Supra has unveiled another three-sneaker collection that features some very interesting color combinations. The “Pop” pack consists of the Skytop III, Stacks and the Vaider all in primarily subtle, suede uppers and multiple magenta accents. Specifically, the Skytop III owns a mainly grey suede base with a magenta midsole/tongue border, while the Stacks possesses a navy blue upper with a magenta sole/branding. Lastly, the black Vaider makes use of the magenta accents in the form of the branding and inner lining. The Supra “Pop” Pack is now available at SUPRA retailers worldwide, and suprafootwear.com.
Back when Shottas, director Cess Silvera’s much-bootlegged Jamaican answer to Scarface, got picked up for theatrical release in 2006, a sequel was said to be following immediately on its heels. But when Shottas‘ status as a legendary black-market DVD didn’t translate to box-office success, talk of Shottas 2 seemed to dissipate. Turns out that when your entire audience has already copped your movie for $5 on Canal Street, even if it is a compromised version, they are not going to pay to see it again in a theater, even with all of the intended scenes restored.
Now, Silvera’s saga finally is re-emerging—as a TV series. A trailer offering the first preview for the show recently turned up on Youtube, with Alozade’s “Bad Out Deh” as its soundtrack and a plastic bag from the Gap covering the head of Paul Campbell’s “Mad Max” as its star (talk about unflattering product placement). From what we gather, the show will only air over the web but judging by the number of followers ofthe ShottasSeries Twitter feed, there’s some healthy interest. One request, though: more Teddy Bruckshot.
01 Ricardo Drue - Welcome To Miami 02 Various - Supa Soca 16 03 Lil Rick - Jones and Wukkup 04 Fadda Fox - Wine It Gal 05 Farmer Nappy - Risky 06 Dwaingerous - Interview With Charlie Sheenerous 07 Machel Montano - Doh Fraid 08 Patrice Roberts - Swing It up 09 Skinny Fabulous - Waist 10 Dwaingerous - Interview With Charlie Sheenerous 11 Martin Solveig ft. Dragonette - Hello 12 Kes The Band - Wotless 13 Ricardo Drue ft. Claudette Peters - Me and You 14 Alternative Quartet - One Family 15 Erphaan Alves - In Your Eyes 16 Nadia Batson - Shiver 17 Machel Montano - Vibes Cya Done 18 Kerwin Du Bois - Bachannalist 19 Dj Crown Prince - Party People In Babylon 20 Denise Belfon - Dance and Dingoley 21 Busy Signal - Touch Road 22 Skinny Fabulous ft Busy Signal - Rave Out 23 Kes The Band ft Kerwin Du Bois - Ah Ting 24 Swappi - Blow My Flute 25 Barrie Hype - Supa Soca Is Your Fix 26 Skinny Fabulous - Rebellious 27 Tallpree - Jab All Over 28 Iwer - Come To Meh 29 Problem Child - Waistline 30 Alison Hinds - Explode 31 Lavaman - Is So We Deh 32 Machel Montano - Advantage 33 Ricardo Drue - J.A.M. (Jump And Mashup) 34 Machel Montano - Illegal 35 Biggie Irie - Cyaan Be Over 36 Alison Hinds - Hold On 37 Tian Winter - Crash 38 Edwin Yearwood - Good Time 39 Farmer Nappy - Surrender 40 Rupee - I Am A Bajan 41 Patrice Roberts - Slow Wine 42 T.C. - Thunder Wine 43 Gabrielle - Dutty 44 Patrice Roberts - Man Dem Darling 45 Skinny Fabulous - Pelt 46 Swappi - Watch Di Gal Wuk 47 Machel Montano - Gal Wuk 48 Supa Mario & Claudette Peters - Showdown 49 Shanta Prince ft Lil Rick - Down Deh 50 Mastamind & Lyrikal - Whining Away 51 Tizzy - De Spot 52 Lil Rick - Work 53 Skinny Fabulous 6:30 54 Big Red - Bend Over 55 Barrie Hype - Finally! The Super Soca Riddim 56 Shall Marshal - Hit The Dancefloor 57 Troy Remy - Like A Virgin 58 Kevin Lyttle - Hot Girls and Alcohol 59 Skinny Fabulous - Madd People 60 Bunji Garlin - This Time 61 Kes The Band - Come Gyal 62 RoboMan ft. Cherise Ransome - Roboman Say (Space Junk Refix) 63 Kes The Band - Where You From 64 Barrie Hype - Thank You For Listening 65 Jus 10 - Nobody's Watching
