Right. So pretty much after being called Asian for months now (I AM A BLACK, DAMON). I’ve decided to let the masses know that it’s not just Asian things I’m obsessed with. Empirically speaking, I’m pretty much obsessed with things that are NOT English.
With that being said, I wanted to introduce you to another love of mine. French-Pop. Probably based on your perceptions, you were expecting to see overly romantic men with pencil mustaches and french woman in can can skirts. Wrong. French Pop is just as dance driven and beat obsessed as ours, while French Soul can be just as moving and feels goody as our music. Just in a different language.
A Haitian friend of mines put me on to French music a few years back, and I’ve never looked back. It’s pretty damn good. Let me show yo.
First up.
Ahmed Soultan
A Moroccan singer, Ahmed emigrated to a French district when he was young, and has been fusing Arabic, hiphop and soul, along with his French tounge. This song took me to a summer a few years back when music had that soulsly, everything is going to be okay, vibe to it.
Next up is Gage.
Full name Pierre Gage, he goes monogamously by just his last name. This singer of Haitian and Jamaican decent, has a very soothing voice, and tends to mix modern soul’eque sound with reggae into his songs. In this song Tu Peux Choisir, the funky use of horns and the smooth mixture of Vitaa voice compliments his. I REALLY like this song.
And last but not least is my favorite little cwo’sant (say it JUST like that) songbird is Shy’M.
Beset with a beautiful set of sultry vocals, Shy’M has been tearing up the French charts since she debuted. Not only is she gorgeous, but she can dance and she is pretty. Did I mention she is beautiful? *girl crush*
I’ll make you people culture aware if it’s the last thing I do. Toodles! Ce’la vie! Bon après-midi. A wee wee to you all as well!
*yell sings in best Barry Manilow voice* LOOKS LIKE WE MADEEEE ITTTTT!!
No but seriously, we’ve come a long way. Usually I leave posts like these for more personal blogging, but shit, this calls for a celebration. I’m extremely proud of how far we’ve come compared to where the site started. A lot of you have seen it grow from this:
to well, what you’re currently looking at. Crazy huh?
I’ve never really went into any details as to how it all happened, but the site itself really came about from a few tee designs I created for myself. I had no intentions of selling them, it was just something to wear around the house and rock to handle small errands. Actually at one point I stopped designing all together. Cold turkey. I’d say about 2 years. Somehow I ended up meeting @reeality, who stayed on my case and with enough pushing, got me to jump back into it. Even at that point, I never gave much thought about actually running my own line. Being a fan of already established streetwear brands like The Hundreds, Crooks, Stussy and countless others, no way did I think I even belonged in the streetwear business. Not with power houses like that running around.
It wasn’t until this design (might look a bit familiar) did things really start rolling. There wasn’t anything incredible about it either. It was simply combining several things I liked into 1 image( Not much different than what I still do to this day). Iron Man, Nike SB Dunks and mimicking 1 of my fav. rappers sneaker pose. Still not fully on board with the idea, I was still timid when it came to truly showing anyone other than Ree. Eventually I took it to twitter and received such a positive response that it really helped push the idea forward that “I can do this.”
From there the researching started. I mean, you can’t start a line completely in the dark as to how you go about handling things, right? One thing I remembered was reading stories from different t-shirt lines telling viewers to be realistic. Not everyone blows right away. Or at all. I made sure to keep that in mind. Not in the back, but the front. It was no guarantee anyone would even buy a shirt, so I kept my goal very small.
