Fader

After we went off on our fantasy-rant about Miami we started thinking about what the polar opposite of that would be, and it turns out that it would be Philadelphia where it is cold and no rapper can succeed ever, no matter how much we want them to. Here's a video from Black Deniro featuring lots of Philly rappers that we either care a lot about or care only a little about—a lot of these guys have almost gotten popular but then...didn't. Luckily this song gets by on the charming beat, and—as usual—Peedi Peedi.

We'd probably get fired for gross negligence if we didn't post this, although we gotta say that, considering the fact that Wayne has lately shown great promise with Autotune and T-Pain is the modern master, this is not that big a deal. Don't get it wrong, we're not complaining, but this should be the greatest song of all time, correct? As of our last checking, it's not, but it is slated to appear on Carter III, unless, and this has never happened before, the tracklist changes before the album is released. (from Nah Right)


Download: Lil Wayne f. T-Pain, "Got Money"

Besides French dudes like Christophe Lemaire, we regularly obsess about the Danes (Henirk Vibsov, Wood Wood) and the Swedes (Acne Jeans, Carin Wester). Carin Rodebjer of Rodebjer happens to be one of our all time human beings/designers and was in town from Sweden a couple of weeks ago for little a work and play. It's Carin's immaculate shirt dresses that first got us hooked—always beautifully constructed with a extra stylee twist thrown in, like the huge pussy bow pieces from her spring 2006 collection featured back in Issue #36. Part of the secret, she confides, is the Italian shirting factory where they are produced. And up at her NYC showroom, she showed us the new custom rope-print shirting she has lined up for fall, as well as some other key pieces, including a double breasted coat dress and a cropped blazer with exposed almost football-esque shoulder pads. What's ultimately most awesome about her clothes is that she has all the best super feminine flourishes (yeah, we're wearing our coat dresses with nothing underneath this fall) without sacrificing any practicality. It's chic with two feet on solid ground. Before we said our goodbyes and Carin went to meet her Swedish friends at a Peter Morén show, she told us her next collection would be all about (wait for it) neat and tidy hippies!!! Like we said, Swedes are the best! more...

For a long time we were lamenting the dearth of lady rappers in our social consciousness and then BOOM, they were everywhere, and we became stoked. We have been TiVo'ing Miss Rap Supreme on el regular, and when Lil Mama can get a video in heavy-ro that looks like it was filmed in Boot Camp Click era Brooklyn, wearing a hoodie on a rooftop no less, we know something is hella hella RIGHT. Some of our fave-faves are Bmore's Get 'Em Mamis, who are some of the realest chicks we ever interviewed (FADER 53!) They are dropping a new mix every week this summer with freestyles over the hottest classic female MC's (whoever says "femcees" first gets a shank in the eye) tracks. The first two? Salt n Pepa's "Push It" and MC Lyte's "10% Dis," obvs our request is that Yo-Yo's "You Can't Play with My Yo-Yo" is next, considering it is literally one FADER staffer's favorite song of all time, and is played at least once a week on her iPod, but usually more than that because she likes to put it on repeat it is so awesome. But anyway. Power to the chicas.


Download: Get Em Mamis, "Push It"


Download: Get Em Mamis, "10% Dis"

Tonight on the Let Out, our weekly East Village Radio show (made possible by Dewars) we've got songs upon songs upon songs to play for you, including Ladyhawk (go see them at the Mercury Lounge at 9:30!), and also some other awesome stuff. Listen to eastvillageradio.com from 6-8 EST, and if you miss it, you can always grab the podcast afterwards.

There are very few artists who can put out a new video for a five or six year old song and get us to post it. Ariel Pink is one of them. "Gray Sunset" is a song off The Doldrums, an album which Ariel explained as "really weird in the sense that I don't know of anything—historically speaking—that is predicated on a generation of mistakes that led the course to a final product," in Issue 27 of The FADER, and we gotta say that it still sounds as strange and mistakenly great as the first time we heard it. The video was shot and edited by Travis Peterson in LA last week on a 1983 Sony tube video camera and debuts Ariel's new androgynous look which oddly looks like a genetic splicing of a couple people in this office.

When it comes to justifications for jocking DJ Harvey, where do we start? His legendary mixes and club residencies since he was an Acid House young'n? The lysergic boogie he creates today as one half of Map Of Africa? The fact that dude named his vinyl-only edits label Black Cock?!?! All are perfectly valid, but only goofballs (and lazy journalists—we see you!) talk up DJs for their resumes. We've been fortunate enough to enjoy Harvey on the decks a couple of times, and each night was chock full of disco surprises—so history aside, we recommend him because he's fun NOW. Check the capo di tutti capi of space bump play the latest edition of his Sarcastic Disco party on May 10th in Los Angeles, venue to be announced once it gets closer to the weekend, keep hitting refresh or call the mysterious number on the flyer.

Playing hunt-the-peace-sign is our new fashion favorite game, especially since the symbol turned 50 earlier this year (CND forever!). We snapped accessory designer Lizzie Fortunato supporting the cause a couple of weeks ago in a shirt by Sophomore. Although unfortunately we are unable to identify the awesome white tux jacket that she also has on (probably vintage) but the button-studded headband is most definitely one of her own designs. Also the style team actually hasn't bathed since the last hippie post on tie-dye, and half of its members are currently out on the field researching a story on the 50 best places on the planet to buy patchouli oil. Stay tuned. (Click the image to see it full.) more...

