Take it back.

RAKIM Wall by ~N4S-GFX on deviantART

To commemorate the birthday of my late cousin, Brian Winters Strickland (B.W.S.) R.I.P., I have made this wallpaper. We still miss you and love you. Your memory will never fade away.

Click image to enlarge image.

Now it is time to tell my Dilla story in memory of him on February 10th. I discovered Jay Dee aka J Dilla as some others might have walking into Fat Beats in the late ’90s and hearing:
“Hey, hey, hey, h-hey, hey
What you say, get this money
If they say what you gon do today, just say
Hey I wanna get paid
Pay day, pay day, pay day”.
With this hypnotic hook and a beat that caughted your soul it was apparent I was hearing something new. So I asked the DJ/Store clerk who it was and he said that’s Slum Village. I nodded my head and headed over to the vinyl to find this Slum Village musical master piece. I found a 12″ vinyl named, “Slum Village - Get Dis Money (off of the Office Space soundtrack)” and wonder if this is the right one and take it to the counter. With a quick glance at the turntables I see I selected the right one. With the record in hand I take it home and play out the vinyl until I know every intricate loop.

So my mouth was now watering for a Slum Village full LP. In the summer of 2000 my prayer was answer with Fantastic Vol. 2 on GoodVibe Recordings. With people from Q-Tip to D’Angelo to the Roots saying they were the ones to watch I knew I was making a great purchase. I never knew I how much I would I would love this album. J-88 was “The Best Kept Secret” because I did even realize it was Slum Village until a couple of listens. With the next album not featuring Dilla I skipped it anticipating Dilla’s new solo career. It came from the most infectious song called, “B.B.E. (Big Booty Express)” off the album: “Welcome To Detroit”.

I thought to myself what could Dilla do now to continue his excellency? Well he would team up with one of my favorites emcee/producers Madlib to create one of the brilliant collaborations in the history with Jaylib - “Champion Sound”. It truly was a champion sound that every fan of either one could cross reference to find the perfect album. Three years later and now signed to Stones Throw, J Dilla would deliver his most illustrious musical adventure with an instrumental album simply called “Donuts“. Released on his birthday it would solidify his production values but it would be short lived with his death three days later. J Dilla will be called ahead of his time, one of the best on the boards but I will always remember his infectious beat that caught my ear on the summer day from a turntable and speakers.

For other Dilla inspired stories click here.

Still the “Year of the Dilla” and to celebrate his birthday of February 7th, here is a quick wallpaper of J Dilla’s CDs and graffiti piece. Happy birthday and rest in peace James Yancey aka J Dilla.

We Feel Fine is a website that I stumbled upon when I was reading a post at UnEasySilence about TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) and they put a sample video for Jonathan Harris. On the video he talks about We Feel Fine and what inspired him to make it. Basically it is a website that looks at different websites for certain words and takes the sentence. Then it puts it on We Feel Fine as a particle (sentences) that reacts to your cursor, words on the screen and other particles. Now if you are totally confused click the link and experience for yourself.

An exploration of human emotion, in six movements
by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar

Gallery Nineteen Eighty Eight aka Gallery 1988 LA aka G88 and Golden Apple Comics present: Under The Influence: A Tribute To Stan Lee starting January 8, 2008 through February 1, 2008. I was put on to this by the one and only Detrimental and would have loved to see this. You might remember G88 mentioned here before about their artistic take on 8-bit video games. This time they honor the legendary Stan Lee who has created numerous super heroes and super villains to blockbuster movies that many have grown up on. The artwork above is by artist Tessar Lo and is done with “mixed media on stonehenge, mounted on wood. approx. 22 x 29″. There is alot more to see at the Stan Lee Tribute Artwork website and the actual gallery itself. The some of the artwork can also be purchase so if you are in the area then this is definitely one not to miss.

Gallery 1988 LA
7020 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038
gallery1988@aol.com

$500?!

The Burning Man…

Etch-a-Sketch Graduation.

Kanye West, originally uploaded by etchasketchist.

I want to be in the picture too.

aoa spred cover colored by ~luxun on deviantART