Hip hop, you've come a long way, baby! The long-player debut from New York City mic trio Northern State is a fresh and unexpectedly captivating entry in the hip-hop game. "All City" will remind those old enough of the Beastie Boys' arrival during the early mainstream commercial years of hip hop that followed the success of Run DMC back in the mid 1980's.

That there are three Beastie Boys and three gals in Northern State, and that they're white, makes drawing superficial comparisons all the more obvious and mostly unfair. In important ways, the two groups are world's apart--not only are they seperated by a generation, Northern State are from the leafy, faraway suburbs whereas the Beasties came from downtown New York City at a time when much of it was a rough and scary place.

But a closer listen to Northern State reveals a few similarities (at most) in lyrical flow and delivery such that these few turns on the mic could arguably read as homage to Adrock, MCA and Mike D. But you could find equal similarities to Mos Def or Beans if you listen carefully enough. The truth is, as with most artists, the music made is directly or indirectly a tribute to everything the artists have ever heard and loved--and Northern State came of age loving hip hop in a big way.

Northern State is Hesta Prynn, Spero and Sprout--three college-educated mid-twenties suburban spawn from Long Island who've most definitely got the skillz to pay the bills. Yet, at first look, they seem the least likely candidates to drop a hip hop record that gracefully rises above novelty or worse, white-girl rap cheesiness. But rise above they do. The beats be real, the lyrics tight and smart. The attitude never comes close to spiraling downward into ridiculously pretentious posturing. Northern State isn't taking itself too seriously, but they're having serious fun.

Which is good because there's quite a bit of humor on "All City." First of all, there's the ironic (or is it?) retro-rap-ghetto vocabularly appropriated only as it could be by years of exposure to MTV and BET's hip-hop music video programming. I mean, when a 25-year old college graduate pumps out gots to, haters, and half-steppin', most anyone who gives a damn would think that it had better be ironic or the whole game's a fraud.

But not so fast. It's been 15 years since EPMD and the seminal "Strictly Business," wherein we were reminded "You gots to chill!" That's more than a enough time for the lingo of the Black ghetto to get disseminated and take root thoughout middle America's mostly white bedroom communities and firmly and shamelessly migrate into the ever-evolving argot of mainstream youth culture.

At any rate, "All City" falls into place and holds it together. The beats will stay in your head long after the lyrics have gone in one ear and out the other. But damn if you don't remember a few of those, too. Go Northern State, Go!

RELATED LINKS

Northern State Web Site
"All City" Review [Stylus Magazine]

What up, G-dawg? Now, we know what's on your mind (oh, yes we do!) You want very much to read your daily diet of Web media in a new, fresh and exciting way. In fact, sometimes you wonder, "Hmm, what would it be like if the New York Times was written by a gangsta' rappin' hip-hop star (and, recently, porn video emcee) with a penchant for the thug life, say, oh, Snoop Doggy Dogg?" Well, kids, the imagination is a very powerful thing. Somebody has read your mind and delivered unto this world the perfect tool with which to "enhance" your Web experience. It's called ... The Shizzolator!

Here's the deal ... ahem ... we mean, here's the dealio: Plug in the URL of your favorite media Web site--blog, newspaper, magazine or whatever. Click the submit button and wait a second while The Shizzolator does its back-end voodoo. Your Web browser will load the selected site. Look closely at the text and you'll see that it will have been properly shizzlelated--It'll read as if penned by the very hand of Snoop Dogg himself. (Who knows? If the hip-hop or porn games ever go sour, Snoop might still have a future as a content developer?)

RELATED LINKS

The Shizzolator

Johnny Ramone was always our favorite Ramone, our "classic" Ramone with the quintessential Ramones' style. That he is the third Ramone in nearly as many years to pass away (and the second from cancer) is a bit stunning. In 2002, Dee Dee Ramone died of a drug overdose in Los Angeles. The previous year frontman Joey Ramone died of lymphoma.

Johnny's departure comes at a time when the influential New York band has been more widely celebrated as one of the earliest rock acts to play what would eventually be called punk rock. A recent documentary about the group was released only weeks before Johnny's death. The film, "End of the Century," has won much praise from the critics and is currently playing in movie theaters around the country.

Johnny Ramone, rest in peace.

RELATED LINKS

Punk Legend Johnny Ramone Dies at 55 [Billboard]
"End of the Century" Official Movie Web Site

Heiress, fashion model, reality TV show star, recording artist, handbag and accessory designer, red carpet starfuckee, film actress, accidental amateur porn star and now ... author! Yes, Paris Hilton has written a book. Oh, wait, just a sec, we should have included scare quotes with that--we meant to say Paris Hilton has "WRITTEN" a book.

Professional writer Merle Ginsberg worked with Paris to co-write the volume, which is is subtitled "A Tongue-in-Cheek Peek Behind the Pose" and for which Ginsberg is given somewhat equal billing on the jakcet. Simon & Schuster, which published "Confessions," describes the book as "A Learjet's view of the fast, fun world of Paris Hilton--packed with enough photos, advice, and inside scoop to help anyone live a glamorous life." Well, we'll see about that.

