MotherGreen & H.K.M Origins Contest

It's contest time kiddies! I know times are a kinda hard on some folks, and with that in mind we at MotherGreen & H.K.M would like to give a lil something back for all of your support. I've had some people straight up ask me "What exactly IS MotherGreen?". Well I'll tell you...but first I want to hear your ideas. I mean sure we have a mission statement on this very site however there are a few graphics we use which speak directly to the origins of this company. We've compiled a few questions to see how much you know about MG&H.K.M. If you can be among the first three supporters to answer correctly you'll get a prize consisting of two promo T-shirts from us as well as a copy of one of our favorite books "How To Be A Gentleman" by John Bridges.

And now for the questions...

1. Where does the Flo-Master shirt graphic originate from?

2. From which movie does the term Mother Green & Her Killing Machine originate?

3. The phrase on the "Gamma Ray" T-shirt (front and back) come from what rapper?

Now if you can give me the answers to ALL THREE questions and not be a member of our immediate family (Gamar I'm looking at you) you can win the Grand Prize. Winners will be announced at the end of 1 week (seven days from now). Send all answers to admin@mothergreen.com

Happy Hunting!

Old School Mondays

Lets spread a little love as we go into September yall. This is the month to restart and refresh. The babies are heading back to school and the parents are taking a long breath. Take some time today to love someone close to you and make your love known.

Whodini - One Love
One of the all time great groups that don't get enough love in my opinion.



LL Cool J - I Need Love (Live on Apollo)
Another legend showing and proving that he ladies always loved Cool James.



Freddie Jackson - Nice and Slow
On the low I'm kind of a big Freddie Jackson fan. I love dude's work.

Rain on MJ's Parade?

I'm a little sad. I learned this morning that there's a 70% chance of thunderstorms for this Saturday August 29th. If you've been hiding under a rock for the past two weeks on that day Spike Lee and DJ Spinna will be holding a Michael Jackson celebration in Prospect Park (too many folks for Ft. Greene). This is an outdoor event that the whole Borough is trying to hit up. I'm sure being that Spike Lee is the host there will be cameras on deck. I'm hoping we can do a thunderstorm later on in the day after 5, sort of like Sunday.

In the meantime here's a video to get you hyped for Saturday's epic event.



For the record I'm still made I never saw him in concert.

The Foreign Exchange - House of Cards (feat. Muhsinah)

For some reason I didn't cop the Foreign Exchange album Leave It All Behind. I'm still digesting the first one honestly. It didn't hit me well on the first listen and maybe that's why I haven't purchased the new one. While the first record was hip hop driven and this new one is apparently singing heavy (led by Little Brother's Phonte) I still had my issues.

Then comes this video. I'm on Amazon now looking for the album. Well done guys.

Rasu Jilani 120 Seconds

This is my brother Rasu co-creator of CDTBK. He's a very intelligent brother with great ideas and I consider him an asset to the Brooklyn scene. CDTBK is my family so check the joint.

Is Jay Z due for a dip album wise?

I remember a conversation regarding Jay-Z a few years ago (probably around Kingdom Come) with my good friend Vicky (lover of Kool-Aid). What's funny is now that I think about it the same way that Prince fans have been known to drink the purple Kool-Aid Vicky was always heavy on that Jay-Z drink. Well it seems it's Kingdom Come time once again.

Vicky told me that if you look back at Jay's career every OTHER album he takes a dip. They aren't necessarily wack albums but they fail to live up to his previous piece of work. Lets take a look.


Resonable Doubt - No doubt a banger.


In My Lifetime Vol. 1 - Ehhh he's trying to get the Bad Boy fan base and it's not his best.


Vol. 2 Hard Knock Life - 5 Million sold. He basically hit on all fronts with this one. This album was an event.


Vol. 3 The Life and Times... - Vol. 2 only...not so much. Tried hard and didn't work.


Dynasty Roc La Familia - This is more of a compilation album so I'm skipping it. Good though.



Blueprint - Some say it's his true and only classic. 5 mics in the source (or whatever). Crazy record overall.


Blueprint 2 - Post Ether Jay-Z, not a pretty sight.


The Black Album - Ahhh this was his chance to go out on top. PSA is on this album. BANGER (with a few missteps)


Kingdom Come - ...well I'm sure Dame liked this album. *smh*


American Gangster - Dope "concept" album. Has an official hit with Roc Boys. Solid record.

Which leads us to Blueprint 3. He's do for another dip and early reports are stating it should really be called Kingdom Come 2. I hope for Vicky's sake this isn't true. And I didn't think it was...til I heard Reminder.

