MURK’D is a monthly event showcasing the best in Miami’s local music and art scenes. One month they focus on performances, and the next month they focus on art. This month, the art focus will fall into place via the aptly themed “Live Fast, Die Fresh” show going down this Thursday May 29, 2008 at PS14 in Downtown Miami.  According to one of the show’s organizers, Parable, they wanted to “bring a gallery show to a music venue and incorporate the live music element while having art available and accessible.” Besides the traditional art pieces that tend to appear at an art show; you can expect easily affordable pieces via the cleverly conceived “Art Fleamarket.” Read on as Parable dives into the inner-workings of what makes “Murk’d” and a couple words by one of the night’s featured artists, PointTooSicks. And check out a few of the featured pieces of artwork from the show at the bottom of this article.   

A Call and Response by Noelle Theard and Works from the permanent collection by Richard Davenport. A series of photographs by Richard Davenport, from the Miami Dade Public Library’s Permanent Collection, depicting black barbershops in Miami during the early 1980s, is juxtaposed with new photographs by Miami photojournalist and documentarian Noelle Théard for the second installment of the Library’s Call and Response Series

Noelle Theard is a very talented photographer that I had the pleasure of meeting some time ago while doing an interview of her for 305 Magazine. Her style oozes classic journalism but is also mixed with an aura of hip-hop and an understanding of struggle. That’s the best way I can explain it. I ran into the slideshow above when I visited her myspace. Its an interesting collection of photos as she revisits and re-photographs the same barbershops that photographer Robert Davenport snapped pictures of 26 years earlier.

While many might just see this project from the outside and just see old barbershops – I remember Noelle just explained so well that these barbershops represent life in its most innocent form. From seeing a father take his son to get his first haircut in the very same chair that he [the father] would cut his hair as a child does perpetuate a great deal of meaning. Well, the pictures can only speak for themselves.

I am pretty sure that Noelle portion of the series is part of the permanent collection at the Main Library in Downtown Miami, but I am currently unsure. If you want me to find out, you can email me at miamihiphop@gmail.com and I’ll happily point you in the right direction. Or you can even contact Noelle @ www.noelletheard.com

If you went by Downtown Miami this weekend, you may have noticed something to the extent of 2,500 tombstones placed on the lawns of Bayfront Park in Downtown Miami. Arlington Miami as its called was originally set up for Veterans Day 2007, but was revived and reinstalled for Memorial Day 2008. The video above is telling and pretty much paints a vivid picture of the purpose of the site, as well as the looming emotion that the site encompasses.

A remarkable cemetery springs up in downtown Miami overnight: thousands of tombstones — one for each American soldier killed in Iraq. A tribute to fallen US soldiers in Iraq. Loved ones, fellow soldiers and passers by are moved to tears by the power of this simple act, created by members of Democracy for America Miami and Miami Veterans for Peace. Filmmakers document the powerful impact of this ephemeral monument on the community.

Click below to see some pictures (Photos By Dro)

It’s been a turbulent year for Trick Daddy, one in which saw the Miami rapper depart from his long-time home, Slip-N-Slide Records. In this SOHH exclusive, the southern hip-hop staple opens up about leaving Slip-N-Slide, his new deal with Cash Money and why Trick still loves the kids.

Some people hate it. Some people love it. And some are just in between. Discuss what you think about Lupe Fiasco’s newest album, The Cool. READ AND DISCUSS BY CLICKING HERE

Lupe Fiasco
The Cool
© 2007 Atlantic Records
Review By Chris Willman for Entertainment Weekly (EW.Com)

Grade: A -

Last year, Lupe Fiasco set himself apart from the rap pack with a debut full of brainy, Kanye-style positivity, including a laid-back skateboarding anthem, ”Kick, Push.” You might wonder what happened to that guy if you’ve read how his follow-up, The Cool, is a concept album about gangsta life. But in truth, only four songs address that story line — thankfully leaving the bulk of this CD to instead indulge in Fiasco’s divergent themes and musical explorations.

Want self-righteous anger? See ”Dumb It Down,” where he imitates fellow rappers and white execs urging him to get crass (”Pour champagne on the b—- !” he bellows satirically). Want blistering social commentary? Check out ”Little Weapon,” which conflates videogame violence with the real stuff. Want wistfulness? ”Fighters” laments that ”when the fighters are all around, all the lovers are underground.” Want bubblegum? Head to the album’s climax, the goofy, girl-crazy ”Go Baby Go.”

