SNOOP DOGG feat. KID CUDI - THAT TREE (prod. by DIPLO)

SNOOP DOGG teams up with hip hop wunderkid KID CUDI on a track about weed. Now who better to rap about weed than these two & oh DIPLO is on the beats.

HAZE X HYPEBEAST INTERVIEW

Hypebeast deliver a dope interview with a living legend in graphic design & graffiti, Eric Haze.

PEANUT BUTTER WOLF: CHROME (CHILDREN) MIX

You remember this or should i say have got this? Well if you missed it when it came out back in '05, here's a lil' reminder. The original release of Chrome Children a collaboration between Stones Throw & Adult Swim came in a CD/DVD combo. PB Wolf re-releases this mix with un-released tracks from your favourite Stones Throw artists. Be sure not to miss this, DOWNLOAD it already!!!!!!!!!!!

Track List:
Quasimoto - Greenery
Guilty Simpson - Clap Your Hands
Madvilain - Meat Grinder (Chrome Face Remix)
Percee P - Who With M (Remix)
Madlib - Take It Back
Georgia Anne Muldrow - Melanin, Because
Jaylib - No $ No Toke aka Blaze Up
Koushik - None in Mind
On No - WTF (Instrumental)
Aloe Blacc - Long Time Coming
MED - All I Know
Roc C - Don't Stop
Oh No - Oh Zone
Quasimoto - Hydrant Game (Jaylib Remix)
Diamond D - 2 Brothers from the Gutter
Jaylib - The Ruckus
Dudley Perkins - That's the Way It's Gonna Be

Mixed by PB Wolf
PBW - CHROME MIX (MP3)

DILLA X STUSSY X STONES THROW PART 1 & 2

Stussy has produced a 3-part documentary on J Dilla's life during his later years in Los Angeles, interviewing a few of the people he worked with in Los Angeles. Part 1 - Introduction, Part 2 (Detroit to Los Angeles) and Part 3 (Donuts) on 24/02.

DJ MUGGS X UNDFTD

The legendary DJ Muggs makes a return to his roots by showcasing his turntable skills in conjunction with streetwear brand UNDFTD. Dope dope!

HEDI SLIMANE

Despite being out of the design limelight for some time, former Dior Homme designer Hedi Slimane is arguably one of the greatest designers of our generation. In a recent interview with Style.com, the discussion is intense and revolves some heavy subject matter including the Internet’s participation in shaping and forming the current fashion landscape. In addition, some of the most interesting topics include Slimane’s insights on the true death of print, fast fashion and the pressures designers face in the present day. Excerpts of the interview can be seen below while the full interview is presented at Style.com.

How do you think technology—tweeting, blogging, social media, etc.—has affected fashion? For better or worse?
It has affected different aspects of fashion tremendously. From commentary to fashion design, communication, and distribution.

The fashion Internet community is like a global digital agora tweeting passions and opinions. Anyone knows better, and each one is a self-made critic.

This is a fascinating idea, as I always favored amateurism (”the one that loves”) over professionalism, attraction over experience. It obliges anyone in the industry to think in a fresher way.

Of course, it is hard to say if any “authority,” someone like Suzy Menkes, might one day come out and use digital means to lead with integrity, enough background, outside of any conflict of interest.

On a design perspective, it has allowed any young designer or indie brand to get an instant audience, if used with wit and invention.

I am not quite sure of the future of retail as we know it. This is a truly important thing, maybe the most important one, as it might already mean there is nothing standing between the design and an audience/consumer.

Finally, the better and the worse have always been part of fashion, with the Internet only magnifying it and creating a joyful and noisy digital chaos.

The bottom line is that any note can create music. It is only a matter of taste.

Can you envision a day when digital media will replace magazines?
I totally do, and I don’t see it as a bad thing. You don’t fight but embrace a natural evolution, really, and try to figure out how it would reveal new creative fields within global access, and multimedia features.

The Web site magazine will come way before the print version in the next decade. I don’t see any way around it, really. With the rise of the Internet, fashion did become part of the global entertainment industry in the last ten years, and will follow the digital evolution of the music or film industry.

Besides, immediacy is better than old news. The “manufacturing” process of a magazine is far too long for this world, for the definition and idea that fashion is about “right now.” I guess it is more about “right now” now than ever before.