Old School Mondays

Here goes a couple of old school joints for your listening pleasure.
;

Thanks for watching PEACE

Anti Art - Art

Recently I was surprised with a ticket to go to Dr. Sketchy's Anti Art School from my wife. It completely threw me off only because I wasn't sure what to expect. I mean the normal kind of routine can take it's toll on a person but this was out of the ordinary and truly a breath of fresh air. I had the opportunity to sit next to 2 very talented people at the bar. One brother was exceptionally nice when it came to paint brush and ink, the other used a uniball pen which amazed me at the amount of detail he captured. I enjoyed it and even though my sketches are a bit on the rough side and the next time going I will be mentally prepared to put in some work and have fun. I saw people using water color, pastels and colored pencils. Here are a couple of pics I took that day but I also have pictures that I grabbed off their blog. After going through their site its cool to know that these classes take place through out the country. It made me think of my experiences in school. Being surrounded by talent pushes you harder to improve your skill, steel sharpens steel.

These are pics from their blog, they use different models at each event and even have themes for role play.

Alien dress upA little bit of Girls and Guns never hurt anybody
Wolverine & Mystique X-Men role play

As you can see the room gets crowded pretty quick so it's good to show up a bit early to get a good seat. This was an different event from the blog but it give you a feeling of the room.

This was my seating since I got there 10 mintues after opening.

I don't usually drink PBR's and now for certain PBR's do not chase Hennessey very well.

Peace and a Happy Birthday to our brother Alyasha from the MG Fam!!

10 Deep 2 Hot

The MotherGreen Team (minus Mahdi) got together at the 10 Deep Presents party. The designated place was in the Brooklyn neighborhood of D.U.M.B.O. This was hottest party in the city by far literally. We ran into a bunch of friends throughout the night. The young man Scott of 10 Deep was a gracious host we wish the whole 10 Deep nothing but success. He was outside often and I don't blame him. I felt like I was in the back of Debo's pigeon coup sweating like a slave © Smokey. It was entirely too hot and TOO MANY DUDES!

After we departed the party the plan was to head to Grimaldi's for some pizza and conversation. However waiting for certain family members who shall remain nameless we just missed their closing time. It was like the scene in Do The Right Thing when the Brownstone owner told Buggin Out he was "born in Brooklyn".



After that disappointing revelation we walked past restaurant after restaurant being turned away until we found a Mexican spot. That's where the drunken banter and all around good times hit a zenith. The following are pictures from the whole night.

Photos by Saviour and myself. (except the Bugging Out pic above)

Jay-Z - Run This Town OFFICIAL VIDEO

Once again...you be the judge.

Ohana - Hawaii to New York pt2

If you've missed the last edition to this I'll bring you up to speed. This segment is basically what inspired/inspires me and helps with my train of thought behind these particular pieces of work for In4mation. It is a lot of fun thinking and working on them. This whole experience has been an epiphany for me. Now I realize that doing things by hand will set one person apart from the others. There are a lot of people that know how to use a computer and the programs along with it but this isn't about their skills on a computer. This is about taking things back and the ability to do so. Not to mention nowadays a lot of the graphics you see are cut and paste and are basically saying nothing at all. All flair but no balls behind it, better yet no brains behind it. I appreciate and respect a persons train of thought when it comes to their art but to see dumb dumb work basically gets me disappointed in those who call themselves graphic designers.

So to start this off I had to go deep into the works of Jim Phillips and Rick Griffin. You've probably seen their work but when it comes to pen & ink they are truly a part of the elite now and especially during the 60's. These are the covers to the books that helped educate me.

Just a few examples of the kind of art I'm talking about. Only one of these is by one of these two artists.

This is one of my favorites. A lot of people may not remember M.A.S.H. the movie let alone the tv series. I swear that was the only thing on tv late at night.

This is really the piece that made me realize the difference in how people create nowadays. So I stopped to think how can i make this relate. I used to love how the goth, punk and skin girls all used to rock this style (or something similar) in high school. Raunchy but sexy I say, so I took it back and decided to redraw this piece and do it all in stipple (all dots no lines).

So far every girl I know loves it. They say it's sexy with out degrading women.

Now this piece only got sampled. It was a great piece sure to strike up conversation. This took so many turns because it started out as a dog walking a man and then it morphed into this dominatrix thing. I just took it even further to make it the lion and the lamb but perverted old man style.

Definitely bummed it didn't make it's way to the stores but it happens!

