Layering with Street Etiquette

Step your layering game up! It's cold, so start layering, cos it's only about to get colder. Check out a nice piece from the ever brilliant Street Etiquette boys on the art of layering. Read up HERE.

Charlie Rose x Jay-z

Successful Hip Hop mogul Jay-Z is one of the few people on the long the list of writers, politicians, athletes, entertainers and business leaders that conversed with acclaimed broadcast journalist Charlie Rose more than once. Here is the latest discussion between both minds which focuses on Jay’s recently released book Decoded. Watch HERE dudes. Enjoy!

5 Mins in Syria

This is really, very, very beautiful. This short film called '5 Minutes of Syria' captures all of the colour the country has to offer. Directed by a bloke called Rusalan Fedotow, this is a must watch if you have a spare 5 minutes. Which let's face it, we all do at this time of year. Enjoy!

TInchy Stryder x G-Shock MTG

Exclusive snaps by James Barber, on the Tinchy Stryder shoot for 'Famous'. Video directed by me, Luke Monaghan. Tinchy rocked a Premium MTG G-Shock pretty nicely in the video. Watch it HERE.

Monster!

A rough cut has emerged of the eagerly awaited video for Kanye West's 'Monster' ft. Jay-Z, Rick Ross & Nicki Minaj. Also expect a cameo in the video from a very dead looking Justin Bieber. Epic!

Christmas Kanye

Following on from putting out (in my opinion) the album of the year, Kanye wastes no time in dropping some Christmas freeness for the people. Here is the latest development in Kanye’s “Christmas in Harlem” record, when just earlier today a rough cut made it’s way around the blogosphere which only featured vocals from CyHi Da Price, Teyana Taylor and Kanye himself. Funkmaster Flex had the drop on this latest version, as it’s only available as a radio rip as of now. Click HERE to get your Christmas Kanye.

Streets x Dot Rotten

Offered is a brand new remix from Mike Skinner, this time receiving the remix treatment from Dot Rotten. This cut removes most of the guitar riffs with some pop-synths as replacement. Dot has some incredible music in the can, and take it from me, is going to cause a huge stir in 2011. Meanwhile, The Streets forthcoming Computers and Blues album is set to drop on February 7th via 679. Listen to the remix HERE.

Friday Night

Some great snaps from Friday night from our friends over at Disorder Magazine. If you missed it, you missed out on witnessing two incredible Secret Wars artists go head-to-head for the chance to design their own G-Shock timepiece. If that wasn't enough Mistajam, DJ Snips, Louick Essien and a whole load more brilliant artists provided an incredible musical backdrop to the art event going on beside them. Enjoy the visuals and make sure you come down to the Secret Wars Euro League Final and all future G-Shock East Sessions in 2011.

The Drums

The Drums are killing it at the moment. Fresh from a sold out UK headline-tour, Brooklyn indie rock collective The Drums announces the release of their new single “Me and The Moon” The song has recently enjoyed an extensive remix treatment by the likes of Matthew Dear, Clock Opera, Moonlight Matters and Twin Shadow. The single package will further contain their track “Down by the Water” as the accompanying B-side. Listen HERE.

G-Shock Sessions x Secret Wars

Friday 10th December 2010, G-Shock and Secret Wars brang their unrivalled street art battle to G-Shock East on Dray Walk, in a British showdown to mark the end of a successful year of European competition.

Secret Wars Euro League stalwarts London will take on finalists and age old rivals Birmingham, in a match that is set to ignite London’s East End.

The night will be hosted in true East Sessions style by Shadez the Misfit and will see performances from Loick Essien, Talay Riley, Scorcher, Mighty Moe, Rian Peters, and Messys. Music on the night will be provided by BBC Radio 1 & 1Xtras premier DJ MistaJam and DJ Snips.

Q&A w/ Jeff Staple

American design guru Jeff Staple was a recent guest to Virginia Commonwealth University’s Brandcenter, invited by SHHO (Student Hip-Hop Organization) for a Q & A session regarding the overview of design. Aside from just a general intro into the industry, jeffstaple provided honest insight into branding, creating an identity, his relationship with advertising icon John Jay of Wieden + Kennedy and thoughts on the now controversial 1984 Macintosh ad, amongst several other topics of interest. Offered below is his 5Q session, broken down into five parts. You really should watch HERE. Very, very insightful.

Jamie Foxx Ft Drake

Jamie Foxx backs up his Drake-assisted single “Fall For Your Type” with a Chris Robinson-directed visual. The clip depicts the singer’s relationship gone wrong which finds its dramatic peak as he falls down a window. Drizzy Drake makes an appearance as well but is not linked to the video’s plot. Off Mr. Foxx upcoming new LP Best Night Of My Life which hits shelves December 21st.

