6ft Under Life : Thoughts and Reviews of Urban Fashion, Film and Feeling

Technical Difficulties.

urbanthoughtprovoker — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:45:34 +0000

Laptop is broken…

The Future of Freshness

urbanthoughtprovoker — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:22:32 +0000

I believe this is the greatness that comes from true collaboration, little company picked up by big company creating a new style. Now to give a little back ground on Ransom clothing, Ransom has their own personal boutique in Toronto, Ontario that carries their own brand as well as many others. Their boutique is very clean cut as you can see in the gap.

This collaboration comes at a time where we see Adidas branching out touching all aspects of the market, clearly seen in last years collaborations with Major, FUCT, ARC and others. This is a more in-depth collection by pairing up to create shoes for Ransom rather than the other way around. With this collection we see a lot of suede infused with unusually bright colors and leathers matched with more classic colors.

We should see this collaboration hit the online Ransom store in the next few months along with Ransoms Fall and Winter collections.

Perfecting the art of the Biker.

urbanthoughtprovoker — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 21:24:11 +0000

Few people perfect their craft and create a mold in their field, Shinsuke Takizawa of Neighborhood Brand is one of these men. The real theme inside the brand of Neighborhood Brand is embracing the Biker lifestyle, the brand is a fusion of something like a modern day Japanese Easy Rider and Ura-Hara street fashion. Neighborhood is known for is top quality denim, great leathers and graphic tee’s.

Now Takizawa-San is creating a new offshoot of his well known brand labeling this “Luker”. Within this side brand we see collaborations with the always stable Levi. They will be taking their knowledge and branding putting it on to pairs of Levis. You can see an example of the jean on the rack in the photo above. The back pocket you can view the classic Levi stitching and on the front leg it has Luker screen printed. Takizawa-San will be upholding his dark shaded bad ass look by releasing a new Leather Biker jacket/Hoodie along with a excellent blue varsity jacket. The brand like all Neighborhood products will only be available in select Japanese boutiques and online at ZOZO Town. The ZOZO Resort store will be opening the 17th of this month.

There are still a few products I feel we have yet to see in what has been presented to us. The photo above was taken from Shinsuke’s Honeyee Blog. From the looks it seems like some sort of down jacket ridden with biker patches. For more pictures of the collections you can look at the Luker by Neighborhood website. I’m sure we will be seeing new and exciting things for the brand as a whole. Its good to see that even in the tough economic times we still have risk takers within the industry. After the gap will be a clearer look at a larger portion of the new line up releasing.

Infamous Return. Dopeness. Gotta Love It.

urbanthoughtprovoker — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 18:46:01 +0000

So big SAY! is coming back to actually make a go of this Blog stuff. I am going to try to provide all of you a new look at Street Wear and hope you enjoy it. Lets have a fun ride.

Meeting of the Minds, Imprint Culture Lab 2008…

urbanthoughtprovoker — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:57:41 +0000

At Bread and Butter Barcelona they got together some of the greatest collaborators in the culture. This being Hiroshi Fujuwara, jeffstaple, David Wilson and Michael Kuhle all monerated by the legend himself John C. Jay. This event was called Imprint Culture Lab : The Cult of Collaboration. These are are words from the geniuses of the industry, watching this is watching proveyers of our culture. I have put up a video of the event after the jump where you can hear about Fujiwara-san’s collaboration with Kangol and jeffstaples collaboration with Lomography. Here you can hear about how they came together and the importance of personal relationships between designers when collaborating.

Is A Bathing Ape Drowning?

urbanthoughtprovoker — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 13:05:38 +0000

So I have been pushing around a few thoughts recently to the move’s Nigo has been making with his business and within the industry. Recently A Bathing Ape’s New York store started taking orders by phone, Thus allowing Neo Hiphop heads across America to dress like Lil’ Wayne. This makes me wonder, could it be that he is now not pushing product like he was a couple years ago? It is true that his brands A Bathing Ape and Bape have both taken turns moving away from his well known bright colors, metallic patent leathers and well known camos. Which could possibly be taking away from the draw that many people had to the brand in the first place. I have noticed that he is still expanding with the opening of the store in L.A. and the partnership with Collette. This can also show that the pop shop with Collette in Paris is the first step to the brand going mainstream, It is defiantly the first time he has marketed his products to stores outside his own. This is usually the beginning of the end for most labels (LRG, Artful Dodger… Etc..)

