TWON NYC
In the ever changing street wear and fashion world, sometimes all it takes is one idea to take a crew from nothing to something. The Chinatown team of Twon hit their big break a couple years back when their now creative director was applying for an internship with Staple Design. The founder Jeff Staple commented on the design for their “Canal St’ t-shirt and after a little hardwork-and a lot of t shirts later-the crew of Twon became the brand Twon NYC.
We caught up with co-founder Cory Ng at their Lower East Side offices to learn about the history of Twon and what’s in store for 2010.
Behind the scenes teaser for our upcoming interview with Cory from TWON NYC. You may have seen the photos of their space from a while back and now we’re putting the finishing touches on the video, set to go live by the end of this week.
Mick Boogie's best of 2009
I put this together for Time Out a week or so ago and truthfully the editing of this was beyond painful. I wanted to kick myself for not having better audio. I met with Mick at the TONY offices and he was nice enough to give us about 45 minutes of quality video time, talking through all of the projects I had pulled together on a list.
In the end, this was edited down to show only the biggest projects and cap out the time at around 15 minutes. We ended up focusing on the artists Drake, Donnis, J Cole, Mike Posner, Wale, Daytona, Wiz Khalifa and Curren$y, Lupe Fiasco, Lil Wayne and Chip tha Ripper.
I have some really cool exclusive clips of Mick talking about projects that never saw the light of day and I’m going to take all of the audio that is fit to print (with a few things off the record being cut) and post this up as a Podcast later this week. It will be probably around 30 minutes plus and will feature my questions and a bit more candid listen to my conversation with Mick. I think its only right to showcase everything we discussed.
An important note, this interview frustrated me so much I went out the next day and purchased this wireless mic from Amazon. Lets hope the next video is better.
Diamond Supply Co. pop-up shop
This video just went live over at TONY. It took me a minute to find some time to get around to posting and I wanted to share over here as well. Big thanks to Chris from CtotheJL for hooking up the interview. Here is the blurb with the original post:
This week Nick Diamond, owner of the West Coast street wear brand Diamond Supply Co., walked TONY through his new pop-up shop. Taking over space at Prohibit on the Lower East Side (152 Allen St at Rivington St; 212-673-6773; noon–8pm), the store features some of the regular Diamond line, along with a number of New York–inspired pieces, including limited T-shirts, hoodies and laser-engraved skateboards. Be sure to check it out soon, as Diamond will be available at Prohibit only through early January.
Dame Dash + DD172
A couple weeks back Dan and I had the chance to swing by the DD172 venue and sit down with its creator Dame Dash for an interview. I was really excited going into the interview, having seen a lot of exposure for Dame and the projects he was working on and and I was not disappointed. I ended up getting close to 20 minutes with Dame to ask a few question, all while having Mos Def and Curren$y sitting alongside the former Roc-a-fella founder and eating Bubby’s.
continued below with the video interview
Wiz Khalifa stops by TONY
On Nov 24th Wiz Khalifa came by the Time Out offices to chop it up on the release day for his new album, Deal Or No Deal. It was nice to finally sit down with an artist that I’ve been supporting for some time. I had a been interested in his work for a while but it was his collaboration with Curren$y that really turned me into a true fan.
The week prior to CMJ I got a call from a member of the music team saying they were stuck with an opening for the CMJ preview to run in print and for me to pick out an artist to cover. I was out of the office but more than willing to help out. I suggested a few shows including Mike Posner and Foreign Exchange, but the story of Wiz moving from a major to an independent seemed more compelling. This ended up being the blurb I wrote for his show at Southpaw:
The fact that tattooed 22-year-old Wiz Khalifa is opening for Wu-Tang member U-God is already something of a seal of approval—though it’s unlikely to surprise anyone who saw his jaw-dropping set at Girl Talk’s Pool Party over the summer. The Pittsburgh MC has reinvented his sound since his techno-inspired “Say Yeah” hit the Billboard charts in 2008. His best work to date is his recent offering with New Orleans rapper (and onetime Lil Wayne sidekick) Curren$y. The two dropped the collaborative effort How Fly in August, showing Khalifa in a new light. Sounding almost Kid Cudi–esque as he maneuvers effortlessly between crooning and rapping, the young spitter seems to have found a new, mellow side within the melodies.
Funny enough this article still sits in the top results for the music section and the site in general, showing just how big a fan base Wiz has earned. Dan and I ended up checking that show at Southpaw and Dan posted photos here while I put up some photos and a video at The Volume. I visited those photos again a few weeks later to put together this mock cover for Wiz’s mixtape.
Twon NYC office
While running around the week prior to Thanksgiving I met up with a friend who is working on a new collaboration with Streetwear brand Twon. The guys are working out of a realy intersting space, behind a workshop in a basement in the Lowe East Side. Its a dream office for someone on the grind and even if the guys kinda hate it, there is one thing to love–the work they produce. I got a sneak peak of a few shirts and concepts for next year, and it seems like they are really on to something. Follow them on Facebook and Twitter, and check out their sick line of rappers gracing the classic currency look from their Fall 09 lineup.
Full gallery of the space after the jump.
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Good Wood’s Black Jesus Piece
During my one week off I ran around New York meeting with a number of interesting people pulling together content for TONY and starting to setup a bit of base for future KeapHope projects. For one of my meetings I had a chance to go meet with Chris Lee of CtotheJL.com and talk to him about the piece that has twitter buzzing, the Black Jesus Piece.
This last Friday the Piece saw a limited 24 hr run on goodwoodnyc.com and was the first of more future color ways to come from the brand. This video originally ran on the TONY blog here.
Chris is a smart guy and has his own vision for Good Wood that is really kicking off with this unique run. Off the record we chopped it up about the lines future, possible celebs rocking the piece, and played a little DJ Hero in the LTD/Etnies office. Chris is the epitome of the modern day hustler, wearing different titles with a few brands and successful running his own site in the process.
Be sure to check out the video for his story of how it all came to be and expect to see only more from Chris and Good Wood in the future.
NookaNooka launch with Matthew Waldman
The above photo is a great behind the scenes shot Dan captured while I was interviewing Matthew Waldman. The video is below, and was originally featured on Time Out’s Own This City blog (got to love the TONY’s in the foreground).
We caught up with Matthew at the launch of his latest project, the NookaNooka toy release. He explains the concept and history in the video, and you can also check out a slideshow of images from the events collaboration after the jump. KeapHope will be going by the Nooka office tomorrow to get an even more detailed look at all of their projects and well be sharing the results here tomorrow evening.
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