AKON FT KERI HILSON - OH AFRICA

Dope Jawn!!

DRAKE, LIL' WAYNE AND EMINEM - DROP THE WORLD/FOREVER

It didn't look like they were cursing so censoring this shit was not a good look but it's still enjoyable, check it out!!

PETER CALLESEN'S PAPER ART

Pretty cool huh. Via PeterCallesen

KSENIYA SIMONOVA - SAND ANIMATION (FUCKIN FUCKIN DOPE)

PART 1

PART 2

Martians, wuss good? A friend of mine sent this to me on twitter and I was in awe when I peeped it, almost everyone in class behind me was checking it out. I highly advise y'all to peep these. Enjoy!

VIDEO CRAZY

KID CUDI - CUDDERISBACK

CURT@!N$ - EXODUS

CURREN$Y - BREAKFAST

CHESTER FRENCH X CLINTON SPARK FT DIDDY X JADAKISS

THE APPLE iPAD

Apple has officially revealed the new Apple gadget, The iPad Tablet. It features a 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology, 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi), Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating, 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB flash drive, 1GHz Apple A4 custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip and Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video or listening to music.

MAESTRO KNOWS SEASON 3: EPISODE 4: BUN-B

Maestro Knows - Episode 4 (Bun B) from Maestro Knows on Vimeo.

Pretty cool episode, make sure you check it out!!

A Message From Odysseus

What's good family, friends, acquaintances and enemies. How are you living? How was everybody's week? Mine went smoother than expected. Put in some good hours at work, did some meaningful work at that. As some of you might know, I intern at Complex Magazine. I began interning at the fashion department in September of 2009 but have moved to the advertising/marketing department this year. I did this because Marketing is what I eventually want to get into as a career path. It is also what I want to do for my Masters degree, which I will talk about in a minute.

Back to Complex. So I was at the office on Friday and halfway through the day, I was called in to the Managing Director's office. Met the guy, he's really cool. Not as old as I expected either. I will withhold his name, I don't want to cross any professional boundaries. Anyway, I helped him add up some numbers and figures for the advertising that will be paying for ad space in our next February/March issue coming out next month. It was some pretty exciting stuff because I have never had to do anything like that before. After that was complete, he called me back in to help him gather some checks and to mail them out to various people and companies. During that time, we chatted. I told him about myself and what I want to do as a career and he told me about his life. Let me say this; for a 40 year old, his experience in the Magazine industry is THROUGH THE ROOF. Great looking resume.

Anyway, I was just excited to be engaging this man, picking his brain a little bit. That was probably one of my most exciting days of this new year. It was very inspiring. I can't WAIT to get back to the office on Monday.

More good news happened this week. As I mentioned above, I want to get into Grad school in September of this year to do an MBA. To get into an MBA program in the United States, one needs to take the GMAT test. It's like the SATs but for Business Schools. Anywho, the GMAT is not an easy test and studying for it (alone at least) can be a little daunting. Long story short, I've found a study buddy. A friend of mine also wants to take the GMAT and is going through the the same slow procrastination that I'm going through. So we've decided to meet every Saturday or every other Saturday at a public library or Barnes & Noble for some intense studying. It will be more of a morale booster than anything. I'm looking forward to that.

Well folks, this message has been a little longer than I expected, but I just wanted to share these thoughts with ya'll. Give you a "Behind The Scenes" look into my life. I hope it was a good read. I just fixed myself a drink. I need to unwind. Cheers to positive energy! Until next week, let's not slow down. Time is our only enemy.

Deuces.

- Dru (Odysseus).

Blog.

Twitter.

DEF POETRY JAM DAY 5

NO. 1 SHIHAN - TYPE LOVE


This is one of those poems that'll get you what you want, if you know what I mean, enjoy!!

POEM
I want a love like me thinking of you thinking of me thinking of you TYPE LOVE
Or me telling my friends more than I've ever admitted to myself about how I feel about you TYPE LOVE
Or hating how jealous you are but loving how much you want me all to yourself TYPE LOVE
Or seeing how your first name just sounds so good next to my last name.
And shit, I wanted to see how far I could get without calling you and I barely made it out of my garage.

See, I want a love that makes me wait until she falls asleep then wonder if she's dreaming about us being in love TYPE LOVE
Or who loves the other more or what she's doing at this exact moment or slow dancing in the middle of our apartment to the music of our hearts.
Closing my eyes and imagining how a love so good could just hurt so much when she's not there and shit, I love not knowing where this love is headed TYPE LOVE.

And check this, I wanna place those little post-it notes all around the house so she never forgets how much I love her TYPE LOVE,Then not have enough ink in my pen to write all there is love TYPE LOVE
And hope I make her feel as good as she makes me feel. And I wanna deal with my friends making fun of me the way I made fun of them when they went through the same kind of love TYPE LOVE.
The only difference is this is one of those real love TYPE LOVES.

And just like in high school I wanna spend hours on the phone not saying shit and then fall asleep and then wake up with her right next to me and smell her all up in my covers TYPE LOVE.
And I wanna try counting the ways I love her then lose count in the middle just so I could start all over again.
And I wanna celebrate one of those one-month anniversaries even though they ain't really anniversaries but doing it just 'cause it makes her happy TYPE LOVE.

