Remembering Jam Master Jay (RUN DMC)

I'll never forget the the time RUN DMC visited the US Virgin Islands. It was 1985, and Hip Hop, besides sports, was my focus.
I was enamored by the music that was pouring out of New York City, flowing as consistently as Niagra Falls.
RUN DMC has always been the group that epitomized the culture, the lifestyle and they set the fashion bar for many.
While Run and DMC did their thing on the microphone, my eyes were always glued on the disc jockey- Jam Master Jay (real name: Jason Mizell).
You see, Jam Master Jay had a way with working the "wheels of steel", the soon-to-be defunct Technics 1200s.
His scratches and cuts were always on cue, and even when one of them seemed out of synch, upon listening to the song a second time, it was then that I realized what Jay was intending.
To this day, I own a number of RUN DMC's albums, a few cassette tapes and the more common CDs and MP3s.
Today marks the 8-year anniversary of Jam Master Jay's (JMJ) murder.
I can remember it like it was yesterday when I heard the news: I was driving on the Long Island Expressway while listening to New York station, 97.1 FM.
To hear the news that the "silent one", as I had dubbed Jay, was killed in his recording studio in Queens was so disheartening that I had to pull over on the L.I.E. As Funk Master Flex reported the sad news........I cried.
I recall hearing, for the first time, songs "Sucker MCs", "Tougher Than Leather", "Rock Box" and "Walk This Way", and I always smiling, but it was "My Adidas" that spoke to my sole (pun intended).
I have always liked sneakers, and when Run DMC rapped about their love of the shell-toed sneakers, I immediately identified with the song.
When Run DMC rocked Madison Square Garden and told everyone to take off one of their Adidas sneakers and, "Hold them in the air!", I did and so did almost 15,000 other kids.
Little did I know the significance of that moment in sneaker history and how it would serve me in the future and today.
So, today I plan to listen to "Run DMCs Greatest Hits" and remember Jason Mizell a.k.a. Jam Master Jay and give thanks for the memories and him being a Hip Hop pioneer, and someone who motivated me to hear, listen and feel the music.
Walk GOOD JMJ, you're missed but not forgotten.

Remembering Jam Master Jay (RUN DMC)

Statik Selektah: 100 Proof

With a meteoric rise and an album about to be released tomorrow, Statik Selektah, has been busy producing music that moves the crowd and has folks realizing that true Hip Hop is not dead.

Hip Hop was alive and well in Boston this past weekend as Statik Selektah held a listening party for this third album, "100 Proof The Hangover", which has already been building a buzz on the mixtape and DJ circuits, along with spins on Sirius/ XM radio, at Concepts in Cambridge.

Statik, who hails from Massachusetts, pulled out all the stops and made sure the event was laid back, but purposeful, too. The key being to hear "100 Proof" in all its headbanger, street-spitter glory. (In my humble opinion, this album is a MUST buy!)

Not one to hog the spotlight, Statik made sure his homies were in the building, too, to bask in the spotlight--Reks, Termanology, J.F.K., Joe Scudda, and Kali to name a few. And, when Statik decided to dig deep in the crates, he called upon the larger-than-life underground king, Bun B, of UGK.


Check out a few of the pictures, and be sure to buy your copy of 100 Proof The Hangover tomorrow on iTunes, Emusic, Rhapsody or Amazon.

Walk GOOD!

Reks on the Mic

J.F.K. reppin' for Beantown

Joe Scudda reppin' NC

Frank of Concepts & Bun B talkin' kicks. No surprises here!

Termanology's got 5 on it!

Kali reppin' Cali to the fullest!

Statik Selektah: 100 Proof

Thirstin Howl 3rd @ DunkxChange Boston

Thirstin Howl 3rd: The Polo Rican at DunkxChange Boston from Dee Wells on Vimeo.

Thirstin Howl 3rd @ DunkxChange Boston

VP Records & Nike Big It UP!