That said, fashion magazines, glossy magazines still use their Web sites for daily news and information only. I trust it might be interesting to invest strongly in art direction, besides hiring top editors, top photographers, and top models, which is hardly enough for Internet pages.

Quite certainly, the Web sites of the magazines will have to move away from the “blog” format and create an inspiring, tight template for their photo productions or editorial content, a Web site that has the [same feeling of] luxury and glamour as flipping through a heavy glossy magazine.

It is interesting to think how someone like Alexey Brodovitch would have investigated this medium to create typography and layouts in motion. It is now an open field for a new generation of editors in chief and art directors.

I hear one of the reasons for the lack of investment is advertising, although I trust advertising would follow immediately, if provided a reassuring image template for their costly ads.

I finally believe the printed magazine will then become a collector’s item, and hopefully a reference to be kept preciously.

Therefore, the commercial issues of advertising credits might move toward the Internet, [while] the most inspiring fashion stories could become exclusive to the printed collectible version

Between menswear and womenswear, resort, pre-fall, and ready-to-wear, some designers are designing eight or more collections a year. Is it possible for a designer to be creative under those circumstances?
Designers end up needing a full-blast studio for this sort of thing, which is totally absurd. I also don’t understand what the hell people do with all those clothes. Less would be better, and shorter collections. Again, e-commerce might change this costly and overwhelming fashion avalanche.

Three of the strongest fashion design talents—Hedi Slimane, Helmut Lang, Martin Margiela—are currently pursuing other interests. Is that a coincidence or does it say something about the current state of the system?
I cannot really speak for them. I guess we all have enough time to experiment with different things. That said, fashion, what you call the system, has become quite used and abused with conflicts of interest.

The advertising game between the media and fashion houses might have gone too far. The meltdown did not help, to say the least.

As far as design is concerned, scaling down would help a lot. The global economy meant partnerships, and partnerships in the last decade came with some risks.

But there is something ironic, an absurd ending, a justice after all. What became of Helmut Lang or Martin Margiela without them? The irrelevance of buying young brands, [that are] ten to 20 years [old], without their original designers is quite striking. I always assumed, after all, it was about authenticity. Buying those houses ends up a conceptual and costly gift with nothing left inside but a few recipes.

Is the commercial pressure on designers today too great?
I don’t know about this. I am concerned about the relevance of strategy.

Selling is a positive thing. Of course, the overhead of many global houses is so huge that the pressure is great. I don’t mind the pressure at all; it is stimulating. I mind the lack of a long-term vision, and the lack of sense. It has to make sense, no matter the size of a fashion house.

What effect do you think the rise of fast fashion has had on consumers and on high fashion?
The issue was pretty much when at the beginning of the 2000’s high fashion started to embrace (no question they had to) globalization. High fashion started to offer access to luxury and creativity. In a way it was dangerously closing the gap with fast fashion, which was incredibly effective in mimicking the style and standards (stores, merchandising, ad campaigns) of high fashion. It is mathematical. More means less rarity and less quality. This leads to the visual chaos of not exactly knowing what is what, if you forget your contact lenses and can’t read the label.

Would you have any interest in collaborating with a fast-fashion retailer?
I have obviously had a few discussions, like any of us, but I don’t really like the “capsule” collection trick, which I won’t do. There is something terribly cheap about it. This validation is somehow dodgy, since fast fashion, with few exceptions, is quietly ripping off all it can, including brands that are too small to defend themselves.

I would not mind and would be open to some evolution of fast retail, if it was aiming for an original design and a long-term commitment. It would become something else. Something like Apple computers, for instance, where design meets a wide audience through innovation and sense. In the future, fast-fashion retailers might change their philosophy toward real efforts to create a world of their own. One can only hope.

DILLA X STUSSY X STONES THROW

It's DILLA month!! As you know everybody has been celebrating DILLA this month, from mixtapes to tribute parties & then this....STUSSY collaborate once more with STONES THROW on a t-shirt release. The photo was taken by Raph Rashid in Dilla's L.A. dining room-turned-studio, summer 2005, for his book Behind the Beat: Hip Hop Home Studios.