And check this, I wanna fall in love with the melody the phone plays when our numbers dial in TYPE LOVE
And talk to you until I lose my breath, she leaves me breathless, but with the expanding of my lungs I inhale all of her back into me.
I want a love that makes me need to change my cell phone calling plan to something that allows me to talk to her longer 'cause in all honesty, I want to avoid one of them high cell phone bill TYPE LOVES.

And I don't want a love that makes me regret how small my hands are. I mean the lines on my palms don't give me enough time to love you as long as I'd like to TYPE LOVE.
And I want a love that makes me st-st-st-stutter just thinking about how strong this love is TYPE LOVE
And I want a love that makes me want to cut off all my hair. Well maybe not all of the hair, maybe like I'd cut the split ends and trim my mustache but it would still be a symbol of how strong my love is for her.

I kind of feel comfortable now so I even be fantasize about walking out on a green light just dying to get hit by a car just so I could lose my memory, get transported to some third world country just to get treated and somehow meet up again with you so I could fall in love with you in a different language and see if it still feels the same TYPE LOVE.

I want a love that's as unexplainable as she is. But i'm married, so she’s going to be the one I share this love with.

JAY-Z FT BONO, THE EDGE & RIHANNA - STRANDED (HAITI MON AMOUR)

Audio Rip off Hope for Haiti now. Download HERE

100% of proceeds from the sale of the Hope For Haiti Now album and any of its individual live performance tracks will go to Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, Oxfam America, Partners In Health, Red Cross, UNICEF, United Nations World Food Programme, and Yéle Haiti Foundation. 100% of proceeds from the sale of the individual studio track, “Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour),” featuring Jay-Z, Bono, The Edge, and Rihanna, will benefit Partners In Health. The song will be available on iTunes, January 25th.

DEF POETRY JAM DAY 4

NO. 2 GEMINEYE - PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS

This is one of my personal favorites.

POEM
Can I offer you a penny for your thoughts?
As a matter of fact, how about three?
One penny for you, one penny for me,
And one penny for our minds engaged not so sexually.
Getting intimately closer as we approach the
Climatic altitude of nude, mental, sensational… conversation.
Cause I’m trying to get to know everything about you
From the neck… UP.

So these are not your typical, sexual, poetical prose.
I’m trying to close the door on that all too familiar freaky foreplay game.
With which most guys have chose to approach you.
While they are trying to get deeply embedded
In the fine fibers of your bedsheets,
I’m trying to find and define the fibers of which your, MIND SPEAKS.

I want to engage you
By putting a two karat solitaire diamond ON YOUR MIND
N marrying your every thought!
I want to lick every inch of every crevasse
So I can get an oral fix from each orifice
And taste you passionate IMAGINATION.

I’d rather be naked and exposed, holding you
As we’re lying and you’re crying
While confiding and describing the tough times you’ve had in life
And how you don’t know If you can keep a relationship long enough to be somebody’s wife.
I wanna feel the heartbeat of all your inner rhythms
As they lead me toward your warm, wet, waterfalls of feminine thoughts.
…And I’ll swim in them.
From backstrokes, to breaststrokes,
I’m penetrating every entrance… to your mind.
Taking my time to find out everything about you.

Did I ever tell you about how you
Fell asleep in my presence?
And your mere essence
Kept me awake for hours
As I cowered with this feeling
Of sexually unadulterated mental connection?
And as you lay by my side
I pushed the blinds aside
And took the time in the moonlight of that night
To count 72 eyelashes
On the upper eyelid of your right eye!

Because as you sleep
Your eyes remain open slightly.
And while we probably moves in too quickly into some sexual shit
I’ve always cared more about the explicitly illicitness
That came from between you lips.. meaning your voice.
So now I am standing here
Ready to trade in all the sexual acts that we’ve preformed
For the chance to reform the very foundation
And the basis of our relationship.
And I reiterate my opening statement
And I offer you another PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS!!

Beautiful, aint it? haha!!

MUSIC VIDEOS

LUDACRIS - HOW LOW

RICK ROSS & BIRDMAN - GOT A BITCH

MARIO - OOH BABY

ENJOY

NASA'S ONE-MAN ELECTRIC AIRCRAFT

NASA Designs a One-Man electric Puffin. On the ground, the Puffin is designed to stand on its tail, which splits into four legs to help serve as landing gear. Conceptual design focusing on the ability of a redundant electric propulsion system to provide new capabilities for Vertical Takeoff and Landing aircraft.

"Is it possible for a one-person electric plane to take off vertically and fly 300 mph? NASA says yes, and shows us how it's done with Puffin, a single-passenger aircraft that's 10 times quieter than the most hushed helicopters. The design, accomplishing the same goal as a jetpack with a cockpit, could be the closest man has ever come to flying like a bird. Using today's technology, Puffin can cruise for 50 miles, but aerospace engineers at NASA say that range could triple by 2017."
[ Note: ] The video has no audio. Via dvice

PHARRELL X J.COLE IN THE STUDIO

EPIC.

