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Sneaker Friends ’08 Takes Over Atlanta

Words & Photos: Maurice G. Garland

On a typically busy night in Atlanta last week, Greg Street and his Sneaker Friends ’08 event at the Fabulous Fox Theatre found itself in direct competition with a Lil Wayne show only a few blocks away. Its safe to say that most ATLiens prefer Ice Creams over Lollipops.

The sneaker heads were definitely in the house as both local retailers like Laced Up and national brands like Puma put their best foot forward to bring attention to Atlanta’s much slept-on sneaker culture. Check out a gang of photos from the event after the jump.

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Hip Hop

R.I.P. Breakdancing Legend Frosty Freeze

Last night, we lost one of the best know b-boys of all time when Wayne “Frosty Freeze” Frost passed away at the age of 44 at NYC’s Mount Sinai Medical Center. As a pioneering member of the original Rock Steady Crew, Freeze is credited with inventing the popular “suicide” move and introducing breaking to the masses through his appearances in Flashdance, Wild Style, Beat Street and Style Wars. Remember the O.G. after the jump with his appearance in Flashdance and a recent video interview.

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Weekly Recap

Governor Spitzer Screwed Up

Eliot Spitzer resigned in disgrace, he should have used pre-paids [Link]

We asked if the Dipset scarf look should be humped or dumped. [Link]

Umbro by Kim Jones kept it clean with Gamba. [Link]

News trucks drag raced at scene of fatal drag race strip. [Link]

The Japanese did some weird shit involving whales and cows or something. [Link]

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Hip Hop | News

Rap Sheet: Lil Wayne Goes Back to School

Lil Wayne at McMain high school / Photo: Michael Democker for The Times Picayune

• Teacher’s pet: Weezy made a surprise stop at his former stomping grounds Eleanor McMain Secondary School in New Orleans. He thanked students for designing a party invite and then politely declined an invitation to go to the prom. Check the uneventful video here. Oh, and he also announced that Tha Carter III will finally be released in April.

• Lunar: Although we like to think Page Six does their best to get the story right, it’s very hard to believe this Damon Dash got scared of the Moon story.

• Roots: Check out this interview with ?uestlove. He talks about sampling, being hard on Puffy back in the day, and how good the new N.E.R.D record was that he previewed, “Like, I think Pharrell got something in his soul that’s just saying, “I can’t rely on just my good looks and fashion sense. Muhfuckas are tryna count me out, and I got to not just come back, but really kick their ass.” I mean, the four or five songs I heard, it’s like, this dude is coming back like he got a score to settle.

• Sour taste?: Here’s at least 8 reasons why Flavor Flav is starting to lose all respect.

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Hip Hop | News

Rap Sheet: Obamage Video

• Barack track: He might not be able to beat King Solomon in a freestyle battle, but Jin still knows how to make relevant tracks like this “Open Letter to Barack Obama.”

• More Obamaness: CNBC interviews Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas about his Obama video that’s garnered more than 13-million page views.

• Ad hoc: Hov’s Rocawear is catching some heat over advertisements featuring the family of Sean Bell, the unarmed man who was shot to death by police in a hail of bullets back in 2006. Detectives are accusing the clothing brand of trying to influence the jury, the brand claims the ads are uplifting.

• Track record: VH1 launched a competition yesterday to find an upcoming producer to help Flavor Flav make a new single. An original audio composition must be submitted by March 13. Head over here for more info.

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Events | Hip Hop | Web Video

Common Rocking ‘After Dark’

While down in New Orleans this past weekend on a NBA All Star jaunt, we stopped by ESPN’s ‘After Dark’ Party on a free drinks seeking expedition. Not only did we get a chance to imbibe on their dime, but we also caught a performance by Chi-town’s conscious thinking rapper Common. He performed some hits with a live multi-piece band, including this “Finding Forever” intro, but unfortunately—in our less than optimal state of thinking—we forgot to recharge our batteries, only capturing two minutes and change worth of footage.

