Thought I’d try out the WordPress flipbook plugin with some crazy pics I found of the Bloods and Cripps in the 80′s and 90′s. The photo’s are all from the local Police archives and are all scary in different ways. Some of the ‘little guy squatting in front of big guy’ pics are totally homo-erotic but my personal favourites are the ‘random looking into space’ pics. Very album cover worthy.

Two of my favourite things come together in one website at graffiti archaeology. Yes thats right I love archeaology. Not on the Time Team level, I don’t spend my weekends excavating ditches with long haired geezers with poor hygiene and even poorer social skills.

I do however love a bit of Egyptology, hieroglyphs included and being a hip hop head from time I love traditional graf, none of that Banksy stencilled ‘social irony’ for me though. So what is graffiti archaeology? Its time lapse photography of some choice graf spots and how they have changed over time thanks to the changing styles and artists who up them.

Adidas have teamed up with Def Jam to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the iconic hip hop label by launching a Def Jam themed line of trainers. The range will include adi favourites like Superstars, Stan Smiths, Sambas and Forums sporting the Def Jam logo as well as a number of exclusives named and themed after Def Jam artists.

Some of the names getting the adidas treatment are a little underwhelming like ‘Young Jeezy’ for example (I hear tumbleweed) but never fear there’s a beautiful blue pair of Ghostface Forum’s to save the day and steal the show. They come embossed with a nice big golden G on what looks like suede but is probably nubuck knowing Adidas and are definitely essentials for sneaker freaks and Wu aficionados alike.

Ghost also gets a second helping of Adi love with his own pair of Superstars which have black shelltoes which is a nice touch. Not as visually imposing as the blue colourway but they appear to have spent a lot of time on small details and premium materials. Oh and you can just make out a ‘Tony Starks’ epithet under the trefoil on the back of the shoe which is dope.

Method Man also gets in on the act with black and yellow Wu killa bee style Stan Smith in his honour embossed with a M on the rear of the shoe. They look to be suede with a leather tongue but no ‘Johnny Blaze’ moniker to be seen, minus points for that Mr Dassler.

Meth also gets a second helping with his own version of the Superstar in two tone blue with his original Wu styled inverted W on the rear of the shoe. I can’t for the life of me read what it says under the trefoil but I like to think it says ‘Ticalion Stallion’ but I doubt it.

Finally is the Redman Stan Smith in baby blue with an R and possibly ‘Funk Doc’ (what happened to spock did it infringe Star Treks copyright?) scrawled on the back heel under the adi logo. Personally I think Red got stiffed in the celeb sneaker stakes but maybe he’s on baby blue or worse still is a closet Man City fan…

Priyanka put me onto a must have addition to my summer wardrobe, especially with that lovely changeable English weather. The latest version of the classic Nike AW77 training range looks like your standard Nike heavy duty grey cotton sweatshirt but its not. Its only flippin well waterproof. Well to use the correct term its water repellent and is more than likely part of the Nike considered range meaning its more eco friendly than other Nike products. Check out the magic below (apologies for the shit music but to paraphrase a bit of Nike PR just mute it)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here is the technical info from the boffins at Nike hq:

“This highly engineered 400-gram organic French Terry cotton also receives an innovative water repellency treatment from Nike Design called DWR – meaning rain simply beads up and rolls off the AW77 hoodie, to help you stay warm and dry in adverse weather conditions.”

For those of us without the science degree DWR means Durable Water Repellency and is guaranteed to be 100% water repellent for 50 washes which is more than enough in my opinion. Priyanka found this at stylebubble where the girl who posts it seems to hate hoodies and be obsessed with Alex Mack claiming the AW77 is some sort of Alex Mack homage. If anything it seems the inspiration came from a certain Mr McFly and a self drying jacket he picked up in 2015…

Click here to view the embedded video.

AW77 hoodie will be available in stores and online from nikesportswear.com from August the 1st.

Just got off the phone talking to my mate Forms about anything and everything. He was trawling the net looking for a ‘Radio Raheem’ T-shirt after watching Do the Right Thing last night. As soon as he said that I wanted one too and after a bit of scheming we we’re both ready to go out and print ‘Bed Stuy do or die’ Tee’s and make a packet. As usual someone has already beat us to it. Check em out here they’re by a guy called cwmccart

While looking for that though I also found these ‘Radio Raheem’ dunks that are so 90′s its untrue. The ‘Love Hate’ detail on the tongue just seals the deal and really draws you back into the gawdy day glo early 90′s era style. It could be the hottest day of the summer all year round if you rock these.