Phillip Annand

You may know him from my piece in association with G-Shock, watch that thing HERE. Over the last few years Phillip T Annand, has created a remarkable following. With truly humble beginnings as a frequenter of Hypebeast’s forums, his story is a true representation of organic growth and cautious development. Currently in college, the well-spoken Annand has articulated very clearly his thoughts in both text and writing, through visuals and photoshoot's and finally with his first tangible representation, the brand The Award Tour. Read Hypebeast's piece on him HERE.

Kanye West 97 Seconds

Kanye offered is a 97-second video of Kanye West’s interview with Hot 97. Ye delves into his inspiration and pushing the culture by experiencing life and art to the fullest. Watch HERE.

East Sessions x Secret Wars

On Friday G-Shock and Secret Wars will bring their unrivalled street art battle to G-Shock East on Dray Walk, in a British showdown to mark the end of a successful year of European competition. Secret Wars Euro League stalwarts London will take on finalists and age old rivals Birmingham, in a match that is set to ignite London’s East End. Taking place in the darkest corners of each city, the Secret Wars art battles were originally set up and promoted through word of mouth alone, with those in the know spreading the word to artists and art fans. This year, 16 European teams, including London, Berlin, Amsterdam and Barcelona, came together to create the Secret Wars Euro League. Fierce battles were seen across the continent with Amsterdam and Birmingham slaying all in their wake and now preparing to take on one another in the contest to end all contests on 15 January 2011, at The Village Underground, Shoreditch, East London.

The night will be hosted in true East Sessions style by Shadez the Misfit and will see performances from DJ MistaJam, Loick Essien, Talay Riley, Scorcher, Mighty Moe, Rian Peters, Messy and DJ Snips.

Yasmin - On My Own

Posted the mp3 of Yasmin's debut offering titled 'On My Own' a couple of weeks ago. I ended up Directing the video, oh joy. I hope you like.

The Streets

Despite the initial announcement that Computers And Blues – due sometime early 2011 – would be the final album by The Streets, Mike Skinner just notified the world that there will be another LP titled Cyberspace And Reds which will appear before the release of Computers And Blues. The artist told that the opus will be “painfully repetitive.” The previously released “Too Numb” is said to be featured on it while the newly emerged “Going Through Hell” makes the final cut of the allegedly “dark and futuristic” Computers And Blues. Listen HERE.

Details

Some stills from a new series of short videos. Directed by myself, Luke Monaghan, in association with Casio G-Shock. Be very excited. First in front of the camera, Photographer and Oracle, Fats Shariff.

The Bullitts

Check the visuals out for The Bullitts ft. Jay Electronica & Lucy Liu - 'Close Yours Eyes'. Jay Elec drops a very nice verse on this and it features vocals from the lovely Lucy Liu. Stop sleeping, have a look.

RISE A/W

Sneak peak of the RISE A/W lookbook, available HERE very soon. Exciting stuff.

Yelawolf

Yelawolf has been steadily upping his reputation within the industry during the past few months. However, plenty of his followers are not aware of the artist’s moving past. In order to fill the world in, YoursTruly met up with the rapper. The footage shows Yela’s return Peoples Park in Berkeley where he spent twelve month as a mostly homeless skateboarder.

Secret Wars x G-Shock

Pixie Lott x Scotland

Pixie Lott is currently smashing venues up and down the UK on her UK Tour which is currently in Scotland, here's Pixie an exclusive snap of Pixie in action. My ticket hasn't arrived in the post for the London show yet, but I am expecting it any day now. Good girl she is.

Mr Londoner

My brother from another mother Patrick Odai aka Mr Londoner is one of many of us shmuks flocking to the social network/blog/website marvel that is Tumblr. Check my official website HERE for all my Directing work (cheeky plug). But I do highly recommend blogging marvel Mr Londoner's space over HERE. Get involved!

Take The World

Tinchy Stryder's latest offering comes in the form of 'Take The World' with a brilliant feature from RocNation's Bridget Kelly. The first verse is so good, well done again Tinch. Video directed by Adam Powell.

Chromeo - Hot Mess

Great video from Chromeo, check it out.

Mr Cartoon

Mr. Cartoon was recently featured in The New York Times as part of a piece documenting his recent residency at the upscale Marcel at Gramercy. Bringing his talents to the East Coast, Cartoon will be offering his highly coveted tattoo services through tomorrow, albeit as a hefty cost. Below is an excerpt from the article with some insight into Mr. Cartoon’s role within the Marcel at Gramercy’s artist-in-residence series. Read in full HERE.

