Big Pun will long be remembered as one of those rappers who influenced so many people with a considerably small output – the two albums he was able to put out before his untimely death (7th February 2000) are great milestones in the hip-hop landscape.
Since his death there have been various posthumous releases – they did the whole Biggie Smalls thing and put his verses out all over the place. It’s a shame he never got to see the rest of his recordings to the finish, but Pun’s life-long struggle against temptation and obesity brought about the fatal heart-attack to end it all.
Here’s his famous Hot 97 freestyle – the lyrics are pure fire with his trademark unstoppable flow.
“I started writing poetry in 2001… because I couldn’t afford paint.”
Soul Culture Media recently caught up with Inua Ellams – 25 year old, Nigerian-born poet, who currently lives in London – and spoke with him about his play, poetry and the life that inspires him.
He also recites a poem based upon the line, ‘What becomes of the broken hearted?’ – it’s just another example of the artists we should be supporting in this country, but who have to work harder than any for wide-ranging recognition. Still, he has performed all over the country and been a member of numerous creative collectives, including OneTaste, A Poem In Between People, Malika’s Poetry Kitchen, NewBlood, Generation Txt…
Inua Ellams is an inspiring voice and I hope he continues to find success in what he does so well.
The Frid-Daily Photographer feature won’t be starting tomorrow, as I’ve decided to delay it a week. I’ll probably take most of the weekend off here as well so apologies in advance for being an absolute slacker – there’ve been very few updates this week anyway! It all boils down to the fact I’ve been stupidly busy in real life, but things will get back on track.
Photographers to be featured soon include Lauren Shields, Samuel Gull, Gill Ford, Robert Jackson and more in the pipeline!
On Sunday night a whole host of celebrities scrubbed up and made the effort for the 52nd Grammy Awards show. Lady Gaga looked as ridiculous as usual, wearing a weird Armani dress and armed with some sort of spiky weapon. But this week’s award has to go to Musiq Soulchild, neo-soul singer who hasn’t really made much of an impact on this side of the Atlantic.
He looks like a grape crossed with a pimp. Genius.
Editor of Vice UK, Andy Capper, and Leo Leigh (son of Mike, who brought us Happy-Go-Lucky, amongst other things) came together in 2009 to direct a film about the largely unreported heroin epidemic in South Wales.
Swansea Love Story is a gritty documentary that follows the lives of seven addicts as they fall in and out of love, get clean, relapse, buy drugs and so on. I don’t want to compare it toThis is England (but I’m going to), as this documentary looks at the difficult lives these people lead and the reality of their day to day existence. Yes, I realise This is England wasn’t a documentary, but you see what I’m driving at.
Here’s the trailer:
Dark and interesting, right? Right.
Here’s a little Vice had to say about it:
The film follows Amy & Cornelius, Lee and Leanne, Clint, Kristian and Wills around their daily lives as they struggle to get money to buy drugs, alcohol and for places to live. During the course of the film, characters get clean and relapse. They fall in and out of love. We meet their families and drugs workers. We meet their dealers. We meet members of Swansea’s mining and docker community who tell us how the city has changed. In place of industry there’s myriad bars, strip joints and cheap booze outlets. Racial tension often spills over into public protest and violence.
The film will run in six episodes from the 12th February (which happens to be my sister’s birthday) and I’ll post them on here as it goes on.
Persona Magazine has just released a behind-the-scenes video of their recent shoot with Amber Rose (you know here, right? The bald, but hot model with Kanye’s arm around her). The photo-shoot retells the story of one of my favourite films, This is England, the home-made story of skinhead culture vs. racism in the 1980s.
I really like the whole skinhead movement as a fashion/subculture statement and it’s such a shame it’s become so closely associated with racist attitudes and violence. Just because certain hate-groups adopted a particular way of dress doesn’t mean a buttoned up shirt represents the uniform for racism. That’s just another form of ignorance in itself.
Anyway, here’s the teaser video and I’ll post the shoot when it’s made available. Enjoy!
So what started as a Katy Perry electro remix has grown into a whole new master plan. I’ve decided I’m going to create a mixtape called ‘Pop Tarts,’ which will basically be a a bunch of cheesy pop singer remixes, as done by myself.
Here’s a new teaser track, Lady Gaga’s ‘Paparazzi’ with a funky electro spin.
For music that I really dislike in its original form, this is actually turning out to be quite a lot of fun.
Yesterday Kanye West released some crazy rant in reaction to all the hate he’s been getting recently (which has just been re-ignited by people criticising his fashion sense, most specifically the animal charity, PETA’s response to his fur coat). Well for some reason I actually like Kanye, but he needs to chill out with his shit just a little bit.