STAR WARS x adidas A CLOSER LOOK

STAR WARS adidas Originals Apparel

STAR WARS adidas Originals Game Mid "Princess Leia"

STAR WARS adidas ORIGINALS Samba "X-Wing"

STAR WARS adidas Originals "Yoda"

STAR WARS adidas Originals Forum Mid "AT-AT"

STAR WARS adidas Originals ZX8000 "Darth Vader"

STAR WARS adidas Superskate Mid "Storm Trooper"

STAR WARS adidas Originals "Skywalker"

STAR WARS adidas Originals Stan Smith "MIllenium Falcon"

Ok so here's a closer look at the STAR WARS x adidas collabo. A must for any STAR WARS fan & sneaker collector.

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

Darth Vader & his Storm Trooper were in Kloof Str. last friday, they dropped by at A Store to say whats up. Vader wanted me to join the dark side, at first i was hesitant which got me choked, in the end i gave in (sort of like he did). Being bad never felt so good. Don't miss out on the STAR WARS X adidas collaboration.

TOM FORD: A SINGULAR MAN

Tom Ford needs no introduction, certainly not to readers of an international fashion magazine. Having joined Gucci in 1990 as a relatively unknown designer, Ford became creative director in 1994 and is credited with having turned the démodé label into a global powerhouse while, in the process, revolutionizing the fashion industry. This latter point is one that is only begrudgingly conceded by many in fashion. Yet, it is undeniable that he paved the way for other young designers to take over the reins at storied fashion houses — John Galliano at Givenchy in 1995 then Christian Dior in 1996; Alexander McQueen at Givenchy in 1996; and Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton in 1997 — a practice that is the standard today. It’s unlikely that he’ll impact the art and industry of film in quite the same way, but he has certainly entered the medium at a level few would have thought possible. And, if A Single Man is any indication, he’ll almost certainly leave his mark.

Tom Ford: I have always loved film and knew that someday I would like to direct a movie. When I left Gucci, I found that I had some free time — which I had not had in many, many years — and thought that it was the perfect time for me to direct my first film. In fashion, your job is to create a vision and then communicate that vision with the help of a great creative team. Directing is similar to that, and I had a great group of people to work with. From the second we started filming, the whole process seemed so natural. The whole experience was very fulfilling, and I consider it my most purely artistic endeavour. I hope to have a parallel career in filmmaking alongside fashion. The process is very natural to me, and ideally I would like to make a film every three to four years. I love my day job in fashion and it's been great to bounce between the two. I have started thinking about my next film project, but that's all I'm going to say.

I first read the book, A Single Man, by Christopher Isherwood in the early 1980s and was very moved by the honesty and simplicity of the story. At that time, I was in my early twenties. After searching for the right project to develop as my first film, it occurred to me that I often thought of this novel and its protagonist, George. I picked it up and read it again. Now, in my late forties, the book resonated with me in an entirely different way. It is a deeply spiritual story of one day in the life of a man who cannot see his future. It is a universal tale of coming to terms with the isolation that we all feel, and of the importance of living in the present and understanding that the small things are really the big things in life.

Interview by Derek Peck

Derek Peck is a New York-based writer, photographer, and the editor and creative director of PLANET Magazine

Julianne Moore in "A Single Man"

ADIDAS ADIRISE

DIGGIN' WITH KON & AIMR

ROB SWIFT

Back to basics with Rob Swift

FOOL'S GOLD (A-TRAK X DUST LA ROCK X NICK CATCHDUBS)

MIDNIGHT MEN: 6th FEB. @ THE BOOGIE

Join us this Saturday February 6 @ Waiting Room for a night of disco boogie. Midnight Men are our special guests for the evening, here's a lil' something about them....

Midnight Men are Pierre Estienne and Dario Silva. The duo met in Cape Town in the Summer of 2006, when both were offered a residency at the now defunct Roosevelt Club. It was here that they realised their mutual love for disco influenced music from the 70’s and 80’s, right through to the new sounds of the now. Expect the unexpected as their sets include names such as Todd Terje, Lindstrom to more recognized artists like The Human League and Hercules and Love Affair. In short the Midnight Men will take you on a journey through their own definition of time and space.

Midnight Man (Midnight Radar Edit) by Pierre-Estienne

Be sure not to miss out on this. February 6, Waiting Room, The Boogie, Midnight Men & DJ Soulo Starr. DISCO FEVER!!!