Pour Out Some Liquor

RIP Iris. 26 years old. He'd be so fucked off by all this RIP stuff too, classic Jake.

1

The Greatest Graphic Designer In The World

Ever wondered where my super ill, glossy to fuck, bling bling graphic design came from?





"Obese Aesthetics is a graphic design/illustration platform for a rather charming young man named Sam Stirling...often mistaken for the legendary sasquatch and seen foraging for crayons in the bins outside Lidl he has been drawing pretty pictures with or without permission for some time now, and does it rather well if truth be told. Throw him a few chocolate coins (fee TBC) and he might even fancy up your flyer / poster / brochure / website / face / mum's house."

PEEP.

http://obeseaesthetics.com


I can't recommend my man highly enough. Super professional. So professional he had to give Blade some design lessons over the phone during the manufacturing of the album. Real talk.

My mans pen game is not only crazy with the designs, but with the bars as well, AND he makes his own beats too. Go check them shits out -

http://soundcloud.com/tripledotbeast


AAAAAAAAAAND the Facebook pages and blog, standardly -

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Beast/30686974105 music

http://www.facebook.com/obeseaesthetics?ref=ts design

PLUS the blog -

http://dotdotdotbeast.tumblr.com/

My man ...Beast is truly a don in this shit, so if you want things done right then holla at him to chop it up. Of course, you can own some of his work (and mines) by copping that good Cold Lazarus LP from http://enlish.bandcamp.com. Do it NOW! NO QUESTIONS!

ENLISH - GRAFFITI KING, ALL CITY (!)

Ok, so back in the day, around 2002/2003 (just before I moved to Brighton) when I was 20-odd (pun intended) there was still the remnants of a buzzing Hip Hop scene in Falmouth. By this time a lot of the luminaries had moved onto greener pastures, but there were still a few of the old heads (myself included) holding shit down, keeping it 100, hard body, real talk etc etc etc.

My boys Mick Glacier and Big Lukey (MPT baby!) used to go and paint on the regs. Unfortunately, us being in a picturesque sea side town and all, there wasn't anywhere you could go and do a throw up without a) feeling like a prick for ruining something protected by The English Heritage or b) getting picked up by the feds IMMEDIATELY. Graffiti is no joke down here.

Anyways, through the local skating community (of which I used to be a part of a long, long time ago) we were made aware of an old abandoned meat packing factory (pause) that was basically falling apart and had been fenced off pending redevelopment. The fence didn't last long, of course, as the skater kids tore the fucker down and proceeded to tear the place up, taking along their own mini ramps, rails and all sorts of shit. So, Mick G and Lukey used to go painting there, and I'd sit about smoking and writing bars, wishing I could paint, draw or either (I can't). It was a fucking excellent spot, tucked away in the back of an industrial estate. Observe -



Anyways, after a good few visits to the spot with the fam I started getting restless and bored while they did their pieces, so the next time we were heading up there, I thought fuck it. These were two separate occasions mind you, but both times I dropped about a fiver on cheap shit car paint from Trago Mills and, armed with rough sketches and my geek mind crammed with visions of 8 bit electronic nostalgia, I got to work round the corner from where the real painters were working. Maybe try and imagine Seen and Cope2 throwing up pieces while an ever so slightly retarded friend of theirs does the same thing but a good little way away so as not to embarrass the actual graffiti artists. If I took myself seriously (I DIDN'T), I would be labelled as a 'toy', plain and simple.

Number one : THE PACMAN PIECE



WOW. You can even see me puffing a J through the whole in the wall. Gutter. Notice how the 'E' of 'ENLI' (pronounced EN - LYE) is Pacman himself, and he's eating all the other letters in order to get to the jelly dude? WOW. Just WOW. Not bad for a first try, but obviously still piss poor. Still, it was a sunny day, we had piff, beers and there was nothing else to do. Big.

Next up,

Number Two : THE MEGAMAN PIECE



Continuing on the 8 bit NES vibe, I did a Megaman, but with a subtle twist. Notice how his skin is BROWN? That's right, constant reader.... I AM MEGAMAN. Unfortunately, despite the fact my characters are obviously terrible (I did say I wasn't serious), my writing is even worse. To compound this, I ran out of paint while I was doing it, but fuck it, I'm a boss. Notice how I've written 'ENli10' (Enlighten) there? Genius. Plus I threw up BTC. Big up P and all the Bad Taste Cru.

Unfortunately, not long after Megaman went up, the powers that be destroyed the entire site and built some sort of office block on it, effectively once again taking away one of the only places that young people in the area had to go to carry out their hobbies in peace and quiet without being scrutinised by the public and/or arrested by the Police. The 'powers that be' will never learn.

Anyway, that's my graf chronicle. As an added bonus I will show you my very first 'piece' (I like to call it a piece, although that is stretching the truth to breaking point), dropped a few days before I got serious with that jacks worth of auto paint. Such a rookie was I, I did the outline in black and THEN tried to fill it in with white. Then, during the taking of the photo, I leant against it and got paint all over my Phat Farm top. ROOKIE.



