Forget buying $100,000 tracks from super-producers—the ability to self-produce beats in-house has become a financial and creative necessity for rappers. Shrinking budgets and little to no A&R involvement mean that artists who produce their own beats, like Soulja Boy and The Cool Kids, have a leg up. But for an up-and-coming rapper who doesn’t make their own music, the best move is to recruit someone you mesh well with to become your go-to in-house producer. Let’s not forget that most of today’s biggest hitmakers—from Timbaland to Swizz Beatz—earned their stripes as in-house producers before going on to find freelance success. Could the following 5 newcomers be next?
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST…
In the search for material, movie studios have hit the bottom of the comic-book barrel. (Jonah Hex? Really?) Now they’re turning to anime and manga for inspiration, which Complex details in the 2009 Style & Design package from our latest issue. Read on to learn about four manga titles that might be going Hollywood on us. And no, we’re not counting Astro Boy…
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST…
Twenty years after Game Boy, the variety and strength of dedicated gaming handhelds has turned a novelty into a viable industry. The Game Boy’s distant cousin the Nintendo DSi ($169) is still on top, but Sony’s new PSP Go ($249) eschews hard media for downloadable games, and Linux-based units like the Pandora ($330) and Gamepark’s GP2X Wiz ($179) are as open-source as it gets for the homebrew and emulation community. Throw one in your bag and bring the arcade wherever you go.
As an addendum to our glimpse into the future of mobile gaming in the 2009 Style & Design package from our latest issue, we’re taking a look back at the 10 best handheld games of all time…
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST…
In Complex’s 2009 Style & Design issue (on stands now!), we asked a variety of cultural tastemakers to list their “Inspirations”—things that are affecting their world now, and the things that they feel are going to have an impact moving forward. Representing the “Entertainment” section is none other than Major Lazer, the Jamaican commando and hero of the new Diplo & Switch album Guns Don’t Kill People…Lazers Do (which Complex named The #2 Album of 2009…so far). Read on as the Major reveals his must-haves for an entertaining life…
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST…
Never let it be said that Brooklyn author John Wray doesn’t know the value of a good book. “Girls like it when they see you bring a novel out of your messenger bag,” he says. And if only one book makes its way to your bag this year, Wray’s heady footrace of a novel, Lowboy, deserves the look (click here to buy it on Amazon
).
Before we included Lowboy in our 2009 Style and Design package, we hopped on the phone with the half-Austrian, half-American writer as he was working on his next book at an European writer’s colony. He spoke to us about his nomadic childhood, his writing process and why being an author won’t get you more girls. Read the Q&A below…
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST…
Creative Direction by Hush; Photography by Matt Doyle
For our annual Style & Design package, we selected four artists and paired them with four models to create four unique fusions of style and sex appeal. One person we knew we had to get down with is Hush, the British street artist who’s famous for incorporating sexy manga-inspired ladies into his work. To bring his cartoon muses to life, he linked up with Brooklyn-based model Melody to create the exclusive image you see above. Watch a “making of” video below to see Hush in action, then read on to get to know Melody a bit better with an interview and additional photos…
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST…
