A couple weeks ago, we put you on Kanye West and Spike Jonze’s excellent short film, We Were Once A Fairytale. Now the duo is back with the perfect counter to their lengthy, pensive video–a brief, hilarious behind-the-scenes clip. The post title isn’t entirely misleading, but the confrontation is obviously staged. Hopefully this inspires rappers to get more creative with their behind-the-scenes features and do away with bloated joints that clog the blogs these days.
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Yesterday, we kicked off our Complex Halloween Costumes series with the ultimate Kenny Powers outfit (click here if you missed it). That was cool, we’ll let you finish, but today, we’ve got one of THE GREATEST HALLOWEEN COSTUMES OF ALL TIME!! That’s right, it’s Kanye West at this year’s VMAs.
After the whole Taylor Swift incident, this tight-black shirt ensemble became a memorable Kanye classic. Sure, the intricate Keith Haring inspired haircut may be tough to replicate, but read on to get everything else you’d need to look like West did on the memorable night—including the Hennesey bottle he was swigging from on the red carpet…
Almost a year after the album’s release, there’s a music video for nearly every song on 808s & Heartbreak (with one for “Robocop” starring Amber Rose on the way), but none are as ambitious as this 11 minute, “See You In My Nightmares”-inspired, mini-movie that debuted over the weekend.
Shot in January and premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival during the summer, We Were Once A Fairytale is the second collaboration between Kanye West and Spike Jonze (the “Flashing Lights” video was the first). This time we’re treated to same dark themes except on a grander scale. Summaries have been online for months now, so all that’s left to do is click play and let the short film begin.
Tune in to Complex.com every morning at 8 AM for your daily “Wake N’ Watch” video.
Clothing lines are almost a rite of passage for rappers. You know the formula: sell a couple million records, launch a record label, start selling clothes. Yeah, rapper clothing lines fail frequently, but everyone expected different from Kanye West and his Pastelle brand, given his well-documented passion for fashion.
Surely the habitually trendsetting guy who shops enough to speak Italian would put out one of the dopest rapper-helmed fashion lines ever, right? Wrong…sort of. While ‘Ye supposedly plans to release a collection under his own name in the near future, reports surfaced yesterday saying that Pastelle is officially no more, leaving us with nothing but a series of unfulfilled announcements and public sightings of Mr. West rocking pieces from the line. To honor the brand that never came to fruition, we’re taking a look back at all of Pastelle’s Greatest Moments…
Amy Gunther of Brooklyn-based skateshop KCDC interviews Todd Bratrud, the designer/illustrator/artist responsible for the shop’s brand new limited edition t-shirts. Cop ‘em HERE.[KCDC]
Shanghai sneaker store FOOTMARK collaborates with MS for the Futurestep, a fully customizable shoe that ships with multicolor velcro panels set to be released only in China this month. [Hypebeast]
Can’t get enough of Kanye? The new book entitled Glow In The Dark features never before seen photos from his tour of the same name as well as dope designs (some by ‘Ye himself) and other goodies. [Slamxhype]
Forward thinking Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto files for bankruptcy—What’s in store for Y-3’s future? [Wall Street Journal]
Check out the new Vigorelli fixed gear frames from Cinelli. [Weekly Drop]
Real men wear pink, yes, but if you can pull off the Visvim Fall/Winter 2009 Puma Pack (as in, puma print sneakers), all the props to you. [High Snobiety]
Left To Right: Consequence, Soulja Boy, Cam’ron, Little Dragon, Chris Brown
Each day Complex scours the music blogs for 5 fresh songs that you should listen to in our 5 O’Clock Shuffle post. Instead of going crazy trying to keep up with your RSS feeds everyday, just head over to Complex.com to stay up-to-date on important leaks and releases.
We’re back from the long weekend with five more bangers. From SOD Money Gang to the chain gang or Sweden to Harlem, we got things covered. We know you don’t feel like hitting all the blogs tonight, so just keep reading, and start downloading from our Shuffle playlist….
Drake-mania continued this week with the release of the Hype Williams-directed visual for “Forever,” the first single off of the soundtrack for the LeBron James documentary, More Than a Game. When we first heard Drizzy was going to shoot a video for the heavyweight-rap track, we couldn’t wait to see just what kind of crazy, game-changing shit him, Kanye, Weezy, and Eminem were going to pull. Unfortunately all we got was a bunch of flashing lights, a few cameos, and a tribute to Bron Bron…We might have judged a little early.
Whatever your verdict on the video is, the fact remains that these four artists are some of the most exciting dudes in music, with their own distinctive styles to match—Kanye with his high-fashion steez, Wayne at the height of his rockstar phase, Eminem with the “I’m going on a jog” look, and Drake with his “I like high-priced designers” look. If you’re looking to swag-jack any rappers, these might be the four to start with. Below, we break down and recreate each rapper’s look. Stick with us—as long as you keep reading, we’ll keep you stylish forever.
Pop stars Kanye West and Lady Gaga have never adhered to the conventions of the mainstream and both artists have been rewarded with incredible success for their risks. Fittingly, the pair has teamed up for the nationwide Fame Kills Tour, which kicks off in November and runs until January. They’re bringing the artsy, weirdo approach to every aspect of the show’s roll-out, including this brief promotional teaser. We see a guy (presumably ‘Ye) holding a nude Gaga, and, um…that’s pretty much it. Simple yet effective. We can only imagine what these two will put together when they have our attention for hours, as opposed to 30 seconds. Find out more at the tour’s official website.
Tune in to Complex.com every morning at 8 AM for your daily “Wake N’ Watch” video.
It’s hard to believe sometimes, but Drake is still technically a new artist. The kid has accomplished a lot in the past several months, but getting Kanye, Wayne, and Eminem to contribute verses to his lost mixtape cut “Forever”and clear their schedules to star in the music video, directed by Hype Williams no less, might be his most impressive task to date. Of course, the LeBron James factor (the song is on the soundtrack for his upcoming documentary) was probably helpful in getting all parties involved too. Just like Drizzy’s first big video, this one is already host to a bevy of mixed opinions, but that’s to be expected. No matter how you feel about the video, it’s a major look regardless.
Tune in to Complex.com every morning at 8 AM for your daily “Wake N’ Watch” video.
