Especially if the only clock these illiterati have in their cribs, for some odd reason, is this ultramodern, computer-controlled number, above.
We call it a “number” ironically, though, because, clearly, it’s absent any. The QLockTwo, by German manufacturers Biegert & Funk—and you know the Germans always make good stuff—displays timely text to tell you the time. Plus, fashioned with a polished acrylic face, and finished in a wood back under four layers of lacquer, it’s clearly made to time-tell a long time.
QLockTwo is also compact—17 3/4 inches square and 3/4 inch thick—yet large enough to see in any room. Most of all, it’s available in five yummy colors—that’s Cherry Cake (huh?), above, Black Ice Tea, below—and six different languages.
Five varied hues? Six diverse tongues? At only $1,282 each, I’m getting Flavor all thirty.
Who’s the hardest? In the above photograph by BET exec Stephen Hill, rapper/entrepreneur Jay-Z, right, and I take a break from our semi-annual lunch at New York City’s Sequoia restaurant to reenact a dramatic scene from the 1981 sci-fi horror film, Scanners.
To watch him make my head explode, tune in to Black Entertainment Television, next week, Thurday (9/10) eveningnight/Friday morning, atmidnight7 pm, and check out Food for Thought: Conversations with Jay-Z.
There, for a whole hour, Hot 97 NY on-air personality Angie Martinez, sportswriter Stephen A. Smith, and I will take turns ice-grilling America’s most wanted emcee about his music, business, and philosophy. Make sure you peep it. I think it’ll blow your mind, too.
10. Scott Storch
9. Wyclef Jean
8. The RZA
7. Swizz Beatz
6. Jermaine Dupri
5. The Neptunes
4.Timbaland
3. Kanye West
2. Sean “Puffy” Combs
1. Dr. Dre
Now, though I know or have met almost all 10 of these, the talented names on XXL magazine’s list of knob-twiddlers, I don’t know Just Blaze. I do know of his reputation. However, I haven’t met him, and didn’t even really expect him to reply.
So, I was a bit suprised when, fewer than ten minutes later, I got this tweet:
All of us can remember people who who changed us forever. I’m talking about those individuals whose advice gave us needed direction when our lives came to diverging paths. There, we had to make a choice about what we’d do, and, though we didn’t know it then, that decision would affect the rest of our existences. They’re the people without whom our personal stories would be pale, unremarkable versions of the glorious ones we ultimately chose, and now inhabit.
Well, I don’t who this person was in the case of young Mark Vincent, above. However, I do know that the mature Vin Diesel, right, and the world, are eternally grateful for three specific bits of counsel he accepted:
1) “Mark Vincent…I dunno. Vincent…Vincent…um…Vin? Don’t you think “Vin” would be catchier?
2) “Lose the ‘fro.”
3) “STOP BREAKDANCING. You have no talent, or flava, whatsoever.”
I’m so tired of TV commercials with dancing by wack b-boys. But in this spot for T-Mobile’s Sidekick LX, music, editing, and, especially, performances work together to create something truly outrageous. You may have seen the 30-second version of this ad on TV. That’s the 1-minute take, above. Get down.
Did your heart leap with anticipation at today’s release of cover art for Jay-Z’s upcoming The Blueprint III, above? (Or, instead, did you, like one blogger, feel compelled to rant that “that optimising album covers for viewing on iPhones leads to f#&*ing sh!@@y album covers”?) Or maybe your beef is that it “looks EXACTLY like the Secret Machines’ 2004 album cover, Now Here Is Nowhere,” above.
You know hip-hop is in a quandary when rappers with fortunes as disparate as Jay-Z’s (“D.O.A.: Death of Auto-Tune”) and Black Moon’s Buckshot’s, above, are crying for profound artistic change. With the addition of the culture’s grand oak, KRS-One, to the fray, however, we now have a call for reform with true moral weight and undiffused authority.
That siren sounds loudly on KRS and Buckshot’s lead single, “Robot,” from their upcoming album, Survival Skills. Against director Todd Angkasuwan’s sparse digital vistas, the video portrays the duo as last men standing in a music world gone wholly fake, one filled with genetically spliced rappers and synthetic video dancers. Keeping with their theme of order-obeying, mechanical men, there’s even a brief cameo from Optimus Prime, though, thankfully, none from Skids and Mudflap. Check it out, below, and then peep their brief “making of” feature.
Mayor Mike Bloomberg may be the richest man in New York City, with an estimated worth, pre-the financial downturn, of $20 billion. All his loot, though, wouldn’t help him in a battle against his Tiranese counterpart, Edi Rama, above, chairman of Albania’s Socialist Party, and mayor of Tirana, capital of the country, right, and site where 895,000 of the nation’s 3.6 million rest.
In this YouTube clip, above, the former artist joins Albanian crew West Side Family’s cipher, for their track, “Tirona.” (Rama shows up at the 1:46 mark.) I don’t speak a word of Albanian, and like most Americans, couldn’t find the country on a map. But whether you speak the language or not, it’s clear these kids actually have a gift, and more than a little bit of flow.
Hmm: With its sophisticated intellectuals, literate populace, and Mediterranean climate, this little Adriatic jewel may be the exactly the perfect host for our next international hip-hop conference / award show / road trip.
Michigan-based graphic designer Logan Walters recently uploaded 21 albums by Wu-Tang Clan and their extended family into his iTunes app. As a working visual artist, however (with “mild OCD” that he blames on his mom), Walters says
I need to have decent-quality album art for every album on my computer, which currently equals over 90 gigs. The problem was that almost all of the Wu-Tang album art was horrible (ODB’s two albums being the only real exceptions) — no offense to the original designers, but as iconic as they might be they’re looking pretty dated these days. So, armed with inspiration from what Olly Moss and others are doing (as written about by me here, and later by Kottke here) and a book of Blue Note Records covers, I set out to remake all 21.
Thus far, he’s done 12 of these so-called “Wu Note” artwork mashups. His latest, above, reworks the cover of RZA’s 1998 album, Bobby Digital in Stereo, right, replacing its “blaxploitation” palette with the cool hues and playful typography designer Reid Miles fashioned for jazz greats of the 1950s and ’60s. While, to this writer, not all of Walters’ “remixes” are Wu-bangers, these pieces for Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s Return to the 36 Chambers and GZA’s Liquid Swords are a sweet delight. Now, all we need are liner notes. That, and better graphic design in hip-hop.
Well, I don’t who this person was in the case of young Mark Vincent, above. However, I do know that the mature Vin Diesel, right, and the world, are eternally grateful for three specific bits of counsel he accepted:
Did your heart leap with anticipation at today’s release of cover art for 
Mayor Mike Bloomberg may be the richest man in New York City, with an estimated worth, pre-the financial downturn, of $20 billion. All his loot, though, wouldn’t help him in a battle against his Tiranese counterpart, Edi Rama, above, chairman of Albania’s Socialist Party, and mayor of 
Thus far, 