This next piece is more of what you would've seen back then. I remember that Rhandy and I were discussing the idea of taking it back to the days when this kind of art flooded the old surf/skate scene.

This type style was also inspired by the psychedelic era. It just doesn't have that tripped out feel.

This one if more type treatments and just playing around with it.

This one I have nothing to do with but it's such a good one I couldn't resist to put it up. Rhandy did his thing on this one. Pretty funny and it triggered a bunch of ideas as well.

Looking forward to breaking down next seasons art in the future. For more of the In4mation fall preview check it out here. Peace

Spike Lee and Spinna Tag Team For MJ

If you didn't know what you're doing on August 29th, now you do. Critically Acclaimed Director Spike Lee is paying tribute the King of Pop on his date of birth. The place to be is Ft. Greene Park from 12 noon until 5pm. The heavens will shake as we dance the sun into submission. DJ Spinna will be on the 1s and 2s doing what he does best (controlling the feet of any and all dancers in a 5 block radius).

I'm getting a little leery of so many "lets celebrate Michael" parties. I know he's the greatest and people want to express their love and respect for the man. However there are some out there who are just trying to profit off of his name and I don't respect that. Thus you wont see me at their events. This particular party has me really excited. Spike Lee actually worked with the man while he was alive. He's been a long time fan of Michael and I appreciate him doing something like this at the head of Brooklyn.

So if your a Brooklynite and a MJ fan like me I'll save you a spot in the park to boogie. See you there.

Yesterday's Heros / Today's Homie

In the days of the 90's when I would listen to anything out of Queens rap related groups like Mobb Deep and Capone N Noreaga meant the world to me. I remember getting a cassette copy of the Infamous form my boy Will for my birthday back then. I played that joint OUT. I didn't even know about the CD only song Up North Trip until months later. Those were the days. It was years later that I actually saw Mobb Deep in real life and realized that they were the height of that lil pesky kid on your block.

In 2009 everyone you ever heard of seems to be at arms reach from you. The advent of a software like facebook and twitter has knocked down social walls. In the past cats like Puff (I refuse to call him Diddy now) would only be accessible through television, the studio or the VIP section of a club. Now you can catch him updating daily (if not hourly) on twitter with what's going in his life and where's he gonna be for the night. When I started following Puff on twitter I didn't expect to see him talk about going to the club Santos later on, and then as I'm in line waiting to get in I see his whole crew arrive and sure enough roll right in.(can you believe they aint let me in!) On facebook I get actual messages from the living legend Jamel Shabazz. This is a photographer who's work I've purchased and given to others as gifts. I've had comic book conversations with the rapper/producer Kwame' and discussed politics with Davey D and Harry Allen. Would these conversations be possible pre-Twitter? Probably not. I definitely know they would not happen in the comfort of my own home (as these discussions did).

While there's been a backlash against these types of sites I think it's a case of how you use it. Some people use facebook to stalk folks and put all of their business out on front street. Others use twitter to alert the world of their daily stool rotation. These are things I don't need nor care to know about. However I do wish to know about Police using excessive force in California or Pos from De La detailing his overseas trips and shows. These are things that interest me and therefore I pay attention. The things that bother me I make sure it's misses me.

Ultimately if any of these social networking sites bother you just unfollow, trust me it's easy enough. I wont be logging off anytime soon though, because I just found M.O.P on twitter and they are just a loud and wild online (only with LOL's added which is ....just special).

Old School Mondays

Peace All, bringing you another OSM and as always we like to mix things up a bit. I figured I might as well add some tunes that only have 1 thing in common and that is party people ..... a good time!! Sit back relax and enjoy. Peace

Heavy D & The Boyz "Mr. Big STuff"


KMD "Who Me?"


Diamond D "Best Kept Secret"


Grand Puba "I Like It"


To smooth it out a bit Toto "Africa"


Now to flip it to some other isht Vanh Halen "Hots for Teacher"


Last but not least poses the question "what do you wanna do with your life?"
Twisted Sister "I Wanna Rock"

De La Soul 20 Years High and Rising

Photo's by Shino Yanagawa (iPhone)

At the Nokia theater in New York City a celebration was going on last night. Some would say it was a show but I say a celebration. People from all walks of life came together to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of their album 3 Feet High and Rising. I have to say those boys Pos, Dave and Mase know how to put on a show. I mean when you have Bumpy Knuckles and Buckshot opening up for you, you already know what's up. I walked in on Buckshot's show after talking to a myriad of friends. He was straight killing the stage. The crowd was heavy into his show as he performed jams from the Enta Da Stage album. I was really excited when he did the first verse from his new single with KRS One "Robot". I think the song has a lot of promise (yeah I said promise).

