Actin' Childish

I'm a big fan of Community on NBC, and will be one of the first to cry if it doesn't return from it's current 'hiatus'. More specifically, I'm a big fan of Troy and Abed (in the morninggg). This man crush on Donald Glover and Danny Pudi led me to buying Childish Gambino's first album a while back as he's got some of the raddest lyrics out there. His new track is 'Heartbeats', from the album 'Camp', sounds like hip-hop infused Justice beats, which is muy bueno with me. Plus anyone that manages to drop "You give really adequate handjobs and its awesome" with no musical backing on Conan is a boss.

Here's the Conan performance



And here's his acoustic version of 'Got This Money'



He's almost better live than in the studio which says alot in the day and age when 12 year old hacks like MGMT are selling records. We've all been fooled into that experience once. I can imagine it'd be what its like to meet your favourite pornstar in real life. There's no way that thing is going to look as good out of the packaging as it did on your illegal download.

RR

Look Ma, no hands

Whether they're artists or just people with too much time on their hands it makes me miss summer. I can ride my bike with no hands, just ask my mum, shes so stoked.


"Golden Tree" by Martin Brooks from Ninian Doff on Vimeo.

Street Etiquette

I've always been a bit fan of the guys at Street Etiquette for how they capture the fashionable Brooklyn vibe and bring out so much colour of the city in their shots. They recently shot a video for their friend Jesse Boykins III called 'Light to Dark' which is kinds soulful.

Panty Raid!

Not generally the biggest fan of dubstep, or stepping in general, I'm more of a skater. This ditty did catch my attention though. Serene dub

Starting The Weeknd Early

I'm not much one for trawling the music blogs and Hypem for new tunes these days because, to be honest, I'm far too preoccupied freehand sketching new meme's to submit to memebase before screwing them up, throwing the paper in the ever rising waste basket and chastising myself "You think the moderators havent seen this before...nube". In addition to that, I'm even less inclined to listen to a whole album because who the hell buys music on iTunes unless their cold war era grandmother gives them a gift card for Ramadan. In all reality people my age are more likely to have shared memories of when Napster was shut down than the first hard copy CD they bought.

That being said, one release this week has really caught my eye (and yes, that is indeed what SHE said, but stay with me). I've been following The Weeknd since my felly mots at HCASH threw me their track 'The Morning' off their mixtape House of Balloons a year ago, which has some of the most radical lyrics and original beats I've heard in a while. Here it is for those who havent had the pleasure...



I was even more impressed to find out that The Weeknd is actually one Ethiopian/Canadian dude named Abel Tesfaye, and not just because I want to sound multi-cultural. The sound on the tracks is so well polished is sounds the work of a larger group. Plus how many Ethiopian/Canadian people do you know?! Yeah, thought so.

Yesterday Tesfaye released his new mixtape Echoes of Silence, which despite being a bit of an existential wank of a title is a seriously great listen through piece of work thats making a hungover thursday at work with the looming prospect of spending christmas on the other side of the world to my family a pleasing situation. I'm not sure even how to describe his style but I'm a big fan. The track 'Next' is current on repeat, just listen to the lyrics.



Merry Christmas folks.

Rad is Love

Rev Rad

Mates are the Raddest

If there's one thing I enjoy more than an entertaining sunday coffee chat, a casual afternoon skate, or a session at the beach in high summer, it's doing any of those things with my mates. Having mates is the best. It's entirely understandable that those without any have an abysmal outlook on life. You know when you're having a terrible day a mates there to give you some quality banter, or to share the excellent moment you see a fat school kid fall over in public. Most of all, you know that when the HCASH worthy lady you were courting ups and dissappears like yesterdays news that they'll be there to remind you of the simpler days when the most important thing in life was winning Mortal Kombat on Super Nes. and making sure your friends parents didn't find the stash of porn you had under the house.

Apparently Chivas Regal recognises this as well, as they should. Because what's better than sitting about with some old mots and knocking back a couple on rocks?!*



*Nothing

Awesome

In all likelihood it's probably exactly what a film clip made by me and my mates will look like when I make it large in the hip hop world. I find it strange that there's no super babe in a bikini for him to roll by on his trike and throw a casual "awesome" at. It's the logical next step

XV - Awesome from Elie Smolkin on Vimeo.

Plus I've always felt compelled to rap, being the only black guy in my group of stereotypically dressed white friends and all.