Heeee’s Back!
I live my friend Theophilus London‘s life vicariously through the internets. Sometimes he’s hanging in Paris with Kanye at Virgil Abloh’s Pyrex x Colette Pop-up. Then he’s Karl Lagerfeld’s special guest at the Chanel runway show (dressed in a 3/4 length green python tweed Chanel jacket, of course). And there’s late night cabarets with vapid models and funky old rich dudes… Or studio sessions with the faces of the cool cartels, like Solange Knowles, Matthew Williams, Aaron Bondaroff et al. But don’t let the felt hats and photo shoots fool you, Theo keeps his humor and his friendliness at all times, and he’s got new music cooking to boot!

Theophilus has been living in Paris (and working on his français), recording a follow up to Lover’s Holiday and Timez Are Weird These Days. And he’s already teamed up with lots of diverse talents, everyone from electro producers like Club Cheval, Brodinski, and Gesaffelstein…to Afro-soul artists like Thomas Brenneck of The Menahan Street Band and Budos Band.

In the meantime though….
Theo blessed us with a remix of Rihanna’s “Jump” that he did with Club Cheval that we love!
Listen to the exclusive…After the jump!
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(Pusha T talks about French Montana’s oddly endearing off-beat “wave”)

Miss Info: Yesterday we gave you the trailer for Pusha T and Rick Ross’ upcoming “Millions” video…along with an interview clip of Pusha sharing the true crime inspiration behind the song’s hook.
But this Monday (Jan.28, 2013), Pusha T releases his latest mixtape, The Wrath of Caine. And just like when we teamed up with Pusha for the listening party for his 2011 Fear of God mixtape , Pusha sat down with me at the Capsule menswear trade show to give you guys an exclusive preview of his new heat….

Pusha T and Miss Info preview Push’s favorite songs off the new mixtape:
“It Doesn’t Matter” Feat. French Montana (Prod. by Harry Fraud)
“Only You Can Tell It” Feat. Wale (Prod. by Kanye West…maybe; )

Watch the video, after the jump…
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(Camron, standing, at the Violator offices with Chris Lighty, Mike Lighty, and Eric Nicks, all seated…shopping his “new” artist, Juelz Santana)

Noreaga and his longtime friend Geno Sims collected a treasure trove of hip hop footage back in the late 90′s for a documentary show they called The What What. And in this newly unearthed trailer, there is literally too much to comprehend. There’s random bits of Big Pun, KRS One, Eminem making crank calls, Snoop Dogg at his most misogynistic, a chubby 50 Cent coveting NORE’s then-new Skytel 2-way pager…There’s Jay-Z and Amil, Capone in prison, De La Soul….and at the 2:25 mark, we see Cam’ron shopping his new 17-year-old artist Juelz Santana to Chris Lighty (RIP) and his staff. Amazing.

(Juelz Santana rapping on the spot for Lighty and company)

Now these days Geno is better known as one of ASAP Rocky’s managers, alongside Chace Infinite (another man with an long hip hop curriculum vitae), but I’ve known Geno since way back during his days at Harlem Music Hut, Bad Boy Records and more…So I’m really proud to see all his success! But no matter how busy you and NORE are, Geno….please gather more of this vintage What What footage and put this out!

Watch the vintage hip hop footage….
NOT SAFE FOR WORK, NOT FOR KIDS….
After the jump
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Life is only getting better for Nas. The Queensbridge MC just inked a deal with Hennessy for their second annual “Wild Rabbit” campaign. The campaign will see Mr. Jones perform at a private concert at New York’s R Lounge on Jan. 15—an event which will be broadcasted online through Livestream, and later made available to download on Hennessy’s Facebook page. But before that, Nas and Miss Info will be sitting down to talk about the new partnership and much more. Fans will also have the opportunity to connect with Nas before the show during a live Q&A session on Twitter. It all goes down at 9:15 ET via Livestream on Hennessy’s FACEBOOK Page. We’ll have the stream link here for you tonight a well.

This partnership with Hennessy has been almost two decades in the making. I am honored to be included in the group of previous partners Hennessy has selected over the years and hope this campaign will inspire others to ‘never stop, never settle.–Nas

Watch one of last year’s “Wild Rabbit” TV spots starring Manny Pacquiao after the jump…

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(ASAP Ferg, Miss Info, ASAP Rocky, and DJ Bobby Trends)

Miss Info: There were great hip hop songs in 2012, and big performances….but in my humble opinion, the most compelling character in the past 12 months was this kid from Harlem, ASAP Rocky. And I heard this same sentiment over and over, from jaded journos, worldly producers, fashion pros, visual artists, and more.
Maybe it was the personal growth we saw; early on there were terrible tantrums, sometimes violent…but later on we saw rants against homophobia and sheep mentality.
Maybe it was the way Rocky navigated industry politics but wasn’t afraid to have an actual opinion…sometimes hilarious, sometimes irreverent…but never just pandering for soundbites. And despite a grueling schedule, Rocky seemed to still enjoy the wild ride. #VeryRare.
ASAP Rocky is still growing as a music artist, as a head of family, and as a business man…but he managed to be everywhere without oversaturating, crossing genres, working with pop stars like Rihanna and local sprouts like Flatbush Zombies, pushing his visual agenda without abandoning music…

Last week, I went to Harlem’s Black Star Music where Rocky played his new album Love Live ASAP (iTunes) for a packed house, with ASAP Ferg by his side…
And as always, Rocky was candid and confident as we recapped the Year of ASAP….The Good (e.g., upcoming collaborations with Raf Simmons and Alexander Wang)…The Bad (e.g., beef with SpaceGhost Purp, concert fights, etc.)…and The Inappropriate (like how Rocky changed his stereotypes of African woman). The kid is NEVER BORING, lol.

