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Tag "Hip-hop"

Outlandish – “Let Off Some Steam” Music Video 1080P from Ridwan Adhami on Vimeo.

After a few two long shoots and a month of editing I present to you  Outlandish – “Let Off Some Steam” directed by Ridwan Adhami. When he started this process my boy Ridz called me in to Art Direct this bad boy I was intrigued because I’ve never done anything like this before. But after all the hard work, the surviving the SAW like sets, managing talent and building something out of nothing. I’m very proud of this. First step done.

Its amazing what can be accomplished when talented people are put together. Enjoy the video and let me know what you think. Peace.

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This image comes courtesy of a Barnes and Noble conversation that I had on Friday.  So I’m hanging out with my boy The MarXman sitting around the cafe and we start up a conversation about music and the state of promotion as an independent artist. In the process a young lady sitting at the adjacent table chimed in and the conversation turned to who is better or a who do you prefer, Jay-Z or Nas debate.

Seeing how there is a profile image above of Jay there’s no real question of who I side with. Honestly, I don’t see how you couldn’t. Say what you would about who he is personally or outside of rap, which I really know nothing of. Like his line says “Critics might not admit but nobody in rap did it quite like I did it.” For eleven years he’s shaped the face of hip-hop through his vernacular, subject matter and fashion sense. He’s started and stopped trends with a manner of bars in a song. His worst album can still be considered better then some artist’s best.

In my eyes and ears, he’s the best that ever did. Who has been in the game this long and been this consistent? Who’s had this much influence over Hip-Hop? Who else is 40 and still relevant in Hip-Hop? If not him, then who? I would love to hear who you think is better.

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I totally slept on this post. But this past weekend I had the opportunity to work with my good friend and co-founder of Random Order, Ridwan Adhami, on a video shoot. He landed this project to direct a music video for Outlandish, a Hip-Hop group based out of Denmark. He asked me to Art Direct this shoot at what is possible the grimiest, dirtiest, dangerous location in all of LIC. The shot of above is not a still from Saw 7 but the location we shot at. Seriously, I didn’t want to sit down with the fear of catching the Legacy Virus x T-Virus.

But in between 30 degree weather, spooky hallways, asbestos filled rooms, spooky staircases, ghosts, burning lights, ill timed, camera flashes and one skinned polar bear, we were able to create some really dope product. I really can’t wait till you see what we shot.

I really enjoyed working with Outlandish and Ridz’s crew for the day. There is one more shoot to be done before the video is complete. As soon as that’s done I’ll be back here with it to show everyone.

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Today I was lined up to go party it up at a ?uestlove event out in Brooklyn. You know drinking, dancing and enjoying my Pre-MLK holiday. BUT unlike most people I totally refused to understand the concept of pre-ordering tickets. HAHA ohh the joy of trying to order sold out tix. With no party lined up I decided to stay home and knock out more illustrations. What you see above is the culmination of my poor ticket buy ability.

For this piece I used Adobe Photoshop to create the original illustration of ?uestlove then added textures, type and various lighting techniques to create the final effect. I think its pretty dope for about 2 1/2 hours of work.  I’m currently a few days behind on schedule, 17th day and 14th illustration. No excuses, I told you this was a work in progress. Catch you tomorrow.

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Today’s image is brought to you by the letter Jay and the Letter Z. Its no secret Jay-Z is my favorite rapper I had this idea to design an image based on him and this is the first part of a multi-stage image. I used photoshop to create an illustrated version of a photo of him then cleaned it up in Illustrator. Colors and final layout done in Illustrator. This is a good beginning but far from over. Total work time: 2hrs 15 mins. Give or take 15-20mins. Let’s see what tomorrow holds.

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