Retrospective – Nike's "Chamber of Fear" Ads Featuring LeBron James (circa 2004)

 

 

 

Nike's "Chamber of Fear" starring LeBron James and Jim Kelly, circa 2004.

Jim Kelly – Requiem for a Fighter

Jim Kelly, who passed away on June 29th, was the star of Black Belt Jones (1974). It was the first martial arts movie that I ever saw up on the silver screen. Although only five-years-old at that time, I still easily recall many of the details of that evening. Uppermost among them was the excitement that I felt walking out of the theater into the night with my parents and four-year-old sister--and how she and I launched little kung-fu kicks into air on our way to the family car.

Like so many other African-American children who grew up in this country in the immediate aftermath of the civil rights struggle, the gulf between movie heroes and heroines within whom we could regularly see our brown faces reflected was both deep and vast. But along with actors like Diane Carroll, James Earl Jones, Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, Billy Dee Williams, Teresa Graves, and a smattering of others, Jim Kelly was one of the proudly watched, though rarely visible few.

Admittedly, for me in those very formative years it was Muhammad Ali and Bruce Lee who were my two biggest pop culture idols. But Jim Kelly was placed high among them on very short list. And though he had only appeared in a few films -- even fewer of which were actually good films -- the impression that he made on me, and so many others like me, was positive, strong, and long lasting.

Nearly four years ago this month, while attending the San Diego Comicon in 2009, I had the unexpected pleasure of meeting Jim Kelly. And though I've never been much in the way of anybody's fanboy, I found myself that day temporarily awestruck. But then, for me, there was actually so much more involved with meeting Jim Kelly than just meeting Jim Kelly.  

In the theoretical principle of six-degrees of separation, it's said that a connection between any two people located anywhere in the world could be established through the identification of five or fewer shared acquaintances. You know such-and-such, who knows so-and-so, who knows blasé-skippy-woo-woo. Well, because Jim had known both Lee and Ali, being in his presence for that brief moment made me feel somehow much more closely connected to all of my boyhood idols. 

Yesterday, in the wake of Jim’s passing, my buddy Joe Doughrity (Akira's Hip-Hop Shop) gave a touching remembrance on his Facebook page. There he mentioned that he'd also met Jim at a comic convention. But this meeting was much more recent than mine, having occurred just in the past few months. Fortunately, due to the growing popularity of such conventions, people like he and I will often get a chance to shake the hands of some of the pop culture figures that we looked up to as kids. Master Jim Kelly was one of them.

Feeling a tad bit overwhelmed at the moment, and losing my way on just how I should close this post, I’ll defer to Joe, who I think summed it best when he said of Master Kelly that: "He fought the good fight."

That he did, true believers. That he did. 

Click to enlarge

Mama said knock you ouuuuuut!

Set Adrift on Chocolate Memory Bliss

Click to enlarge

Not that there's any reason to even recall this, but I forgot that Chicago's Beatrice Foods was once the home of some of America's sweetest candy treats. These include Milk Duds, Slo Poke and Black Cow suckers. As early as the 1920s, these cavity causers had been made in Chicago by the Holloway Company. In the early 1960s, Holloway was bought by Beatrice Foods. Around that same time, the Clark Company of Pittsburgh (maker of Clark and Zagnut bars) was bought up by Beatrice's expanding candy empire.

By the end of the following decade, it was a familiar sight to find text-heavy centerfolds in the pages of comic books that advertised Beatrice & Holloway's "Infamous Milk Duds Superduds Sweepstakes!" First place winners were awarded with an all expenses paid trip to New York City. While there in the rotten apple, the winner and their guests (limit 4) would be given a tour of the offices of either Marvel or DC Comics. Even better, an artist would draw the lucky winner's sweet-toothed likeness into the pages of their favorite comic.

Well, as happenstance would have it, while on my break at work yesterday I found myself noticing the Clark candy bars perched in the spiral rings of the snack machine. I'm still not sure as to why they caught my eye, I was never particularly a fan of Clark bars. In fact, as far as crunchy peanut butter bricks covered in milk chocolate went, the Butterfinger (another well-known candy originally made in Chicago) was always so much yummier.