Sonically, he’s got the same kind of gratifying ADD going on. Some tracks, like ”Paris, Tokyo,” contrast his Twista-style rapid-fire delivery with a lazy rhythm that’s close to smooth jazz. ”Hello/Goodbye,” at the other extreme, has U.K. electro outfit U.N.K.L.E. providing a tense rock feel. Fiasco’s wide-ranging pop instincts rarely fail him, even on the few cuts that are steeped in the street-life narrative. It turns out randomness makes for a surprisingly unifying concept

Angela Melaku aka Angel Lola Luv

Click Here To Go To Her Myspace

Ever get stuck in Downtown with no change for the parking meter? Ever get screwed by one of those blue parking receipt dispensers? Well here’s your answer to all those problems..

Not sure if this is a new thing, but its definitely new to us. The City Of Miami have these “Pay By Phone” stickers plastered on meters in Downtown/Overtown advertising this new service where you enter your meter ID and pay via credit card over the phone system. I mean with payphones being extinct and SunPass lanes spreading like herpes – pretty soon, there’s gonna be no need for carrying loose change. Oh yeah and check out my award winning photography. Never has a parking meter looked so good…

America’s favorite booty apparently has a blog now via www.officialkimkardashian.com. I ran into a couple photos from a couple of her trips to Miami, one being of the picture below and the others from a cruise around Biscayne Bay on a seemingly expensive yacht. If you want to see those, click below. Be fair warned, they seem like they were taken with a cheap little digital camera, so don’t expect award-winning imagery.

[Editors Note: And for those ailing in pain reading this post, I told ya'll a couple days ago to not fuck with me when I post shit about Alicia Keys, Esther Baxter and Kim Kardashian. Its a small price to pay for an ad-free blog, ya dig? ]

This is the formula that I think Garcia’s been looking for. I hate to call it “formula”, but you know what I mean. Adrianne on the vocals, Garcia on the rhymes and ya boy Plex Luther on the production. I see big things a comin’.

WHO IS “THE DYSFUNCT”?

Adrianne: Award winning LA-based singer-songwriter…. A voice that is uniquely beautiful, passionate and moving and songs that go straight for the truth – Music that undeniably fills an emotional void in those that come across it. Garcia: Award winning Miami-based MC…. Two critically acclaimed albums under his belt – featured on MTV, TLC, XXL, The Source, URB and tons of other media outlets…. Voted one of the best lyricists to come out of Miami. Adrianne & Garcia: Cuban-American cousins unite to form The Dysfunct - an eclectic blend of Alternative Hip-Hop / Pop / Rock sounds. With Intensely personal lyrics, emotion, attitude and two distinct approaches to creating heartfelt music!

Direct Link To Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgORWQWv7ko

Kornbread got next! Straight out of the Team Pitbull camp, we want to introduce you to Kornbread. Here’s his new song entitled “Luv A Hata” that has an accompanying Myspace campaign to go along with it. Visit Kornbread’s Myspace to see what we mean. Do it by clicking here

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Better late than never. Here’s a classic LP by one of Miami’s most adored soul sensations, Gwen McCrae. And for the “real” hip-hop heads, I’m sure you’ll love track 1 as it is the original sample source for Blahzay Blahzay’s “Danger”. This is definitely one of those old school feel good soul albums.

Within the last couple weeks I’ve been hearing more and more about these guys from Chicago called The Cool Kids. They’ve been given all sorts of compliments, but everyone summarizes them as just being “different”. So my question is, are they good different? Or bad different? Well, somebody sent me their new song “Miami Beach” from their new album The Bake Sale, which is out on May 20th. The verdict: they did exactly what I predicted what somebody that was labeled as “different” would do. They made a song called “Miami Beach” that does not have anything to do with Miami or Miami Beach. I mean they’re good for what they do and the song isn’t bad, but I don’t see the Miami connection with the title…if there is one. Either way, enjoy…

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Note: Actually, let me take that back. Maybe the production sounds a little Miami-ish, but besides that, I’m not sure what to look for here. If any of ya’ll know, send me an email: miamihiphop@gmail.com

Keeping it within the “gray” theme, here’s a throwback from Khaled from two years ago. This is the video for “Grammy Family” off his Listennn album. I think the video is dope and most of ya’ll probably didn’t notice that Def Jam told Kanye that he couldn’t recite his verse on the video – only the hook. So yeah, lisssstennnn…

Being a photographer myself, I can truly appreciate another photographer’s great images. And this is definitely a great image, featuring the always beautiful Angelica Curves in a very World War II themed shoot. The shot was perfectly executed, from the lighting, to the composition and to the model’s expression and pose. Props to Benhur on this one. This photo is actually from a series taken of Angelica for DJ Laz’s Sexy Girls of Miami Calendar. You can purchase the calendar by visiting:

www.sexygirlsofmiami.com

Mr. Bang Bang Bang is back. John Witherspoon is performing all this weekend at the Miami Improv from May 15th through May 18th. A total of 7 shows.