Next up was De La straight from Long Island. Plugs 1,2 and 3 came with it and really showed that they deserve such a long career. The show was full amazing moments assisted by the 10 piece band called the Rhythm Roots All Stars. The executions of songs I'm used to hearing on a CD were flawless. The energy level of these brothers who are all significantly older than me (and many of the new rappers on the scene today)put folks to shame. I particularly loved when they performed the songs Stakes Is High and BUDDY with stage assistance from Ali Shaheed Muhammed along with Dres from Black Sheep.

What was amazing to me is that the real stars of the show were the celebration attendees. The crowd was simply amazing. Thus the pictures chosen for this piece. I was fortunate to have a balcony seat and the view of the crowd rocking during the song "The Grind Date". The scene was mesmerizing. Not to mention when De La performed Rock Box and to add insult to a microphone beat down brought DMC on stage to rip it with them people lost it. Hell I almost jumped out into the crowd from where I was. Even the grand wizard Prince Paul was on deck for the event. You could feel the love in the room and I can count the number of hip hop shows that gave me that type of feeling.



A + show, would view again.

Birthday Bash

I know I'm a bit late with the pics but I wanted to add on to what Dashaun had already posted. This was a good time with a small group and I wouldn't have it any other way. Good tunes thanks to DJ's Tahleim and ITruth and of course the Fam made it even better. Till next year people.

Gamar kicking it with Jon Deus

Gamar, me, Kirk from Expansion NYC, Scott from 10 Deep

and Bluster Roca Fresh of Get Free

Ahhh the MG Fam

Buffalo Soldiers - Rhandy (In4mation) and Scott (10 Deep)

a good laugh over this pic

Ziran always in the mix

Rasheed from Run Athletics came through wich was a pleasant surprise.

Southside Jamaica Queens crew in effect

Gemma and Ziran acting up

Peace to my brothers

Good laughs + good drinks = good times

Dashaun and Mahdi postedup the the wifeys

Tahleim on the 1 & 2's

MG Salute, beer all night long, Vons is the place to be!

Alex stopped through too which was dope, thanks for showing love bro!!

O Doggs to the max

feeling the vibes heavy

the ladies came through

Me, David and Ryan

a little bit of birthday love

ITruth taking over for Tahleim posted up with Ziran

Worst. Summer. Ever.

Remember the summer? No not this summer because this one SUCKED and was nonexistent. I'm talking about summers of the past where we had more than one day of 90 degree weather. When people would go to Ft. Green every Sunday to dance their troubles away to some soulful house music. When there was no need for security at Habana Outpost in Brooklyn.

When my man Shan Boogie had a BBQ for every major holiday filled with lovely ladies, food and fun for all. When clothes had originality on the streets of NY and Summerstage was the ground zero for all things fresh. I haven't gone to ONE Summerstage performance this year and guess what, I'm fine with that. Hell besides the Giant Step show I wasn't moved to see anyone. The Soul Summit party in the park seems to have lost its thunder. The Happy Feet party seemed to constantly be on a night where either there's too much going on or work in the morning. What happened?

Pretty much the whole month of June was a wash...literally. I've only gotten a few good bike rides in. There have been days when I thought about taking a jacket with me, A JACKET! I don't live in San Diego and thus in the summer a jacket should not enter my thoughts at all. So I'm writing this summer off. With a few weeks to go I'm gonna rock out for Labor day and that's about it. Hopefully 2010 will be better.

Oh and Michael Jackson died.

WORST. SUMMER. EVER

Clipse -I'm Good (feat. Skateboard P) Official Video

I told yall before that this is my record. Now here's the official video. The boys did a good job, and I like the fun they are having here. Now lets just get that album to drop on time and with more bangers and all will be fine.

Sav's B-day Throwdown

It's a rare occasion when you can get the old man to come down from the mountain. That's just what happened last Wednesday at Von's Cellar. Dj Tahleim was on the 1 and 2s and the crew was in the house deep. The music of the night was heavy on hip hop which kept the energy high. The drinks were flowing, shots were thrown down and toasts were made. All in the name of one man Saviour who seems all too happy to have so many loved ones in the same vicinity to well wish and represent.

Here's some pictures to capture the moment taken by myself and Shino Yanagawa.
Enjoy...

Old School Mondays

The word for today is FUN! Lets go back to when it was ok to have FUN and still have lyrics. This is what I'm talking about.

This is one of my favorite hip hop songs man. I even tried miserably to do this at hip hop karaoke.