But then today, with the Clark bars in the snack machine at work still hovering at the back of my brain, I happened across one of those old Superduds Sweepstakes ads. After focusing on a small image of the Clark bar's blue and red wrapper at the top of a cut-out entry blank, I had a realization: Save for Milk Duds and maybe Zagnut, I never see any of Clark's fellow candies anymore. Are any of 'em still even made? And as my thoughts reached for the remnants of sugar sweetened memories, I found myself gripped with a gnawing pang for the tastes of days gone by.

[Press-N-Play] Doom, Are You Awake?

[Press-N-Play®] MF Doom – Doom, Are You Awake?
[Press-N-Play®] MF Doom – ? ft. Kurious

Fuck This Noise! – Beatrice Foods Building, 1987

 

 

Fuck This Noise! Raven & Upski. Chicago, 1987

Kanye West + ReggieKnow + Toy Tokyo

CHANNELZEROTV.COM presents the never-before-seen clip "Chicago Hip Hop 101", starring Kanye West and his trusty, fashion forward barber, Ibn Jasper. Filmed in the years prior to the release of the multi-platinum Roc-A-Fella debut album "College Dropout", we join the duo mid-haircut as Kanye drops knowledge on the iconic Chicago hip-hop fixtures they grew up with. Along with in-depth narration by Kanye, we bring you exclusive CREATIVECONTROL.TV footage of the Toy Tokyo gallery showing hosted by Fashion Figure, Inc.'s creator and stylist, ReggieKnow aka "Polo Reg". Shot & Chopped by: Danny Joe Sorge and Directed by: Coodie & Chike

Published on Apr 17, 2013

Kickin' Live Productions – I Got Rhythm

[Press-N-Play®] Kickin' Live Productions – I Got Rhythm

Fanboy letter to BROTHERMAN, circa 1992

 Dear Sims Bros.,

I have just finished reading Brotherman: Dictator of Discipline number 5, and as I type this letter, I continue to admire the book's fantastic illustrations. Dave Sims' art is unique, innovative and quite distinctive of urban youth subculture. May I say that Brotherman is a graffiti artist's dream? The "ERUPTION" splash-page was striking, and the last panel of page 14 resurrected memories I retain that only few individuals could share: remnants of broken glass, soda pop cans and empty spray paint cans intermingling on a 'Big City' rooftop. Humph! Knowotimean?

Dave's art coupled with Guy's amusing, insightful, poignant prose provides each reader with a captivating street-level view of life in the megapolis...or a view from the underground, if you will, which brings me to my point. A book like Brotherman: Dictator of Discipline is a gem in the comics genre. It is a gem because it is one of the only such books in which graffit art or urban art is presented in such a professional manner. "A View From Da' Underground" by Tramp, Hayz and Cee, printed in The Source is one other such gem. But gems indeed are rare.

Hence, it is my hope to one day see other innovative illustrators like Tramp, Hayz and Cee--and still others like Pikasso--contributing toward the expansion of this art form in comics. It would also be a privilege to see famed graffiti artists like Dondi, Futura, Gnome, Seen and Skeme providing diverse interpretations of cover art for Brotherman comics.

Peace in the East.

PDT
Chicago, IL

Click to enlarge

Letter originally published in Brotherman: Dictator of Discipline #6, 1992

Samuel L. Jackson on pursuing his new dream

David Carradine on superheroes

"When I was a little kid I read a comic book called Supersnipe. This maybe six-year-old kid was the world's biggest comic fan, and he dressed up in baggy red long johns with the window in the back, plus a cape and a little black mask, and went around trying to fight crime and stuff. But in a couple of the stories, he actually became Supersnipe, over six feet tall, with lots of muscles and skintight long johns, but still with this tiny six-year-old head on top of it all. And it wasn't exactly a dream in the stories; the daring deeds really did get done.

