A day in Kensington.

A Visual Storyteller

Jamel Shabazz was born in Brooklyn New York and at age 9, he was introduced to photography by his father. He has been documenting the urban life of the city ever since he picked up his first camera at the age of 15 intrigued by photoghaper Leonard Freed’s provocative images of both Southern and urban life. As an upcoming photographer he has been following the work of African American pioneering photographers Gordon Parks and James Van der Zee who also happen to be two of his biggest influences. He has published 3 books titled "Back in the Days", "The Last Sunday in June" and "A Time Before Crack" and he is currently working on his fourth book titled "Seconds of my Life" which will feature three decades of work and, for the first time, will feature Shabazz’s photographs from 9/11. In his first three publications New York's 80's Hip Hop culture comes into life. Puma-hatted men with over-sized glasses, big gold chains and earings, giant boom boxes, its all here through the lens of a man whos snapshots capture the city’s youth, focusing mainly on group portraits of the inspiring present and future generations. Shabazz is also a volunteer with the Rush Arts Philanthropic Foundation an organization trying to bring the youth of the inner city closer to the arts. According to his own words, through the love he feels for his hometown he sees himself as "a mentor first and a photographer second". His work has appeared in publications such as The Source, Vibe, Trace, British Elle, Jalouse, Dune, GQ, and French Vogue. In addition, his photographs have been exhibited in Hip-Hop Nation: Roots, Rhymes, and Rage at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, at Xhibiton Transition in Chicago, and at Trace Magazine: True Signs in Paris.

She's got the steeze!

Angeliki Tsiros is a 23-year-old lady from Athens, Hellas. She’s travelled around the world with a few long-term stops in New York and Berlin and she gained a lot of experience and knowledge to inform excellent decision-making in her near future career. She loves her wardrobe as much as I love woollen shirts (too much).  She studied Art & Design at University and she’s looking forward to become a visual merchandiser in the international fashion world.

Who is your biggest inspiration in fashion and why?

My mum. Apart from being my mommy, she’s classy and minimal without spending much time for herself. She’s got a great sense of style on everything, even the way she decorates the dishes. Props Mommy!

When I’m thinking about designers the first person that comes to my head is Coco Chanel. She was far beyond the classic trends of her time. Her artwork was an absolute breakthrough for women. She helped women to express their feminine side, not overly sexy but classy. THE little black dress for example. She was more a revolutionist than a designer from my point of view.

Any plans you had back in the innocent good old days of 90’s but not anymore?

I wanted to become a lawyer and work for human rights. Fight for justice against racism, support women’s rights and basically change the world. You’ve got to dream an ideal world especially when you’re young and innocent; otherwise you’re already screwed in the head. I’d say things changed depending on my profession. Now I just try to change the world through my designs and spread the message of happiness all around the world. Keep your eyes open till they get dry.

He's got the steeze!

Here's an old post, to remind you the views of a great thinker. He's got some in-depth knowledge on the skateboarding/hip-hop scene. Worth listening.

Maximilian A. L. Smith Jones is 22 year old gentleman from Cheltenham, UK. He loves skating like a pedo loves kids. He's into Skateboarding, music, writing, learning languages and he's looking forward to become a professional pick pocketer. He still claims that he's half black, half swedish although he isn't. He loves Hip Hop like Paris Hilton loves lollipop.

Listen to the following interview, as maxi analyses the skateboarding and hip hop scene from he's own point of view.

Who is your favourite skater and Hip Hop artist?

  

 

Any plans you had back in the innocent good old days of 90's but not anymore?

 Interview by alexanderbakayannis 

Shepard Fairey Interview

Im sure some, if not most, of you have seen or heard about the Obey Giant campaign. Here's an interesting interview of Shepard Fairey the man behind Obey Giant talking about punk rock, business opportunities and illegal graffiti

Bouncing Cats.

Tuna of the Day!

It's yours to create.

Here's an Artwork designed for the first Shoubie t-shirt by Kayben White. Enjoy!

Tuna of the Day!

Drawing with light.

The man in the woods.

That's probably the most pure artistic scenery I've ever experienced. A lonely man drawing in black and white in the middle of nowhere. 100% connected with nature, he's playing alone with a pencil and paper.

Photo by Alexander Bakayannis

Mr. Kaneda presents..

Another great mixtape by Mr. Kaneda.
Escape Earth.

Tuna of the Day!

Good morning! Today is going to be a great day.

I'm not an artist.

Influencers.

Tuna of the Day!

London's Party Starters

One unusually shinny afternoon a couple of years ago while walking out the door of Covent Garden's Size? sneaker store, I turned around to do what I always did before leaving one of my favourite stores in London. That was grabbing some flyers promoting all kinds of stuff from club parties and outdoor gigs to museum exhibitions and new store openings. Afteral one thing this city never lets you down with is things to do and places to be. So as I was riding the tube going through the flyers i had picked up, my eye caught a rather interesting logo design on one of them. It was a very simplistic design of a face with no human traits but just a cap a pair of specs and a gangsta like bandana from the nose down. Where the nose should normally be it read "URBAN NERDS". Catchy name I thought to myself. But what were they all about? It took me about two weeks to find that out,when while walking into Rough Trade at Brick Lane a guy came up to me and gave me another of their flyers. We started talking and he told me all about it. Urban Nerds or The Nerds was a party team that was formed in London in 2007. In order to kick off their plan the crew had "taken over" this place called 93 Feet East to throw parties and events. Gradually things started to roll and the Nerds booked some of the biggest names in dubstep,grime,hip hop and drum n bass creating full blown lineups. Rusko, Goldie, Plastician and Toddla T are just some of the people that have rocked the spot nerd styley. Apart from that they also promoted a number of vocalists like Katy B and Skepta who eventually progressed into national charts as well. They hosted room 3 at Fabric and room 2 at Matter and they also collaborated with the likes of Mixmag, Time Out and the DMC World DJ Championships. About a week later I was lucky enough to witness the experience of an Urban Nerds party. No big time guests were included on this one but it didnt bother me one bit since their resident djs ripped it up big time having the whole place bouncing all over like a pinball. So if you ever find yourself around the Brick Lane area make sure you find out if there is an Urban Nerds event going on around. Trust me its a sure shot

Last night in Athens.

