad I missed out on shooting more of the public housing buildings that are all but gone now. All of the hip-hop you love out of Atlanta was born out of these complexes, and if I am not mistaken there may be one or two left? Its sad, cause one day the city of Atlanta just blew them all up, in the blink of an eye. That has sky rocketed crime in Atlanta because people have no where to go, its so fucked up. We just shot a video yesterday with Pill. This video is gonna blow the heads off some people, think national geographic meets the hood. If anyone has a problem with the video I say get your ass down here and do something about it. Atlanta has completely taken a shit on the poor here… I always say there are neighborhoods here that are third world. Stop adopting babies from Africa Madonna and come scoop up some kids here in the A-Town, for real.

Photographing the recent XXL cover with Shawty Lo, Gucci and OJ must have been quite an experience, all three are such characters. XXL covers often instigate discussion online about a change in Hip Hop, will that cover be as instrumental as “That XXL cover” of B.o.B, Asher Roth, Curren$y etc…?

I am glad you asked this question, cause there is a lot to say about this cover. Day of the shoot no one knew out of the 4 artists who would actually make it. My stress level was at an all time high. Soulja Boy was flying from LA and his flight was delayed. Gucci Mane and OJ were shooting a video for ‘She Got A Friend’ so they had to leave at a set time. We had to get to the location real early to be prepared for anything. About thirty minutes before we were expecting artists to show up we hear the growl of a car coming towards us. It was a yellow lambo, they rolled right up to us and the window rolled down and it was Gucci and OJ. They were laughing their asses off cause they could tell the look of surprise in my face. They showed up early and together, damn it was looking good. Gucci Mane is the shit, has a great attitude and is a funny guy. Haters back off; this dude is the real deal. Shawty Lo showed up on time. I took advantage of having all three them and shot a few frames of them together than solos. At around 12:30pm Soulja Boy showed up. He wanted to go home and shower, I stuck my assistant Sumner on him, to make sure he didn’t do that. Gucci’s manager was taking him to the video at one. I told Sumner he is going to have to do anything possible to keep him on set. Once he got on set it turned into the worlds fastest photoshoots. I did 2 covers and 2 2-page spread options in 23 minutes…. yeah it was like that. I really wished I had more time but I felt like we knocked it out regardless. There was a ton of hate on this cover, which lends itself to your question: Did it matter like other covers, I would say no question. I know that issue was nowhere to be found in Atlanta, cause I got sent one issue and tried to by more to no avail. With TI in jail and Jeezy between albums the 4 are the best at it right now in the South period! I feel really grateful to be a part of that.

How have you found the transition form still photography to videographer? Or have you always been shooting video?

I started shooting video 2 years ago. Only in the last 6 months has it really come together. When I bought the Canon 5d mark 11 I really started to attack the filming side of things. It took me 2 years to really understand movement; once it hit me it was game over. I had the same exact feeling I had with my first roll of film. I haven’t stopped shooting in 09′ we have done approx 21 mini vids in the last 5 months. And have about 3 more ready to come out. It has been an amazing diversion form only shooting stills. And now I think shooting both is helping both. I have a new style developing from the combo, and it is in its infant stages, stay tuned…

I really like the simplicity and clean edits you and the team do, you make even a studio video captivating, what is it about black and white that you like filming in?

Credit all of the editing to Sumner Demoura, my do everything guy over here at my Studio. He was trained editing in imovie by my buddy Derek from http://www.urbanmedium.com. Derek used to be my editor/collaborator. Check our old videos at http://www.heavyammunition.com the first set of movies we shot was all edited in imovie. One day I told Sumner he had two weeks to learn final cut, and he did. And now he is killing it. We def try to keep the videos very simple and not gimicky in anyway. We also like to think they are a moving version of my photos. Another very important thing when we shoot videos is to be a fly on the wall mentality, which in turn may be less exciting than other videos out, but I think it is a portal into an artist’s world in a very personal way. We love how we film and don’t plan to change the technique, just evolve it!

Seattle Street Music from zachwolfe.com/live on Vimeo.

Your footage from your recent trip to Seattle is particularly inspiring, can you tell us a little more about the two individuals featured and what plans you have for them, if any?