DEF POETRY JAM DAY 3

NO. 3 BLACK ICE

I really loved the way he delivered this poem. Check it out, catch y'all tomorrow.

VIDEOS FOR MY MARTIANS

BIG SEAN - A MILLION DOLLARS

TIMBALAND FT KATY PERRY - IF WE EVER MEET AGAIN

CLIPSE - FREEDOM


ENJOY!!

LUDACRIS - CONJURE (A HUSTLER'S SPIRIT MIXTAPE)

Download HERE

AIDES GRAFFITI

Must see. If this aint dope, then I don't know what is.

DEF POETRY JAM DAY 2

J. IVY - NEVER LET ME DOWN

Wuss good martians? Well, as promised, here's my number 4 poem, I really love this one, since the first time I heard it, do y'all know which artist featured this poem and poet in his album? Do your research! Anyways, hope y'all enjoying this segment, catch y'all tomorrow.

Poem

We are all here for a reason on a particular path
You don't need a curriculum to know that you're apart of the math
Cats think I'm delirious but I'm so damn serious
That's why I expose my soul to the globe; the world
I'm tryna make it better for these little boys and girls
I'm not just another individual
My spirit is a part of this that's why it's spiritual
But I get my hymns from him
So it's not me it's he that's lyrical
I'm not a miracle, I'm a heaven sent instrument
My rhythmatic regiment navigates melodic notes
For your soul and your mental
That's why I'm instrumental, vibrations is what I'm into
Yeah I need my loot by rent day
But that ain't what gives me the heart of Kunta Kinte
I'm tryna give us us free like Sinke
I can't stop, that's why I'm hot
Determination, dedication, motivation
I'm talking to you of my many inspirations
When I say I can't let you or self down
If I were on the highest cliff, on the highest riff
And if you slipped off the side and clinched on to your life
In my grip I would never ever let you down
And when these words are found
Let it be known that God's penmanship has been signed
With a language called love
That's why my breath is felt by the death
And while my words are heard and confined to the ears of the blind
I too dream in color and in rhyme
So I guess I'm one of a kind in a full house
Cuz whenever I open my heart, my soul or my mouth
A touch of god reigns out

Enjoy!!

CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY BY GREGOR COLLIENNE

Via gregorcollienne

THE MISA DIGITAL GUITAR

This Cool Misa Digital Guitar with a touchpad that plays digital guitar, watch the video. Cool! By Sydney-based designer Michael. If you are interested in purchasing, you can contact it via mail.
"DIGITAL GUITAR VS ELECTRIC GUITAR - THE DIFFERENCE?

I am obsessed with digital guitar. But I also love electric guitar, and I have learned what it's good at and what it's capable of. Some of its most important qualities and characteristics stem from the very fact that the electric guitar is made out of wood and strings. A guitar string is "beautiful" - because the sound generated comes from the very vibration of the string, interfering with a magnetic flux and inducing an electric voltage, which is then amplified. Why would you want to emulate that? It is perfection. It is pure nature. It is in the analog domain. I did not intend the Misa digital guitar to replicate a traditional guitar.

THE REASON FOR THE MISA DIGITAL GUITAR

Guitars by their very nature have limitations. To create sound you need to hit a string, so that the sound at its most intense point is always the beginning of the pluck. The left hand controls what notes to play, and the right hand controls when to play these notes and the intensity of the notes. Effects can be inserted into the signal chain, but they are usually foot pedals which makes the experience of controlling effects disjointed from what your hands are doing. Plus, you can only really make use of one pedal at a time. Even in the (rare) case that controls are mounted on the guitar, the hand needs to switch between strings and controls. This may be okay if you only use effects occasionally, but when every note you play needs the controls set differently - good luck with that.
There are no strings on this instrument. The right hand doesn't pluck strings, it controls sound."


Via Core77

DEF POETRY JAM DAY 1

I've been a fan of Def Poetry Jam for a minute now and although I haven't seen all of them, the ones I've come across are seriously some of the dopest shit I've ever heard. Anyways, I've decided to have a week of Def Poetry Jam and I would've loved to have all sorts of poetry but Def Poetry Jam have videos that allow us to see the passion these poets have, the different types of delivery and wordplay they use and also the crowds' reaction to the poems. Well, I hope y'all enjoy this segment. Catch y'all with number 4 tomorrow. Uno.

NUMBER 5: SHIHAN - SICK AND TIRED

ENJOY!!

YELAWOLF - TRUNK MUZIK MIXTAPE X POP THE TRUNK VIDEO

Wuss good martians? Anyways, real quick, I liked the hook dude did on Juelz Santana's track but I slept on his music but trust me, you don't wanna make the same mistake, Yelawolf is next up. Download Trunk Muzik Mixtape HERE

Here's his latest video for "Pop the trunk" off the mixtape.

Yelawolf - Pop The Trunk from Motion Family on Vimeo.

A Message From Odysseus

What's good Martians and Earthlings. So my boy Losi and I have decided to have a weekly post on each other's blogs. Nothing major, just a and update on how we're doing or what we're doing. It's all about showing each other support on everything we do.

