We’d play the front, and the back nine with Kristin Cavallari. [Bastardly]
Pharrelll is taking his tats off. Nuts. [Vogue]
Check out all the Nike Olympic Hyperdunk make-ups. [Nice Kicks]
Sip cocktails with bikini-clad women in these poolside frames. [Daily Drop]
Warning: Crack head alert. [Double Viking]
Multinational corporations do a lot of shitty things. You know, pollution, sweatshops, secretly financing third world guerrilla wars. But on the other hand, their marketing departments have pretty decent taste in music!
In the last few years, we’ve seen a surge in corporate-backed collaborations, from Smirnoff’s Signature Mix Series to Boost Mobile’s “Whole City Behind Us” campaign with Kanye, The Game and Ludacris. Now Converse has brought N.E.R.D., Santogold and The Strokes’ lead singer Julian Casablancas together to record a new song for their Century celebration. Called “My Drive Thru,” the song will be available for free download tomorrow at the company’s website. Throughout the summer, the trio will be seen together in a music video for the song and will appear in advertising that bears the slogan “Three Artists, One Song.” Listen to the collabo below.
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What’s next for New York rap? These days, a lot of industry insiders are pointing towards 20-year-old Harlem native Charles Hamilton, who recently signed to Interscope through Pharrell’s Star Trak imprint.
The kid can rap his ass off, but he’s definitely on some left-field creativity shit with his self-produced, sample-based beats. His DJ Green Lantern mixtape Outside Lookin’ is on the way, and he recently debuted “Brooklyn Girls,” a tribute to fly females that flips a sample from KP & Envyi’s “Swing My Way.” Hear the song and watch a few videos of Charles below.
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Can Common do it without Kanye? After Be and Finding Forever resurrected his career, that’s the question that the Chicago vet is facing. A lot of rappers would sound great if they had an album full of ’Ye beats, but can Com’s individual talent still translate after all these years?
On his new album Invincible Summer (does he know that k.d. lang already used that name?), Com is ditching the soulful sound that personified his last two efforts. Instead of Kanye, he’s working exclusively with The Neptunes and Outkast producer Mr. DJ. DJ Skee and Reflex just leaked the first joint, “Universal Mind Control,” and it definitely makes good on Com’s promise to use a more “electro-tinged” sound. For the video, we can already see him controlling the crowd in a crazy Afrika Bambaataa robe and viking helmet. Listen to the song below.
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Photo: Evan Agostini/Getty Images
Apparently, the secret is out: club-hopping women love cocaine. In case you hadn’t noticed all the girls standing in the line for the bathroom, Pharrell, Chad and Shay’s recent single “Everyone Nose” has put the phenomenon on blast. Now, the song—which is the lead single from N.E.R.D.’s third album Seeing Sounds—has been remixed with a new beat and verses from the rest of the CRS supergroup (Lupe and Kanye), along with Clipse’s Pusha T. Thank god for that white! Listen after the jump.
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Photo: Arnold Turner/WireImage
The sign on the building said “Go Ape,” and that’s exactly what the city of West Hollywood did last night (April 23) at the Grand Opening of A Bathing Ape’s first West Coast retail location. The Japanese streetwear store, which opens to the public tomorrow (April 25), was host to some of the biggest names in hip-hop yesterday with Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, Rick Ross and Jermaine Dupri all stopping by. But it wasn’t just a night for rap, as the event was also highlighted by the appearances of Tennis star Serena Williams, actress Dania Ramirez (X-Men 3, Heroes), actor Jonah Hill, rocker Pete Wentz, soon-to-be drafted NBA player Kevin Love (UCLA) and even Iron Mike Tyson. See some more photos from the event after the jump.
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The first (of probably many) CRS inspired t-shirts seems to have hit e-Bay, and it has the Hip-Hop super group members meticulously detailed and ready for war.
Pharrell, Lupe and Kanye seem to be draped in BAPE, and even Kanye’s strapping Ato Matsumoto boots make an appearance. The tight-jean trio toting big guns left us a bit confused, being that there’s not three MC’s in the game who put less work in the street—but who wants to get dirty when you’re rocking $300 jeans? Not us. If you’re feeling it (close up shot after the jump), get in an intense bidding war with fellow hipsters, here.
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Hate on the Imperial Skateboard P all you want, but he’ll continue to re-invent himself, sort of. Sure BBC may have bit the tip of other silhouettes, but we’d be lying if we said we’d rather hit the block in some pin-cushiony boat shoes and not these. Expect to see them at the New York flagship store soon.
Call it the Complex convergence. Our June/July cover guy Nick Cannon invites our August/September cover dudes Pharrell and Clipse to perform their hit single, “Mr. Me Too” on this week’s episode of Wild ’N Out: Season 3, premiering tonight at 10PM on MTV.
Photography by Robert Maxwell
Pharrell Williams proves once again that he can “have it like that.” His solo debut In My Mind clocks in at #3 on the Billboard charts this week with sales of 147,000. Not too shabby for the guest editor of the Style & Design package in Complex’s August/September issue, which hits newsstands Aug. 15 with Skateboard P and his boys Clipse. Peep this exclusive Pharrell shot from the feature.