"Well, I was the world's greatest comic fan, and I got my grandmother to sew me a superhero costume and tried to fly in it, off the garage roof. I really believed this stuff, and I'm not embarrassed to say I still do... Superhuman abilities are a lot of fun. Rarely in the comic books do they get into the price. It's heavy, as I remember. But, hey, you live only an infinite number of times, so why not make yourself useful."

– David Carradine
Source: The Kill Bill Diary, pg. 131

Esthero – Superheroes

 "Stay a while longer, sweet tongue of fur and feather / There is a white breast, waiting for you here / Between the superheroes and the electric blanket, it's warm..."

[Press-N-Play®] Esthero – Superheroes
[Press-N-Play®] Esthero – Country Livin'

Love my good-n-plenty

Good times at Phoenix Comicon 2013

This post won't contain any boasting about how fantastic a time I had at the Phoenix Comicon. I had a good time this year, but not a great time. There were scads of pop culture pushers, famous faces (Nichelle Nichols, Bruce Boxleitner, Garret Wang), artists, writers, and geek culture freaks of all ages. But something was off, something was missing for me this time around.

I didn't get enough deals steals.

Last year and the year before, I got spoiled. Dealer Ed Robertson brought boxes jammed with old and newish comics priced at $1 buck each that would leave you breathless, and nearly penniless too. But not this year. Well, he did have dollar boxes. But they were filled with none of the books that I was interested in getting, which was something of a serious letdown.

Still, I was glad to get another chance to chat with Ed and his wife and grabbed a half-dozen of his dollar comics offerings for old time's sake. He also had a nicely priced copy of Luke Cage, Hero for Hire #2 that I purchased ($10) from amongst his higher priced selections. It was also the first book I bought at the convention that was on my list.

I only spent two days at the con this year. Thursday had to be scratched for the Kings of the Mic concert in Tucson. In the time I had there, though, I managed to get my hands on all but  two of the books on my list. The only ones I didn't buy were Hero for Hire #8 and Iron Fist #5. One dealer had a copy of the latter, but it was laughably overpriced at $50 dollars.

Thanks to more reasonably priced retailers (All About Comics, Graham Crackers, Harley Yee), I got copies of Iron Fist 3, 4 & 7, Hero for Hire #10 and Marvel Premiere 16 & 19. Finding those last two books enabled me to complete my Marvel Premiere run: Issues 15 through 25 feature the very the first Iron Fist stories. 

At some point on Saturday, I also grabbed nice copies of issues 7, 8, 11 & 12 of the original Black Panther series. These were actually dollar offerings, too, but I scarcely remember who I bought 'em from. It could have been Ed. I recall taking another casual pass through his dollar boxes on Saturday. Oh, but there was one other guy who had about a dozen boxes--all of which contained books he priced at $1 dollar. So I'm gonna say that he was actually the source of these four books.

All in all, I left the con with a handful of nice books at very decent prices. But I also got to see some old acquaintances: Mike (the former owner of the gone-but-not-forgotten Atomic Comics, now immortalized in the movie Kick Butt) was there, as was Tom of Caveman Comics. Ol' Tom and I used to get into some of the best debates over social and political issues--and were right back at it again.

Yes, a good time was indeed had at Phoenix Comicon 13. But with next year's con already in mind, I'm looking for something more in the way of greatness.

Kings of the Mic Tour – Tucson, AZ

On May 23rd, LL Cool J, Ice Cube, Public Enemy and De La Soul kicked off the Kings of the Mic Tour in Tucson, Arizona. It was one helluva concert--one of the best I've seen, in fact. If you haven't already missed your chance, do yourself a favor and get "down with the kings." You will not be sorry.

As I'm trying to shake off the dust of simply not having blogged in some months (!), I'm gonna take it real easy on myself with this post; I don't have the energy for full-on review and I ain't even gonna try. What I will do, though, is quickly detail my top 3 favorite Kings of the Mic Tour concert moments:

#3. My third favorite moment came when I saw Ice Cube boogie--albeit briefly. Cube has had a really good sense of movement, in terms of his stage presence. But he has never tried to present himself as a dancer. He's too "G" for that. But he was obviously feeling good about his performance. Near the close of his monster set, he tossed his gold mic across the stage to Dub C and "repped that west" with a few smooth steps of the O.G. Crip Walk--done with the biggest smile on his usually snarling face.

