Category: Style

My Bday gift to you

Posted on by Bavu in Fine Art, Style, Writtens

As sure as my mama is laying on my couch right now (and my baby sis), and as sure as I had a refreshing week in the Bahamas and Miami… here comes my gift to the world.

ch1

I want to give you these 13 tunes for Labor Day. It’s the day mama went in to labor, and I showed up. So with no further typing about it, I present to you the Channel One LP on the house, plairs.

Download it, jam it, lemme know what you think. I will not be on Facebook, Twitter, etc., after another 26 hours. I won’t be there; I’ll be here. Rest assured that I’ve got everything I need. I got that. Peace.

May the Best Team Win?!

Posted on by Bavu in Style, Writtens

I don’t get paid to watch 80 regular season basketball games and keep up with all the rosters and stats for months. The teams with the most wins may run out of endurance once it’s time to fight for the ring, anyway. So I don’t pay attention to the NBA, or any other sport, until the playoffs begin.

stars

When this year’s pro hoops post-season started, I quickly decided that Lebron James deserved a championship because he’s so excellent. One day the Missus pointed out how even the way he strides up the court between plays is inspiring. “He just walks with so much purpose,” she said. But he lost.

Orlando Magic star Dwight Howard is just plain marketable. He’s young, friendly and the best big man in the league. But Superman couldn’t carry the Magic on his shoulders, so they lost.

There’s no denying that since Michael Jordan retired, Kobe Bryant is the last person a player would want to challenge. He is a bloodthirsty killer, and his Los Angeles Lakers are the returning champions. But after you count Bryant, Pau Gasol and awesome Ron Artest, their roster is mostly average. Plus, they don’t play so well as a group – only as Kobe and company.

Mr. Bryant has shown himself to be the baddest thing on two legs in the 2010 playoffs. I just watched him score 20-something straight Laker points in Game Five. But keep in mind that there are ten legs on a basketball team. So despite all the breathtaking Black Mamba highlights, they didn’t have the best output as a team. So they lost.

The bottom line is that L.A. fans better hope Derek Fisher or somebody besides Kobe plays big tonight, or they will earn an opportunity to go fishing on a Wednesday.

I do realize that the Lakers have home-court advantage and a great chance of winning their second straight NBA title this week, but lesbi-honest: Kobe ‘nem are not the best team.

Continue reading “May the Best Team Win?!” →

Coverage of Covers

Posted on by Bavu in Fine Art, Photography, Style

baduimg

Yesterday, we went in-depth about interpolations cover songs and alleged covers of cover songs. Today we’ll just talk about covers — CD covers!

We, the innumerable staff at Bavu Blogs have seen some crappy cover art lately. We’ve even seen crappy cover art by some great artists lately. It even rubbed the captain of the mothership, FWMJ, the wrong way.

So rather than point out the less-than-fine art, let’s commend some artists who I’m going to check out on the strength of their covers alone. Well, technically, I was going to check out Homeboy Sandman already because he makes me wanna rap.

Three excellent covers appearing in 3… 2… 1…

Continue reading “Coverage of Covers” →

Southern Men?!

Posted on by Bavu in Style, Video, Writtens

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Back in 2004-05, I took a meeting with a New York-based label called Rawkus. They were trying to rejuvenate their brand and re-launch the label that brought you Mos Def, Talib, Pharoahe ‘nem… epic fail

The best thing that happened on the trip was my boy Matt, who accompanied me on the trip and to the meeting, connected me with Josh aka DJ Sae-One of Deaf in the Family. Josh let me stay at his house in exchange for writing and recording a song for his compilation, “For Those About To Rock”. This session produced a solid friendship and a classic record called “Southern Man”. We made a new classic out of an old Classic Rock tune, but never got the samples cleared. You can get the whole album free of charge here.

Southern Man featuring Bavu Blakes (by Deaf in the Family) by mophonics

So here I am thinking I made a classic that speaks uniquely to my personal experience, but if you keep reading… you’ll see that no idea is original. Lawdamercy!

Continue reading “Southern Men?!” →

Conquering New Territory

Posted on by Bavu in Style

Settling in to this Long Beach, Cali, lifestyle. That means some good stuff is coming to BavuBlogs.com as soon as possible. As usual, we’ll keep bringing you bits of music, culture, lifestyle and experience on the blogs.

Hung out with the first guy kind enough to extend his hand out here homie Aloe Blacc and his lady Maya Jupiter on a video shoot over the weekend. More on that later…

Meanwhile, back in the homeland, it’s the week of South by Southwest 2010 and spring break at UT. I’m missing it all for the first time in at least half your lifetime, but I’m at peace with it for sure. In fact, I just found a small feature that sums up where I am.

“There is no name more synonymous with Austin hip-hop than Bavu Blakes. Talk to just about any hip-hop artist in Central Texas and odds are they are aware of the enigmatic emcee. For 15 years prior to an impending move exodus to Los Angeles Long Beach, Blakes has made Austin his home and worked tirelessly to bridge the gaps in the diverse music scene.”

Here’s a link to the full article.

Peace!

Fine Art In Effect

Posted on by Bavu in Fine Art, Style

We at BavuBlogs love some fine art.

So when something jumps out at us, we have to let you see it and know. Today’s featured fine art is the “Concealed Weapons” cover for a new mixtape by Austin, Texas, street-hop group the League of Extraordinary G’z.

concealed art

The beautiful thing about this CD cover art is that it brings the title, “Concealed Weapons“, to life and it avoids a generic rap CD look. This gives the impression that these artists are not your average rappers, and in a lot of ways they aren’t. So much respect to the Honest Ape at Big Bad Medium, a blog that acknowledges the importance of all the space between D.C. and Texas while posting some of my favorite music.