01-Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks 02-Maroon 5 ft. Christina Aguilera - Moves Like Jagger 03-Dirty South - Phazing 04-Foster The People - Helena Beat 05-Roul & Doors vs Kes & Kerwin DuBois - Ah Ting In Trinidad 06-Mohombi - Bumpy Ride 07-Pitbull ft. Marc Anthony - Rain Over Me 08-Alexandra Stan - Mr. Saxobeat 09-Missy Elliot vs Major Lazer - Get Your Freak Pon The Floor 10-LMFAO - Sexy And I Know It 11-Borracho 12-Pitbull ft. T Pain & Sean Paul - Shake Senora 13-Dj Gregory & Gregor Salto - Con Alegria 14-Alvaro & Punish - Cubata 15-Martin Solveig & Dragonette - Hello 16-Wolfgang Gartner ft. Will.I.Am - Forever 17-Chuckie ft. Gregor Salto - What Happens In Vegas 18-Sak Noel - Loca People 19-Lil Jon ft. LMFAO - Drink 20-Lil Rick vs Lil John - Work for That Drink 21-Trini-Red Bottoms 22-Major Lazer vs Masters At Work - Pon De Trap 23-Jay Z & Kanye West - N@#gas in Paris
Seeing a resurgence as of late, the Nike Air Classic BW has resurfaced this summer in a colorway that is both cool and eye-catching. This everyday pair features a grey leather, mesh and suede throughout the upper and sole unit, with hits of blue giving light to the Swoosh, Air unit, tongue, inner liner and ankle collar.
Black leather is matched with black suede and mesh on this entire pair, while burgundy accents add contrast to the midsole, branding, tongue and ankle collar.
Already proclaimed a “style icon” by Paper, Complex and, yes, even Okayplayer, Theophilus London has fashion brands tripping over themselves to work with him right now. Watching the Brooklyn-born Trinidadian rapper/singer’s ascension into full-fledged it bwoy, we can’t help but notice that he takes many of his stylistic cues from fellow Caribbeans, from Jean-Michel Basquiat to Fab Five Freddy and Harry Belafonte. Between Theophilus’ emergence and his fellow Trini Anya Ayoung-Chee‘s show-stealing on Project Runway, Caribbean style seems to be having a little moment right now, so it seemed like the perfect time to count down the most iconic practitioners of style from the islands and the Diaspora.
1. Bob Marley
Style is not the first thing people consider in regards to the Caribbean’s pre-eminent music legend, but Bob Marley had it in spades. Whether on a soccer field, a festival stage or in a British TV studio, Marley always exuded effortless cool. Tam caps, mostly unbuttoned button-up shirts and bell-bottom jeans were among his preferred garments, but it was his mane—and the iconic images of it—that, more than anything or anyone else, turned dreadlocks from merely a symbol of Rastafarian devotion to an ubiquitous, apolitical fashion statement. Honorable mention of course goes to Bob’s no less stylish musical partners, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer.
2. Grace Jones The dictionary definition of style icon, the Jamaica-born, New York-raised, Europe-based model turned singer turned actress turned enigma might have made No. 1 on this list if she didn’t transcend ethnicity and geography. That’s not to say Grace Jones doesn’t rep her culture as much as any Caribbean on the world stage: just cue up “My Jamaican Guy” or any of her reggae-flavored 80s collaborations with Sly and Robbie and Chris Blackwell. MIA through much of the ’90s and 2000s, the 63 year old has returned in a big way in the last few years, most notably as a reference point/inspiration for Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Lady Gaga and Amber Rose.
3. Fidel Castro The cap, the beard, the fatigues—Castro has, arguably, the most identifiable signature look of any modern political leader. And while he was fading from official view due to his health problems in the 2000s, his trademark, square-brimmed olive cap—the “Castro hat”—became a staple of hipster fashion, stripped, for the most part, of its political connotations. Echoes of the Castro aesthetic can be found in the military-inspired garb worn by many reggae artists in the late ’70s.