In Tokyo I see the brand as it is, a major contending label, the second largest independent clothing label in Japan. Yet I also see the unnecessary queues outside of his stores that builds an elaborate facade of anticipation from his buyers. There is no doubt that Nigo is a great designer and a master and legend of the streetware business. I believe that Bape is still going strong but I also know, by his recent releases, he has firmly decided with his age and experience to take the company in a new direction. This year we will see the relaunch of Bape Sta Pro-Wrestling, and tee’s to commemorate the ocassion. I am looking forward to see the path he begins the new year with his companies.

From D.C. to V.A. its Wale….

urbanthoughtprovoker — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 04:54:28 +0000

So I will admit when I first heard Wale’s Nike Boots I did not like him or the song. I thought he was just the representation of the HypeBeast community in the Hip-hop world which I knew was coming. Last August I saw him at the Rock The Bells in Miami Florida and I was converted. His rhymes were tight, his flow was dope and lastly he had kids breaking to his songs. That right there shows me hope for Hip-hop when we have a new artist coming out supporting the true meaning of the culture.

The kid rocks Supreme, Bape, Sb’s, NorthFace Jackets and New Eras the same shit I rock on a daily basis. This makes me connect to this kid in many ways, but I think the biggest way I connect is that he is from D.C./V.A. With me being from N.C. he still gets my south love.

But I am not here to talk about the wears he wears. I am here to talk about him, where I think he is going and where he is at. Right now he has under his belt an amazing mixtape, which is a collaboration between him and clothing company 10Deep, a video for his single Nike Boots and an album in the works. Not to mention the love he is getting from Hip-hop legends such as BlackThought from The Roots saying that he IS the reincarnation of Hip-hop.

The Mixtape I was talking about is aptly named “The Mixtape About Nothing” this mixtape centers about jokes and samples from the T.V. show Seinfeld. The songs that really stand out and give a feeling of what Wale is capable of to are songs like The Feature Heavy Song (Ft. Bun B, Pusha T and Tre of UBC) and The Remake of a Remake (Ft. Tawiah). Both are amazing raps and beats thrown together in the best way possible. During the tape Wale takes a mintue to speak on rasicism and his feelings on the Kramer situation during the song The Kramer. Lastly my favorite song on the album addresses HypeBeasts, something I have talked about many times before. The song The Hype basically describes the definition of the HypeBeasts in street ware and how hype is the life blood and destruction of the culture.

Next is the brand new video for Wale’s single Nike Boots. As I said before when I first heard the song I didn’t really dig it, but now after getting used to his flow and mindset I have it in constant rotation in my Ipod. The video feature rap greats like Bun B and North Carolina’s own 9th Wonder. The video shows Wale rockin’ a huge crowd in his hometown of D.C.. The video is shot in black and white and directed by Chris Robinson.

Finally is Wale’s first LP, right now it is Unnamed and has no release date. All we know about the album is it has production credits from Mark Ronson, Kanye West and 9th Wonder. This will be the first release after the merger of Interscope and Allido. The album was oringinally slated for the end of the year this year but from what I can gather it was pushed back till around March of next year.

XXL magizine named Wale one of the top ten freshmen of the rap game which has launched him to be next in line for a hit album. This honor is way bigger than anything that most can imagine, I see Wale truly creating something new. Wale could finally be a new age of Hip-hop without that wanna be trend setting Cool Kids shit. I can only hope that Wale can bring some subsistence back to mainstream Hip-hop, that he can break the mainstream without changing as so many before him.

After the jump the video for W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.

A Complete History Of Chris’s Sexual Failures…

urbanthoughtprovoker — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 16:03:42 +0000

So recently I saw a movie that made me actually think about my life and what I am doing with it. This is a statement that happens very little with films in this era of post modern decay. This movie I am talking about is aptly named “A Complete History Of My Sexual Failures” it is a documentary that tells the story of a regular thirty something male named Chris Waitt and the nonexistence of his love life.