With that said, I don't know what the fuck to talk about! LOL. I've been home the whole day. Went out last night and got pretty wasted. I lost my ID which was not very smart. Now I don't know if I can go out tonight without one. I don't want to go out with my passport - that's never a good idea unless you really need to. I lost my bank card 2 weeks ago so I'm hoping this doesn't become a habit. Very irresponsible Dru-ey!

How was everybody's New Years? Began working on the resolutions? I hope so. Get to it! I didn't make any this year. Well, I kinda did, but my resolutions are limited to this year, they are more like life choices. For instance, as I grow older, I'm hoping to listen to people more and take their advice. I tend to be a very closed and stubborn person. I never ask for advice or help. Which at times could lead to my downfall. I think I need to listen to people's opinions more. The right people, not everybody. That would be my big resolution (in HD. Blu-Ray type shit).

Oh yeah, changing topic. I watched 'The Book Of Eli' yesterday. GREAT movie! Ya'll should check it out. It's not all action as I was expecting it to be. The message it sent was powerful. It took me until about halfway through the movie to figure out what the "book" was. Great job by whoever wrote the script.

Ok people, I gotta' run. I need to get some food and maybe have a drink. It's a holiday tomorrow so I'm taking advantage of the day off. Shout outs to Dr. Martin Luther King II!

Until next week, God bless.

Uno.

- Dru.

Blog.

Twitter.

DIRTY MONEY FT RICK ROSS - ANGELS REMIX

Rick Ross really goes in...

ADIDAS ORIGINALS - STAR WARS COLLECTION

How dope is this huh??

INTERVIEW MAGAZINE FEBRUARY COVER (JAY-Z)

It would probably be a cliché to state that Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter is the opposite of the all-beef persona he proffers in song and video, but he is soft-spoken and polite. As he finishes his lunch at the Brooklyn studio where we did the photo shoot for this story, he asks for something to drink. “Snapple, I guess,” he says. “Bring me something red with that excess verbiage on the label. Although,” he laughs. “I guess that could be any of ’em.” He pays the kind of attention that’s reflected in his lyric choices.

Whenever he digressed during our conversation, he would invariably interject something along the lines of, “But let me get back to your original question . . . ” and then finish his thought—the kind of attention to detail that he brings to bear as a writer, producer, and performer with a career that, arguably, represents one of the longest running periods of sustained success in the history of hip-hop. It’s a genre that he’s seen grow from its infancy to reach a crossroads, mirroring his own evolution from his twenties to his forties. (Jay-Z turned 40 in December.) In those terms, these past couple of years have quite possibly been among the most fascinating of Jay-Z’s life: from being quoted in gesture by then-presidential candidate Barack Obama, who brushed some metaphorical “dirt” off his shoulder while giving a speech during the primaries in 2008; to signing on with Will Smith as a producer of the Broadway musical Fela!, about legendarily political Afrobeat artist Fela Kuti; to posting an old-school Zeitgeist hit such as “Empire State of Mind” in an era when video or radio play is of waning influence.

It was logical then that last fall Jay-Z dropped an album with the pressure-cooker title of The Blueprint 3 (Roc Nation), as if to remind himself that the pop world still has enormous expectations of him, yet things have indeed changed. He also possesses an acute awareness of who he is and what he has accomplished. We began the conversation talking about movies. He acknowledged Quentin Tarantino as an influence: “Man, the way Tarantino went back and forth in time, that’s it. I love Pulp Fiction (1994). I name-checked it before, but it was a big influence on my writing. If you listen to ‘Meet the Parents,’ the way he uses time as an element is big in that song.” He allows that Chuck D was right when he called rap the CNN of black America, but for Jay-Z, there’s more. “Rap for me is like making movies, telling stories, and getting the emotions of the songs through in just as deep a way. And I grew up in rap and movies the same way. I recently watched Once Upon a Time in America (1984) on a plane. Back in the day, Noodles”—played by Robert De Niro— “was my man. But when he rapes that girl, I couldn’t sit through it anymore. You come to realize that actions have consequences.” He was touching on the way movies bring us into whatever the characters are feeling at the moment. When this was pointed out, he sat back and nodded. His gift for bringing the way people talk into the way he walks in song works on both conscious and unconscious levels, a reminder that even in his music, Jay-Z has never lost sight of who—or what—he is.

ELVIS MITCHELL: Would you have ever thought there would be a time where you could have a song like “Empire State of Mind” blow up the way it has, and, yet, there aren’t any record stores around any more? Isn’t it strange that we got to this point?

JAY-Z: It’s horrible. I mean, you didn’t foresee this specifically, but you knew something would happen because whenever people reject change, things change for them anyhow. I think that’s what happened to the record business when Napster came around. The industry rejected what was happening instead of accepting it as change. Here we are today, more than a decade later, and we still haven’t figured it out.

MITCHELL: Well, it still speaks to the power of music that something like “Empire State of Mind” can pop like that. There’s still an appetite for it.

JAY-Z: Well, I don’t think the appetite is the problem. I think the consumption of music is at an all-time high. But I think the ways that record companies are trying to monetize it is just all over the place. At the end of the day, music is in the clouds. That’s where it’s at now. Before, you could hold it, look at it, turn it around. Now, it’s just in the air. That’s where it’s gonna wind up. You won’t need a shelf or a wall unit like my mom and pop had with all these big-ass records. You’ll just need your phone to call it up.