Nike and VP Records Join Forces to Release

Olympic Sprinter Asafa Powell’s Train for Speed Workout on ITUNES

Mix Includes Exclusive Track by Dancehall Star Mavado

Nike and Olympic sprinter Asafa Powell have teamed up with Reggae label VP Records to create a Nike Sport Music workout featuring the exclusive track, “On The Go (Faster Than Bullet),” by one of the athlete’s favorite artists, Mavado. Called Asafa Powell: Train for Speed, the 35-minute interval workout is coached by Asafa over a reggae/dancehall soundtrack. Among the genre-defining songs included on the mix are some of reggae’s greatest artists of the past, present, and future, providing a musical backdrop for running that is both unique and effective. After all, two of Jamaica’s greatest exports are music and sprinters—it was only a matter of time before they came together in one pulse-pounding project.

The only athlete to have run the 100-meter dash in under 9.8 seconds more than once (he did it five times), Asafa Powell knows speed. He has distinguished himself as one of the world’s fastest humans, having held the world record in the 100 for three years, from 2005-2008. In the Asafa Powell: Train for Speed workout, Asafa coaches runners through a 35-minute training session with four high-speed intervals that descend in length. The goal of the workout is to increase an athlete’s endurance and speed, with musical motivation coming from the athlete’s homeland.

Reggae music is often associated with laid-back island rhythms, but there are several subgenres that up the tempo to a runner’s pace, including dancehall, a style that has been influential on hip-hop since its inception. VP Records has been one of reggae’s most fervent advocates since 1979, becoming the world’s largest independent Caribbean music label. The tracks selected for Asafa Powell: Train for Speed run the gamut of what VP has to offer, mixing in classic dancehall cuts like Shaggy’s early hit, “Big Up,” and pioneering ragamuffin tunes like Half Pint’s “Greetings,” with newer songs like Sean Paul’s “Deport Them” and “Hyperventilating” by up-and-comer Tami Chynn. The playlist peaks with an exclusive track recorded by one of Asafa’s favorite VP artists, Mavado, appropriately titled “On The Go (Faster Than Bullet).”

Nike selected Mavado for the project based on Asafa Powell’s respect for the emerging dancehall artist’s music. One of the hottest new voices to hit the international reggae scene, Mavado recorded “On The Go (Faster Than Bullet)”as an homage to the sprinter, as well as an inspirational anthem celebrating the island of Jamaica and its music. "It’s a great honor to be recognized as one of Jamaica's top entertainers and to be a part of this project with Nike,” says Mavado. “It’s a responsibility I take very seriously. I wanted to put out a very positive message on the track as it would be representing not only myself, but Asafa Powell and Jamaica."

“Mavado is one of the leading voices of the Jamaican youth,” stated Olivier Chastan, Vice-President of VP Records. “He is a source of inspiration to them by exemplifying that they too can achieve great things despite life’s hardships. Music can help your dreams come true in the same way that sports can. This is the message that Mavado and Asafa carry to the world over on behalf of Jamaica and its people.”

The track, which includes the lyrics, “Jamaica/The greatest thing inna life/Our music and sports fi try,” has a galvanizing message that will no doubt be adopted as a patriotic anthem for Jamaica’s supporters around the world as the Olympic Games approach this summer “On The Go (Faster Than Bullet)” was produced by Shane Brown for Juke Boxx Productions.

The latest installment in the Nike+ training series, Asafa Powell: Train for Speed is available exclusively in the Nike Sport Music section of the iTunes Store for $9.99.

About Nike Sport Music

Launched on June 29, 2006 by Nike, the Nike Sport Music store on iTunes is the definitive source of musical inspiration and audio coaching for athletes. Nike+ Coaching Workouts feature star athletes like Lance Armstrong, Serena Williams, and artists like OKGO guiding you through a run or an exercise session while engineered powersongs rev you up. Also available in the Nike Sport Music store, Nike+ Original Runs are fresh, drive-you-forward original compositions crafted by cutting-edge artists exclusively for Nike.