I also found these Jordan Raheem tributes but without the ‘Love Hate’  motif they just lack the impact of the dunks and kinda look more like ‘Safari’s’ crossed with Jordans than real Radio Raheem crepage. More cross bred Jordans later though…

Finally straining the Raheem link to its most tennous here are some finger rings made by Bill McMullen, you can actually get ‘Love Hate’ ones but they are so swag Rihanna wears them. Shame she didn’t use them on Chris Brown would’ve been funny to see his pretty wife beating face with hate stamped backwards across it.

Totally unrelated  I just heard Jackie Chan has been confirmed as Mr Miyagi for the karate Kid remake

Its gonna be a different format from now on and a bit more random than just my musings on the past, you gonna get the benefit of seeing everything interesting that crawls across my path on the daily. First as way of an apology for not posting for months here is some of the visual shizzle I’ve seen since I left you:

A Tribe called creps

Its not often that you get a homage to an album cover from 2 seperate world famous sports brands but the Tribe have become the first musicians to receive the honour. Midnight Marauders gets the treatment from Puma and Adidas but I still haven’t seen these anywhere.

Lego album covers

Nobody seems to know who made these or why and I don’t care either, they just made me happy.

I’m getting this one

I say this all the time then can’t be arsed to part with the wong when it comes round to it but I have a feeling I’m gonna want this bad enough to cop it. I mean DJ Hero? Really? If the soundtrack is true to the turntablist visions stirring in my head this will be dope and I will finally be able to live out my DMC fantasies.

USB Sick

Who needs a plain old stick when you can get these sick little puppies

Football photoshops

Okay so some of these might go over a few heads but I’ll try and point the footie phobic in the right direction

Just google Joey Barton nicked and you can work out what this is getting at

This is a reference to the club versus country row between England and Spurs & nothing to do with Cobra kai…

just google ‘Ronaldo prick’ and erm… oh fugedabout it

5 criminally talented footballers plot to lift a trophy from an obsessed scot… probably whiskey in that ‘Iniesta’ mug

classic yellow pages advert going on here with a Michael Owen twist

courtesy of the gallery

Terrorism cards

Charlie put me onto these they’re from 1987 or so and are proof the illuminati have been plotting this war on terror since the 80′s. Why do I always get onto these moneymaking schemes too late? I could’ve invested my pocket money in gas masks and teflon.

And finally… this made me laugh

South Park came up trumps with the Kanye West ‘Gayfish’ episode which I’m sure you’ve seen by now but this just shows how far the episode reached into popular culture

The Retro Kidz live up to their name with this track ‘New Era’ thats getting much play in America right now.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Check out their debut appearance in Armand Van Helden’s promo for his ‘I want Your Soul’ video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

MIA Okley Run

Annoying darling of the fashion world and not much else MIA has released her own clothing line surprise surprise. Take a peek at her ‘Okley Run’ line but be warned I’ll personally merk you if I see you wearing this crackheads clothes.

MIA Okley Run

The Wackness Mixtapes

A film about mid-90′s New York, hip hop and weed sounds like a dream come true. Add to that it stars Sir Ben Kingsley (no, no, no no, rowntree yes! grosvenor yes!), Method Man and an Olsen twin and this should be interesting. Even if its dripping in wack juice the soundtrack is gonna be tight and we’ve got the official movie mixtape mixed by D-Nice and a bootleg to boot.

Official tape on the DL

Bootleg

on the DL

Alaia dress and Versace bondage body pics from Decade

The street look borrows from high fashion, but dresses are replaced with cycling shorts and bra tops. From House Party’s Sidney and Sharane to the backing dancers of Hammer and Sir Mix-a-lot, hey even Cindy Crawford, they were all on it. Although sometimes they did look like they were coming from the gym.

Some of our favourite body-con looks from the 90s

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s definitely a fashion trend that is being revisited at the moment. Herve Leger is the currently celebrity favourite (here) and pop stars from the UK’s Craig David to Flo Rida have bought it back for the noughties:

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Trivia

Body-con, which stands for body-conscious – or should that be body confidence? – was first championed by designers such as Azzedine Alaia, Herve Leger and Gianni Versace in the 80s and provided the inspiration for a hot look!