Philly Philly....


This was the jam, once again Philly Philly.


Brooklyn's own Special Ed w/ another banger.

John Forte On Good Day New York (Video)

My brother John Forte, out of jail and active. This video interview of him on Good Day New York is a nice piece in the larger puzzle of his rise back on the scene. The song he performs "Play My Cards For Me" is signature Forte since the I John album to me. Take a look and cop the Style Free EP off of iTunes.

I'm happy to see him happy and doing what he loves free of bars and regret.

Chin Chin - That's Where I'll Be (Official Video)

One of my favorite bands repping Brooklyn has a new video. Chin Chin smooth it out with another record from The Flashing And The Fancing album. I love these guys. Come out to Brooklyn and see them this Tuesday Aug. 11th with TV on the Radio live in Prospect Park.

56 Miles and Riding

Photos by Shino Yanagawa
Words by Dashaun Simmons

This past weekend my man Dan sent out a text for a ride on Saturday. I haven't had a big ride in a while on the ole bike so I was down. The team consisted of Shino and myself, Dan, Hue, Keith and Divine. We met up at Prospect park and after some delay departed to head down Ocean pkwy towards Brighton Beach. However on the way we planned to get some Di Fara but when we saw the double long lines we decided to just get a banana, a water and keep it moving. By this time my other friends Richard and Kris were en route from Bed Stuy to meet us.

Back on the trail of Ocean Pkwy we encountered a group of riders who seemed to be enjoying the day just much as we were. The ride down Ocean Pkwy was scenic, filled with trees and beautiful homes. That's a stretch of Brooklyn that I feel is often missed by most. Once we reached Brighton Beach we made a left at the boardwalk and walked down to the Sheepshead Bay end. This is where Kris and Rich joined our party and we broke out in search of food.



We found a pizza shop under the B train in an area I'd never been in before. The pizza was good and after some sustenance we were off to reach the Belt Pkwy bike path headed towards Queens. This was my first time seeing the actual "Sheepshead Bay". It's a nice area with restaurants and nice homes. It didn't even seem like we were in NY let alone Brooklyn.



Once on the Belt we rode to Canarsie Pier and found a couple of cats flying kites along with a food truck to sell us water and Gatorade. We then continued along the water passing fishermen and small (dirty) beaches passing East New York and leaving the borough. Shino yelled out when she noticed the sign "Welcome To Queens". This was the first time we rode into Queens.

Queens led us to ride up Cross Bay Blvd and head across a bridge to reach Far Rockaway (this is where Kris and Rich got off our crazy ride). Once in Far Rockaway we reached the beach on the west side of the island. As we walked up to the boardwalk after my suggestion to look at their water compared to Coney Island Divine turned to me and said "I'll go in the water if someone goes with me". As we got to the sand I looked out and I couldn't believe that the water was CLEAN! Divine, Shino and all all got in the water and felt so relaxed after a long ride.

After relaxing and talking on a bench for a while we got back on the bikes and rode to the end of the island. Right before getting on the bride we spotted a food truck and got down on some knishes and hot dogs. At this point the sun was setting and you could see all of the riders hitting the bridge to head home. The ride home was sweet and I would do it all over again in a second.

Good Hair Trailer presented by Chris Rock

I'm gonna see this movie on opening day. It looks like it's gonna be a really good film. This is a discussion that's gone on for decades in and outside of the Black community. Good idea Mr. Rock.

Yellow (The Film) Starring Pedro Kim

My homie Pedro Kim has been doing his thing on the film side for a minute now. I respect anyone that is seriously on their grind and now about pulling people down so they can get up. Peter made a big step and moved from NY to Cali recently to fully pursue acting and this is one of the many future projects coming from the boy.

Peep the storay (c) Sonnie Cheeba

Hardcore Gentlemen - Hardcore Gentlemen

The world is missing music like this. Show some love to these cats right here. This is the 15th anniversary of this groundbreaking record. (LOL)

Seriously though cop the album Brooklynatti by Tanya Morgan if you don't already have it. I love the feel of the album. Anyone who's looking for a well crafted hip hop album in these days in times should check these brothers out.

Check the joint.

Old School Mondays

We are going R&B style for this week yall. Lets take a sec to think back...

Caron Wheeler - Living In The Light


Loose Ends - Hanging On A String


The Family Stand - Ghetto Heaven

Cuba Libre

I just recently copped this album and I have it on repeat.
Just peep it and groove cause this type of sound is classic.
This is a single off his album "Agua del Pozo"