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Hip Hop | News

Rap Sheet: Prodigy Claims Clean Bill of Health

• Healthy: Prodigy maintains he’s not sick despite reports by his lawyer. And although the judge delayed his incarceration for a 2nd time due to so called medical conditions, the rapper claims he’s fine. Ouch, someone’s getting into trouble.

• Sound off: Common, KRS-One, and Q-Tip are remixing their classic tracks in a new campaign with Smirnoff with the help of some legendary producers, “Just Blaze is remixing Common’s 2000 song “The Light,” DJ Premier will work on KRS-One’s 1988 hit “I’m Still #1,” and Cool & Dre are remaking Q-Tip’s 1999 party track “Vivrant Thing.” They will all then perform live at a launch party for the vodka maker on February 26, and the tracks will be available for download on Smirnoff’s website.

• Innocent: Marvin Bernard aka Tony Yayo has been found innocent of slapping the shit out of Jimmy “Henchman” Rosemond’s 16-year-old son.

• Flying colors: Swizzy got down with the Gap and their “Sound of Color” campaign. Basically each artist was assigned a color and they created an original song for it. The mega producer and Kidrobot partner did a song called “Candy Green.”

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Hip Hop | Web Video

‘Ye Shines With ‘Flashing Lights’

Kanye’s knack for coming up with well-thought out videos continues with the visual for his smash song “Flashing Lights.” After posting a teaser image on his blog a week ago and painfully having to hold it back until BET premiered it, the day has come and we approve. Playboy model Rita G. with long stems walking on the beach, cool cars, and no Kanye face time make for a goodie.

[Source]

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Hip Hop | News

Rap Sheet: Lil Wayne Gets indicted

• Shocker: An Arizona jury indicted Weezy on felony drug and weapon charges. As you may recall, the Cash Money mogul’s tour bus was stopped and search back in January of this year, yielding “four ounces of marijuana, just over an ounce of cocaine, 41 grams of Ecstasy and miscellaneous drug paraphernalia.” His tour will continue but he’s gotta be back in court on March 7.

• Vindication?: Remy Ma claims that prosecutors screwed up her case by failing to link her crime with DNA evidence. She’s accused of assault, criminal possession of a weapon, gang assault, and even witness intimidation.

• Delving: Dr. Dre began an investigation into the now defunct Death Row Records, hoping to find documents that will settle a dispute over unpaid royalties since the label filed for bankruptcy protection in April 2006. Dre is also trying to reclaim right to his 1992 solo hit album, The Chronic.

• Covered: Here’s the cover for rap duo Kidz in the Hall’s The In Crowd.

• Recognize: Hip Hop inspired art is all the rage. We already pointed you towards the Holy Hip Hop! exhibit in Detroit, now check out Recognize at The National Portrait Gallery.

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Hip Hop | News

Rap Sheet: Ghostface Has Something To Say

MySpace: Wu-Tang’s Ghostface Killah threatens to quit rap after doing some math regarding December’s Big Doe Rehab: “115,000 friends on the MySpace and I get like 30,000 or something like that in the first week, that’s not good man, ’cause I know a lot of y’all got my sh*t, but y’all just downloaded it man,” said Starks in the above YouTube video. Prizes for actually buying Rehab apparently include a sit-down with the man himself. “Just bring me a CD to the show me and show me you did that, and I”ll sit there and kick it with y’all. We can get goosed out, whatever y’all wanna do.”

You Can Never Go Home Again: The Compton Sheriff’s department has asked the city to ban Suge Knight due to his alleged gang ties. Knight fired back, saying: “This is crazy…I’m a 42-year-old businessman, not a gang member. I don’t even live in Compton anymore . . .”

Stars, They’re Not Like Us: Busta Rhymes walks out of a New York City court with a mere three years of probation after pleading guilty to all kinds of assaults and traffic violations. Said Busta: “I just want to say that I’m very grateful to the judge, I’m very grateful to the system. I believe in the system. It hasn’t failed me personally yet.”

#1: Alicia Keys’ As I Am ain’t exactly flying off the shelves, but she’s topped the pop charts for the second week in a row. What does it take to be #1? A mere 61,000 records sold.

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