MITCHELL: I’m sorry, I’ve gotta stop you here. You must hear this all the time, but whenever you say something that’s a phrase from one of your songs . . . When you said “all-time high,” I just went right to “Numb/Encore.” Does that kind of thing happen often?

JAY-Z: All the time. It’s good. . . . It’s weird and good.

MITCHELL: I think it has to do with how you fold certain phrases into your lyrics in the way that people talk.

JAY-Z: I think it comes from me trying to tell the story in the most clear, concise, and truthful way—taking those everyday words and phrases and capturing them in a way that they become something else.

The people who write the headlines at places like the New York Post do something similar. They turn these phrases that you know into hooks. Sometimes they’re clever. Sometimes they’re stupid, like TIGER’S TALE. [laughs] Actually, that was pretty clever. Rakimsaid, “I can take a phrase that’s rarely heard/Flip it/Now it’s a daily word” [from “Follow the Leader,” off Eric B. & Rakim’s 1988 album Follow the Leader]. That’s what I’m talking about.

MITCHELL: But having that power of understanding the way people speak obviously really means something to you.

JAY-Z: I started doing it on a small level, just for the people around me. Then I realized the impact it had, the connection it created with the millions of people who’ve been through the same thing that I’ve been through, or who can relate to my ambitions or emotions . . . You don’t have to be from Marcy projects to relate to the idea of, I’m not gonna lose. I’m gonna fight, and I’m gonna make something out of nothing. You know, that’s pretty much the American dream as it stands now. So, for me, the realization that I could speak to people like that came first on a small scale. Then it just started happening—I started having this vibration.

MITCHELL: You’ve always had a really good ear for things like that in your music, but one of your real gifts is that you can hear those sorts of things in other people’s music, too—like The Notorious B.I.G. or the Neptunes or Kanye West. That’s part of what makes you a great collaborator.

JAY-Z: I just really love the music. Everyone who makes music is a good collaborator at their foundation because in order to make music, you have to connect to it in a way that other people can’t. Other things can get in the way, whether it’s the boxes that people put themselves in, or the feelings they might have towards a person. But those things don’t get in the way for me. To me, there shouldn’t be any lines. All these ways we classify things as R&B and hip-hop and rock . . . It’s bullshit. It’s all music. If you put yourself in that box, then you won’t be able to hear that it’s all music at its soul. When people say stuff like, “Oh, that’s soft rock. I don’t listen to that,” I find that elitist. It’s music-racist. [laughs]

MITCHELL: That was one of the big parts of rap for a while. Not only were you not supposed to listen to other kinds of music, you weren’t supposed to listen to other MCs either.

JAY-Z: Yeah, but that was all bravado. That was all about, “I’m the best! No one else exists!” I pretty much forget all that in terms of collaborating. I really just like breaking down those barriers, whether it means doing an album with Linkin Park, an album with R. Kelly [The Best of Both Worlds, 2002], or playing at the Brandenburg Gate with Bono.

MITCHELL: Or doing a song like “Empire State of Mind” with Alicia Keys?

JAY-Z: Exactly.

MITCHELL: If you think about all the guys in hip-hop that you came up with, you’re one of the only ones who is still here—and part of the reason is that a lot of those guys didn’t break out of that box you’re talking about. In fact, most of them are still in it.

JAY-Z: I think a big part of that is insecurity. You know, successful people have a bigger fear of failure than people who’ve never done anything because if you haven’t been successful, then you don’t know how it feels to lose it all. You don’t have that fear. So why do you think people get stuck in those boxes? It’s that fear of going back down. “I had success. I had a number one record. I had a number one album. I have to make this kind of record again or else I’m going to lose it all.” So that’s how you end up making the same song over and over. People find their zone, a place that’s comfortable, and they say, “I’m not gonna try that other thing. What if I fail? Then I’ll have to go back! What if I can’t get in the club anymore?” [both laugh] It’s difficult for me as well. The Blueprint 3 was the most difficult album that I’ve ever made.

MITCHELL: Why is that?

JAY-Z: Well, what I was trying to do with this album—which is the same thing I was trying to do on Kingdom Come [2006]—is go somewhere that hadn’t been gone before, to try to chart a new territory in rap. The reason I’ve been grounded, though, and able to make albums, is because I’ve allowed my friends to come with me and voice an opinion. That’s who keeps you grounded—the people who have known you longest. People who don’t know you, you don’t know their motives. They smile at you all day, “Oh, that’s great. You’ve done it again! You’re the greatest!” And that’s not good for an artist. You’ve gotta keep the people that have been around you, who saw you when you didn’t have anything, so they have the confidence to say, “Get out of here. That shit is bullshit!” I welcome that.

MITCHELL: Just calling it The Blueprint 3 really throws down a challenge to yourself, doesn’t it?

