keepin it .......... ?

[killyourself]

or take the easy way out... carbon monoxide is useful.

[SHOWCASE SHOWDOWN]

this site needs people like us man,its just a little spice in the sauce...keep people from believeing their own hype.

[ABELnyc]

it's all homage shirts...you know, cool icons like Stevie Wonder and Barry White, right? and like, word, like some innercity graf fonts, and word, with some guns n shit too. and definitely mad clouds, all drippy, but like super drippy, and i'm a take lyrics from like a song back from the OLD OLD school, you know, like '97, right, cuz i'm real like that, and then i'm a throw a b-boy (or b-girl!) image on top, and i'm a hire some half ass Sanfran artists to do my ad layout, they can just take some weak shit from their blackbooks and we can just scan it in there, like BLAOW nah mean--and oh, and i'm also gonna toss some stencil shit in there, with some apes nigga, damn. everything is mad limited, too...i'm gonna set up with some ill collabos, too...like Nabisco? i'm a have a camo-lined Nabisco hoodie. And denim? Nucka please. Forget it. All rainbow selvedge only! 9 color selvedge at LEAST. ill. and mad patches on the jeans, i'm a come with a special pocket for your KRINK, kid! word. and the buttons and rivets? ALL GATS. just little metal gats all over them shits.

i'm not quite sure heads are ready for the realness. what do you think?

~multiflavored RodLavers~

http://abelnyc.com

ALPHA/BRAVO/ECHO/LIMA

[SHOWCASE SHOWDOWN]

are you 100% serious?

[killyourself]

was that a business plan? or a movie script with nabisco action hoodies?

[SHOWCASE SHOWDOWN]

thats description is possibly the funniest shit i ever read.

[SHOWCASE SHOWDOWN]

i hope for the bargin bin at the Salvation Army's sake,that you are just kidding.

[andewhall]

Man showcase and KYS, chill down. I was just asking Abel what he was up too, he wasn't gassing at all. It's good to talk to like minded cats, I don't come across too many in NZ. It's just cool to see what people are doing.

[SHOWCASE SHOWDOWN]

chill down,we are just joking around

havin some fun flap rappin in the sun

talking about pants,doin the dance

makin fun with the clowns not puttin you's downs.

golly gee whiz,you cant take a joke? gosh!

[ABELnyc]

Okay, part 2 of my "Keepin it" Rant.

JeffStaple, Staple Design stapledesign.com

-They have been at it for a while and have maintained a sense of dopeness. They did the Elementary (4 elements of hiphop) shirts way before hiphop was being used for MTV and Comedy Central ads etc. Broke it down into slang used in each scene. Anyone who remembers these...remember when that was? That was like 97 or 98 I think? The freehand sketches were ill. They also came with the Jim (John?) Jovino's gun Shop tee, and YES, they used a gun image (Beretta) but at that time, the only people to have had well executed guns on tees were funny bronx thug teens rocking the ole "I don't dial 911" shirts. And it wasn't some 'I pull gats on mad people' bullshit, it was a real shirt given to police officers (Jovino's shop supplies the NYPD's gat collection); more and more people started asking for them, because of the Chinese lettering and the great Beretta screen. On the back it read: Chinatown, NYC Since 1911. I thought that was pretty clever.

- Over the years, they have paid homage to many low level luminaries, lotsa unsung heroes in the game. on mainstreamier levels, they did that Cassius Clay tee, straight jacking the logo that Ali really used at first, wore his own promo gear, his trainers wore it, etc. Even though not that original, this was during the few months of hype before Michael Mann's ALI actually came out in theaters. They did an Amir shirt. Amir is a dude used to work at Fat Beats (NYC). I know him and he is a great fucking guy. He is one half of the duo of the mixtape gods Kon & Amir, and lemme tell you this boy has RECORDS. He would come into FatBeats when I worked there, always with a handful of records, wanted to make some quick cash. Talking music with this guy was so much fun. Anyway, my point is most labels in this game don't pick up on the little things that are important to many cultish/niche/collector people. Nowadays it's all money and bling, iced down medallions, 70-inch chains, rims, gigantor logos, use an emcee to sell your shit blah. And people who never heard of Black Sheep thinking Biggie is old school, coming with labels fronting like they hardcore, all amped off Atmosphere's last tour, all with Powermac G5s on their Xmas lists. They did a FAILE shirt. A Bushwick shirt (before the wave of pioneering gentrifiers came in), an East New York shirt. Collab'd with Tokion. Monito. Nike. LazyMuthaFucka. on and on, the list goes on. just know they have some DOOOPE tees spanning like those first 5 years. Uprock State Champs? come now. The 1984 shirt. The shirts for the typenerds. Ringers, undershirt 3 packs (sick packaging on those).

- And not that being 'down with hiphop culture' is a prereq to coming with fresh shit, but Staple did their hiphop thing too. Or at least Jeff did. Anyone who was around for the great work Jeff did with Rawkus? fire. helped with soundbombing 2 of course, but did mad 12" jackets for them. I think even had a little hand in the Company Flow 12" End to End Burners (and the lyricist lounge stuff). He has worked with / among Nobody, a very low key (and possibly defunct) entity. I know nothing about them (Nobody), but everything I've seen their name attached to something, it's been visually tid-ite.

- and hey--Fuck clothing, they have done freelance work for some TOP cats (i ain't going into it, check their site) but trust me they get paid. One of their early marketing guys always warned me that it's hard to eat off of shirts, because it gets expensive quickly...well that was mad long ago, before the Reed Space (successful overall) and the collabos and movie (?) etc. etc. Even when struggling in their beginning stages, they really blew me away. I came home one day to an envelope with 2 shirts, and a sheet of great stickers. All for joining their mailing list on the site, that's it! The shirts are too big, but hey...that ain't cheap, to give a shitload of kids free samples of your new line. and is DEFinitely not common among today's

[SHOWCASE SHOWDOWN]

bro-staple is complete garbage...either you're on the team,or just completely ignorant.

[killyourself]

what dunks do i wear to read all that?

[SHOWCASE SHOWDOWN]

Your only as good as your last season...

[SHOWCASE SHOWDOWN]

I think these are good:

But what teeshirt would look good with these?

[andewhall]

Quote:

chill down,we are just joking around

havin some fun flap rappin in the sun

talking about pants,doin the dance

makin fun with the clowns not puttin you's downs.

golly gee whiz,you cant take a joke? gosh!

--- Original message by SHOWCASE SHOWDOWN on May 29, 2005 07:57 PM

Sweet as showdown, you are kinda funny. Cher Cher bro