Award winning Japanese illustrator Yuko Shimizu has just added to her Slightly Demented Children’s Stories and for some reason we just can’t seem to take our eyes off of them, how amazing are these?! The New york based artist has been on our radar for a while with previous work like Science Fiction. (..or something like it.), Barbed Wire Baseball Book and The Beautiful and The Grotesque. She’s a little down and dirty and her style definitely touches the side of morbid to which, and let’s just all admit, we kind of love. Enjoy

-Erin Leigh

Single: U.O.E.N.O. Remix
Artist: Black Hippy
Released: May 22, 2013

Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, ScHoolboy Q, and Jay Rock come together
on a Black Hippy Remix of Rocko’s heavy hitter “U.O.E.N.O”.

The Black Hippy crew pushes out this remix single in celebration of tonight’s kick off of the good kid, m.A.A.d. city Tour. Kendrick, Soulo, Q, And Jay go all in on this one flaunting all their success, crazy, and lavish lifestyle and experiences, in each verse.

King Kendrick starts off the first verse feeding with his initiation into the rap game success with “I fucked up the rap game, and you ain’t even know it”- stating facts in case y’all ain’t even know it. Q,once again keeps on proving why he’s right behind K.Dot, lyrically-talent speaking, as he takes on the second verse, touching subject on his best context- bitches, sex, and drugs. Ab spits on being under the influence, stacking chips, sold out shows, and yet manages to give us his natural incline towards knowledge of self. And we gotta give Jay Rock mad respect, he seems to be stepping up those bars. Jay seems to be overshadowed by the rest of the crew, in my opinion he’s just not mainstream enough for y’all with all that hood shit but trust… y’all shouldn’t be sleeping on Rock.

The whole crew embarks on the good kid, m.A.A.d. city tour tonight in Vegas, make sure y’all stay posted on dates near you!

In the meantime do yourself a favor though, turn this up, bump it out your speakers, sip some, and turn up!

TDE, HiiiPoWeR.

-Stace Fresh

So far, one of the best collaborations this year has to be Golden Bear and Black Scale with their Letterman Jacket Collection. The two-material item is bounded with both leather and wool giving it a color-block look to the jackets. The top halves of the jackets are leather, covering both sides of the arms, and the bottom half is wool, which flows to the back of the jackets. It also includes, button snaps, slashed-hip pockets, and stripped boarders around wrist and collar to give you the classic, high school letterman look. The Black Scale x Golden Bear Deluxe Varsity Jacket is available in green/red, orange/grey and black/black on Black Scale flagship stores and will be sold on Black Scale’s online store starting June 1st.

-Sierra Nicole

Check out this work of Turkey based artist Can Pekdemir, Fun-Ky! Pekdemir is based out of Instanbul, was a full time instructor in Department of Visual Communication Design at İstanbul Bilgi University and currently works on the deformation and abstraction of body forms using various methodologies, what else can we say? Well done.

-Erin Leigh

Album: rp
Artist: Repeat Pattern
Released: April 8, 2013

Repeat Pattern is an artist who is originally from Washington D.C. but now currently lives in Tokyo, Japan. Hence the name “Repeat Pattern” his music corresponds with this quiet nicely as he uses repetitive beats to produce a unique pattern. He also applies hip hop and rap among his work. More interesting about this artist is that he incorporates samples of people talking in different languages which mixes with the whole track perfectly. One track “FUCK BUT BEAUTIFUL ft BROKE,” on his newest album titled RP, starts off with a jazzy introduction, as anyone listens they can make out a trumpet, following the trumpet sounds like a piano, then afterwards Broke begins to rap. Around one minute into FUCK BUT BEAUTIFUL, there is a transition where a lady’s voice talks for a couple of seconds then the piano and other instruments pick back up again. Not a lot of artists can do what Repeat Pattern is doing correctly, he has true talent. And for this all of you music lovers of hiphop/rap/instrumental/beats/jazz in search of something new and chill, take a listen. To check out more tunes visit his soundcloud. Enjoy!

-Vanessa Olivarez