Lost Kingdoms: New Balance

I had those Worthy's back in the day. Good quality shoes for the courts. NB bought them back.

So maybe you have never copped a pair of NB's, but you have always seen them. Hip Hoppers have rocked New Balance whether it has been past or present representatives. A lot of people say "those are them old people sneakers." First off that tells me the support of the shoe is official, second I would think that statement comes from a Nike fan, because Nike makes some fugly looking shoes too. New Balance makes a couple of their sneaker lines in the US, which is almost unheard of these days with NAFTA and cheap foreign sweatshop labor. You would be helping someone out there keep their job. And I can't forget, pro and amateur runners co-sign New Balance to the maximum, just like Asics.



I have the 999's in all gray. Before last year they were discontinued. 10 years and counting on my pair. I always liked the reflective N on them. US made.



I'm feeling the forest green look, and also the Gore-Tex. You can't pass on a pair of kicks with Gore-Tex. You can rock these in whatever weather. Do you guys see the old school 'Lotto' sneaker in these? The 'N's are velcro (oranges ones too!). I might have to let a bill double up, these are camping/trailing/chilling sneaks, right up my alley. If I had to leave the house on an emergency 'the sky is falling' basis, I would either put these on or my high top Timberland Gore-Tex field boots. If I have both, the boots go in the survival bag. But notice both pairs of shoes would have Gore-Tex.



I like the colorway. See the tongue? Someone on US soil can pay their rent now.



I've always wanted the original 1500's which came in a grayish blue leather. About the time I was willing to pay close to $200 for a pair of running shoes back then they were discontinued, so I won't leave out the part where the price for these is pretty much the same now ($180).



Here's the colorway I always knew the 1500 series above to be in. The 1300's (and 1400's) are the better quality version of the hood heavy 574's. US made.



And here's the 574, a hood staple. A good idea to keep a running shoe around in the hood, especially when the warm months ahead usually provide some type of reason to run in the first place.

Salutes to New Balance. Pics and kicks found at kicksonfire.

Bonus: Sneaker fiends take a moment to browse all of the discontinued (retired) NB's.

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$ykotic Quickstrike: The Texas Backstep

The dilapidated building you see is the first thing you get when you Google Texas school building images.

This was an interesting email someone dropped in my box. Am I surprised? No, I’m not surprised. If you have ever watched ‘King Of The Hill’ you should know it’s not about Hank’s faithful patriotism, it’s about his Borg-esque assimilation of Texas culture that you sympathize with (laugh at).

What I’m saying is where are the rap representatives in Texas? People we worked hard for this rap thing to get recognition within the American culture. Yo Slim! Z-Ro! Bun what’s up? We already know what the state thinks about J Prince. Paul Wall, where you at? Chamillionaire? I know you guys are just ‘rappers’ and you can reach your audience in the streets, but so can Country/Western, the music curriculum the state is replacing your rap music curriculum with. Do you Texas rappers know if this ruling will still allow you to go speak to the kids at school? This looks to me like it covers elementary schools all the way to colleges. How long before they strike it from all venues, even if they have cabaret licenses? Ya’ll gonna let this go that easy?

I could say this quickstrike may be too early, but this was a state government vote, you gotta believe that there was some type of public release about this information. Why not get the attention of the rap heads on the InterNets to help bolster the outrage factor? And when the first attempt to commit this fukkery failed why wasn’t anybody on the lookout to check it when it showed it’s face again?

SMMFGDH

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Learn The Rap Alphabets

Are you an aspiring rap artist? Do you have skills with the production? You might want to check this out. Now if you just wanna flow over some beats and hopefully get a deal, or sell your street CD's (mixtapes), this info may not be useful to you.

I get people approaching me all of time with a CD. At the store, in the street, especially in the bars. I’m an approachable guy, and hell, free is a good thing. But I always ask while looking at the CD, “which one are you with, ASCAP or BMI?” 95% of the time the answer is “what’s that?” That’s the moment when I return the CD.

“Naw I’m good, I don’t want it.”

“Why not?”

“Your music isn’t protected, anyone can steal it.”

“Naw ain’t nobody gonna steal my sh*t, everybody knows who I am.”

Although ASCAP & BMI do not protect your music from theft, when I do this to rap dudes I have started a conversation with them that makes them reassess what they are truly trying to do with that CD of music, whether it's a demo or a beat tape. Dude might have a couple of good songs, ideas, choruses or very good production on the CD that are ripe for the taking. How many times have we heard about a rapper or a producer who goes public saying so and so artist took that beat or song from me?

“I sent them a beat tape /gave them a CD at one of their shows…that number one song on the radio was my idea/song/beat.”

I feel bad for you homie, but you have to take that loss. Just like inventors have patents to protect their inventions from being stolen, if you truly, truly want your music out in the public it should be copyrighted (Library Of Congress) for protection. There was one incident where one of my homies was in the studio and made a certified banger, and one of his friends begged for an instrumental copy so he could play it in his CD player on the way home and think of some rhymes. That dude disappeared the next week and took my homies song, memorized the chorus and verses. Got signed off of that song and blew up. And another incident where dudes would listen to demos to snatch rhymes and beats from them, under the ‘looking for new talent, send us your music’ cloud of secrecy. Foul sh*t huh?

How many of you remember the Drake/Kia Shine situation? The InterNets were going crazy calling Kia a hater, saying he’s dick-riding Drake for fame, he’s lying because it was Wayne’s song first, Kia’s broke. But Drake backed down from denying it. Applaud Kia Shine for knowing his rap alphabets. Every time ‘Best I Ever Had’ gets played Kia will receive a check.

