I’m one of the guys on the east coast who stayed up and watched Tyler tweet the countdown until the debut of his new video for his track “Yonkers” dropped.

Odd Future. These guys are like…well, they’re like nothing else, really. My man Thiz wrote about Tyler and his cohorts for Madbury a while back, and the article was being discussed at great length in the cozy dorming quarters of Ope and my man Tobi somewhere on University of Maryland’s College Park campus. No joke, I was there and witnessed it. The power of the internet is undeniable. I say that to say this: these young abrasive Californians have talent mixed with a few other things that make them stand out like a fat guy at an eating disorder clinic. Watch below, and then do some research on Tyler and the rest of the Odd Future family. Their video are especially crazy. Like, crazy. But yeah, watch.

Oh yeah, and don’t think I forgot about their show in DC on Monday. I’ll be there, suckers. Let’s go.

I just noticed that while I watch all these “Jabari Presents” episodes, I never post them! Here’s his latest, with American pop/electric/cool-ass band 2AM Club. My man Dan Weisman put me on these guys a while back, but one of my readers (Christopher Grant, what up!) hit me a couple days ago and told me to check them out, so I obliged and purchased their What Would You Think Would Happen? album. They got some jams, and Jabari’s interview dropped at a perfect time for their message to resonate with me. Check it out.

Glad to see Jabari grabbing a diverse group of folks to put the spotlight on. I’d YouTube the rest of the Jabari Presnts series, and look out for his BET web series, coming soon.

Nobody in DC raps better than Fat Trel. Nobody in DC makes a cleaner hood video than 1st Impressions Studio.

Now that you’ve got both of those facts straight, I invite you to see Northeast DC’s most popular fool in his environment. Goodness. If this isn’t gutta gutta, I don’t know what is. I’ve been campaigning for this guy to take over the city for a while now (read my post about him here), and it looks like things are finally starting to look up! I smell a major label situation of some sort coming. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

You know I’m probably Fam-Lay‘s biggest supporter. Ever. This is my favorite joint he’s put out recently, but Fam…where’s the album at!?

“I will put you up in something that you can’t get out of / got n****s makin’ money, shootin’ guns and sniffin’ powder.”

Goodness. So raw.

Kendrick Lamar is the best rapper out right now. I didn’t say he had the best project, or is the best in a certain lane (mainstream, underground, etc.), I said he is the best rapper out right now. I don’t have any time for debates or conversations, because they’re pointless. Watch this damn video. Get ready to full screen this b*tch, get out your seat, and start doing that dance Yung Joc did in “It’s Goin’ Down” because this joint cranks.

Don’t wuwwy.

I don’t blog much anymore, but when the people who made me the people I am do something big, I gotta support.

Hip Hop Update was like the first big stamp I had in the blog world, no joke. They respected my site for what it was. Not even just the music, either. The writing, too! They appreciated that, and even allowed me to collabo on a project with them. I can’t tell you how much that meant to me. Even triller, I know J.D. (its founder) in real life, and we take New York over when I come back into town. Ask him, don’t take my word.

That’s neither here nor there. This is probably the best interview they’ve done, and it’s with Childish Gambino, otherwise known as comedian/director/artist/everything else creative in the world Donald Glover. If you’re familiar with my site, you already know how I feel about the guy. I think his mixtape Culdesac was one of the biggest surprises as far as the stuff I listen to. I’ve been a fan since his earlier tapes, but this joint was full of original production and even showcased some awesome vocal ability. All from a guy who you never knew could make music like that. My man Taylor, a HHU correspondent, went in on this video interview, so I figured I’d share with my readers and supporters who appreciate this guy’s musical talent. Enjoy.

If you need a starter’s guide, check my posts here and here.

One day in early August I got an e-mail from Trent and Walker, two ambitious filmmakers hailing from Sin City (that’s Vegas for anybody who just completely missed that), explaining that they’d be making a documentary on Eli Porter, the rapper famous for his unintentionally hilarious YouTube video which I blogged about and did play-by-play commentary a couple years ago.

They told me they wanted to interview me, and were flying to DC to do exactly that. I didn’t really believe it, but I figured I had nothing to lose, so I sent out my contact info and gave them the address to where I’d be around Friday, the day when they said they’d get in. I thought nothing of it until my phone rang a week later on that Friday evening and they said they were five minutes away.

Wowzers. I was over at my man Greenwood‘s house for another epic gathering that I put together with some friends (you don’t believe me!? The video footage from that event was documented here. All from that party. That’s just how I do it in DC. Don’t sleep on us, please!), and before they called, I had completely forgot that I had told them to fall through. Five minutes later, these guys were up in Greenwood’s house, enjoying the wild party atmosphere outside for a quick second before getting down to business.