G-Shock iPhone App

G-Shock is excited to announce the launch of the first G-Shock iPhone app! This shockingly cool app teams G-Shock’s characteristic functionality with games that test the durability of the indestructible watch brand. The app allows fans to fully experience the inimitable G-Shock in all its tough and durable glory, and even lets them road test G-Shock’s superior technology, thanks to the time display, stopwatch and alarm, that are all available as standard.

The games allow you to test out two of G-Shock’s definitive features: toughness and water resistance. In one game, players can try their hardest to inflict damage on the G-Shock by tapping the screen, whilst in the other, players ‘plunge’ the G-Shock into water up to a depth of 200 metres, by blowing continuously. This resourceful game also measures the player’s lung capacity. Go and download it free now!

Yasmin - On My Own

You really should have heard this record by now, but if you're being slow, here's the debut single from Yasmin, it's called 'On My Own'. Click HERE to listen with your ears.

Jeremy Kirkland

A pretty beautiful piece from Filmmaker Jake Davis (of Draek 'Successful' fame) as he shoots Jeremy Kirkland, in a stand-out from his test shot series. Nothing original about this, but it's done very well and always inspires me visually. Have a butchers.

Gilbere Forte

Check out my talented dude all the way in Philly Gilbere Forte. He's making waves stateside and I'm just letting you know now that he's a serious problem. Here's a sample of his work, official video for "Black Chukkas" from Gilbere Forte's "87 Dreams" mixtape. Click HERE for that goodness.

Thom Browne

Thom Browne (born in 1965) is an American fashion designer. He is the founder and head of design for Thom Browne, a New York City-based menswear brand. Browne was named the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Menswear Designer of the Year in March 2006 and named the GQ Designer of the Year in November 2008. Some what of an authority figure then. Read this great piece on him by Andy Morris. Click HERE for the full piece on GQ Online.

Example - Two Lives

My man Example's latest single entitled 'Two Lives', taken from his album 'Won't Go Quietly'. Get that.

Tinashé - Pieces of Paper

Short video for 'Tinashé - Pieces of Paper'; taken from his album 'Saved'. You may have seen the Island & Motown Records man on this blog before, expect more work with me and him to come.

Lobulo Design

Lobulo Design pay homage to CASIO G-SHOCK with an interesting rendition of one of CASIO’s newer models, the GA-011. The watch is surprisingly accurate despite being made out of paper. Brilliant.

Jay-Z & Howard Stern

Jay-Z pays visit to the self-proclaimed “King of All Media” himself, Howard Stern. As always, Howard usually dresses up some of the most intriguing interviews in entertainment, and Jay-Z was no exception to that. Jay-Z is currently promoting his Decoded book. Listen HERE.

J.Cole & Drake

Happy Friday, J. Cole links up with Drizzy Drake for this new epic record entitled, “In The Morning.” This smooth-out record will be included on his project due out tomorrow, while his album is still slated to drop within the first quarter of 2011. He’s also scheduled to begin a European tour with Drake this January as well. Listen HERE.

Influencers

I posted the trailer up last month, now the full film is here and it's nothing short of interesting and deeply inspiring. Heavily featuring the inspiring Jeff Staple (pictured)'INFLUENCERS: How Trends & Creativity Become Contagious' surfaces as it highlights the idea of influence and stickiness in the creative world such as fashion and music. A wealth of New York-based creatives are interviewed to each offer their own respective insights into what it means to be influential and how that notion is achieved. Enjoy!

*EXCLUSIVE* Tinchy Stryder - Famous

Check the video for Tinchy Stryder's 'Famous' coming off his new album 'Third Strike', which you can pre-order on iTunes now. Video Directed by myself, Luke Monaghan.

Tinchy 'Famous' x Premium G

I am currently in the edit for Tinchy Stryders 'Famous' video which I directed n' that, 'Famous' is on Tinchy's new album Third Strike which is out this weekend. Here are some exclusive behind the scenes shots courtesy of photographer James Barber. Check Tinchy modeling a piece from the 'Premium G' range in the video and the above snaps.

Subcrew

Hong Kong based brand Subcrew are a really inspiring collective. They have been building for a while, culminating in a huge following for their clothing all over Asia. They are stocked at stores in Japan, mainland China, Taiwan and Korea, as well as Australia and Canada. Check the link to see their brilliant A/W look book.

And they have once again worked with G-Shock on a limited edition DW-6900 watch. The “Sharkmarine” watch has been inspired by the shark and by the military, which is reflected in the choice of colors and design elements on the watch. Brilliant collaboration.

Semi Finals

A little peak at what went down a couple weeks ago at the Village Underground for the Semi Finals of the G-Shock sponsored Secret Wars Euro League.

N Dubz - Girls

Good ol' Dappy, I love his verse on this. N Dubz used to be a guilty pleasure, they are now nowhere near a guilty pleasure, I am putting it in this public domain that N Dubz are really great. Check the lovely watches.