We're way past irony on this one. We want a copy of the damn book already and we're not ashamed to admit it. We want to race through its 192 pages--good or shit read that it may be--and see for ourselves (1.) what Simon & Schuster and editor Trisha Todd did with the material and the positioning/marketing; and (2.) see if it's funny, stupid, entertaining, a yawn--whatever--and worthy at least of the bathroom reading shelf.

For those who aren't big on reading in the first place, but who are willing to plunk down $22.00 for "Confessions," note that there are lots of pictures in Hilton's book (which seems fitting, doesn't it?) of the WireImage papparazzi variety. We imagine if you've watched at least three minutes of either VH1 or E! Channel in the past couple of years, you've probably seen every photographic permutation of Hilton on the red carpet or Paris, cellphone to ear, caught in the glare of flashbulbs while tearing up Manhattan/West Hollywood. Which all means you'll have lots of fab and familiar Paris pix piled up with handy, convenient gratuitousness. (Yay, gratuitousness!)

RELATED LINKS

Paris Hilton to publish 198-page memoir [Salon]
Confessions of an Heiress Reviews [Amazon]
Paris Hilton Filmography [IMDb]

The funky soul brotha' is back. Fatboy Slim, he of 90's bigbeat, ten-gallon cowboy hats, heavy-MTV-rotation music vids, happy faces, club culture and massive outdoor dance music parties on the seaside of Brighton, England, Rio and elsewhere, otherwise known by the name of Norman Cook, is back.

Writing for the UK's the Guardian' newspaper, Alexis Petridis reunites with Cook for an interview. The last time the journalist met with Fatboy was on the eve of "You've Come a Long, Baby," the hugely successful album of catchy dance-floor party tunes that made the DJ and former Housemartins member an international pop star with a bankroll to match.

When not driving around the town in his VW Beetle, organizing free outdoor raves like the Big Beach Boutique (which drew an estimated 250,000 people), and fending off the papparazzi, Cook spends time with his family (he's married and has a daughter) in his home in the town of Hove, on a stretch dubbed "Millionaire's Row," as it's home to a number of Brtitish celebs, most notably Paul McCartney.

Oh yeah, and one other thing ... Cook's been working on his new album, which is due out in October. Called "Palookaville" it'll be Fatboy Slim's first full-length disc of original material since 2001. A single "Slash Dot Dash" is due out in the United Kingdom later next week.

It's all great if you're fan of bigbeat and Cook and the Skint Records sound... and maybe it's great if you're just your average MTV-watching, pop-radio-listening person, as were many millions who didn't even know what bigbeat was but bought "You've Come a Long Way Baby" in 1998-99.

"Baby" was such a good dance record that it became the party music equivalent to instant noodles, and, for millions the default soundtrack to good times at the weekend from Sao Paulo to Sydney, whether at the club, the pool hall, the dorm room or the backseat of your Nissan.

RELATED LINKS

How the Fatboy grew up [The Guardian]
Fatboy Slim Official Website

Yeah, and speaking of Visionaire, the cutting edge art publishing collective has just put out issue 43 of their magazine. But the issue is the first--maybe the first magazine anywhere--in which the traditional printing process has been totally eschewed in favor of a new technique in which the entire magazine's contents have been "etched" or cut into the pages by a laser-burning process.

Not that using a laser to print anything is in itself new--the technology was pioneered in the 1960's and personal, commercial desktop laser printers came into their own in the 80's and reached mass popularity in the 90's. (Still, Gutenberg, the German who invented the moveable-type printing press in the 15th century, would've been impressed by any inkless printing process.)

Even though so much has changed in printing and publishing just in the last twenty years with the advent of computers, electronic pre-press, desktop laser-printers and more sophisticated printing techniques, for commercial publications the process still has mostly always relied on the physics of applying ink or chemically-treated liquid substances to paper (or to some surface). Laser etching, however, cuts away by burning into the paper/surface. It's a technique and technology that's on a whole other level beyond the desktop laser printer.

Aside from the technological innovation, where Visionaire really scores is in its approach to contents and design. The magazine has been published three or four times annually since its launch in the spring of 1991. It was conceived as a "multi-format album" devoted to fashion and art, with each issue of the magazine set to a theme and published as a limited edition with a small print run. Only 1,500 copies of the latest issue will be printed. The theme of Visionaire No. 43 is "Dreams."

The contributors to each issue--writers, photographers, designers and other creatives--are often among the elite in their respective fields. "Dreams" features contributions from the likes of artists Robert Longo and Mario Sorrenti (see graphic above), legendary couture creator Karl Lagerfeld and photographer Bruce Weber.

RELATED LINKS

Visionaire

We love magazines. We love one-off zines, obscure, handsomely bound four-pound design tomes that cost as much as a Super Bowl ticket. We love offensive style and culture ( aka, "lifestyle") magazines with attitude, humor and fearless content (think Vice). We love flipping though Bon Apetit as much as we do Scientific American and Mass Appeal. We're mag freaks.

