The Audacity of Dope

*Speechless*

This was the best concert I’ve ever been too and with everything going on that day (girl was in town, chilling with N.E.R.D., catching up with Lupe, etc.), it was probably one of my favorite days ever.  Ah, memories.

Someone buy me this book for Christmas.  Kthxbye.

As I was saying, the talent in the 206 is immense right now.  I meant to put this on TAOD when Ryan first sent it to me, but I failed.  Thankfully, 2DopeBoyz posted it up and reminded me about it.

In Ryan’s own words:

All summer I’ve been working on my thesis project to graduate from the UW. It’s another still-image motion picture like the 2Pac Vs. Franz Ferdinand mash-up I made last year. It features Macklemore and a few other people you may know (list below). Take in mind this is version one. Between limited access, finances, etc I couldn’t really pursue a lot of the ideas I originally envisioned in efforts to make it epic. I feel like the music got there more than the storyline. However, we may do an improved remix of it for the VS. (Macklemore/RyanLewis) EP featuring Mack rapping and a revised production more like a music video, shot with actual video.

It was shot entirely with regular still-image cameras (Canon 5D, Canon 5D Mark II, Nikon D300 and a Nikon D3), batch-edited in Photoshop and produced in Final Cut Pro. The music was probably the biggest Pro-Tools session I’ve ever ran. Although it samples the original Fake Empire’s piano and backing vocals, everything else was recorded live over numerous sessions.

Thanks a ton to everyone who helped:

The National – Fake Empire (Sample)
JkoePhoto.com (Jason Koenig) – Photographer
MazagranPhoto.com (Johnny Valencia) – Photographer
Myspace.com/Macklemore (Ben Haggerty) – Main Actor
Tricia Davis – Actor
Kevin Veatch – Electric Guitar, Electric Bass, Engineer
Andrew Joslyn – Violins and plucking
Zach Fleury – Main Drums, Percussion
Jonah Peters – Percussion
Ryan Lewis – Music Production, Photography, Film Production, Drums, Key Strings, Organ

We shot 100 + strangers portraits who choose a sticker that pertained to an organization/company that has either consumed them or acted as an alternative means of communication to operate with society.

Group Vocals –

P Smoov (Mad Rad)
Rosanna Veatch
Zach Fleury
Sol
Xperience
Macklemore
Anna Clausen
Isabella Du Graf
and more.

Also, Ryan has been working with a dope MC/vocalist named Symmetry for about 3 years now and I believe they’re just about to drop their full project for the masses.  Here’s a taste:

Symmetry / Ryan Lewis – “Fireflies”

This is crazy.

I don’t think anyone is on the same level as Kanye these days – musically, artistically, personally, etc..  There are a lot of different interpretations that you could pull from this short film, but I’d be interested in hearing your take.  Keep in mind, this was filmed before the MTV VMA incident and his decision to step out of the spotlight a bit.  What do you think?

Sidenote: peep the Mayer Hawthorne track playing during the “love” scene.  A-Side FTW!

Wow.  This is easily the coolest pool table I’ve ever seen.  It’s a far cry from the one the homies and I used to rack every weekend at my friend Greg’s house.  Ah…the memories.

Spotted on the BBC Blog.

Super fresh web promo for a new Adidas line, shot by one of Kanye’s favorite directors, Nabil Elderkin.  Reminiscent of one of Nabil’s best videos:

Big shout to the new homies over at one of the illest clothing lines around, Acrylick, for sending over some of their gear this week.  They really have a great knack for creating designs that are simple and refined, but still colorful and fresh.  Plus, they’re some true hip-hop heads so you already know the messages are on point (i.e., peep the “Too Many Mics, Not Enough Emcees” shirt above…cosign).  I’ll be rocking these heavy this fall, especially those windbreakers.

Make sure you check out their catalog and cop something.  Just like we all need to support good musicians, we should be supporting dope independent artisans in other areas of society too.  Shout to all the streetwear stores in the town as well, but again, huge thanks to Acrylick.

Um…this is crazy.

Swiped from FWMJ.

I know TAOD is generally PG, but Olivia Munn’s non-nude (booooo) Playboy spread is now online and it’s so necessary.  See the rest of the pictures here.  I think we need to get Munn on SNSS someday.

The Japanese have built a 59 foot replica of the RX-78-2 Gundam battle suit in Odaiba (Tokyo) and it’s just about the coolest thing ever.

More dope night pictures here and some clearer day shots here.  Apparently they’re taking it down at the end of the summer, but they should leave that thing up forever.

As I mentioned, Shad is releasing his insta-classic The Old Prince Still Lives At Home album in America on June 30th.  Since the LP has been out in Canada for a while, they’ve already dropped some excellent videos for it (including possibly my favorite video ever for the title track), but the new one for “Compromise” will be coming at the start of next month.  In the meantime, director Christopher Mills created this prelude with some extra footage from the video and a quick spoken word poem by Ian Kamau to hold folks over.

Additionally, they released the US artwork today too:

Freshness.

Lastly, even though the Warped Tour doesn’t have a ton of hip-hop on the bill, I highly recommend you check it out when it comes through your town this summer so you can catch Shad’s live set.  Dates are below:

6/26/09    Pomona, CA
6/27/09    San Francisco, CA
6/28/09    Ventura, CA
6/30/09    Phoenix, AZ
7/1/09    Las Cruces, NM
7/2/09    San Antonio, TX
7/3/09    Houston, TX
7/5/09    Dallas, TX
7/7/09    Indianapolis, IN
7/8/09    Pittsburgh, PA
7/9/09    Cleveland, OH
7/10/09    Toronto, ON
7/11/09    Montreal, QC
7/12/09    Hartford, CT
7/14/09    Columbia, MD
7/15/09    Scranton, PA
7/16/09    Buffalo, NY
7/17/09    Camden, NJ
7/18/09    Uniondale, NY
7/19/09    Oceanport, NJ
7/21/09    Boston, MA
7/22/09    Virginia Beach, VA
7/23/09    Charlotte, NC
7/24/09    Orlando, FL
7/25/09    Miami, FL
7/26/09    St.Petersburg, FL
7/28/09    Atlanta, GA
7/29/09    Cincinnati, OH
7/30/09    Milwaukee, WI
7/31/09    Detroit, MI
8/1/09    Chicago, IL
8/2/09    Minneapolis, MN
8/3/09    St.Louis, MO
8/4/09    Kansas City, KS
8/7/09    Boise, ID
8/8/09    Salt Lake City, UT
8/9/09    Denver, CO
8/12/09    Calgary, AB
8/14/09    Vancouver, BC
8/15/09    Seattle, WA
8/16/09    Portland, OR
8/19/09    Fresno, CA
8/20/09    Mountain View, CA
8/21/09    Sacramento, CA
8/22/09    San Diego, CA
8/23/09    Los Angeles, CA

August 15th it is…