How did we never post any of these videos before? They are all actually fairly old, but for whatever reason amid all our TTA gushing we've only posted a live version of "First Class Riot," where you can't really see anything except maybe some shots of a guy in a cape. Here's the real video, which makes us appreciate that dolphins are really weird if you think about it and also What the hell we saw The Tough Alliance live and it was one of the most epic concert performances we have seen and this video is the closest we've seen to anything capturing that. Check out a bunch of old TTA videos that we've been watching for a million years that we never posted. more...

Just as we were posting the triumphant return of Maino last week Enuff dropped this into his Friday afternoon slot on Hot 97 and the office went slightly bananas, partially due to the song and partially due to writing drink reviews for the magazine. And just as we were about to put its piano-plinking knock up, dudes started jamming "Road to the Riches" across the hall. It's like an episode of Rap Lost in here. Get "Getaway" and some other GTA IV goodies over on Xclusives Zone and don't feel too bad for the pilfering. That game made half a billion dollars already.


Download: Maino, "Getaway Driver"

See, this is what we miss most about Dipset. We don't even have to explain what's going on here. Coogi cardigans and Swag Splashes. Pure entertainment. Courtesy of SmackTube via Smarten Up Nas.

Ahhh, Friday morning. Take a slow, deep breath. Smell those flowers? Yeeaahh. Harmony. Serenity. Look, there's a ladybug. Don't crush it. Awww. Nature! So great. If the rest of the day is this peaceful, it might just be the beginning of something new. Oh what's this? A new Crookers mix? What a lucky break. Maybe it will be good for a nap. OR MAYBE IT WILL MAKE ME WANT TO CHUG REDBULL AND PUNCH MYSELF IN THE FACE.

Download: Crookers May Mix

The word "swagger" comes up in the office a lot, and luckily our style intern Charles has lots of it. On a weekly basis he rolls in wearing the most amazing shoulder padded leather coats, rolled shorts and boots—all styles that could never be pulled off without swagger. To top it all off, dude rolls in all the way from Jersey(!) with these gems. It’s enough to make us pack up and cross the Hudson. Click the picture to see the whole thing. more...

Did you know we put Love is All on our cover? (Issue 37!) We gotta be honest and say that they never really took off like we clearly hoped, but they did gain a cult following (especially among FADER-staffers. "Busy Doing Nothing" is our shit on Saturday mornings when it's raining and cold but we still want to wake up and not feel like we are wrapped in like seven blankets of gauze). Annnyyyyywayyy, We thought the band fell off the face of the earth for a minute, but it turns out they didn't! After a date in DC, they're hitting New York for a show at Cake Shop on June 12th, then hopping on over to Philly for a night before coming back to NY on the 14th for a show at the Market Hotel. Both New York shows will be stifling hot, but we'll be there regardless because we love Love Is All. Check out a video of them performing for Hand Held Shows outside with a really loud keyboard above.

Over the last several months we've noted the (RED) campaign calling in cultural heavyweights like Damien Hirst and Kim Gordon to raise money and awareness for the global AIDS crisis, but we've been wondering when they would get Eric Koston involved. That dude is God on ecstacy. Nah for real, he is pretty good with the skateboarding, and he and artist Andy Jenkins (holler Freestylin' magazine!) partnered to design a special edition Girl deck for the (RED) campaign, which you can peep above. Go the Girl's page on (RED) to see Eric do some tricks and Jenkins talk shop, then go buy the damn thing.

Oh shit. 106 & Park is gonna talk about our new issue, FADER 54 (the ICON issue) TODAY after they play the flashback joint, which is Fabolous' awesome "Breathe." Tune in at 6 PM Eastern TODAY. SIDEBAR: How is "Breathe" a flashback joint?

We can pretty safely file this one in the Things We Should Have Paid More Attention To folder (thanks to Daniel Arnold for making sure we didn't overlook this one any longer), because Pepi Ginsberg is making some excellent Joni Mitchell-esque piano folk that also sounds like Dr Dog with a female singer. That's probably not even a coincidence considering they are on the same label and have done songs (including this one) together. Seriously though, this is music for summer morning subway rides to work and walks in the park, both things that we plan on doing constantly. Happy Times dudes!

Depending on where you sit in the FADER office, you are likely to be lapping it up with a gigantic fan of ELO and ABBA orrrrrrrr Anticon b-sides. We are a diverse (and forgiving) crew. If the former is your shit, then so will be "Light of Love", the first in a series of 12" single releases on Secretly Canadian by LA band Music Go Music, who remain somewhat of a mystery but whose 12" cover has mountains made of stockinged legs on it.


Download: Music Go Music, "Light of Love"

There are very few, if any, labels as committed to bizarre rap tangents than Stones Throw, but this new dude James Pants is something else. It's almost like they don't want to sell any records and yet they do because their oddities are just genius enough to be worth blowing a couple cheeseburgers on. Pants barely makes songs at all, just weird synth journeys that are probably kind of frightening to listen to if you're not in a stable mindstate. "Cosmic Rapp" (above) is the shyest electro ever, "Ka$h" is like Timberlake if he grew up in an orphanage and this "I Ain't Trippin" remix makes $hort Dog sound like a grandnana with a broken keyboard.


Download: Too $hort, "I Ain't Trippin (James Pants Remix)"

Bonus Cut: James Pants, "Ka$h" (from Stones Throw)