JAY-Z: Right, of course. But I thought it was needed. I think this Blueprint is even bigger than the first one [The Blueprint, 2001] in terms of rap music in general. It shows that a guy who isn’t 16 years old can make relevant music. That’s a big thing in rap because it used to be that when guys got to be 30 years old, that was it because they had to try to rap like they were 18, and then the 18-year-olds were like, “We don’t even use that slang! That’s so last week! What are you talking about? You don’t even know what’s going on out here! You’re done!”

MITCHELL: That’s when you go do a sitcom.

JAY-Z: [laughs] Yeah, exactly. Because you’re so disconnected. But if you’re a guy who loves to make rap music, then you have to do it, and those 18-year-olds are where the white-hot spot is, right? That’s what everyone says. That’s the demographic that you have to go for. But you don’t get to those kids by not being honest with yourself, because a separation develops between you and your music, and those kids don’t believe what you’re rapping about, so they don’t buy into it. That’s not something that’s honest to them. For me, the challenge is just making great albums, because talent—and writing in general—is not tangible. There’s no expiration date on it. At the same time, you might wake up tomorrow and be unable to write music. There’ve been genius artists who’ve been great for two years and then it’s gone. You just never know. So for me to put out my 11th studio album and have it connect the way it has still . . . I know it’s not Reasonable Doubt [1996]. It ain’t The Black Album [2003], either. It’s The Blueprint 3. It’s its own album, and it has connected with a lot of people.

MITCHELL: These albums are sort of like epics to you. Each song is like a scene, but there’s a context for each of them.

JAY-Z: Yeah. I mean, Blueprint 3 is made up of songs, but it’s also a commentary on the idea that in order for rap to survive, we have to stretch out the drama. We have to stretch out the audience. It can’t be this narrow—we have to stretch out the point of view. Because, as people grow, their points of view change as well, and so you start to lose people as they get older, just by nature of the fact that they don’t relate anymore to what you’re doing. Rap is fairly young, but it’s hitting this wall right now. It’s not this new thing anymore. Everyone’s heard it all before. So it’s like, “Okay, what are we going to talk about now? Where are you going to go with this?” It can’t just be about shock anymore. Before, it was all shock—“Motherfucker! Get it?” It was all this rebellious energy. Now, that’s not shocking anymore. We see the punch coming. So we’ve got to come up with something new. We gotta get on our game.

MITCHELL: Part of it, too, is that, in hip-hop, the audience generally moves from one person to the next, which is why it’s so amazing that you’ve been in the game for such a long time.

JAY-Z: Well, in rap years, I’m like The Rolling Stones or U2.

MITCHELL: The Grateful Dead.

JAY-Z: [laughs] The Grateful Dead, exactly!

MITCHELL: Were you conscious of bringing the audience along with you?

JAY-Z: Yeah, but I also never wanted to just make the same album that I made before. I am who I am as a person—I can’t change who I am.

MITCHELL: You probably don’t remember this, but we met four years ago at the Spotted Pig [the restaurant in New York City’s West Village of which Jay-Z is a co-owner]. It was the night that Bill Clinton was there. You and I were sitting outside having a cigar, actually, and you said, “Man, the world has changed. The president is talking to me about my music!” Do you remember that night?

JAY-Z: Yeah, man.

MITCHELL: I thought about that when Obama did the “dirt off my shoulder” moment. What’s it like for you to have basically two presidents who know how to deal with you?

JAY-Z: It’s unbelievable because it’s so far away from where I come from. We were the kids who were ignored by every politician. We didn’t have the numbers, the vote, to put anybody in office, because no matter who was in the office, we didn’t think that it would affect change where we lived. So nobody went out and voted. For me, being with Obama or having dinner with Bill Clinton . . . It’s crazy. It’s mind-blowing, because where I come from is just another world. We were just ignored by politicians—by America in general.

MITCHELL: But then you went from being ignored to being targeted. I mean, politicians actually went after rappers.

JAY-Z: Yeah. From being ignored, to being targeted, to being accepted.

MITCHELL: And you, as a rapper, have lived through all those eras. How has the game changed for you? You’ve changed as a person but, in a lot of ways, as you’ve grown, rap has become more of a marketing thing, and much more cynical.

For the rest of the interview, go to Interview

NIGHTSHADOW'S MAIDEN VOYAGE

We have seen Jaguar Concept Motorcycle images before, today we will see a video of Jaguar Motorcycle in action. Cool!
Leaping Jaguar and Charging Bull motorcycles by Massow Concept Cycles. The Jaguar powered by an air-cooled Buell S3's 1200cc V-twin engine, body made from high-grade stainless steel. It price at £320,000 (about $567,000). Via likecool

SADE - SOLDIER OF LOVE

Gotta get her new album for my pops!

DRUYORKTV: EPISODE 7: PREDICTION FOR THE NEXT DECADE

Hit up druyork.com and get your vote on.

SNOOP DOGG FT JAY-Z - I WANNA ROCK (KINGS G MIX) RADIO RIP

FIRE. Download HERE

BIRTH OF AN AVATAR

Birth of an AVATAR from Peter Ammentorp Lund on Vimeo.

Copenhagen decided to make his own Avatar after watching James Cameron’s epic film.
"After watching James Cameron's AVATAR, I really wanted to have an avatar of my own. :o) Here is the result, after fooling around in photoshop for a couple of hours."