Hahahaha. Shout outs to Mic Glacier, Big Luke and all the old Falmouth heads. We will inherit the earth.

1

Get Your Shine On - Captain Bukioe

New segment. My peoples need to get their shine on, ya heard?



Far from being just a dope rapper, my man Captain Bukioe is also a bad man artist and illustrator and his pen game is off the chain. I've always been horse shit at drawing which is something I still resent to this day, although I'm relatively competent at rapping, but not many people can claim to be both and have the goods to back it up. Buk can. A persona loosely based on the lazer-gun toting green Hare that some of us may remember from our childhoods, but with the ever so subtly warped angle of a drunken Captain who has manned one space ship too many, the imagery that Buk conjures up is not just confined to an aural capacity but is right there in your face ready to give you two black eyes and a punch drunk hangover to boot.



In his own words -

I didn't go to art college but did study animation at Southampton, where I learnt more about being creative from my flatmates than I ever could on the brain-numbing course. I left and headed back to my grim place of birth,Reading.
With no drive towards the world of animation and at a bit of a loose end, I continued to do the odd bit of freelance and commissioned illustration work, producing a few one off pieces for BT, John Lewis, Oxford University, Coors beer and various venues and bars up and down the south coast. I decided to move to Brighton in 2008.
Here In Brighton Ive been working freelance, alongside a 9-5 and struggling to stay sober.

To be honest, I think he's being a little modest there, but that is a virtuous attribute to be sure. Basically, my man is a problem on the mic and will fuck up any canvas or piece of paper in his vicinity with the quickness.



Having had experience in all aspects of art and design work, from fliers and posters to LP art & design, logos and T shirts, not only does he hold down a position as what I'd like to call the 'silent partner' in Brighton's own booze fuelled super crew Rum Committee (until he grabs the mic, that is) but Buk has also recently dropped an album with his production partner Sherlock Bones under the guise of 'Running Punch'. Received well by fans and critics alike, Buk made sure his product was one step ahead of the game by presenting it in a limited edition illustrated envelope crammed full of stickers, posters, illustrations and all that other good shit that true geeks for the culture like me appreciate. Go cop that if you haven't already, if theres any left in fact. Motherfucking hot cakes. Links below.

Bukioe (glasses) with TC, Prince Kong and Gizmo. 4 of the 80 members of Rum Com.


To check out Buk's art work and make enquiries about how he can pimp your shit out go and have a peep at www.bukioe.com

For info on his work as an MC, including updates, merch and a whole lot more, go check out www.runningpunch.com. Buy something, support real artists doing real work.

Ever wondered who designed Dr Syntax's new tee? Guess what fam. It was Bukioe. You can go cop one now at Dr Syntax's Bandcamp. The gorgeous young model is available to sport (fresh) garms for you at a reasonable price.


Oh, and a special shout out to Buk's wiz, the ever exuberant, well dressed and impeccably tasted interior designer that she is. What up B!? I see you girl!



*PS - Team Hate can drink more than Rum Committee. The gauntlet has been thrown down..... haha. Thems my peoples right there.

Dope Cover Art #5

Raekwon, Ghostface & Method Man - Wu Massacre



Unfortunately, I found this LP to be slightly disappointing. It sounds like a B-Sides and Bootlegs kind of affair, a bunch of offcut tracks chucked together. However, it clocks in at a punchy 12 joints long, which is a refreshing change from a 20+ track LP. To be fair, it is a good listen, it just seems to me that there isn't a particular stand out track on there, but opinions are like arseholes innit.

Still, the cover art is fucking amazing, and by purchasing the vinyl LP you also got the three separate illustrations chucked in for good measure, all soooooper dope. Peep.





Regardless of what I said, the LP is still solid, this probably being my favourite joint. Ghost goes in at the start.

The Art Of Tom Hines (And The Rest)

Hines & I, Brighton Hip Hop Festival 2000 & ?


Aside from being a bully boy rapper, producer, youth worker and expert eggy-bread maker, Tom Hines can be credited with 2 things (well, a lot more than 2, but for the purposes of this blog, its 2. OK?). 1) He's a good friend who more or less taught me how to rap from scratch in my teens and 2) he is an incredibly talented artist and illustrator. Observe. This is from what.... 11 years ago? And yes, I have a signed copy. This is going to be worth dough one day, bitches.



Having entered the high octane, major earning world of UK Hip Hop many moons ago by illustrating the picture seen on Tommy Evan's classic '4 Horsemen' 12" (featuring Devise, Yungun and Ricochet), he recently made a return to the now barren market to do a bang up job on smashing the artwork for Ramson Badbonez latest release on King Kong Holding Company. The man has always been scribbling though, from early fliers for nights in his native York to more recently completing his 52nd flier for Brighton and the UK's premiere and longest running open mic Hip Hop jam, Slipjam B (12 years and still going). He also did the art on my now classic and thankfully unavailable demo CD, recorded when I was a teenage castrato.

