It’s a double-dose of Joe Budden the past 24 hours. Fresh off releasing “Momma Said,” Joey is profiled in the second installment of Nice Kicks’ “Sneak Peak” series. In this episode, NK’s George Kiel travels to Budden’s home in New Jersey to check out the heat 1/4th of Slaughterhouse has tucked away in his sneaker closet. Joe talks on his recent addiction of getting custom shoes done, and reveals the one sneaker which started his love for footwear.

Take a peak in Joe’s closet below….

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Bjӧrk is the Lady King Weirdo, and in the best possible way. If you’re up late blog-surfing and you’ve landed here, welcome, and here’s something odd but kind of amazing to watch. Bjӧrk teamed up with video artist Andrew Thomas Huang and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles for the “art + music” video for her song “Mutual Core.” You barely register the music itself what with all the shifting sand monsters and felt-tongue lapping going on….
There’s no rhyme or reason here…but it’s beautiful to watch.

Meanwhile….
The indie band that sparked a bidding war this past March out at SxSW, Wild Belle ended up on Columbia Records, snagged a Mulberry fashion gig, and now finally has a big budget video (directed by Melina Matsoukas, Rihanna’s fave) for the song that caught everyone’s ear…”Keep You.”
Also a bit weird. Not Bjӧrk weird. But weird all the same…
Watch it…
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This shxt is hard.
Uptown upstart Bodega Bamz teams up with Brooklyn’s Flatbush Zombies on this rowdy “Thrilla” track, and our buddy Rik Cordero/Three21Media supplies the grindhouse visuals. Perhaps a bit late for ghoul themes, lol, but that’s neither here nor there….I really like this guy Bodega’s energy. And I’ve been blasting his “My Name Is” remix with Joell Ortiz and Tego Calderon on repeat. And we’re already supporters of the Zombies.

Watch Bodega Bamz and the Flatbush Zombies’ “Thrilla” video…
And download Bamz and his “Tan Boyz” mixtape….
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(Now these are some deliriously happy iPad Mini owners in Tokyo. Homegirl even cosplayed as Little Bo Peep or something for the occasion, LOL! via Telegraph)

On Friday, Apple released the latest little crack nugget of tech to its hoards of salivating fans. And even though the lines weren’t nearly as long as they’ve been for iPhones, there were still folks who had the time, energy, and mental bandwidth to head to the Apple Store in the middle of the night to be one of the first with an iPad Mini…even though, they might not be able to charge it because of the ongoing Hurricane Sandy blackouts.

Even as a die-hard Mac user, I had to admit that Jimmy Kimmel’s iPad Mini spoof commercial…was painfully on point.
Watch it….
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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…
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Hilarious! I can’t wait to see the full version of Hi Hater, a tongue-in-cheek documentary about that social pandemic…haterism! Now, before we go on…I want to stand up for the right of unpopular opinion. Just because something is critical doesn’t mean it’s “hate.” And there’s nothing that irritates me more than heehaws on twitter saying “stop hating” every time you don’t suck off every single thing a celebrity (primarily of the female pop singer or rapper variety) does. Ugh!
But there are clear cases of “haters gon’ hate,” lol.
And by the looks of this trailer, this indie documentary take a sort of mock-serious Daily Show-style look at various examples of hate…from the Lebron James backlash, to Trump vs. Obama, to Tonya Harding’s 1994 tire-iron attack on rival ice-skater Nancy Kerrigan.

“You can have hate in your blood, but that doesn’t make you a bonafied hater…until the brain is affected.” -Dr. Stephen Craig, Epidemiologist

(from Hi Hater, The Documentary: when Jesse Jackson was caught on-camera talking about President Obama)

Watch the trailer for Hi Hater: The Documentary…
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Following the heels of her conceptual and cinematic “National Anthem” video (with that epic ASAP Rocky cameo), Lana Del Rey has re-teamed with director Anthony Mandler for the Rick Rubin-produced single “Ride” (off her re-release Born To Die: Paradise Edition). The 3-minute song is stretched into a 10 minute visual, interspersed with Lana’s spoken prose, and a storyline about becoming a biker chick, running away with a gang of SOA-style baddies, partying in the desert, having sand sex…you know, the American Dream. In her soft, kittenish voice, the “Born To Die” singer coos, “I was born to be the other woman, who belonged to no one, who belonged to everyone. Who had nothing, and wanted everything…” and ends the narration by whispering, “I am fucking crazy…but I am freed.”

Ok, it’s way out there, but Mandler’s hazy, smudgy footage, and Rubin’s country-makeunder of Lana’s high-fashion style works. Especially if you really think about the real-life subtext of what’s happening….

Take Lana Del Rey’s 10-minute “Ride”…
And read my fantasy interpretation of the video’s subplot…
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Another summer slipping away, but one of the highlights of Labor Day weekend is always our pal Atrak’s annual Fool’s Gold Day Off block party! I remember seeing Juicy J, Action Bronson, ASAP Rocky and more perform in past years. Each year the outdoor block party gets bigger and better…and this year, there’s a stacked lineup and a perfect forecast. I’ll definitely be joining Atrak, his brother Dave-1, and the rest of the FG family….
Veteran’s tip: get there early, wear sunscreen, no biting Mr. Goldbar.

Check out the full lineup and details on how to join the party…
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Kanye ups the G.O.O.D. features by calling on rising female talent Azealia Banks. The “212” rapper was recently summoned to Honolulu to work on collaborative projects with Mr. West himself. While it’s unclear what said projects entail, Kanye is reportedly in Hawaii to wrap up the G.O.O.D. Music label joint effort Cruel Summer.

“The past seven days have been really epic,” Banks admitted to Twitter last night. The tweet was quickly followed by, “*~LUCKY BITCH~*” and “I’m really nervous.”

But Kanye isn’t the only high caliber celebrity to ask the female emcee to collaborate. The “Jumanji” rapper reportedly also got a call from Lady Gaga earlier this week.

“When Mother Monster calls,” she tweeted. “Shit is about to get very fu**ing real.”

Scroll through her stream of excited tweets after the jump.

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Y.N. Rich Kids “Hot Cheetos and Takis”

How can you hate on these adorable little crumbsnatchers….gathered on a corner, riding their bikes, wearing their non-ironic nerd glasses…rapping like 2Chainz…about cheetos!?!
I keep getting emails from folks (thanks Eric Hsu) telling me to check out this video from the Y.N. Rich Kids from the North Community Beats and Rhymes Program (a YMCA program in Minneapolis)…so finally I did, and some of these kids rap better than [insert name of that not-so-clean-cut rapper who is probably 5 years older and who just got a really big record deal but sucks].

But um….what’s a taki? *looks down at feet and kicks imaginary rocks*

Now that you’ve seen “Hot Cheetos and Takis”….how friggin’ cute is this other Y.N. Rich Kids artwork? Someone’s using their mindgrapes over there…
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