I thought this was the new O’Neal McKnight video for a second. But seriously, how sick are these commercials?
Saw Charlie Wilson and The Gap Band in concert last night at The Greek Theatre in Hollywood, one of the tightest venues ever.
Unfortunately I missed Keith Sweat but caught Uncle Charlie’s whole set. He brought Teddy Riley out for a bunch of songs and then brought out Snoop Dogg at the end. Snoop did “Sensual Seduction” and “What’s My Name” with the whole band. Met Teddy backstage and, being from VA, he’s aware of Wale and said “only two artists I’m feeling right now are Wale and Ryan Leslie.” I was like, “ME TOO DUDE! lol” Stay tuned what happens with that.
May 4, 2008
Music
New Album, New Fears, Same Old Attitude
By NATE CHINEN
AHMIR Thompson was sitting in the back of a town car inching through Midtown when he received a vexing call from management, not entirely unlike the one that opens “Rising Down” (Def Jam), the new album by the Roots. One month before its release there were problems with a hidden track, and Mr. Thompson, better known as ?uestlove, the Roots’ drummer and bandleader, made no attempt to hide his frustration, raising his voice in protest. (more…)
Camp Lo is one of my favorite groups. When Wale and I started working together and we found out we shared a mutual love over Camp Lo, we knew everything would fall into place. Well, for all you Camp Lo fans out there…today is a good day.
Today, HipHopDX reportedly learned from a SRC executive that the label has also signed another ’90s Hip Hop outfit – Camp Lo.
The Bronx-born duo of Sonny Cheeba and Geechi Suede has been releasing records since 1996’s Uptown Saturday Night on the now-defunct Profile Records. The duo scored mainstream success in the form of the single “Luchini.” With a unique blend of slang vocals, ’70s references and production from Ski Beatz of Reasonable Doubt fame, Camp Lo would reach their pinnacle early, as Profile merged to Arista Records, where Camp Lo later said they were asked to compromise their art.
2002’s Let’s Do It Again and last year’s Black Hollywood have followed on an independent level, neither able to register a commercial single or mainstream presence. Reportedly from the help of Mister Cee of Notorious B.I.G., Big Daddy Kane and Hot 97 fame, Camp Lo was taken to SRC/Universal Records and changed their name to The Lo, marking their first time on a major label since Arista eight years ago.
The duo is presently recording a yet-untitled album. They have premiered their first single, “Lumdi,” [click to listen] incorporating elements of the hit “Mickey’s Monkey” by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles. I’m not really feeling the new single, but let’s see what they do.
Here is one of my favorite Camp Lo tracks.
Camp Lo “Disco T-E-C” (off DJ Honda’s HII Japan version)
So on Friday the 15th, Wale called me and was like “let’s go to New Orleans…Kevin Durant is giving us his tickets, Bun B is gonna be there, Jay’s gonna be there…we gotta go.” So we booked our flights the day before and it was surprisingly not that expensive. However, I must warn you, do not fly Continental Airlines under any circumstances. I had a 5:45AM flight out of LAX, I got there at 4AM. Somehow my reservation had disappeared even though I had a confirmation number and money had changed hands. I had to deal with people at the counter and on the phone for an hour. I almost missed my flight and had to rebook my flight at the counter. It was ridiculous. Luckily I was compensated with a sweet Continental Airlines duffle bag on my return flight since I got too much swag in New Orleans and my bag was too heavy. See bag below. And that’s Brady, my dog, he’s a Katrina rescue. Call him Little Duffle Bag Boy.
So we got into New Orleans on Saturday afternoon
Bun B had an extra hotel room for us at the Crowne Plaza where the boss Ricky Ross was staying. He had a wrapped bus and Escalade parked outside. We headed over to the LRG x Casio x EA gifting suite a few blocks away where Kevin from LRG and Melissa from Casio were hanging out. Got some cool watches, LRG gear, video games.
Such an intense game of NBA 08
We then headed to lunch with Bun B at world famous Mother’s. Bourbon Street was popping off before it even got dark.
There was a line at Mother’s which we had no problem waiting in except that everyone recognized Bun B and the employees refused to let him wait in line. Wale had a hard time ordering since everything in New Orleans is made with pork, but he and I ended up with some good fried chicken and french fries and fried Apple Juice (you gotta try fried Apple Juice…wow). Passed this Nike pop up Be True store. Nothing good, just a lot of dunks.
We then headed to the skills challenge, 3-point challenge and dunk contest.
This guy standing outside was pretty amazing. He’s like Small Wonder, except taller and a black dude.
They didn’t show it on TV but Wale won the shooting stars award
And me and Hornet go way back…to like Charlotte…with Larry Johnson and his Converse Reacts
After the dunk contest, we headed to Jay Z and Lebron James’ 2 Kings event
Traffic was ridiculous. Streets were closed. But we were rolling with Bun B whose name carries more weight than the President down in Nawlins. We were just driving up to cops saying “We have Bun B in the car” and they would open streets just for us. It was pretty remarkable.