The movies begins with Chris, just himself, nothing more, nothing less. He begins to talk about the idea he has for a documentary. This idea is recorded interviews with his ex-girlfriends to find out why he cannot have a lasting and meaningful relationship. These talks and interviews lid him into a downward spiral with him trying to figure out all of his problems and with ways to solve them. It is a honest portral of a man at a low point, he cannot keep a girlfriend, he has gained a mental complication leading him to impotence and he has no clue where he is headed.

Throughout the documentary you see him in common situations leading you to gain your own thoughts on the young filmmaker. One of these situations is on dates, one of his crew members set him up on a date which he awkwardly unconsciously sabotages. After interviewing her about her love life and sex life he offers her the chance to have sex at his flat. That point she takes her cue to leave.

Dealing with his impotence he decides to take Viagra, this is the point in the film you feel that it lacks reality and is more of a mockumentary. Instead of taking just one he takes enough to give an entire town a erection. This leaves his member swollen for eight hours and him looking for someone to share it with all night.

(Would you date this man?)

The rest of the movie you seem him grow little by little and become a better person than at the start of the film. Between mistress’s, BDSM, Ex’s, sex addicts and his mother you grow to find some connection to the character if you have ever had a failed relationship and wanted to know why. I found my self asking some of the questions he asks himself and his past counter parts. After the movie end it keeps you wanting more, wanting to know where he is now and if he fulfills his potential.

Real or not the fact still stands that this is an entertaining and interesting look into a broken mans life and his journy to glue the pieces back together. I have done a small bit of research on the film to find nothing for honesty from the director. Everything I can find on the internet backs up Chris’s story saying that now he is happily in a relationship that has lasted for almost a year. After seeing the film I hope that he can find a level of commitment to stay with her and he finds his happiness that throughout the film he so desperately looked for.

Smack Dab In The Middle…

urbanthoughtprovoker — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 15:20:03 +0000

So I meant to do this blog to work my way up to some Journalistic standard I had set for myself. Here I am sitting where I worked so hard to get and I find myself longing to be elsewhere. So I was walking down the neon lit streets of Omotesando alone when it hit me. I wanted to start writing, writing more than I ever had. I want my audience to grow and I want more people to be intrested. So I am now making to promise to myself to write more an more. The more I write the better I will get right? There are people out there that already read the dribble I put out and you guys must like it. Right? So here it goes, like Alice down the rabbit hole I am falling into my own life. I am welcoming all of you to my wonderland, to my world. I hope I can shed light on the shit I care about and you guys learn from that. So like I said with my first post here I will talk about Street Fashion, Hip-hop Music, Movies and whatever else that catchs my mind.

Peace,

S@Y!

ALL CITY SOUL RADIO… We are taking it to the next level…

urbanthoughtprovoker — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 02:19:25 +0000

I will be writing on my blog more and more with the up coming weeks, I have a lot of things going on. I could be modeling for a street wear company called “White Mountain”. Hopefully this will be my entrance into the street wear scene within Tokyo but we will have to wait and see.

Also I should have a show or two coming up soon, along with that new music from S@Y!(www.myspace.com/justsayinghiphop). On top of that I am working on a huge underground Hip Hop event in Tokyo. This will be hopefully going down the 9th or 10th of December, thats all the information I have on that right now. The more I learn the more you guys will know.

Last but definatly not least I have taken online radio by storm. Through my University I now have an online radio show called ACS or All City Soul Radio. I am on the air every Wendsday night from 6 to 730 in Tokyo, if you are in N.C. I am on the air from 5 to 630 in the morning. Check it out, if you can’t check it you can go to the site (www.Ustream.tv/channel/Student-One-Zone) and listen or download past Issues. As of right now their are two, only one being an hour and a half. Because of technical difficulties last Wendsday’s episode will be going down tonight so check it out if you get the chance.

I hope I can get my camera up and running so I can start giving you real info on the street wear here from a citizen prespective.