About Nike

With Nike+, runners never have train alone again. Nike+ enables footwear to talk to an iPod Nano or Nike+ Sportsband, giving instant performance information and real-time feedback during a run. Like a personal coach or training partner, Nike+ has put this information at runners’ fingertips, in the process creating a Nike+ revolution. As of February, 2008, Nike+ members have run over 40,000,000 miles, logged over 12,000,000 and issued over 300,000 challenges. Nike+ has also created the world’s largest running club at nikeplus.com, a global running community where Nike+ members can log their run data, track their progress, utilize training tools, and connect with other members all over the world.

To listen/download to the Nike+ training series, Asafa Powell: Train for Speed, please contact:

Tiffany Mea

VP Records Publicity

89-05 138th St.

Jamaica, NY 11435

AIM: VPTIFF

PH: (718)-425-1151

VP Records & Nike Big It UP!

OSD Music: Jay-Z "Aint I"

Have a listen to Jay-Z's new single "Ain't I" featuring Timbaland.

Jay spits a verse about his passion for kicks and shouts out a southern sneaker store.

OSD Music: Jay-Z "Aint I"

OSD Spotlight: DJ Clark Kent

It's hard to find anyone who doesn't know about music producer DJ Clark Kent, but what many folks don't know about him, is his affliction with an incurable case of Obsessive Sneaker Disorder.

For those of you that have been reading OSD for some time or called into the OSD Talk Show on Wednesday nights (9:30 PM EST), then you know that Clark is serious about his sneakers.

Listen to this episode where Clark breaks it down and talks kicks and argues whether there is or isn't a "sneaker culture".

OSD- Episode 9- The Roaring '90s

Oh, yeah....it's coming soon!

OSD Spotlight: DJ Clark Kent

Best '07 Rap UP!

He's one of the most slept on rappers out there, but my man Skillz did his thing on the 2007 Rap Up!

Best '07 Rap UP!

Music: Tupac "Old School"

The song "Old School" by Tupac never gets old. What happened to story-telling rap?

Music: Tupac "Old School"

Music: My Shelly

Listen to this song from the forthcoming Know You Got Sole sneaker film. The song is titled "My Shelly" produced by Paper Chasr and lyrics by Mr. Mecc.

Press PLAY


And, in case you missed the trailer for the film, here you Go!

Music: My Shelly

JMJ: A Lasting Memory

You know how older folks will say they remember where they were when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated (04/04/68) and President John F. Kennedy (11/22/63). Well, I remember the evening of October 30, 2002, like it was just yesterday.

I was driving on the L.I.E. (Long Island Expressway) heading back to Brooklyn from hosting a college admissions meet and greet and tuned into Hot 97.7 FM when the on-air DJ interrupted the song to say that he had just received word that Jam Master Jay a/k/a/ Jason Mizell, of the rap group RUN-DMC, was shot and killed in a studio on Merrick Boulevard located in Queens, NY.

I remember pulling off of the L.I.E. and listening and the radio in unbelief, hoping that Jay would be OK and survive the gun shots. Such was not the case.

So, on this 30th of October, we at OSD continue to pray for Terri, Jay's widow, and their three children.

Rest In Peace Jason William Mizell
Support the Jam Master Jay Foundation for Music

J.A.M. Awards event to be held November 29th at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City.

JMJ: A Lasting Memory

Caffeine Fiend

The first time I heard this song I was in the A (that's Atlanta for those of you who don't know) and Greg Street previewed it on V-103.3 FM. I said that Joc was back at it again, dropping another club banger/ rollin' down the street bumpin' it in your car song.

Check out the video and spot all the "streetwear" fashion statements and the occasional fake pair of kicks. Yes, I went there! Some fakes were spotted in this video. See if you can spot them.

Caffeine Fiend

Morning Wake-up!

Some great music to get you going on this Monday morning....VI Style.

Morning Wake-up!

Music will save the world

Music will save the world

Kickstory!

A cultural icon to many in the Rap and Hip-Hop community, Nike Air Force 1 sneakers have become a staple for so many rappers and their followers that even if they didn’t like them, they’ve been gobbled up and worn to “look the part”. Most people know one or two of these types of people who don’t know jack about the culture nor can they tell you who inspires them other than the latest artist whose album is on heavy rotation on Hot 97, Jam’n 94.5 or Power 105 FM.

