Bed-Stuy Backyard Bar-B-Que Style…

CRO-digiliani with Reas muscleman


R.I.P.

Fuck graffiti, Mahi-Mahi.

...cause we’re droppin’ some shit. I’ve been stealing flicks from the world wide huevo for a while now, so I figured I would return the favor. I just got hold of two garbage bags fulla crap I thought I had lost forever back in 2003 (thanks Doc!) so I’ll be doing alot of scanning. Here’s a little taste…



First Class is now in session.

Stak KEO staten island 1997??
Doctor Rock
AXIS as BAD44… unfinished, done in Kingston layup in 86. We were tripping on double barrel purple mescalines.

So I was doing this little bugged out TDS style, Noc167 type joint in the hot, hot sun when I got a text saying my man EG3 TOP, the HYTEster, the great RAMM-ELL-ZEE had passed on…

Legions, Assassins, Wizards… you took it from Far Rock to the Far-reaches of the Transverse and always remained genuine. We will race again one day…

Jay Z - “Hello Brooklyn” from Gregory Solenström on Vimeo.

Did a little something yesterday. I didnt have an O and the character I originally wanted to do required colors I aint have. My stash is a little low right now and I was basically working off scraps. When I realized that all I had enough of was blue, white and a little orange…

It could only be that Lovable Loser, “Mr. MET”. I dedicated this one to my Brother, the die-hardin’est Mets fan you’d ever wanna meet, who has just moved out of Bklyn to L.A. (Miss you already, Big Bro!)
Now, while I’m not the first guy to ever paint Mr. Met, what is particularly gangster about this one is WHERE I painted him. This is on E.178th St. near Prospect Ave., Bronx NY.
The reaction of the local passers-by was not favorable.

Broader than Broadway…
Rawer than Rahway
Larger than Larchmont
Older than Old Bay

Harder than Hardaway
Haters gone Hate Away…
We straighter than a straightaway
Biters better stay away…
Just got my chain off lay-away

A whooooole lotta clothing brands have used images and likenesses from old-school hip-hop…most never even consider reaching out to the human beings behind the photos, lyrics, logos, and album covers they jack, let alone pay a royalty.
There is one brand that not only works with the pioneers, it’s run by the pioneers;
legends such as DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Caz, Afrika Bambaataa, Grand Wizzard Theodore, Coke La Rock, Sha-Rock, Melle Mel and Chief Rocker Busy Bee sit on the board of Sedgwick & Cedar. They are the real deal.
When Sedgwick & Cedar decided to work with my man Joe Conzo, hip-hop’s first photographer and one of the nicest dudes you will ever meet, along with a group of his early photos he also submitted this image which is a logo I did for his book “Born in the Bronx: a visual record of the early days of hip-hop”

It is an honor to have my work represented next to all these cats who I have idolized since I was twelve.
I highly recommend you check out their site http://www.sc73.com/; incredible images of New York in the 70’s and 80’s along with original flyers from early jams… and the proceeds are all going back to where they belong, not into the pockets of some corporate culture vultures.

We had one television and it was in my parents room, a big Black & White floor model , coat hanger for an antenna with tin-foil wrapped around the end. I was only allowed to watch one hour a day, Sesame Street then The Electric Company on channel 13.
One Saturday my Pops caught me watching one of those Elvis Presley films on channel 11 and shut it off. “But Daaaaaaaaad, it’s ELVIS!” I protested. He didn’t say much (My Dad never said much) but a little later that month he told me to get ready, that we were going out after dinner, just me and him. We took the subway into Manhattan and walked to one of those little clubs down by Bleeker St. I think it was the Village Gate or the Village Vanguard or something like that. I was the only little kid in the place, and I had no idea why I was there in this tiny, smoke filled, standing room only bar with a buncha grown-ups but I was excited to be out past bedtime.
Then this ancient old lady came out on a stage no bigger than some peoples dining room table and started singing her ass off. When she went into a version of “Hound Dog” I excitedly told my pops “SHE’S SINGING ELVIS’ SONG!” he leaned down and whispered in my ear “Nope, Elvis was singing HER song.” 
I immediately thought he must be bullshitting me, I mean come on… if this old lady wrote Elvis’s biggest hit, shouldn’t she be retired and chilling on a beach somewhere? Or at least playing to big concert halls not this crummy lil stale beer smelling joint.
Gradually it hit me and I was real quiet the whole train ride back to Hoyt Schermehorn. My Pops let me draw my own conclusions. That was his style, he didn’t tell me… he showed me. True Story.

Big Mama

1965

1971

Last Concert
Another evening that stands out in my mind, my Pops took me to the old Thalia movie theatre uptown. Again it was just me and him, I’m not sure why, but looking back it was probably cause I was going through something. Anyway the Thalia was like an art house, they would show foreign films, oldies, stuff you couldn’t see at the Lowes. They had a double bill, which for a ten year-old is like six hours sitting still, but I was enrapt. The double bill was “Black Orpheus” and “The Harder They Come”… blew my little mind.

Orfeu Negro

The Harder they Come, 1973?
Happy Fathers Day.

Love you.

Fadah’s Day wish list 2010… Just cause I know alot of you were wondering what to get me, the man who has everything…
Toothbrush get off the dust fast…
Orvis
Supreme Quality
Orvis

Coffee Table Shelf Booty
Tickets to Barrington Levy at B.B.Kings

I’m not even a Lakers fan like that…but THIS dude? Gangster.

I mean, who do we get? Spike Lee??? C’mon Son…

Hey Gringos, Rambos, Commandos, Dons and Donovans, Zorros and Zeros, it’s clash time…

Them no ruff like we.

anyyyyone can seeee…