I think what’s funnier than anything, is that John actually owns the domain www.bangbangbang.com

For more information click here

You know, as you get more familiar with this blog and my posts (DRO). You’re gonna notice three trends.

1) I love me some Alicia Keys
2) I love me some Kim Kardashian
3) And, I especially love me some Esther Baxter

So, through all the regular posts that I do, you gotta bare with me for an occasional post about one of the above ladies. Aiight?

This video above is an interview of Esther Baxter conducted by DJ Vlad. Good Lord. Why can’t all women look like this? This is seriously my ideal women. That is all. You can all go back to your regularly scheduled program

Rick Ross, The Boss, finally goes gold with Trilla after 9 weeks out. His third single featuring Nelly should be making the rounds to commercial radio stations within the next couple weeks and will hopefully bring Trilla towards Platinum status in the next couple months. Congrats to Ross, Poe Boy and the whole Slip-N-Slide fam…

UPDATE 5:50PM: So, XXL Magazine released the cover of their July 2008 issue featuring a shirtless Ross along with the rest of the Miami Rat Pack. I’m sure this will really hit hard over the next week or so. Thanks to Rob for posting!

Click Here to view the comments on The305.Com Forums

New Ghostwridah track featuring Shawty Lo (the “hello” guy). Ghostwridah hails from South Miami (yes, that’s a city and “not” an area of Dade County). Expect a good year for Ghost, as this is only the beginning. Oh yeah, and photo above was taken by yours truly…Droski.

Ghostwridah featuring Shawty Lo – Born And Raised

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Download: Click Here

Here are a couple photos we ran into in an old issue of The Source from a couple years back. I think it was an issue from sometime in 2005. Well, to our surprise we found that the wardrobe for the below models was supplied by Ft. Lauderdale based Amaya Swimwear. You can check them out at www.amayaswimwear.com. And fellas, something from Amaya would definitely be a good look for that special lady in your life. Look out for a more detailed overview of Amaya Swimwear within the next couple weeks, here on The305.Com.

Ryan Leslie has slowly been creeping up to “buzz worthy” status as of late. You may be familiar with his production work, as he is the founder of NextSelection. You know, the same NextSelection that brought us Cassie and many of her songs, as well a thread of songs by Beyoncé, Britney Spears, JoJo, Nina Sky, Danity Kane, Diddy, Snoop Dogg, Donell Jones, Katharine McPhee, New Edition, One Chance, B5, Cheri Dennis and others. Well here Ryan Leslie goes as he is pursuing his own solo career. The song is incredibly produced with many layers of instrumentation that perfectly compliment each other. And below we have the remix that features the man of the week, Kanye West (I promise that this will be the last Kanye-related post for a while). Let us know what you think, send emails to miamihiphop@gmail.com

Ryan Leslie – Diamond Girl

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The days are counting down till the beautiful and the soulful Alicia Keys comes down to the American Airlines Arena for her concert on Sunday May 25th. Who’s Going? Send us an email to miamihiphop@gmail.com

In celebration of the highly successful Iron Man movie, I thought it’d be cool to put you on to a book written by the Toney Starks that a lot of us in the hip-hop world are more familiar with. The World According To Pretty Toney, adapted from the popular MTV commercial segments, was released last Winter, but received little attention and barely any press. It was published by MTV Press.

Ghostface definitelyisn’t a comedian, but he does bring up a couple do’s and don’ts that all of us should adhere to if we wanna make it through another day. And its broken down into a couple chapters that include:

I. Livin
II. Bobbin’ & Wearin’
III. Wisdom
IV. The Hustlers Diet
V. Toneology

The Huster’s Diet is especially funny because it involves dozens of variations of recipes that all share the same “main ingredient”. Its definitely a good coffee table book, even for the pictures alone which are taken by the super-talented Dave Hill. And plus, you got Donnell Rawlings (aka Ashy Larry from Chappelle Show) playing model on some of the photographs. Here are a couple previews. Don’t forgot to buy at Amazon.

This shirt is fresh. We definitely had to post it for ya’ll to see. Cop that!

From Like Mike Clothing / Bean Dip

It can be purchased by visiting: www.likemikeclothing.com