Where I happen chance to live at this moment in time, has been taken over by yuppified toys! It is seriously disturbing the amount of people I see flock to not only neon colours in my neighbourhood, but also bright, Japanese hoodies. While most seem to like the brand, there are many that are not as big fans.
To me, A Bathing Ape (BAPE) will always be associated with a couple of things. Firstly, that is cranking that....
And N.E.R.D.
But with all that aside, it's strange to see what I thought would be a really obscure brand in Australia. But really, it's everywhere, especially with it being Winter in an otherwise hot land. There are a number of stores that sell... questionably made Bathing Ape clothes. The difference in the fakes and real ones dollar value is huge.
I do like some of the designs. But none of the ones I see people jogging in, trying to look either colour blind or mad. If anyone is interested there are some interesting articles on Bathing Ape below. If you are finding Bathing Ape is invading your city, your town, your wardrobe! Let me know, I'd be interested to hear your stories!
Mack 10 is one of my favourite West Coast rappers. Originally I heard him on the West Side Connection's second album, Terrorist Threats, which unfortunately marked not only the final West Side Connection album, but the departure of Mack 10 & Ice Cube's partnership. Mack really emerged in 1995, with his aptly titled Mack 10, which has some really bumping tracks.
Mack 10 the album really served as an intro to who the fizzuck, Mack 10 was. The album starts out with Mack 10 robbing McDonalds, with Ice Cube getting into the action after Mack orders "Get me large fries, strawberry shake and happy meal for my daughter too". The album then jumps into foe life.
With an immediate diss toward the East Coast. Unfortunately this is only in the album version of the track.
Mack 10 you know you rule hip-hop an...
Ice Cube you know you rule hip-hop an...
Wait a minute... that ain't how the West Coast Rock
The track then gets going :
Khacki suit ski mask is my attire With my luck cut my chucks on the barbed wire Fool where ya keep the rims and tires 'fo yo' life expires I'm as nutty as Michael Myers Didn't think about the Rottweiler A lot of stiches in the ass Blood in the Impala
Great track, the video clip is even funnier. It has Mack 10 jumping off all kinds of buildings and getting his arse bitten by a Rottweiler, including some lowrider action that might challenge Slim Thug. Slabs and blades aside, one of my other favourite tracks is Chicken Hawk, the name of which because Mack 10 trains and flys Pidgeons. Mack 10 spoke on this in the linked interview.
So what's up with the birds?
"I raise pigeons, homey. I've been raising 'em since I was a little boy."
How many you got?
"About 50 or 60."
So why do you like raising pigeons so much? "They flip. I got tumblers, the kind that go up in the air and turn flips in the air."
Which is interesting - I can't say I know many rappers into flying Pidgeons at all. Chicken Hawk has some really nice laid back bass guitar, some other electro sounds and some kind of flying eagle noises. It's a very track for Mack's delivery. The track is just what I've come to expect from Mack - it's not deep or philosophical, but it is good and enjoyable. Who knows why he went at Common, but they are worlds apart.
But that misses the point, Mack 10 has stayed true to his roots. As Freddie Foxxx said on The Militia,
When you speak of who's the dopest MC, I don't come up But when you speak of who's the livest MC, I stay what up, what's up?
The same applies for Mack. He may not, and never will be the dopest MC, but he is good at what he does. With some of the toys that are claiming the West Coast nowadays, I still prefer Mack 10 over most of them. Even his more recent albums such as The Paper Route have been pretty decent. While little apart from his first album and Westside Connection's Bow Down album has really made an impact for Mack, with his fanbase fading into the new millenium . His 2005 album, Hustla's Handbook only sold a couple of thousand. But, will Mack 10 make a comeback? It seems as if the West Coast has gone on a real down hill recently, The Game's One Blood sounds good;
But there was no Mack. Even WC from Westside Connection, has had a spade of small sales on his latest album, Guilty By Affiliation. Even if you don't like Mack 10, the question still begs. Is the West Coast Dead? Or is this merely a form of the cancer that is "killing" hip-hop now? Personally I don't think it is dead, but it is becoming harder to both find underground hip-hop, but increasingly good hip-hop period. Mack 10 is one of the few names I hope keeps putting out some decent music. Because a lot of this other shit is just tripe.
I've read that they've fired people, pulled advertisment over 'anti-war' keffiyehs. I can't believe it. It's a fucking scarf , really. The ironic reaction by the general public has been astounding. Even here in Australia, I've seen so many people wearing them out of seeming complete ignorance to what they actually represent.
People are too much invested in the notion that these are some evil, terrorist scarf that threatens white America. Anti-Americanism. You people have simple notions. Any apparent similarity between that scarf and hatred of deeper levels toward what is American are seperate. I see Kanye, Chris Brown, Lupe and a bunch of other rappers sporting them out. Here in Aus people too are wearing them.
In the 1960's the Keffiyeh came to symbolise Palestinian Nationalism. I'm willing to bet 5 dead prime ministers (fives of course) that if you ask anyone wearing a keffiyeh, they wouldn't know anything about the PLO. The Palestinian Liberation Organisation.
Yaser Arafat commonly wore one. In reality, their existence in America, as a fashion item has nothing to do with "terrorism". Less to do with political leaders than to chic fashionistas. Little to do with Palestinians. It does not support nor deny an ideology, it is a mass produced product that some people are willing to pay $20 or $30 for.
Is it wrong for someone to wear the scarf as a fashion accessory if they don’t know the political implications of the kaffiyeh?
I believe that — at worst — one could be accused of being culturally insensitive for being ignorant of the keffiyeh’s implications as a symbol of resistance for one community, and as a symbol of hatred for another.
On one end of the spectrum, the sale of keffiyehs as fashion items can be seen as part of the process of recuperation by which the establishment seeks to substitute the desire for revolutionary change with the consumption of products that seemingly satiate this urge. Rather than engaging in a truly revolutionary act, we collect and adorn ourselves with objects and symbols that merely infer revolution. Corporations repackage our desire for change and sell it back to us, and we buy it thinking that we’re changing something, but we’re not changing anything–we’re just opening up a new market for “revolutionary” wares. This slight of hand — this illusion — drains needed human energy from resistance movements.
Furthermore, in terms of cultural commodification, these fashion labels are taking the artifacts of an indigenous culture and mass-producing them for a consumer public. In that, they are profiting from the cultural contribution of a people with whom they have no ties and to whom they bear no responsibility. Essentially, they are stealing a cultural community’s authentic, organic product, and selling it at extravagant prices without returning anything to the public from which it stole. It is exploitative and, as such, counterrevolutionary. Ie., by buying a keffiyeh from French Connection UK, you are actually contributing to the exploitation of Palestinian culture. These corporations are not in solidarity with the Palestinian cause, they are in solidarity with their shareholders.
I do not hate people who wear these things out of ignorance, especially because most of them are now made in China. With the last factory closing "Two years ago I had to close down my factory because I couldn't compete with Chinese-made Hattas (keffiyehs) that sell for 40 percent less." As a report by Reuters indicated. So really? What is all this about?
Things come and go, maybe we all have glorified images in our minds of Laurence of Arabia. But please, don't tell me that's a terrorist symbol. It's merely a fad. I'm sure if you asked any Emo or Wigga about what they're wearing symbolises and they'd have no clue. I just find it funny that fashionistas have almost ignorantly chosen something to do with Palestinian nationalism
Anyway, here's an Aussie track with some funny parody and better beats.
"I'm an Australian, and as such I'll tell you one thing, if anything I happen to say offends or upsets anyone, in any way whatsoever I couldn't give a shit."
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