#2. Flavor Flav taking the stage. Like many others in attendance that night, I somehow found myself not expecting Flavor Flav to be performing with Public Enemy. That carried with it no small measure of disappointment; Flav has always been the wild and crazy Yin to Chuck D's disciplined Yang. But a few minutes after Chuck, Professor Griff, DJ Lord, Davy D (yes, that Davy D) and the S1Ws were introduced, Flav ran out and sent the audience into an elated tizzy. Yeahhhhhhh boyyyyyyyy!

#1. My top Kings of the Mic Tour moment came when LL Cool J and Chuck D performed together. That's right, kiddies! In addition rocking classics like "Jack the Ripper," "Radio," and "Going Back to Cali," LL performed a handful of tracks from his newly released Authentic. When the song "Whaddup" began to play, which features a Public Enemy sample, Chuck D dashed out and rocked the hook live. I can't even describe how good it felt to see those two legends of Def Jam rocking the stage together. (But you can get a hint of what it felt like from this clip that someone who was much further back posted to YouTube.)



 Honorable mentions

• Arizona's own DJ Z-Trip backing LL Cool J on the wheels of steel.

•  Having a seat so close to the stage (7th row) that my hearing was almost damaged––seriously.

•  Hearing LL rock a medley of tracks including songs by other artists, like Eric B. & Rakim!

• Hearing the homeboy Darrell D complaining about the $35 dollar price on tour t-shirts...and then watching him leave to get one near the end of the show because it was such a great concert! Haha.

Goddamn, that b-girl made my day!

The utterly amazing 6 year-old b-girl from the UK seen gettin' d-o-w-n in the video posted below won the hearts of the crowd and a special award for herself in the "Baby Battle" category of the Chelles Battle Pro dance competition in Paris recently. To read more about her, click here. To see even more of B-Girl Terra's spine-tingling breaking, click here.

Beat Fighter II – Finister vs. Sinatra (Bang Bang)

The most unexpected song to ooze into my ears within the last few years was Phlo Finister's twenty-eleven cover of Cher's 1966 hit "Bang Bang." Written by singer-songwriter Sonny Bono, "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" was the second single from his then-wife's second studio album The Sonny Side of Cher. That same year, a cover was famously recorded by Nancy Sinatra for her own 1966 album How Does That Grab You?. The song was also covered twice more that year by artists Stevie Wonder and Petula Clark -- and many more times after, by artists ranging from Vanilla Fudge in 1967, Terry Reid in 1968, Frank Sinatra in 1981, and Cher again in 1987. Still, despite being one of the biggest hits for Cher, it was Nancy's haunting guitar accompanied version that has been popularized in the modern age via its fitting onscreen placement in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill. The Los Angeles-based R&B singer Phlo Finister does justice to "Bang Bang's" 4-decade-plus legacy by giving it a decidedly hip-hop-soul flavor for 21st century listeners. All of the really cool kids will prolly have Phlo's version and at least one of the older versions in their mp3 library.

[Press-N-Play®] Bang Bang – Nancy Sinatra
[Press-N-Play®] Bang Bang – Phlo Finister

Now YOU can learn the secrets of Ninjutsu

 [Click to enlarge]

That's right, kids!

NOW YOU CAN LEARN the secret powers of the deadliest killers in the Orient.

NOW YOU CAN LEARN the simple but lethal techniques of NINJUTSU, which has been the most closely guarded of all Oriental Martial Arts!

NOW YOU CAN LEARN skills which were passed down from father to son in NINJA families who lived in remote parts of ancient Japan.

NOW YOU CAN LEARN secret techniques which were once so closely guarded that the penalty for revealing them was a gruesome death!

AND NOW, regardless of your size, strength or build, you can protect yourself and your loved ones from ANY ATTACKER under ANY CONDITIONS -- even while sleeping! That's right, kids, even while sleeping!