We love thick shelter mags produced by middle-aged trust-fund kids with a penchant for pattern and hyper-sensitive aesthetic antenna (think Next). We're passionate about music mags written by a collection of half-literate chain-smoking British "nu jazz" DJs and Japanese noise-headz who fill their articles with academic music-speak and obscure references to Karlheinz Stockhausen (think Straight No Chaser or Wire). And we especially love multi-lingual East-meets-West cutting-edge and arty pop-culture pubs like Tokion.

Of course, we also love reading a wide-variety of the monthly mainstream commercial mags, some of which get delivered right to our doorstep. The big mags like Wired, the New Yorker and Vanity Fair are dependable and well written. The smaller mags and zines can be hit or miss.

But even a rag--mainstream or bitstream--with mediocre content might still be worth the price of purchase for excellent graphic design, photography or the expression of an intriguing idea(s). Or maybe the graphics suck, but the writing is so hot it's on fire, and we'll gladly fork over the cash every month (or whenever it's published) to get a copy.

That brings us to Me, a new magazine title with a fresh idea. Or rather, it's a fresh take in mag publishing centered on an idea that was a key feature of the social-networking boom on the Web (e.g., Friendster) during the past year and a half. We have yet to have a look between the covers and judge Me's contents--editorial or visual--as to its quality and merits.

The idea behind Me is straightforward enough: Publish a magazine devoted to profiling a handful of a person's friends and explain the connections between them. For each issue, a different guest editor will direct the editorial content and style to the extent that he or she will select the friends to be covered in the magazine, pick the photographer and determine the typography.

The New York-based Me is the creative spawn of Angel Chang and Claudia Wu, both previously colleagues at Visionaire magazine. When not working on Me, Chang works at Donna Karan as a design assistant while Wu is the design director of Index magazine.

On the cover of the premiere issue is an artist named Joshua Abelow ("Who?" you ask. "Dunno," we say.), an alum of Wu at the Rhode Island School of Design. The table of contents in the debut issue supposedly includes a chart showing the connections between the guest editor and the various profiled friends.

The first question about Me that comes to mind is this: Can the friends profiled in an issue of Me include Friendster "friends"? "Friendster friends?" you ask. You know, those people listed as "friends" on your Friendster page who pinged you out of the blue in early 2003 asking to be your "friend" and of whom you know next to nothing and with whom you have next to nothing in common. Now that could really spice things up if you decide your real-life buddies are too boring to be in a magazine.

RELATED LINKS

Memo Pad: From Bad to Worse ... The Me Generation ... [WWD]

Okay, you heard it here: 2004 is the year the iPod became a fashionista cult object. First there was the Gucci iPod case that came out earlier this year. Then there was that outrageaous customized case designed by Karl Lagerfeld for Fendi that can carry 12 iPods. Chanel and Pucci have made iPod cases, as have dozens of smaller independent fashion designers. Then there are all those DIY cases that diehard and style-concious iPod users have made to create personalized music-player couture. And don't forget all the accessories that have been spun out by dozens of little design companies you've never heard of, from chic furniture designers to geeky audio components makers. Do the math: You've got the making of a personal tech device that is as much about style as it is technology.

Now, a ranking member of hip-hop royalty, P Diddy (formerly Puff Daddy or Puffy) has had his name put to a customized diamond-encrusted iPod that brings the bling-bling to the digital music experience. The Apple portable mp3 player is a collabo branded under the HP logo. Called the HP Diamond iPod, the device comes in a black lacquer-like design that sharply contrasts with the current color palette of the classic white iPod and metallic-pastel iPod Mini. Diddy gave the world a look at the player at last Sunday's VMA show in Miami.

P. Diddy, whose real name is Sean Combs, is a style icon himself and has in the past couple of years developed one of the most acclaimed men's fashion collections to be shown in Europe and New York. In the process Diddy has become the darling of Vogue editor Anna Wintour and the talk of the international fashion press. His clothing label is called Sean John and it is the logo for this brand that is stamped on the HP Diamond iPod.

Music and fashion have gone together for as long anyone can remember, but especially so in an age when a musical artist's style and image--as communicated in music videos--are as important and influential as the music itself.

If you're wondering what an iPod like Diamond might cost, well, let's just say it's very expensive--the device, which was a gift to P. Diddy from HP, contains 120 diamonds. What's more it comes with a customizd matching cradle.

The HP Diamond iPod is sweet and vulgar at the same time. Ghetto-fab and bling-blingy, and yet so utterly, ridiculously and shamelessly luxurious. But it will get people talking. And if people are talking about it, then they're talking about Diddy, and that, in the entertainment business, can only be a good thing. What better way to underscore your image as a fashion and entetainment mogul with inscrutable tastes than to have an mp3 player covered in jewels?

RELATED LINKS

P. Diddy Official Web Site
P. Diddy sports diamond encrusted iPod ... [MacMinute]