ALYSSA MONKS' PAINTINGS

Alyssa’s paintings are of a representational narrative genre. She portrays a specific place and time with simultaneous empathy and detachment. Monks is part of the Continuing Education Faculty at the New York Academy of Art, where she teaches Flesh Painting. She currently is also an instructor at the Montclair State University.

She earned her BA from Boston College and an MFA in painting from the New York Academy of Art, Graduate School of Figurative Art. At the New York Academy of Art, Alyssa studied with Vincent Desiderio, Jenny Saville, Wade Schuman, Brenda Zlamany, John Jacobsmeyer, Harvey Citron, Deane Keller, Edward Schmidt, Steven Assael, and Lisa Bartolozzi. She additionally studied at Montclair State College, the New School, and Lorenzo de’Medici in Florence. She completed an artist in residency at Fullerton College.

Alyssa has been awarded the Grant for Painting from the Elizabeth Greensheilds Foundation three times and has had recent solo shows in New York and Anaheim, California. Alyssa is currently represented by Sarah Bain Gallery in Anaheim and DFN Gallery in New York. Her work is available at David Klein Gallery in Michigan and Hespe Gallery in San Fransisco.

Via Alyssamonks

MOS DEF CREATING THE ECSTATIC

Pure dopeness martians!!

LIGHT TOUCH

Light Touch($TBA) is an interactive projector that instantly transforms any flat surface into a touch screen. Its Holographic Laser Projection(HLP) technology inside which creates a bright, high-quality video images in WVGA resolution - 10.1″ virtual touch screen, so the user can use projected image as a touchscreen with virtual keyboards and touching the image. Cool tech!

GO LONG (2009 SKATEBOARDING)

A lotta people don't know but I'm a fan of skateboarding and this video is truly the dopest. Enjoy!

VIDEOS FOR MY MARTIANS

JAY-Z FT SWIZZ BEATZ - ON TO THE NEXT ONE

THE COOL KIDS FT BOLDY JAMES - TIRES

STACK BUNDLES FT THE RIOT SQUAD - PEEP GAME

MOS DEF FT TALIB KWELI - HISTORY

TREY SONGZ FT FABOLOUS - SAY AAH

THE COOL KIDS - FREE THROWS

JAY-Z FT MR HUDSON - YOUNG FOREVER


ENJOY!!

TRADE VOORHEES - NORTHERN EXPOSURE

Trade drops another dope tape. Download HERE

METAL ON METAL'S BASTARD THE GLUE SOCIETY

Metal on Metal "BASTARD" from The Glue Society on Vimeo.

FUCKING DOPE ASS VIDEO!!

MAESTRO KNOWS SEASON 3: EPISODE 3: IBN JASPAER

Maestro Knows - Episode 3 (Ibn Jasper) from Maestro Knows on Vimeo.

Ibn Jasper is part of the future, for those that don't know dude need to get in tuned.

ERICK ARC ELLIOT - NOIR.

Downloaded this a couple of days and it's one of those things you just stumble on and get inspired by it. Definitely check it out. Download HERE

DOUBLE DRUYORK TV: EPISODE 5: "ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM, FLY ON THE WALL", EPISODE 6: SEASONS GREETINGS

Episode 5

Episode 6

I know, I know I'ma little bit late with posting my dude's episodes but it has to be done. My apologies.

PARKOUR MOTION REEL VIDEO

parkour motion reel from saggyarmpit on Vimeo.

This short animated video was done with technical pen,frame by frame.

A FEW WORDS FROM KANYE WEST (PEE-UNE, PEE-UNE, PEE-UNE)

FIRST OF ALL, I WANT TO THANK EVERYBODY FOR THEIR CONSTANT LOVE AND SUPPORT OVER THESE PAST 6 YEARS! I'M SO HAPPY TO BE BACK IN THE STUDIO MAKING NEW MUSIC. I WILL BRING YOU THE BEST I HAVE TO OFFER WITH THE SAME DEDICATION THAT KOBE HAS ON THE COURT. IT'S FUNNY HOW SO MANY RAPPERS GET WORSE AS THEIR CAREERS STRETCH OUT BUT TRUE POETS GET BETTER. WE WILL FOLLOW IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF MAYA ANGELOU, GILL SCOTT HERRON AND NINA SIMONE. THEIR WORK IMPROVED WITH TIME. THEY DOCUMENTED WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN CULTURE. THAT IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY AS THE MODERN DAY ARTISTS AND POETS, TO ACCURATELY REPRESENT WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW, SO WHEN THE POWERS THAT BE TRY TO REWRITE HISTORY YOU CAN ALWAYS LOOK AT OUR WORKS AND FIND TRUTH AND SINCERITY IN A WORLD OF PROCESSED INFORMATION. LET US SOAK IN POSITIVE FORCES AND LOOK DOWN ON UPON THOSE WHO MASQUERADE AS TRUTH TELLERS AND OBJECTIVE FACT GIVERS WHEN IN REALITY EVERYTHING THAT IS PROJECTED HAS AN AGENDA OF BRAINWASHING US, THE "CONSUMER", THE PUBLIC, TO BELIEVE WHAT THEY WANT US TO. LET US LOOK PAST HEADLINES AND DEAL WITH JUST A BIT OF REALITY IN THIS NEW DECADE. WE HAVE OUR OWN OUTLETS NOW. WE DON'T HAVE TO BELIEVE EVERYTHING ANYMORE. NOW I'LL FIGURE OUT A WAY TO MAKE THAT RYHME LOL!!!