Through NINJUTSU you will learn to utilize and draw on the enormous physio-mental powers which now lie dormant in your own body. THE SECRETS OF NINJUTSU will show you how to take advantage of the fundamental laws of natural movements, and the all important time-lag factor, which are instrumental to the art of disappearing!

SATISFACTION GUARANTEED!!!

We're sure that you will be completely satisfied by THE SECRETS OF NINJUTSU. This manual will give you the knowledge to defend yourself and your loved ones -- and a sense of self assurance you've never had before. If dissatisfied, return it within thirty days for a refund of purchase price with no question asked.

Sorry, no C.O.D.'S

Ninjas in London

[Press-N-Play®] Ninjas in London – Katy Perry

Mane One asks his friends: Is "Planet Rock" a hip-hop song? Professor XXL blogs his answer

Afrika Bambaataa

"Is 'Planet Rock' a Hip Hop song? I know some might put that song in the genre, Electro, but what do you think? My friend and I have been talking about this for a few weeks now." - DJ Mane One

Note: This post is actually in response to a really good conversation starter posed by DJ Mane One on his Facebook page. The question generated several good replies, many of which match up with my own. Before including my reply there, I figured I'd post it here.
 
[Placing professorial cap on head]  Ahem.

Mane, I would have to say that "Planet Rock" could be classified as a rap record (meaning hip-hop), but also as a funk/electro-funk record. But I'll try to explain just why I think that a special exception has to be made with this song.

It's mainly because of how the public first heard "Planet Rock."

That may sound kinda wack at first, but this is what I mean. While it may have been otherwise in NY (I kinda doubt it, tho), radio stations, discos, skating rinks, etc. were only playing the b-side of "Planet Rock" when it dropped -- the instrumental version. For upwards of 2-3 years after it was released, the instrumental was all that most people heard.

Thus, outside of maybe radio and club DJs, few knew that there was a vocal/rap version. And most didn't seem to care much for it when they did finally hear it; rap was still in it's infancy in '82, though, and the rap of Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force didn't sound like the rap of Sugar Hill Gang, Kurtis Blow, Melle Mel, and Sequence.

As for me, I think that I first heard the a-side version in early '85, when I bought a copy of "Tommy Boy's Greatest Beats." And, as much as I loved the instrumental (there were two instrumental versions being played in Chicago, one of which was a bootleg remix), I was not a fan of the vocal when I first heard it. But I quickly grew to love it.

Due to how it was most often heard by the public, particularly the listeners of R&B stations, "Planet Rock" was an electro-funk song, like "More Bounce to the Ounce." And funkadelic was clearly as much of an influence as Kraftwerk, and the very first thing that Bam says in the intro of the vocal is "Just taste the funk then hit me."

So, to be really fair, I think it's acceptable to also put "Planet Rock" in an electro-funk sub-category, as it has already been done for various record compilations. Despite my own territorial nature to classify it strictly as hip-hop, it's not. It's funk and rap. Well, rap AND funk.

– Professor XXL (aka St. Paco)

P.S. A Chicago DJ named Mike Macharello produced a bootleg remix of "Planet Rock" for WGCI, one of the city's two R&B stations on the FM dial then. Before his remix, they wouldn't even play "Planet Rock" -- but it was in the rotation for three years afterward. I have a cool memory of me, my sister and our friends dancing to it on the patio in our backyard. It's been uploaded to YKFS for your listening pleasure.

[Press-N-Play®] Planet Rock - Mike Macharello Remix 

Happy New Year!

 Happy Year of the Snake (2013). 

Okay, okay. If you wanna be nerdy about it, the Year of the Dragon doesn't officially end until February, according to the Chinese calendar. But we're always ahead of our time around here, so we got Jackie Chan and Drunken Master Yuen Siu Tien (the father of Yuen Woo-ping) to get our twenty-thirteen "Year of the Snake" party started early. Shout outs to Stormko for rockin' another funky fresh seasonal postcard.

Xin Nian Kuai Le! (Happy New Year!)

Celebrating 75 years of American...rap music?