All Of The Lights

I know you've been waiting for 'All Of The Lights' to drop, as have I. So as promised, Kanye West delivers the single-version of “All Of The Lights” that boasts the talents of eleven acclaimed artists (John Legend, The-Dream, Ryan Leslie, Tony Williams, Charlie Wilson, Elly Jackson, Alicia Keys, Fergie, KiD CuDi, Rihanna & Elton John). It remains to be seen if the album version of the song will contain extended parts of the contributors or not. Anyway, this is something epic, so tune in HERE. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy hits shelves November 22nd.

Pixie Lott x Baby G

Casio Baby G is proud to announce that they will be sponsoring Pixie Lott’s sold out UK tour when it hits the road this winter. Spanning 15 dates between November and December, the tour will see Pixie, the UK’s foremost female pop star, showcasing her chart topping singles from her stunning debut album Turn It Up in her own inimitable style.
Pixie’s energetic live performances and soulful voice have earned her hundreds of thousands of fans and widespread critical acclaim, and her tour is set to cement her reputation as the brightest talent to emerge from British shores in many years. Tim Gould, Head of Marketing for Casio UK comments, ‘We are thrilled to be sponsoring Pixie’s tour this winter. She has truly proven herself in 2010 and we can’t wait to help her finish the year on a high by sponsoring her UK tour.’ Catch Pixie on tour nationwide between the 24th November to 14th December 2010.

Tinashe & GQ

Check my man Tinashe doing an acoustic version of 'Decency', filmed and directed by me, Luke Monaghan. Click HERE to have a butchers at that. If you wasn't at Tinashe's show last week in West London (pictured), he performed in a new Premium G-Shock alongside Eliza Doolittle. And for more Premium G-Shock goodness check out GQ.com's article on the watch that can't be broken (trust me I've tried), it's a very good article.

Lovers Collection

In the Eastern hemisphere, it’s an all too common site to see matching couples clad head to toe in similar apparel and fashion. Playing on this culturally accepted trend, CASIO G-SHOCK create a special 2010 Christmas “Lover’s” collection of watches. The beautiful DW-5600 in either Baby-G (for women) and the G-SHOCK is seen in pink with a black LCD screen. A release is set for November 27th.

Big Sean - Too Fake

Really brilliant video for 'Big Sean - Too Fake' taken from his Finally Famous VOl.3 mixtape, directed by my man Mike Carson from Chicago & the IllRoots team, some great work coming from those guys.

Game Over

Tinchy Stryder, Giggs, Pro Green, Tinie Tempah, Devlin, Example, Chipmunk. Game Over.

TInchyTV Episode 7

Tinchy Stryder behind the scenes of his video shoot in L.A for upcoming single 'Let It Rain'. TInch needs to lay off the connect 4 it's getting to be a problem. Watch it. Flee.

Nicki Minaj & Eminem

Young Money’s First Lady Nicki Minaj invites none other than Eminem for the futuristic track “Roman’s Revenge”. Both artists put the naysayers on the spot over the Swizz Beatz-produced beat. The track will appear on Ms. Minaj’s much anticipated album Pink Friday, which is due November 22nd. Listen to Nicki & Em HERE.

TONE x Jamal Smith

Tone is awesome, love this new video with Skateboarder Jamal Smith.

Sway - The Delivery 2

Sway really went to town on the 'Game Over' beat, which created a nice buzz going into his comeback mixtape 'The Delivery 2'. The once Mercury nominated rapper is hard, there's no denying it, so give it a listen HERE.

Tinashe - Good Times (Live @ Bush Hall)

Shot this at Tinashé's show at the beautiful Bush Hall in West London. So if you haven't seen him live yet, I hope this gives you a pretty good idea of what goes down. Look out for even more projects with Island Records' Tinashé.

The Streets - Trust Me

Mike Skinner vanished for a year, literally, threw away his phone and left the internet for 365 days before coming back on the 365th day to drop viral videos via his website. It's all very exciting. Yesterday he released a video for an old song called 'Trust Me'. Brilliant.

Last Friday.

"The G-Shock Sessions held at the memorable East London store. The night was started with a screening of 2 short films by Luke Monaghan and then moved to performances from Shadez The Misfit, Fumin and many more." Have a butchers.

Bongo Boy x Ash Roth

Last week Bongo Boy of itsbongoboy.com stopped by the Universal Music office to meet up with Asher Roth. In this video Roth talks about his family, his upcoming album 'The Spaghetti Tree', Marijuana and more.

Screening @ G-Shock East

Thanks to the brilliant photographer Ollie for passing through my screening last Friday night as we shut down the G-Shock East store to show a couple of short films I shot in New York last month, watch those HERE.