Now what inspiring artists/producers do not know about ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC is that these companies can help you get your music out there, they are not only about collecting royalties. They have workshops where record label artists and producers get to listen to your music. A lot of ghostwriters (songwriting) are made this way. Movies, TV shows, commercials and video games have music too. You can get a plaque if your music is on ‘Mortal Kombat 39’ and it sells 500,000 copies, music on a video game is classified as a soundtrack. In some instances, being a member of these organizations and being a part of their scheduled activities can get you noticed quicker than passing out a mixtape or demo (do they even call them demos anymore?) in the street. If you’re very active and have good material they can/will showcase you to RSVP’d industry people. Being at these workshops also gives you the opportunity to meet other artists and industry personnel so you can pass the business card around. Every artist should have business cards. It looks more professional than a Sharpie-d CD in a jewel case. And a card with your name, email address, website address where your music is located, label or group logo (do you have a logo? Every company/business has a logo.) is cheaper than making up CD’s.


Do you aspiring music artists know that your publishing catalog is your ultimate bargaining chip in the music industry? Think of Michael Jackson owning The Beatles’ publishing rights (Sony/ATV is the third largest music publisher in the world, owning the rights to songs by Elvis, Willie Nelson, Akon, Bob Dylan, and Eminem) as well as his own Mijac publishing. He was able to always get money by selling percentages of those two music catalogs, and he also had a say in where the music can be played (elevator music, music at sporting events is subject to royalty collection). Perfect example of this is the lack of Beatles music on iTunes. Most ‘blinded by the lights’ artists realize way too late in the game that they gave the label way too much of a percentage of their publishing and recording rights. Most rappers do not own their publishing (you may hear the jargon ‘owning the masters’). A lot of old school artists get pennies on the dollar for some of rap’s classics you hear all the time because of this fatal error. Think of Dr. Dre still suing Death Row for unpaid royalties on ‘The Chronic’, Jay-Z signing that Live Nation deal that included his publishing, The LOX doing D-Block because Puff gets a healthy cut off of anything looking like a LOX (he controls the name too) song or project, Fat Joe eating off of Pun’s catalog.

If you are truly serious about being in the music business you SHOULD treat it like a BUSINESS. There are so many ways to sell your music, and perhaps getting on stage and doing tours and dealing with the industry fukkery may not be in your best interests. Think about the Schoolly D ‘Aqua Teen Hunger Force’ rap theme song. Every time the show comes on, even if it’s a marathon, he gets credit for a spin and is entitled to royalties. My homie has a band that strictly does commercial and TV show music, no musty ass bar shows or MySpace account. He's clocking ducats. All the rappers who have music on NBA Live and Madden know they can get a platinum plaque and some good royalty money off of those games. Don’t forget there's music on the news. Think about the sad violin or climatic horror movie music (remember movies go to DVD). Kid cartoons need music too. Being in the game doesn’t only consist of wearing a fitted with a chain and grabbing the mic to rap about getting money. You can sit home out of the public eye and still get a lot of money off of your raps (songwriting) and production.

Thank me later (no Drake).

The $ykotic Don McCaine

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FREEZE!

yo! yo! i saw this joint and it got me hype! this is that shit!

i think a lot of people love rap music. but i think a whole lot of mothafuckas forget about HIP HOP. and this is part of it.

the thing that fucks me up tho, is that a lot of times i see the shit a lot of the dancers do nowadays and its just like the other elements of hip hop. it seems like even tho we've had a whole lot of shit to build on, it seems that most of these mothafuckas have actually REGRESSED with their skill set. or their desire to add a new perspective to the collective conversation. it used to be a robust discussion. now people just repeat what they heard, or just agree with what he said. no more pirates. just a lot of parakeets.

this is the legendary Mr. Wiggles from the Rock Steady Crew. if you dont know, please dont embarrass urself. google it or somethin. but my man has got to be in his late 30's if not early 40's still gettin it in like THIS. but it's more than just the technique. it's the STYLE, baby. these new dudes is gonna have to learn that the hard way. your style cannot shine if it is not YOUR style.

enjoy...

OH YEAH... just to be clear poppin and electric boogaloo come from THE WEST COAST. IT DOES NOT ORIGINATE IN NEW YORK (neither does graffiti, but i'll speak on that later). west coast niggas spend too much time now a days complainin about what they not included in instead of gettin back to bein as fly as they used to be...

now air THAT the fuck out...

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$ykotic Quickstrike: Colored Money

“and treated me like a wet food stamp”-Biz Markie

“Yo, yo, why you wanna act like a tramp, a wet food stamp”-New Kids On The Block


Personally I think the government could use this currency right now. It could be supplanting the dollar in this recession, keeping the buy and consume market working with the transfer of goods and services. What ever happened to all the bills? They even had plastic coins back in the days. Y’all done went and burned them didn’t you? I can imagine all of the trees and ink used for these coupons, you always had to go to the check cashing place and get new books every month (and I remember some of those 2-5 hour waits on line too). People would have held on to the green money and spent these coupons in a hot minute today. We used to even hit the Chinese restaurant with these. When the parents got divorced and the old earth was between jobs, we had to eat. But the worst thing was getting wet and trying to spend that wet food stamp for a bag of BBQ and hot BonTon’s and a bagful of penny candy Jolly Ranchers. You see the disclaimer on the bills, “do not fold or spindle”. You were ‘supposed’ to carry the whole book, and rip them out when it’s amount due time. And for all the “it ain’t real money” sayers, them food stamps got you mugged like it was green money.

I know they have EBT cards now, but it’s obvious it doesn’t work like the coupons did. You could spend the colored money in different states like green currency, can’t do that with an EBT card. You just lost revenue with that maneuver right there.

A smart person in government would/should revive these like a NY Nets Julius Erving jersey.

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