"Listen close, I don't want you to miss
none of this here story, 'cause it goes like this..."

Yeah, yeah, KRS-One. The Bronx may be the birthplace of hip-hop music, but some of its precious "blueprint" appears to have come from the rugged suburbs of Virginia. That's right, Virginia. It was in the Norfolk suburb of Berkley that the gospel music act known as the Golden Gate Quartet was formed in the 'durrty' 1930s. Negro spirituals were this crew's specialty, but they were famously known for rocking the mic with a trademark brand of toe-tapping gospel, marinated in the secular styles of jazz, blues, pop and rap -- decades before rap even had a name! And to my ears, the Golden Gate Quartet's 1937 cover/remix of the Arthur Collin's song "Preacher and the Bear" seems to be one of the earliest and best examples on wax of a familiar sound that would come to revolutionize music four decades later, with the release of Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's Delight." Yowza! Talk about old school.

Submitted for your approval ... "Preacher and the Bear."

[Press-N-Play®] Golden Gate Quartet – Preacher and the Bear
[Press-N-Play®] Golden Gate Quartet – Mockingbird

  
Shout outs to Word Is Bond for the heads-up, and to the ever reliable Archive.org for an even better version of this song, as well as others by the Golden Gate Quartet.

[Press-N-Play®] Kanye West ft. Teyana Taylor – Christmas in Harlem

[Press-N-Play®] Kanye West - Christmas In Harlem (Feat. Teyana Taylor, Cam'ron, Jim Jones, CyHi Da Prynce, Pusha T, Big Sean & Musiq Soulchild)

[Press-N-Play®] A Charlie Brown Christmas

[Press-N-Play®] A Charlie Brown Christmas - Side A (1965)
[Press-N-Play®] A Charlie Brown Christmas - Side B (1965)

Twilight of the Twinkie

 Since the 1930s, the taste of Hostess snack cakes were an integral part of snack culture in America. Maybe nowhere was this more apparent than in the pages of comic books in the 1970s and '80s. In the full-page Hostess ads that were regularly featured, costumed crime-fighters relied on their wits – and the irresistible bait of Twinkies, Fruit Pies, and Cupcakes – to capture hapless bad guys. Odin only knows how many times Hostess snack cakes saved the day. And not just in the pages of comics but also in the real world, when appetites craved a cream-filled or a fruit-filled treat. In sweet remembrance of the Hostess Company, which turned off its ovens after an 80-year run in the snack business, YKFS brings you a few of those pulse-pounding pages. If you got lucky enough to get your hands on a pack of Twinkies before they were all bought up and posted on Ebay, I hope that you poured out a little milk on the curb for the dearly departed and savored every last crumb.

Click to enlarge

[Press-N-Play®] Blondie vs Fab 5 Freddy - Yuletown Throw Down (Rapture Christmas Mix)

Blondie, Fab 5 Freddy, Grandmaster Flash & friend + Chris Stein, NYC (1981)

[Press-N-Play®] Blondie vs Fab 5 Freddy - Yuletown Throw Down (Rapture Christmas Mix)

They drank Sprite and then formed like...

Although it was originally Method Man and the Wu-Tang Clan who coined the phrase "We form like Voltron," it was a different mix of hip-hop artists who starred in a series of Voltron inspired Sprite commercials in 1998. Today, we can only daydream how those TV spots might have looked – and sounded – if the RZA, Meth, Raekwon and the rest had been placed behind the controllers of Voltron's black, red, green, blue and yellow lions. Instead, but much to their credit, the marketing heads at Sprite assembled a crew of hip-hop artists who represented the East Coast (Afrika Bambaataa, Jazzy Jay, Fat Joe), West Coast (Mack 10), Northern (Common) and Southern states (Goodie Mob). The beats and rhymes were appropriately bubbly, and the campaign showed a sparkling effort by an advertiser to sample the mouth-watering flavors that can result when American hip-hop gets blended with a Japanese giant robot.

Submitted for your approval...the Sprite "Voltron" commercials.

The sweet taste of...

I am St. Paco and I approve this message.