Another Culture VI exclusive – I sat down with Cory Gunz and Square Off at In Ya Ear Studios to talk about his collaboration with Joell Ortiz, coming up under hip-hop royalty, and his last ever song!

Mid-City Arts continues to bring the best of street art to Los Angeles with its latest show honoring the Miami graffiti scene. “Miami Graffiti” opens July 11, 7pm – 9pm and will be on view through July 26th.

Rapidly becoming one of the United States’ top graffiti destinations, Miami, Florida is home to a deep well of talented artists driven by a fiercely competitive graffiti scene.  Miami’s profile has risen thanks to the city’s role as host to the famed “Art Basel” and most recently “Primary Flight.” “Primary Flight” is the internationally acclaimed, site-specific, street level mural installation that takes place during Art Basel. Artists that have graced the Primary Flight walls include Crome, MSG, Typoe as well as Blek Le Rat, Retna, El Mac, David Choe, Revok and many others.

Miami Graffiti by photographers Jim and Karla Murray is the first book to capture Miami’s graffiti scene. Documenting 20+ years of graffiti art and history along with Miami’s most notorious crews and writers, Miami Graffiti is a detailed presentation of South Florida’s past, present, and future of graffiti.

Mid City Arts’ “Miami Graffiti” show is a celebration of the release of Jim and Karla Murray’s book – they will be on hand to sign books -  and a showcase of some of Florida’s finest street artists from the MSG, TCP, SH and THC crews. Artists from these crews are coming out to Los Angeles and will be displaying their work in the gallery as well as customizing the gallery’s back yard space. Featured artists include Crome, Typoe, Acme, Enve, Murder, Afex, Kemo, Cynic, Gere, Flojoe and others. The show is curated by “Slow”.

The MSG crew formed in 1994 by a group of kids bonded through their shared street backgrounds and love of graffiti. Now, 14 years later, MSG has evolved into a creative collective that has expanded into everything from graphic design and fine art, to retail and product design, and everything in between. South Florida’s Crome is one that region’s graffiti pioneers. Crome’s work is an amalgam of sex, color, crime and fun. Drawing inspiration from Miami’s clashing of tropical South Beach & seedy underbelly of Downtown Districts, he creates images that reflect the dichotomy between the beauty, style and color of the former, while balancing it with the images of prostitution; drive bys and drugs of the latter. Crome is multifaceted and multi-dimensional.  He’s an artist with a dark past and a bright future making his mark on the vanilla, superficial Miami art scene.

Mid-City Arts was established in September 2009 as an extension of the store 33third – LA’s premier source of street art supplies, streetwear apparel, and related books and magazines. The gallery was established with the purpose of showcasing local, national, and international artwork by up and coming and established artists with a focus on (but not limited to) graffiti / street / urban art. Recent shows have included work by Chaka, Retna and El Mac. Mid-City Arts offers a show space that interacts with other artists and events that surround the 33third Los Angeles location. The gallery’s artwork is available to view by the active customer base of 33third, which includes graffiti artists and fans of graffiti art. Mid-City Arts is open Monday through Sunday 12-8PM. For more information, visit: http://www.midcity-arts.com
Mid-City Arts is located at: 5111 W. Pico Blvd. Los Angeles Ca. 90019

My personal favorite song of his. His catalog is full of hits and I can not imagine a world without his music.  R.I.P.  to the ICON .

I also put the “Ben” song in here because this man was more then just an “Entertainer”  Michael Jackson’s voice was perfect even at a young age.

-Posted By: Mr.LA

You were the best to ever do it…….

-Posted By: Mr.LA

Here’s a very special video – the first ever “Culture VI
CRIBS” – starring 88-Keys! He takes us on a tour of his Upper West
Side Penthouse apartment!

(Okay, so we were supposed to do the interview in the basement of his
building, and his Super let us film in a vacant penthouse on the 7th
floor, but sshhhhh!)

He’s been best friends with Kanye for almost ten years, so he tells
some cool stories about how their friendship started, when he knew
Kanye would be a star – and then even spits an old, unreleased Yeezy
verse!

FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER – twitter.com/culturevi

Download “War Angel LP”

It was only a matter of time before the gold BMW M5 was complemented with a chrome BMW M3. Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly), this car also belongs to a Russian car enthusiast.

- Posted By: Mr.LA

Here it finally is the video for ‘Cremation” the reply to Asher Roth’s “Silly Boy”. Copywrite of Man Bites Dog Record lays down his fantastic diss track on Asher Roth. This song along with 8 others will be available on Copywrite’s Ultrasound the Rebirth EP on Man Bites Dog Records. This video was directed and edited by RML.

- [ Discuss On The Forums ] -

Dub B (producer of Joe Budden’s first album) and his band JYG did an AWESOME cover of Jay-Z’s DOA. Their rapper Drew Hudson (from Budden’s “Adrenaline” – also produced by Dub) spits the verses. The instrumentation is REALLY really good and sounds better than the original.