4. Naomi Campbell While our fashionista friends cast some doubt on her personal taste level, as the greatest supermodel of all-time Naomi Campbell has been the muse for many of the most experimental—and a lot of the most accessible—fashions of the last quarter-century.
5. Jean-Michel Basquiat Another iconic U.S.-raised figure whose Caribbean background is often overlooked, the Brooklyn-born artistic genius was the son of a Haitian immigrant father and a fourth-generation Puerto Rican mother.
6. Patra Patra had some fairly big hits in the ’90s but she’ll always be best known for her thick, “Patra braids,” the inspiration for a major women’s hair trend in the early-to-mid 1990s. She was still rocking them when we caught up with her last month for her first interview as she hits the comeback trail.
7. Gerald “Bogle” Levy The Jamaican choreographer behind the Bogle, World Dance and Wacky Dip among other steps, Levy was the person responsible for introducing punk-rock fashions—spikes, studded belts, bleached hair—into dancehall more than a decade ago. Six years after his murder at a Kingston gas station, the look—as well as the dance step-driven songs that he was responsible for inspiring—remains as prevalent as ever.
8. Rihanna Quickly shedding her innocent girl from Barbados act, Rihanna set the stage for Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj (who was pretty close to making this list as well) in the mid-to-late 2000s, making avant-garde stage costumes and high concept fashion spreads a requirement for A-list female pop stardom. On a broader level, she’s had a bigger impact on women’s hair than anyone since Jeniffer Aniston.
9. Desmond Dekker One of the original proponents of rude boy style and a demi-god to the mods and skinheads who were the first adopters of Jamaican music in Britain, the late ska/rocksteady pioneer Desmond Dekker was known for his trademark beret, always kept cocked to the side.
10. Lola Falana/Celia Cruz
Although their contributions to style are somewhat overlooked today, these two Cuban ladies blazed trails for dark-skinned women in the 1960s and ’70s. Born in New Jersey to a Cuban father and African-American mother, and discovered by Sammy Davis, dancer/actress Lola Fulana was the first Black woman to model for a line of cosmetics (Tigress by Fabergé) that was not targeted solely at blacks, one of the first Black women to pose for Playboy and, in the late ’70s, one of the biggest draws in Vegas. The Queen of Salsa, Cruz was just as renowned for her bold wigs and hairpieces–which were just as unpredictable in terms of color, cut and texture as Rihanna’s are now–though she would embraced her African roots, too, rocking an Afro and cornrows, in the ’70s. Always larger than life but never cartoonish, there was nothing subtle about her style.
Rihanna is rocking a blonde, blunt cut in the newest campaign for Armani Jeans. In a sexy but sophisticated take on classic noir films, Rihanna wears a mini-sweater with super-skinny dark jeggings looking super svelte and stylish. The campaign was shot by Steven Klein in NYC, and we can expect more shots from this campaign in upcoming months along with her campaign ads for Armani Underwear which she is slated to be the spokesperson for as well.
This past Tuesday I caught the premiere screening of a new short film by Palladium Boots featuring Pharrell called Tokyo Rising at NYC’s Hiro Ballroom. The 30-minute film follows key members of Tokyo’s young creative class in the months following the 3/11 earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster as they react to the heightened sense of reality surrounding the dangers of nuclear power combined with living in an earthquake zone surrounded by water. It’s an empowering perspective on the ability of the young artist and activist community’s ability to create awareness and change, not only in Japan but everywhere. It also shines a light on the global influence Japanese culture purveyors have on the world where as they are often perceived as being adopters of Western trends. Most notably, Pharrell has a rare opportunity to explore the MASSIVE underground stormwater management solution the government built for the city of Saitama… you have to see this. Following the 30 minute film was a brief Q&A with directors Thalia Mavros and Barney Waters of Palladium Boots and with Pharrell himself who described the project as ”culturally responsible.” Agreed. Check it out in its entirety above, courtesy of KarmaloopTV.