Of course it was going to have me on it. Fuck is wrong with that?


Inking of the '4 Horsemen' cover. If you recall, the original 12" had an orange and black sticker. This is another one of a kind, signed of course. My art game is impeccable son.


And here follows a selection of the man's work. All relevant contact links are at the bottom. Hines is available for illustration work, beats, rhymes and gourmet eggy bread making. Holla at him and see if the price is right.









And here are a couple of fliers he knocked up for me when I used to run a night back in my hometown of Falmouth (Cornwall) called 'El Segundo' (and yes, a number of wallets were misplaced there). Don't fuck with me on the decks son, Neil B and I used to be like Westwood up in that bitch. And don't even get me started on L2. Shhhheeeeeeesssssshhhhh.





Like Lost?



And here's a cheeky little battle that he and I did last summer in the Don't Flop doubles tournament. Some say the outcome was debatable, but it is what it is. We were both a lil rusty and out of practice but you get the idea.



CONTACT

TWITTER = @HinesyHines

BEATS = http://soundcloud.com/hangoverhines




Pause? No homo? It's a profile, dingus.

Dope Cover Art #4

In honour of my previous post...

Jehst - Falling Down (2003)

Last Night....

...I Had a wicked time at this



I forgot to take my camera to take photoids. Oh well. I had actually stayed up until 11am that morning getting smashed so its a miracle I made it out of bed, into the shower and to the joint (thanks babe). It was incredibly busy.

There were 500 of these, for free -


I bought one of these, for a tenner -


And hooked up with a lot of cool people that I have either seen recently, or in a few cases, not for a few years or more. It were well good it were. Big up Scott Move and my main man Alex Young, whose incredible artwork can be viewed on his website HERE. He also just happens to have done all the artwork for my LP, so look out for that. Please. Thank you.

New shit coming soon. 1

Like Art? Like Free Beer?

I thoroughly endorse this.

Dope Cover Art #3

Rup On Zebra (Zebra Traffic, 2007)



A close personal friend of mine, when Rup got snapped up by the (now defunct) Brighton based label Zebra Traffic, which was also home to Phi Life Cipher and more at the time, there wasn't any problem with trying to figure out what the LP should be called. After the name was taken care of, it seems the direction and concept of the artwork kind of took care of itself. I still think its hilarious. *Edit* The dude who painted it is called Richard Clements. Dap to that man.

As an aside, the front cover is actually a real oil painting that, after completion, Rup's mum bought and then gave to Rup as a present. Nice. We both got absolutely shitfaced in a pub in Brixton last week and discussed the bizarreness of owning giant paintings of yourself (my LP artwork required Alex Young to paint a 5 foot portrait of me that I still own. In my Dad's attic, funnily enough).

I strongly advise you check http://soundcloud.com/rupertcnut for unreleased gems and new joints coming out.

Rup's entire back catalogue, including his sophomore release 'Rupert Just Woke Up' are still available from Suspect Packages here - http://www.suspect-packages.com/artists/r-t/RUP.php

Also to be checked is http://www.heartodayrecords.com/, Rup's pre and post Zebra Traffic home. The website is pretty emaciated it seems but you can still cop 'Rupert just Woke Up' cheap on digital copy. I strongly advise it, least of all cause I get a shout out on the first track. The whole LP is dope though, especially cuts like 'Feel You' and 'The Fox'.

A Remote World Artwork 1 of 2 - (L-R) Rup, Enlish, Mole & DJ Manipulate (damn he ugly hahaha)


And here's a joint that came out on 27 beats a few years back, a limited press, individually numbered 7" with illustrations and lyric sheets (remember those?). It has Dr Syntax and Jon Clark on the A with me, Rup and Mole on the B. Its all about dreaming. Big up See, who produced both cuts, handled the drawings and basically put the entire package together and got it out there.

Cover Art, Boom Bye Yay

A personal favourite of mine, Brother Ali's 'Champion' EP. Brother Ali is a true legend. My man Daps put me onto this EP when we held down the crib at Thug Mansions a million years ago, we used to jam it on the old Vestax Handy Trax while we cleaned the kitchen. So about once every 6 weeks then. Still, as with all good music, the outstanding cover art compliments the dope music and vice versa. I haven't got a clue who the artist is, in case you were wondering.



In a similar capacity, my main man TEXT (aka Alex Young) is an absolutely fucking magnificent artist and made his own painting of Ali using his patented spray/drip technique. Basically its all done with spray cans, layers upon layers of little squirts (pause) culminating in the finished work, in this case another imagining of The Greatest himself. Alex Young has also done the artwork for my 'Cold Lazarus' LP in a similar vein, so watch out for that. Go check his steez at http://brainofalexyoung.com. Church.