The night started with the Bike Film Festival after party(Lots of Djs and fixies). Then at "Aspro" to shake our booties and we ended up chillin at Yoga Bala. Let's see what happened!

The Godfather.

The concept of 'street art' is one that has become a huge and very profitable industry in the last ten years, so much so that the governments and councils that regarded it as unlawful have become powerless to prevent it, while the artists themselves have gained fame and fortune instead of being arrested. Often, street art is of a controversial nature, possibly because it is the ultimate form of freedom of speech; painting or spraying their thoughts and feelings about anything and everything under the protection of their pseudonym. Names like Banksy and Blu are two that spring immediately to mind when thinking about street art, and with good reason, however there must be a consideration for those who began this phenomenon. One name that is imperative to mention is Richard Hambleton.

Born in Vancouver, Canada, Hambleton now resides and works in New York and has, through his influential and innovative art, earned the nickname 'the godfather of street art'. Hambleton's earliest street art came into the public line of sight with his Image Mass Murder series, started in 1976, in which he would draw chalk lines around volunteers onto the pavement and then outline these with splashes of red paint to impersonate a real life crime scene, something that shocked civilians who happened to pass by. The controversial and shocking nature of his art continued throughout the 80's with his famous 'Shadowman' and gallery exhibitions like 'Beautiful Paintings', the latter allowing Hambleton to, in his own words, seek a "different sensibility" from his previous art.

There is no doubt that Hambleton is the godfather of street art, not only for being so successful in his right, but for being the first to do it; the first to risk arrest to get his voice heard, the first to see the city as his canvas, the first to revel in shocking passersby with his brutally honest subject matter. All modern-day street artists, whether consciously or sub-consciously, have Richard Hambleton to thank for inspiring what they chose to do with their life.

Hambleton is holding an exhibition at The Dairy in London starting from Friday 19th November. If you live in the London area, or can easily get there, and appeciate real street art get yourself to the exhibition of a true pioneer.

Tuna of the Day!

The Shoubilicious team.

We've spent a lovely night with some people over at Alex's house, having dinner and watching weird/funny stuff on the internet. At some point things became serious when the two Alex's(Alexander and Alexis) decided to spend their/OUR time on a mission based on Shoubilicious issues. That's when I felt kinda useless and I thought that I could take advantage of the situation and be creative by taking some pictures.
Here are the faces behind the masks. "Written by Kayben White"

    Pictures by Kayben White

A fashion house with a sense of humour.

This time last year, in preparation for the SS '10 season in the fashion world, Pringle released this video with animation by David Shrigley. Who would have thought it? A multi-million pound company turning its back on the norms of fashion advertising, that is to say, fashion film with enormous amounts of pretence and cliché whilst taking itself far too seriously, and creating a cute, funny and honest video that pokes fun at pretty much everything.

There's a fault in reality.

To Live & Ride in L.A.

The first feature-length film about L.A.’s underground fixed-gear culture. Directed by David Rowe (Fast Friday), the documentary explores a side of Los Angeles few outsiders have ever seen.

"Yeah Boy" ..they've got the steeze!

Phunk Sinatra, Tasick, and Apolonio Kormi are the absolute musical crew, which serves the Athenian scene with some superficial hip-hop and electro-banging beats followed by visual effects. They’re all located between Athens and London and when they meet up what happens cannot be described. They state that apart from music they’re all into “Telemarketing”, Really bad jokes, eye-watering visuals (god knows what that means), Humus, Skateboarding, Surfing and finally old-lady-photography.

How long have you been playing together? And how did you meet?

We’ve been playing from January 2009 with the stage name “Yeah Boy”. We know each other by playing together in couples in different places around Athens. The funny thing though was that none of us knew we all know each other. That’s probably why we never thought about having a musical trio the same time on stage. The idea came when we first found out that we all know each other and we decided to give it a try. It worked. Right?

Any plans you had back in the innocent good old days of 90’s but not anymore?

For some of us “who were actually here to give answers and be productive and have not just been out and you know..  yeah..” ANYWAY, all we wanted to do is finish all the Mario and Mortal combat 16-bit games in Super NES while wearing our old school Air Max sneakers. Basically we wanted to look like Peter Andre. 

The one and only thing, which actually happened was to become UBER famous. You know go out and be like.. "Hey guys I know you" and we wanted to be like.. "Hey Who the fuck are you?"... and they'd be like "I saw you at that party!" and we would be like.. "Duhhh, I was busy playing music?". You know, that kinda stuff!

That's what happens right? "Yeah Boy"!

In the picture: Tasick and Phunk Sinatra

Pictures by Alexander Bakayannis

We funk. You funk. They funk.

K44 "A" town, We Funk.. Get down.

So last night we had a pretty amazing time with Professor Groove and DJ Static at K44 in downtown Athens, who came and rocked our socks off with their funky grooves and slick hip hop beats.