Sell one. That’s it. If just ONE person out there would buy it, I’d feel like I accomplished something. I came up with the name, how I’d start marketing and waited. Then waited some more. Even more. A week went by. Nothing. All the while keeping in mind “it won’t happen right away, just keep at it.” It took 2 weeks before I got my first sale. I still remember it. Still can’t describe the feeling. Which tee was it? Well, this one:
That now makes 2 times Jay-z has entered his way into my designs (are we seeing a pattern here? ) The funny thing about this tee is its one of the few left that still refer to the line as ‘Toy Soldiers’. The name was shortened for marketing purposes. (Toy Soldiers is far too common of a name.) I never changed it, even after the shorter name. So if you have one, you definitely own a throw back. After selling our first tee, it felt like the pressure was lifted. From there I pushed the goal to 5. Then 10, so on and so forth. Since then we’ve continued to grow and so has the support. Theres still a lot of ground to cover but I’m grateful for everyone who supports however they do it ( DEE!, ALL of the IC fam on twitter, Spence, Dray…basically everyone who supports. Theres alot of you.) Referring us to friends, links on your site, reblogs, retweets, purchasing something, you name it.
All of the following have played some role directly or indirectly aswell:
FINALLY, the blog staff. Jade, Nia, Chrissy, Adam… you’re all dope. You don’t HAVE to do what you do, but you do it anyway. Even if I have to twist your arm sometimes. You all bring something different to the features section (plus it gives me something to read other than what I type lol) It’s appreciated. Thank you. I was supposed to wrap it up here but forgot one last thing….our baby sldr is no longer a baby! He clearly deserves a name. And that name is…..
Sam. Sam Sldr. Sam, meet the viewers. Viewers, meet Sam Sldr. And with THAT said, same time next year? Hope so. Remember to check the 1yr anniversary tee in the shop! $11 + shipp! kbye.
Generally when I ask about this anime/manga, I get a blank look or a “Yeah I heard about it but I…”
Excuses.
D.Grayman is awesome, and is one of the few that has a better anime than the manga. (Only because the action is very hard to follow in the manga. Very.)
There are 3 good reason why you should watch the D.Grayman series; outside from its general badassary, good plot, and emotional toil)
1. The Exorcist.
The plot of D.Grayman is pretty simple, although the story is complex. There are the bad guys and the good guys who pledge their lives to stop them at all cost. The Exorcist are a group of human individuals who are able to link and harvest with a substance called “Innocence.” This rare… (I’m not EXACTLY sure what this is made of) is what allows the Exorcist to fight the “bad guys”. The Innocence is a power up and can be classified by types. Our Protagonist, Allan Walker has a parasite Innocence, while other Exorcist may have a crystal or an equipment type of Innocence. None the less, it makes them all more powerful to fight off Akuma. Each Exorcist has their own story as to why they are a part of The Black Order (the governing body of the Exorcist). With any order of people and a power that governs them, corruption and desperation leads to conflict inside the Order on top of the race to save the world from the Earl and his special type of “evil.”
2. The Noah.
Our antagonist. In the D.Grayman universe, all humans are descendants of the Noah family from the Great Flood (you’ve heard of it before.) This Great Flood, however was caused because the Noah Family have been battling the Exorcist for centuries and will continue to do so, under the leadership of The Millennium Earl(Adam). WHY exactly has been yet to be revealed, but we know that the Noah gene is immortal and exist in all humans, so that when a Noah dies, the gene is awakened in a human, who will then turn Noah. The Noah are pretty badass people. They pretty much don’t give a damn for non-Noah people (which is evident as they turn human spirits into weapons for their use). They are sadistic and cold, yet at the same time hilariously funny and witty. These are a series of “bad guys” that I actually like. The interesting thing about the Noah is their skin color (they appear with darkened skin). Ties in with black people being the origin of humanity (every human descended from The Noah)
3. Innocence
Innocence started out as a cube, and during the battle with the Noah and Millennium Earl many centuries ago, it was scattered across the world in 109 pieces. Innocence isn’t like your regular “power”. It chooses its user and at any given moment can judge a user’s morality and destroy that person (Fallen One: Suman Dark for example).