I’m just gonna repost this word for word…
WHEN IT’S ALL SAID AND DONE, REMEMBER THE FEARLESS, REMEMBER THE DREAMERS, REMEMBER THOSE WHO REPRESENT THE GHETTO…THE FAIRY TALE OF NOTHING TO SOMETHING. I’M BRIEFLY SADDENED BY NEGATIVE COMMENTS, BUT I HAVE TO REMEMBER THOSE PEOPLE ARE SCARED, INCAPABLE OR JUST PLAIN IDIOTS. WE ARE THE FUCKING ROCK STARS BABY. NO COCAINE, JUST LIFE MY NIGGAS!! NO COCAINE, JUST LIFE! IT’S FUNNY TO ME WHEN FASHION BLOGGERS DOWN OUR OUFITS AND THEN SUPER JOCK OUTLANDISH SHIT ON THE RUNWAY BUT THEN THEY DRESS MAD PRUDE AND DON’T LIVE FASHION. WE LIVE IT MAN. FUCK THAT, WE LIVE IT!!! WE LIVE IT SO HARD PEOPLE LIVE THROUGH US! WE REPRESENT YOUR INNER SPIRIT!! THE CHILD IN US ALL, THE BRUTAL HONESTY, THE NAIVETY, THE BRAVE WARRIOR, THE ADRENALINE THAT ALLOWS A MOTHER TO LIFT A CAR IF HER CHILD WAS TRAPPED UNDER IT! REMEMBER, THERE WAS A TIME WHEN EVERYBODY DISSED MICHAEL JACKSON EVERY CHANCE THEY COULD. IMAGINE THE PRESSURE OF BEING A TRUE ICON. VERY FEW HUMAN BEINGS ARE STRONG ENOUGH TO TAKE CONSTANT HATE!!! IF WE DON’T DO WHAT YOU FEEL IS THE SHIT, YOU BEAT US UP VERBALLY AND MENTALLY, LIKE A CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHER BEATING A CREATIVE STUDENT INTO SUBMISSION. I CAN HEAR YOU SCREAMING ‘COLOR INSIDE THE LINES!!!’ WELL FUCK YOUR COLORING BOOK, COLOR BY NUMBERS APPROACH TO LIFE. AT THE END OF THE DAY WHO ARE WE HURTING??? OH “THE NEW BLACK???” SINCE BARACK IS PRESIDENT BLACKS DON’T LIKE FUR COATS, RED LEATHER, AND FRIED CHICKEN ANY MORE?! WHEN YOU TRULY UNDERSTAND CULTURAL SETTINGS, BOUNDARIES, AND OUR MODERN DAY CASTE SYSTEMS, THEN YOU CAN FEEL THE GLORY AND PAIN FROM THE DAYS OF KINGS IN AFRICA TO THE NEW KINGS OF THE MEDIA. LET THE BALL PLAYERS DANCE AFTER THEY SCORE! IT’S LIFE MY NIGGAS, IT’S LIFE! REMEMBER CLOTHING IS A CHOICE. WE WERE BORN NAKED!!! FRESH IS AN OPINION, LOVE IS OBJECTIVE, TASTE IS SELECTIVE, AND EXPRESSION IS MY FAVORITE ELECTIVE. NO MORE POLITICS OR APOLOGIES!!!
I’m assuming the Caps Lock key was broken.
There were also some pretty funny comments in response to this – not ‘haha’ funny, but you know…
MrMido21 | January 29, 2010
NOW PUT THAT IN SONGS MY BROTHER AND LET’S KILL THESE NIGGAS!!
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zmoney2613 | January 29, 2010
My account has been screwed up for months but I had to re-register just because this post was so amazing. You give me hope everyday.
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MrAFromThaT | January 29, 2010
HOLY FUCKIN SHIT ONNA SKICK!!! DAMN YE, PUT ALL THAT SHIT INA SONG LITERALLY! I LOVE CAPS LOCK NOW HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
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There you have it – Kanye West made someone fall in love with Caps Lock. Now if that ain’t funny…
Oh, and my personal favourite:
Rip | January 29, 2010
KANYE…WHEN WE GONNA DO A TRACK!!???
www.whoisrip.com
Rip
Umm – never!?
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*Just found he’s taken it down off his website, so blogs like this are just about the only place you’ll find it*
Any fairly regular readers might have noticed I don’t post too much over the weekends (it’s a bit lame – it means I lose readers and then I have to spend the weekdays building them back up), but I thought I’d take a moment to let anyone who’s interested know what’ll be going on with Buttoned Up over the next few months.
Firstly I’m introducing a few regular features – ‘Well-Dressed Wednesdays’ and ‘Fri-daily Photographer’ – but that’s probably just a starting point.
I quite liked the fact my first ‘Well-Dressed Wednesdays’ kicked off a little controversy with the fur debate, so I hope I can continue to dig stuff up that might get you people talking (though my aim isn’t always to piss you off).
The idea with the ‘Fri-daily Photographer’ is to feature a different talented photographer every Friday. I’ve been getting quite a lot of interest already so I’m really looking forward to being able to feature fresh talent and helping these guys out wherever possible. If you are, or you know of any keen photographers, then please don’t hesitate to contact me – I’m a one-man talent scout here! While we’re on the subject – any musicians, film-makers and artists who want to give me a shout are welcome to do so – I’ll always squeeze you in somewhere.
Meanwhile I’m looking at ways to expand the whole Buttoned Up umbrella – there might be a video project in the works, but that’ll probably be a Spring/Summer deal. I’ll probably also start to give way to a few new faces as regular contributors and see how things go…
I’d love to tell you more about where this is headed, but I honestly don’t know yet myself – just keep coming back, okay?
As most people will know Salinger wrote The Catcher in the Rye (1951), which is just about my favourite book. If you haven’t read it, it’s a timeless coming-of-age story about Holden Caulfield ditching his school, spending a day and night in New York and learning all about himself. It’s funny, intelligent and I’ve read it pretty much every year since I was fourteen.
Then again some people ‘don’t get it’. It’s not like there’s anything to get – it’s just an entertaining story about an interesting guy.
Salinger also wrote a load of other good stuff – Nine Stories is a very popular collection of (wait for it) nine stories, including For Esmé – with Love and Squalor, which has gained a cult status all of its own.
In spite of how popular he was as a writer, Salinger was a great recluse and notoriously hard to contact for interviews or articles, but if anything it probably added to his mystique
Today he died of natural causes at the age of 91 and I can safely say that what he left behind will last in many people’s hearts forever.