Via Kanye's Blog

MAG+ CONCEPT BY BONNIER

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

DOPE-ERY!!

MICKEY FACTZ - THEDARKPHOENIX: ALPHA

Tracklist/Synopsis:
1. Sunrise
With all of my projects, I let all of my emotions and feelings out on one song. Just me writing as much as I possibly can and letting the feel of the beat dictate my tone. At the time of me painting this record, I wanted to have a feeling of overcoming. In hindsight that’s what the sun does everyday, overcome the night. I used the sun as a metaphor to convey these emotions.
[Color/s: Red, Blue & Green]
2. Amnesia
A lot of people forget that I can actually rap. I get that feeling a lot. All the time. So with how I approach my freestyles, I try to spit over instrumentals and loops that nobody would dare use. Justice is one of my favorite groups and “Let There Be Light” is one of my favorite records from them. So I did what I did best: Paint.
[Color/s: Green]
3. Turn It Up
A preview of what’s to come in 2010. This song is featured on DJ Amplive’s project dropping this year. Enjoy it while you can.
[Color/s: Red & Green]
4. Still I Rise
Whatever happened to the anthems? What happened to the songs to help us get through struggles? I’ve felt down at times. I’ve hit rock bottom. I’ve lost my mind a couple of times that I can remember. However, through it all, still I rise. Maya Angelou’s famous poem is a prophetic message for me in my life. Nothing will or can tear me down as long as I’m breathing. And if I can believe that, so should you.
[Color/s: Blue & Green]
5. Ashes
In the midst of enjoying life, there is pain. During the recording process, that’s exactly what I felt. I know how to place my life in records very well. For example, when certain people get depressed, they smoke. Its like an extension of sighing almost. I named the song ashes to remind us that when we go through certain things, the unnecessary things, then it’s time to dump those ashes. Ashes fall off the end of a cigarette very easily and when u fall for someone so should minuscule problems.
[Color/s: Blue]
6. S/ecrets T/hat D/estroy
The premise and subject of this song is often strayed away from. I wanted to touch base on something that’s affecting the world day by day. Usually when we get wind of a secret, we’re supposed to hold onto it until death. Ironically, the particular secrets I talk about bring forth death, destruction and despair.
[Color/s: Red]
7. Contemplations Of A King
I was born a prince. All of us are born into royalty. In order to inherit the upper echelon of what’s inevitable, you have to figure out life’s quarrels. There are so many hurdles to deter you. Succeeding in conquering these quarrels takes patience, wisdom and contemplation. Through that, you will realize your true potential.
[Color/s: Red & Blue]
8. Sunset
The Phoenix is a mythical creature who rises from the ashes, creating a surge of fire to reach its peak. Watching the sunset is like experiencing the gates of heaven open up before your eyes. Most people have seen so many wonders in life always anticipating the next greatest thing. When in reality, their life is the greatest experience they will live. We must live each day like the phoenix, as the sun sets to see the unimaginable of the next.
[Color/s: Red, Blue & Green]

This is something I highly recommend to all my hip hop heads out there, make sure you check it out. Download HERE

MARTIAN'S BACK, TELL A FRIEND!!

Wuss good Martians? Happy New Year's to you and yours and I wish nothing but success for all of y'all this year. Before I begin blogging in 2010, I would like to apologize for my absence and also thank y'all for sticking with the martian. With that being said, the quest for knowledge and inspiration is still present, room for improvement is more spacious than ever, the pursuit of thy happYless to be thy happYness is on track and the reinforcement of virtues to my repertoire and idiosyncrasy is what i'll be on this year. WOW, a lotta shit huh.

Anyways, this year, Dru Yorkian and I will be reaching for the stars and searching for new heights and we are going to share ourselves to the youth and hope to inspire y'all in more than one, two, three billion ways. We are going to have diary/blog entries on each other's blogs once a week so, make sure you check out "A word from Dru York" every week at priceless creativity and y'all can catch my entries at druyork.com.

So, hope y'all ready for the new year and I hope we all achieve our goals and dreams and stay positive throughout the ups and downs. Well, enough of all that and this, the martian is about to hit y'all with a day of inspiration and creativity and I hope y'all are ready for the ride. And oh yeah, I gotta few new year's resolutions, some are discreet but one for the public, since everyone's been bugging me about it, will be LOSING WEIGHT, lol, seems like everyone digs me when I'm a little bit thinner, haha! The rest will be news and highlights, ya digg!!! Love all the martians supporting the kid, I appreciate the love and support and hey, feel free to drop a comment here and there or catch me on twitter. THE SKY IS NOT THE LIMIT, YOUR HEAD IS!

P.S THE MIDDLE FINGER RESEMBLES "THE DEATH OF FEAR AND THE BIRTH OF AMBITION".