GrimeTown at it again - Illite Mc - Trolling Video

My first encounter with the GrimeTown collective was back in 2010 when I met two of its members at a sneaker art exhibition held at Monks concept store, Ves and Mr Makonga, this was a few weeks after I started this Sneak-Peak blog. Fast forward to 2012 I discovered more members from this collective such as now former GrimeTown member Mandisi Lean (Audio and visual artist, founder of W.A.T.E.R clothing brand and music composer) and  One-L (Well known for his epic battle against Tumi from the Volume at Scrambles for Money).

GrimeTown boasts one more wordsmith of note known as Illite Mc from a group called Revivolution aka Revivo, he just dropped this video of his song is titled Trolling, directed by GrimeTown pictures and edited by Mr Makonga.

Flying with the Eagle to STR.CRD

A couple of days ago Sneak-Peak got a pleasant email from Fish Eagle Brandy and it went a little something like this "Ayo Sneak-Peak the streets been saying all sorts great things bout you and that your thee platform to reach out to when a big commercial brand like us wishes to reach out to the streets", well they didn't really say it like that but that was the idea. Fish Eagle Brandy has decided to reach out to SA street culture by being part of the main sponsors of the most anticipated street culture event in Africa that we all know as STR.CRD 2012.

A lot of Sneak-Peakers will be glad to learn that Fish Eagle Brandy is giving away double tickets to STR.CRD 2012 via a quick and easy application procedure on their sites, all you got to do follow these easy 3 steps:

1.     1.   Go to www.fisheagle.co.za and sign up to Eagle Air (or login if already a member).

2.     2.   Go to the events tab at the top of the page and find the STR.CRD party.

3.      3.  Click Get me on board to RSVP

For the twitter streets, we got you by also giving you a chance to also scoop up double tickets to STR.CRD 2012 by simply letting us know how you intend on looking fresh for STR.CRD by mentioning @FishEagleBrandy and using the hash tag #StayFly4STRCRD, the best part about this is that Fish Eagle will also be giving away a pair the limited Nike Air Yeezy 2s at STR.CRD on the 29th of September 2012. For greater things to come like Fish Eagles Facebook page and be on the know about their "Sneaker-themed September".

Sneak-Peaking the Play Griffin Session

Last year saw the rebranding of what was an ordinary energy drink that transformed its image into one that has become synonymous to South African street culture. Play Energy Drink launched its recent orange griffin logo last year through diverse marketing avenues and later established a group of veterans in South African urban street culture known as the Play Heroes.

The Play Heroes consist of ten characters that supposedly represent various sectors of South African street culture, consisting of DJ Kenzhero (A great in Hip-Hop DJ fraternity), Wandile and Wireless G (Team Thesis), Nick Kaoma (Co-Founder of Head Honcho wear), Andile Cele (founder of DOPE store and wear), DJ Akio (Founder of KOL and Collide-A-Scope records), Tshidiso Maduna and Girland Masola (Team 1808) and lastly Max Mogale (Photographer of note)

I attended the first day of the 2 day Play Griffin Session held at the Bus factory in Newtown and what I found most interesting about the event was the rather compromised attendance. The event was well commercially marketed and had 10 of the supposed street culture heroes marketing the event in their personal level. What concerns me is the fact that 10 of the supposed street heroes failed to at least lure ten thousand people to the event on that day (that’s 1000 people each) and these are meant to be our street culture heroes?!?!. I am not one to hate on fellow street cultured individuals however I feel that we should re-assess who our true street heroes are, is it the people we see on TV, Street culture veterans or the kids walking and living in the streets on a daily? Without sounding overly critical, let’s enjoy this Sneak-Peaking Play Griffin Session video clip.

What the Nike Air Yeezy 2 means to us

#AIRYEEZY2ZA has been that hash tag that’s been making great waves on SA twitter streets, The much anticipated Air Yeezy 2 finally drops internationally today 09/06/12, Kanye West’s gift to the world a day after his birthday.

The much anticipated Air Yeezy 2 is only exclusively dropping at Cape Town for the South African market at one of the most credible and cultured sneaker hubs, ShelfLife.  The Nike Air Yeezy 2 is going for a recommended price of R3, 000, 00 a pair. We would assume that the Yeezy 2s are only dropping in Cape Town this time due to the Cape arguably being the capital of SA sneaker-culture and there not being any existing cultured Nike sneaker outlet in Joho since Nike Gallery on 4^th.

The @NSWZA team  (Nike Sports Wear South Africa) have done a commendable initiative by giving the larger public an opportunity to get their hands on this exclusive kick through its online RSVP queuing system that went live yesterday 08/06/12. This scored a selected few a queuing ticket to purchase only one pair of Yeezy 2s between sizes US6 – 14 on a first come and first serve basis.

The great number of tweets, Facebook status and BBM DPs dedicated on to the Yeezy 2 drops got a lot of people dropping me BBM messages (pin 29593227) and tweets asking “What is so special about this shoe?”. I felt obliged to let all understand the essence of the hype around the drop of this exclusive sneaker:

First and foremost, it should be understood that what each sneaker-head purchases when they cop a new sneaker is not the material but the culture that the sneaker’s amazing aesthetics symbolise. This has been a  sentiment that has long been held in the sneaker-culture, from a wave of kids filling Madison square garden and holding up their Adidas sneaker when Run DMC  performed their hit song *My Adidas* a song that symbolised rebellion to social standards, to Nike Air Jordan kicks worn at every B-Ball court and ghetto streets by those who aspired to be as great as Jordan thinking they’d run faster and jump higher with those on, to exclusive finds that symbolise one’s individuality and great affiliation to a certain sub-culture or sporting code.

The Air Yeezy 2 is undoubtedly not the most aesthetically appealing exclusive drop by Nike, but is most definitely the most anticipated; this could simply and honestly be explained by the fact that they are Kanye West’s sneakers. The epitome of the hype around Yeezy 2 is well explained by a Kanye line in a track titled *Heard em say* “Things we see on screens s’not ours but these niggas from the hood, so these dreams aint far”. In essence the Nike Air Yeezy 2 is that aesthetically appealing reminder to the streets not to betray themselves and keep keeping on till they get what they deserve, these dreams are not afar, cause one of those whom we identify ourselves with proved so.

So when you see a fellow sneaker-head with any sneaker that is meaninful to them; recognise and CELEBRATE TRADITION.