For those people in the know about the sneakerhead culture, you already know the direct connection that Air Force 1s (Uptowns) have with music, fashion, politics and, of course, race. There’s so much angst when it comes to Rap and Hip-Hop and the two are used interchangeably when they shouldn’t. Rap and Hip-Hop are two very different things that share some common threads.

Let me break it down for you. The culture of Hip-Hop has been the source of dozens of words and expressions in American English, of which Rap is one of the most familiar. The word is probably the development of rap meaning "to hit." It shows up in the early 1900s in the extended meaning "to express orally," as used by such notable figures such as Marcus Garvey and later by Winston Churchill in 1933.

Many decades after Garvey and Churchill used the word, others started using the term ‘rap’ and it began to take on the meaning of "to discuss or debate informally," a meaning that was well established in the Black community in the late 1960s. A decade later the word was applied to an evolving style of music characterized by, among other things, beat-driven rhymes that intrinsically called for improvisation. The slang that is integral to the lyrics of rap continue to be a source of borrowings in colloquial American English; recent examples include 'chill', meaning "to calm down," and 'dis', meaning "to show disrespect to." These are but the latest examples, in a long series of ‘borrowings’ from the Black English stretching back a century or more.

The Man-Child
It was a man-child by the name of Moses Malone that first wore the Nike Air Force 1s in 1982 and made people stand-up and pay attention to not only his behemoth frame but also his large feet (size 22). Moses, whose first name evokes images from the Bible, was able to make the jump from high school (Petersburg High School-Petersburg, VA) to the ABA and ultimately to the NBA in 1982, when he signed with the Philadelphia 76ers on September 2, 1982.

Moses wore the traditional low-cut Nike Air Force 1 in a white and red color scheme that was so simple- a predominately white sneaker with a red outsole and red ‘Swoosh”. They mesmerized folks and it took awhile for people to realize what brand they were. You see, Nike didn’t have its current-day stronghold on the NBA players’ feet in the early ‘80s as they do today. As a matter of fact, the predominant choices of footwear, by players in the League, were Converse and Adidas.

Once fans began to realize what sneakers Moses was wearing, people started hunting for the sneakers to no avail. This is where the plot thickened.

It took three East coast retailers to convince Nike to bring back the Air Force 1 after they were phased out in 1984. Let’s suffice it to say, that it is these “Three Wise Men” whom we owe a huge ‘Thank You’ to for convincing Nike to continue to produce the sneakers that would eventually sell more than 10 million pairs per year, thus making it the No. 1 U.S. shoe on a unit sales basis.

If you’re not familiar with Downtown Locker Room (DTLR), Rudo’s and Cinderella’s, then you have to check-in with your favorite sneakerhead and ask the question about their significance to the sneaker world.

I’ll let that question hang out there for a bit because in the next coming days, I’ll post an interview that I conducted with a number of old school ‘heads that have so many stories to tell that many will leave you perplexed.

Kickstory!

Imagine (Remix)

The track is your typical laid-back g-funk on it's own, but the remix with Snoop, Ja Rule and D'Angelo is that much better. Listen to it by clicking on the link below.

Imagine (Remix)

Imagine (Remix)

It's been GOOD.

The legend, the man who taught so many artists how to, "Get on with the good foot" and "Get on up!", James Joseph Brown, Jr., died today at the age of 73. My deepest condolences to a legend that I never had an opportunity to meet, but certainly appreciated for his energy and willingness to do things musically that so many other people could never have pulled off.

You will be missed...The Godfather of Soul! Rest in PeACE!

It's been GOOD.

Went to a party...

Have you ever went to a party and suddenly as sneaker event break-out? I don't suppose that this happens to you often, but it does to me. It must have something to do with my addiction. Yes, I said. ADDictION!! It's been in my veins for years and at times I wonder if GOD built me this way...to do something magnificent! I don't know for sure, but I love the journey and I've been able to meet some awesome people.

I'll have a lot more pictures coming soon, but in the meantime peep these!

Went to a party...