For the rest of this week, I’ll be posting the random types of artwork I do at my day job designing T-shirts for Old Navy, Target, Walmart, Rue21, etc. I spend a lot of time drawing and I haven’t been posting them since they were for work. But in the end they are my pieces and I have every right to show them. So here is Ganesh the Lord of Obstacles. In this shirt the obstacle was getting the crowd moving. I’ve designed a lot of crazy shit since being here at C-Life when I’m asked to make a Hindu god tear a party down I am as shocked as I used to be. More weirdness is in the queue, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

This image is a menagerie of inspirations ranging from Afros, my place on the planet and most importantly, Erykah Badu. A couple days ago, EB dropped a video for “Window Seat” off her newly released album, New Amerykah Part 2. Besides being a deep song its accompanied by a creative video. In the video, Erykah is seen, in one rolling shot, walking through the streets of Dallas stripping down to her humility, baring herself for who she is without nothing to hide. All the people in the video are not aware of the shoot and are shocked, even more so as she’s gunned down by a world afraid of what’s different and what they don’t understand.

Although the video is graphic in its imagery and reenactment of JFK assassination, most people miss the message about freeing oneself from the trappings of the mob mentality. They focus more on her being naked, “selling sex” or shudder the thought, trying to be like Lady Gaga… Really… wow. Once again, an artists will never be appreciated or understood during their own time. Welcome back, Madame Badu…We. Missed. You.

“Armed and Dangerous, ain’t too many that can bang with us, Straight up weed no Angel Dust, label us Notorious…” ~Notorious BIG, Notorious Thugs

The Notorious BIG, Biggie Smalls, the Black Frank White, Big Poppa, The Greatest Rapper of All Time, what ever named you knew him by there’s no denying his legacy. With a very short rap career Christopher Wallace left an incredibly huge imprint on the industry that took him from Bed-Stuy to the world stage. 13 years after his passing his music is still being heralded as the best of his generation and is considered the GOAT. BIG is definitely one of my favorite MCs to ever lift a mic and fortunately I was able to get to see him perform before he passed at HoodShock in the courtyard of Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard back in 96. Lyrically the man had a gift to verbally log your mind into matrix as he created this elaborate street tales of shootouts, wild sex and drug deals. Visual as New Jack and creative as Verbal Kent, BIG is the blueprint MC for everyone who came after him. Jay-z, Eminem, Nas, TI, Ludacris, 50 Cent, Joe Budden, Royce were all influenced by him. That’s why they argue if he’s the best because even with a limited catalog his work still deeper than most.

“Do me a favor dude, get 2 ice cubes I pass them, Take that ice up, for the nicest MC, And please yo, tell BIG, he’s unbelievable..” Jay-Z, Friend or Foe ’98

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.

So today after a long weekend of memories, I figured there needs to be a bit of typography I do at work. So here we have one of the Beatles Rockband tees I did last year. The Beatles Rockband came out last fall to rave reviews and was a big seller at retail. Whether or not this tee was picked up I’m not sure. I did find the challenge of creating something that had a modern feel yet still blended into the Beatles era which the song “Come Together” was released in. I chose to use psychedelic gradients and large swirls to create a hippie-esque effect. I personally love the big swooping swirls flow in and out of the text.

Do you think I’ve pulled off the effect? Have I successfully merged the two brands?

Today’s image is yet another of my many Jimi Hendrix done at work. This is one of my favorites combination of vector graphics, photoshop splatters and various layer opacity treatments. This was a fun piece to do and I’ll post more of my T-shirt layouts. Short message today, late for work. Be back later.

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.