Thank you so much for asking about this clip, it is one of my favorite things I have done in a hot minute. I was in Seattle shooting for an artist named $wag. After our shoot wrapped I went to the bar under my hotel for some drinks. I was by myself so I decided to go sit outside on the patio and just take in the city. The guy who plays the drum walked past me playing the song on the video. I remember thinking I wish he would come back cause I might ask to film him. He eventually made it back and I asked if he would play me that song he was playing earlier, he went on to play for ten minutes straight and I was blown away. I asked if he would have any interest in me filming him? He said many people have claimed they were gonna video him and never do, I said “im not one of those guys, hold on ill be right back” snatched my cam and walked him to the side of the bar. I rolled the cam and he played for another ten minutes. The guys voice is really amazing. The beat poet guy ran up on us while I was filming and started spitting raps. I seriously thought I was gonna have a heart attack, haha. I couldn’t film, I just listened. I asked him as well if I could film him. He asked for money, I said “does $40 work?” he freaked out and led me to an ATM and hat is what you see in the beginning of the movie, him rapping on the way to the ATM. I wish I knew their names but I did a real bad job of getting their info. I know the people at the Ace Hotel are aware of who they are. The thought did cross my mind to go back and do some more filming, in a Buena Vista Social Club kinda way. I am def interested in telling stories, hip-hop or not…

The video project that you’re working on with Big Boi, for me is just incredible, as a young kid growing up in England, Outkast were one of the first rap acts that really drew me in, the wordplay, imagery, the psychedelia feel. To get this very intimate experience through your videos is a pleasure as a fan. How did that come about? What is it like to spend time with Big for you?

We have something in common which is we are drawn to Big Boi. While photo assisting other photographers when I first moved to Altanta I was on a good 10 shoots with Big Boi. In 2005 I shot Outkast for i.D magazine for a story about the Dirty South. He remembered me from the other shoots and everything has come together from there. My good friend Dax (http://www.snortthis.com) has been an amazing segway between Big and I. I have to credit time and Dax for helping enable me to get intimate video sessions with big. Big Boi is a very private man, and if you are in Stankonia studios you should feel lucky as no randoms roll up there, I can promise you that. We got called late night a couple months back to come and shoot him with Gucci Mane. Gucci had just got out of jail, that session was not my best video work, cause I had to be really confined to a small area but was great for me to be there at that moment. Gucci remembered me from that video shoot on the XXL shoot. Which is what seems to be happening now, I’m connecting with everyone through the sheer years of grinding. Which leads to artists co-signing me and being comfortable in front of my cam. Sometimes I have to pinch myself cause my dreams are real now and I have to remind myself that everyday.

You’ve taken up teaching, how do you like that? What’s the most rewarding element of showing kids the finer details of photography, and what inspired that move into academia?

Teaching is cool. My students claim I am the craziest they have ever had, which I take as a compliment. I came from the film era so I may always have a bit of hate towards the digital era of students. It’s not even comparable in a school atmosphere. Shooting film every mistake costs money, not digital. So these kids got their asses kicked like they should and they are all better for it. The best thing about teaching is to see where they started from to where you take them. Every one of my students improved dramatically after my class. I taught lighting on location, and none of these kids had really done that, now their coming after me, good luck, jokes… My buddy Josh Meister convinced that school I would be a good teacher, without his good word I would not be teaching, thanks man! Check out http://www.portfoliocenter.com

To bring this to a close, any desire to come to London and photograph our scene? And what do you have planned for the near future?

Book me a ticket and I’m out! I have been to London a couple of times and have a very big interest in documenting the city. I shot London’s version of the X-games like three years ago and had some fun to say the least. I did a ton of shots of all the b-boys and b-girls. Had a fucking blast doing that. I would use some of those photos but the shots have a ton of sprite logos behind them, and I don’t really roll like that. I did a job with Hattie Collins for i-D in Atlanta and we have tried to coordinate a London version ever since. Man lets make that happen, I’m bored of the states right now. My plans for the near future would involve shooting more personal/documentary photos and try and take over this music video game, I’m coming for Rik Cordero and Hype Williams, they in trouble cause I won’t quit till I am the best!

See you in London soon…

a massive thank you goes out to Zach for taking the time and interest in the interview, make sure you go and check out more of Zach’s work over at www.zachwolfe.com