Yep. It looked like that. Anyway, they mic’d me up (like all those wires and stuff you see in that behind the scenes footage! It was cool.) and we sought refuge upstairs, somewhere much quieter to talk to me about the viral video that moved them enough to dedicate the last year of their lives following Eli Porter, the Iron Mic Freestyle champion.

I won’t go into much detail, because I don’t know what I can spill and what I can’t. I do know that we talked for about an hour or so about other viral video superstars, about the video’s impact on the world, and whether or not to take him seriously. At the end of the day, he’s an actual person with a real dream, and I can respect that. I was blown away by the in-depth research that Trent and Walker did, both on me (and trust me, there’s not much to know about me) and on viral videos in general. I respect their hard work and dedication; the guys were so damn cool. I’m still surprised that they came all the way to DC because of a damn blog post I did. They told me that it was the play-by-play commentary that had them dying, and although the breakdown was kinda hilarious (shout out to my roommate from college and best friend, Ricardo aka @InternetGoon for watching that video like 100 times with me while we shoulda been doing homework), it was pretty thorough. I found pretty much everything ridiculous in it and wrote about it in detail. Click the link if you don’t believe me.

I say all that to say this: these guys are working hard, man. The documentary is shaping up, and they really have been following Eli around like celebrity stalkers/paparazzi. In a good way, though. They just dropped this extended trailer today, and I figured I’d share it with you guys. I’m in it, as are some e-contemporaries:

- Jay Smooth of illdoctrine.com/​ (twitter.com/​jsmooth995)

- Andy Milonakis (twitter.com/​andymilonakis)

- Jeff and Eric Rosenthal of itsthereal.com/​ (twitter.com/​itsthereal)

- Rafi Kam & Dallas Penn of internetscelebrities.com/​
(twitter.com/​rafikam & twitter.com/​DPZ4Reezy)

So yeah, here it is! Enjoy.

INFLUENCERS is a short documentary that explores what it means to be an influencer and how trends & creativity become contagious today in music and fashion.

Directed by Paul Rojanathara and Davis Johnson, the film is a Polaroid snapshot of New York influential creatives (advertising, design, fashion and entertainment) who are shaping today’s pop culture.

Looks pretty cool, but I wish we could see influencers in other industries, like in agriculture, or in medicine. Or even if that concept of an influencer even exists in those spaces.

This joint is just crispy as hell, so it deserves to be blogged. CRISPY. Song is nice, video quality is just crispy. I said it three times because it’s that crispy. My goodness. My girl Heather Rene is the “video vixen” in it, and I didn’t even realize it until the third time I watched it. She looks like a star there, and now her move to LA makes so much more sense to me. It looks like she’s about to make it.

Check her out. Maryland representers unite. I wish her success. Check her life progress (aka her trill Tumblr page) here. And when you start seeing her in magazines and such, don’t say I didn’t call it early.

Grab Paris Jones’ mixtape here, which features the song.

I’ve always been opposed to dress clothes. I don’t care if Halle Berry told me that she’d let me hold her hand down Rodeo Ave. if I put on a seer sucker or a three-piece. I can’t go for that, like that Hall & Oates song. Oftentimes, I’d debate fashion with those who have made the culture their lives (such as stylists, designers, etc.), explaining that I just wear what I want to wear, and clothes don’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Most of my close friends don’t have any particularly awesome sense of style, and I don’t judge people based on what they’re wearing. Ever. That’s why you’ll never see me blog about what to wear. That’s not my place to tell you what to do.

I still feel like that, and fashion isn’t my thing. I have my own tastes, but that’s really where it stops. I do, however, appreciate those who respect fashion for more than its aesthetic offering. People like my man Adrian, or the dudes over at Street Etiquette, or Phil and the Madbury Club team, my guy Dizzy. Those guys will talk your ear off about some fashion, but it’s cool because it’s not just because it looks cool. There’s history, there’s meaning and purpose, and there’s strategy!

I say all that to say this: Put This On has by far the trillest web series in the game. They’re only three episodes deep, and there are huge gaping holes of time in between when this team drops them, but they’re always worth the wait. They pretty much do exactly what I just talked about as far as fashion. The dude who is in the videos looks like he’s in his 30′s, but their videos apply to pretty much every adult with their own money to buy their own clothes and who want to know the basics of fashion that nobody ever talks about. That’s probably their exact demographic. Ladies, unfortunately this caters to males more so than the females (as far as I’ve seen in their stuff, anyway), but the production and the approach to the entire culture of clothing, as well as the way it’s all depicted makes this episode of Put This On worthy of viewing. Check it out. After listening to my man Paul Fieg (Mad Men, 30 Rock, Arrested Development, Freaks & Geeks...should I go on?) talk about why he dresses up for work, I quickly scrolled through my phone to see if I still had Halle’s digits. Enjoy.

Check their older videos and blog at PutThisOn.com.