L’Chaim!!!
DC’s finest were truly in the house house house
Wale and Mick Boogie…he did Kanye’s last mixtape. Might wanna check for him.
I went to All Star Saturday in New Orleans and all I got was this lousy pack of gum…and G-Shock…and gold bottle…and Zune player…and LRG hat…lol
Image courtesy of Carl Blakeslee
Carl Blakeslee, a former Senior Designer in the Nike ACG division from 1998 to 2005, reached out to us on MySpace, letting us know he was the original designer of the Nike Air Max Goadome and appreciated the song, “Nike Boots.” We hit him back asking for the story behind the Goadome. Here’s what he had to say:
Around June of 1999, well no, before that, was the official date the Goadome was conceived or i guess more accurately, born.
I was a senior designer at Nike in the ACG division at that time. ACG had been in a state of moderate decline during that period after losing some of our big money business to other divisions during a Nike “re-org” which always effected the smaller business categories within the Nike house.Nike politics pushed our leadership into a wild spin, not knowing or being able to visualize how to get some of those lost numbers back on the books. The other issue that probably assisted in the downward spin was that big Nike leadership (above the food chain from our division leaders) were seasonally busting our balls over why the “boot market” was growing and yet ACG numbers didn’t reflect this growth…”ACG” or better known as “those hippie hikers who climb mountains and shit” were not getting after the business. Enter Timberland. Our worst nightmare.
I’ll skip ahead a bit. As a designer I was being told by my leaders to just knock out a boot. No way, not me. Get someone else to do it. I’m an artist, not some knock-off boy.
I had to get out of town and think. We traveled to NYC to have a chat with Udi (training camp). Udi is a rad dude. He always has something to say. His words are written in my sketch book, “if you want to TAKE a category, you have to MAKE a category”. That’s some pretty damn profound shit. My take on that was, you have to create a reason for your customer to go there, not just make another product. We went out that night with Udi and a few of his boys; somewhere in the meatpacking district. Udi wanted to show me the consumer that spends $160 on a pair of
fly boots and the kind of “hiking” they do on the dance floor. Nice. That hurt Udi, but he was right.
From NYC it was onto Italy. I always liked Milan. As an art student studying design in Switzerland for a term, I would get on the train and go to Milan every weekend. Sometimes I would ride in an empty boxcar because all the seats were taken. I don’t know why that city is so special to me but it gave me energy and inspiration. Maybe it was all the models walking around, the amazing fashion, the scooters, the coffee, the food and the wine. It’s like paradise in a certain cosmo way. So I spent a few days in Milan and then went to Paris. Some of my friends played a joke on me and changed my room reservation to this shit hole next to a brothel in Pigialle. Dirty, shitty room. It was so bad that I didn’t want to lay in the bed, so i got some wine, bread and cheese and got crazy fucked up.
More corporate pressure had been piling up at Nike headquarters and I even got a phone call while in Milan from my boss. He TOLD me that I
needed to get on a plane and get to China ASAP. There was a new factory that i had to see…and “by the way, are those boots done yet? Hope so, cuz you are taking the designs to china to get those samples started”.
New factory? Cool! But now i needed some designs.
Back to the shit hole hotel room…
After a bottle of wine or two and some food I started to sketch out the “Pulse Collection” of boots and shoes intended to get after some of that
urban business. The Goadome came out of that pile of sketches which i attached for you. The idea was to take some of the heritage Nike sneaker design language that we all know very well and make it work on a boot. An athletic boot. One that fits like a sneaker, is light enough to run or dance in it and equally important, to look stylish and cool. An easy equation really, but we hadn’t done it yet at Nike in a form or silhouette that really felt boot-like and not like a sneaker trying to be a boot. My whole motivation for this direction was from time spent with Udi and hanging around in NYC, seeing how important the Timbs were and how it would not be a smart move to try and knock them off the shelf. Rather, I wanted to provide an alternative or better yet, a second pair of boots at the register. Timbs and Goas should both be in my boy’s closet. Not one or the other. It’s not an option to pick one. You gotta have both.
This new factory “Stella” in China made the first samples for me and they continue to make the modern Goa’s and most of the other casual or lifestyle product for Nike. This factory is not like any other. Jack and Buddy (owner and manager) are, to this day, very close friends of mine and I could not have made these boots without their help. Jack has an amazing eye for good shoes and Buddy knows the world of trends, music, art, fashion and knows how to help create and build brands at the factory level.
Finally, we had some great looking samples and what I thought at the time was some great design work. It was totally appropriate and linked to
Nike’s core values. We created a collection of boots that were different, had a point of view and a solid reason to exist. Phil agreed. We showed him the designs in a private meeting in his office. There were no more roadblocks from management after that meeting.
DC and Baltimore were the first cities to truly embrace the Goa, so big props to them them for having the courage to bring something new to the market.
The name “Goa” came from the music I was listening to that night in the ghetto Paris ghetto hotel. “Dome” comes from one of the sneakers that
inspired the design, the original ACG Lavadome. Hence the Goadome.
