| April 6th, 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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A few nights ago, New York City was blessed with the presence of one of the greats in reggae music, Grammy award winning, Sean Paul.
For the last decade he’s been pumping out tune after tune to keep the party live. I had the pleasure of hanging out with SP for 2 nights dashing around from club to club as he sent the crowds into a frenzy.
With a fresh new “Duttyhawk” he delivered a set of his classic tunes from Manhattan to Long Island to Queens at one point jumping on stage with the legendary Shabba Ranks . I wanted to document this journey and here are some of the results… I don’t want to reveal too many of them, but stay tuned to Sean Paul’s site, I’m sure that you’ll be seeing some of the incredible footage that I shot of him ripping the stage.
To read more of this post and see more exclusive images of Sean Paul, please visit We Resist Simple. POSTED IN Resist Simple, Recent Shoots | COMMENT (1) |
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#RIPBIG… Absolutely! But… way before twitter trending topics… this game was a lot different. There was a real feeling of building something that was uniquely ours! People wanted each other to win, there was a different spirit in the industry. It somehow meant a lot more in 1995, especially in New York City when Big held the crown. I remember the thick air outside of Bad Boy on 19th street and 5th avenue, music blaring out of the maroon Land Cruiser or Benz, people milling around waiting to hit the clubs, puttin’ it in the air, it was a great moment in history. The movie “Notorious” touched on it a bit, but it was always grimier, less polished and had a real presence. When Big was around you, you knew you were in the presence of greatness. I wonder where the game would be today if he was still with us. Who would be on top? Would some who have risen to fame and glory actually be working for UPS like Biggie mentioned in his famous line in Flava in Ya Ear “You’re mad cuz my style you’re admiring, don’t be mad UPS is hiring”… It’s interesting to think about it all. But we know that everything happens for a real reason… POSTED IN Resist Simple | COMMENT (1)
One of the strongest design teams that have been assembled in recent history within current urban culture has to be Jason Noto and Doug Cunningham at Morning Breath Inc.
Pushing the design borders out of what is accepted and safe, these two break all the rules, a characteristic that I always applaud and appreciated greatly. Their vision is unique in the design world I feel and they are only pushing harder to do “their own thing” in all cases. POSTED IN Resist Simple, Personal Projects | NO COMMENTS Recently I was introduced by my best friend Dan to a restaurant in the West Village on Waverly called Joseph Leonard. At the time, a new spot that had just opened by restaurateur Gabriel Stulman, an associate & good friend of my friend Dan. We went for dinner that evening and I have to say that the ambience was incredible… small, cozy, “lived in” (despite being brand new), personal with delicious food and Tanqueray’s and tonics flowing (I may have snuck in a rum and a glass of wine as well, but don’t tell anyone). During appetizers, I realized that the owner, Gabe, and I had met before and shared a love for hip hop. Bellied up to the bar, for dinner, my seat of choice in any restaurant, not a fan of tables for some reason, we spoke at length about the state of affairs of the music industry and where we thought it was heading. While MOS DEF pumped through the speakers in the restaurant, we reminisced about the good old days: Big Daddy Kane, Slick Rick, and The DOC. The vibe was great, a classic night out in NYC. I think that the 3 of us closed the place down that night but agreed that we would do it again soon… a great meal, top beverages and intellectual conversation. POSTED IN Resist Simple, Recent Shoots, Personal Projects | COMMENTS (2) I’m going to keep this entry brief because everyone already knows how badass this guy is. It is with extreme honor that I call this man my friend. I have on a number of occasions spent time with him working, creating images for various clients (NIKE, 24 Hour Fitness & FRS), as well as kicking it out on the town (NYC, Austin). Probably the most unassuming living legend of them all… easy going, real, honest, generous and funny as hell, he is the first to raise a glass to toast to the good life. The term… “Living the Dream” was written for him! POSTED IN Resist Simple | NO COMMENTS Back in 1998 I had the privilege to photograph the members of Cash Money Records for the cover of XXL magazine. Juvenile, BG, Turk, Baby, Manny Fresh, Slim and the youngest of the click… Lil Wayne, at that point about 15 years old. At that moment, Juvenile was the lead man with the incredible tune “HA” that introduced a new sound to the world (The Jay-Z remix was in heavy rotation for a year at least). That would only be the beginning for Cash $ as Manny Fresh laced the beats for the crew for years to come. POSTED IN Resist Simple | COMMENT (1) Back for another installment of the We Resist Simple campaign. This time Jonathan lets us behind the scenes of his shoot with legendary tattoo artist Mr. Cartoon.Check out an excerpt of the blog below…… “Hands down, one of the realest dudes in the game, Mr. Cartoon (tattoo artist, artist, branding genius, low riding fool) came to visit the east coast as he was doing a little promo piece for Metro PCS. I asked him if I could photograph him while he was here. Their team carved out a minute from his hectic schedule of lacing people with ink to get a little press and publicity on. It proved to be a very memorable session, well, 2 day session actually, 3 as a matter of fact….”
To see more please check out We Resist Simple.com Posted by Alexis Bobbitt POSTED IN Resist Simple | COMMENT (1) POSTED IN Resist Simple, Dedications | COMMENT (1) Please check out new post on Jonathan’s trip to Jamaica now live on the We Resist Simple blog.Here is a small excerpt from the entry: “On a breezy Saturday afternoon at Café Noir downtown NYC with the smoothest set of Reggae courtesy of my friend Liondub lifting up the vibes, my longtime assistant and great friend Thanis said to me, “You have to photograph artists in Jamaica, it’s such a big passion of yours.” He added that if I didn’t arrange it by the end of April ‘09 that he would “punch me in the face”… he was serious. Needless to say, I took the warning and booked our flights, along with one for one of the greatest graphic designers in the business Rebecca Meek and we were off to Kingston.
I spent the next few days photographing some of the greatest artists in Jamaica today… Sly Dunbar, Cutty Ranks, Glen Browne, The Mystical Revelation of Rastafari, Muta Baruka, Mbala & ????. I was also blessed to shoot with Gene Pearson, an unbelievable sculptor who makes beautiful clay masks… …We’ll be back to continue the project and uplift the real pioneers of Reggae and Dub.”
POSTED IN Resist Simple | NO COMMENTS
Welcome to the “DIME” good people! The beginning of a new decade… 2010. May we all be blessed, inspired and fulfilled throughout the year! Health, wealth and joy! I was recently asked by Tanqueray and Team Epiphany to join an amazing collection of creative minds and become a part of their groundbreaking blog WeResistSimple.com! It is with great pleasure that I join this incredible roster of people, such as Vashtie, Dao-Yi Chow, Coltrane Curtis, Eddie Cruz, Hill Harper, Sal Masekela and many others who have been carefully chosen to represent “US” and what it means to Resist Simple. By “US” I mean the culture that is one of the most colorful, focused and powerful people in the universe: musicians, designers, actors… In a word, ARTISTS, and resisting simple is exactly that, not doing the minimum or most basic job, but rather rising to any challenge and setting the bar high within your field all the while creating things of real beauty and importance for the world to enjoy. Click here to read more on www.weresistsimple.com POSTED IN Resist Simple, Press | NO COMMENTS |
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