(One important note: We had a great time hanging out last Thursday, but just a few days later, on Christmas Day, Rocky’s dad passed away from pneumonia. I can’t even imagine the heartache and grief he’s going through. And to this loss will stain this holiday for the rest of his life. The whole team sends our condolences to Rocky and his family.)

Watch “The A$AP Rocky x Miss Info Year-End Recap”…
After the jump…
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ASAP Rocky just jumped on stage with Big Boi down at SOB’s and now he’s giving fans a treat by webcasting live via Ustream from the studio with producer Emile Haynie (who tracked Rocky’s upcoming duet with Florence Welch on “Like I’m Apart”)….The two of them are working on an upcoming Raekwon track. Yay!

UPDATE: While the webcast only lasted for 40 minutes, Team ASAP uploaded the full video…and unlike some rap livestreams that seem like an endless wormhole of circle jerking and nahmeans, Rocky speaks on fashion (hilariously)…”I don’t fxck with the Givenchy no more. The Givenchy is not cool, it’s not good in my book.”
He reminisces on the making of the album…”It was more comfortable to record Long Live because it was hunger, not struggle…the hunger isn’t financial, it’s understanding. We’re starving for it.”
He and Emile give fans a taste of how their upcoming Raekwon collaboration will sound….
And at the end of the chat, Rocky plays a full track off his upcoming Long Live ASAP album: the “Pretty Flacco (Remix)” featuring Gucci Mane, Waka Flocka, and Pharrell.
How magnanimous!

Check out the full edited ASAP Rocky webcast…
After the jump
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It was a relatively slow news night for hip-hop, but there were a few tweets that caught our attention. On the set of Chief Keef’s new video for “Hate Being Sober,” 50 Cent and Wiz Khalifa showed up to work but the kid from Chicago was nowhere to be found. We’re not exactly sure what really happened, but Fif’s tweets made it seem like he just flaked altogether. What do you think?

@chiefkeef didn’t show up to his own video. I never saw anything like this on the first song. SMSaudio

— 50cent (@50cent) November 16, 2012

Its not funny @chiefkeef didn’t sell any records yet,they will pull the plug on him.SMSAUDIO

— 50cent (@50cent) November 16, 2012

Check out Young Dro explaining his name change and Drake’s quick update about his next LP after the jump…

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Our buddy and Gears-of-War-teammate Todd James REAS (above, in the grey shirt) has been on a tear this year….following up last year’s “Art In The Streets” installation at Los Angeles’ MOCA, with a solo show at Gering & Lopez in midtown, a great group show called “Livingston Street Market” with Steve “ESPO” Powers in Brooklyn, a Yield to Temptation book release at the Standard Hotel, and that’s not including all the exhibitions overseas that Todd’s done this year. This week, he unveiled a whole new set of large paintings at “Beyond Elegance,” a dual show with the enigmatic Alexis Ross at the Valmorbida pop-up gallery in the West Village. The big white space featured Ross’ twisted storyboards, and James’ Somali pirate scenes, along with a “nap” shack, and a small table where Ross was tattooing friends.
As always, it was a pleasure seeing Todd, his wife Dana, and all the other talented artists and friends: Kaws (whose “Companion” will be floating down Central Park West in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade next week), Julia Chiang, Steve “ESPO” Powers, Erik Parker, Kevin Lyons (who has his own pop-up shop at Colette in Dec), producer Emile Haynie, producer Benny Blanco, gallerist Joshua Liner, photographer Shadi, MOCA director Jeffery Deitch, BBC’s Loic Villepontoux, and more!

(hmm, just noticed that painting says “desrie”…weird.)

After getting proper cultured, we joined the Capsule Trade Show crew for their #CapsuleSocial cocktails for a cause! They raised a total of $2,400 for victims of Hurricane Sandy…and looked dapper doing it.

Check out photos from the Todd James REAS x Alexis Ross “Beyond Elegance” party at Valmorbida…
And photos from the Capsule Social…
After the jump
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Come on…this is so awesome! Super proud of our friend Kaws for getting this massive honor. He joins the legendary ranks of Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and more…by being chosen to create an art-inspired giant balloon for this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade!

Above is a photo of the Companion balloon on a test run, via the Wall Street Journal! Truthfully, Kaws could have made any one of his iconic figures into a balloon….the Michelin Man, the Spongebob…but the fact that a corpse-like shy fearful mickey-mouse-dressed figure with cauliflower ears will be floating down central park west in front of thousands of giddy tourists…is so subversive! I love it.

And now all I hope for is that Kaws makes like Murakami did in 2010….and joins the parade in a crazy outfit. (probably won’t happen…but imagine?!)

Check out photos of Murakami’s Kaikai and Kiki balloons, his flower-pot outfit…as well as other Thanksgiving Day Parade art balloons from Tom Otterness, and Jeff Koons…
After the jump
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Help me! I am dying laughing while watching this clip from Action Bronson‘s upcoming “The Symbol” video. Bronson and Rik Cordero/Three21Media have done it again. Even if you don’t do music video “previews”, just watch this to kick off your weekend. It’s so good. Action Bronson looks like Pimp Mario Batali on crank.

Watch Action Bronson wilding…
After the jump
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