As mentioned before Innocence works by types. Equipment, Parasite, Crystal. The higher the Sync rate with its chosen master, the more powerful it can be. Here are examples of Innocence going from Level One to Level Two (Lenalee Lee), and the Innocence of the Generals (The most powerful Exorcist in the Order, kin to a Kage (Naruto) or a Captain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAeFlDHdIN4
This is a pretty shitty summary. Why? Because it’s so much more complex than this. This is an anime/manga that I’ve never been able to properly describe to those who ask because, it’s hard to explain. Everything running in chaos while incredibly making the most sense in the world. This is with me just providing the most basic of all information. The battle between the Black Order and The Noah is deeper than the members and the weapons they wield. But you’ll only get that if you watch it. And I promise. It’s worth watching.
In most medieval kingdoms, most young men would train as knights, starting as a page and working their way up through training. Once knighted, they would relish in the spoils that would come as a member of nobility. They were usually the first line of defense should anyone ever siege the castle. They were granted a peice of land to toil and cultivate, were required to work a limited of days out of the year and were expected to uphold a strict Chivalric code of honor.
And even with all of the pros, spoils and luxuries that came with knighthood, guess what was the one thing they couldn’t get? Legally anyways.
Love from a Princess.
Insert THIS idiot.
It’sa me! A’Maariooooooooooo
Mario is the equavalent to your modern day knight. His ORGINAL day job was plumber [farmer]. Roam the sewers of New York, fighting crime or pieces of large shit that look like crime, all for the love of his kingdom [city]. His night “job” requred him to be very familar with a code of chivalry and honor, which had him shimmying through pipes, eating ‘shrooms, touching stars that made him glow, and riding a baby dinosaur through a 2D world.
What was that job?
Apparently he is a self-appointed body guard, full time simp to Princess Toadstool.
How this develops, I don’t know. Did he follow a Koopa to Mushroom Kingdom, happen to lay eyes upon the lovely Princess Toadstool and LOSE HIS DAMN MIND?
Nobody invited you here, sir. Why are you hunting our livestock, eating our plants and stealing our money? That’s some Mushroom Kingdom citzen’s retirement fund, you prick.
Why does he do this? I don’t know. She has a personal Royal Guard from her own Kingdom, and although the airhead has a penchant for being kidnapped every 3 months, shouldn’t her own people handle that? (if they were competent enough to protect her, that is). Why do a pair of plumbers from a completely different universe decide that they should PEROSNALLY be in charge of rescuing a stranger?
Yes, it’s more than likely because Mario has fallen in love with the Princess. But dog….she ain’t going. First of all, Princess Toadstool is worth an estimated ONE BILLION DOLLARS. That’s 1,000,000,000 dollars [that’s a lot of zeros]. She is also the ruling monarch of Mushroom Kingdom. Not a village, not a clan, not a town, but the entire Kingdom. You, Mario, are a self appointed knight.
She is probably grateful that someone is competent enough to resuce her, because apparently her own kingdom can’t up security enough to keep her safe, [Toad and Toadsworth are the head of her personal retainers, that could be why] but at some point she has to wonder WHY exactly does he keep coming to her rescue?
He know he ain’t getting none, right? Right?
If anything, with her wealth and stature, the likelyhood that she’d go for Mario is VERY slim. Probably waiting for some Prince from a far off kingdom who is taking his sweet time rescuing her himself [because that’s the way love goes]. Or waiting for Mario to take his happy ass home, because Luigi be slanging that cock…rooster [Sorry Princess Daisy]. Oh, what’s that you say about true love has nothing to do with money and stature. Okay. I’ll give you that. But….
That’s more than likely to be what Mario and Luigi actually look like while Princess Toadstool, with her army of personal assitants, hairstylist and general “Stay Sexy” team of professionals, probably looked like this…
Mario probably had dreams that eventually after rescuing her enough times, her “walls” would come down and she’d admit her love for him, have a big happy marriage, which would get him out of his shithole apartment that he shares with his brother and into a lifestyle of luxury.
Nah, dog. Although she may appreciate your sacrifice of resucing her when she needed help, you sir are in the friend zone and SHALT NEVER leave it.
