Swoop and Melodie by Taj Alexander AKA Deams

Friday night saw the opening night of Taj Alexander's solo exhibition at Rtist gallery in Prahran. Taj (AKA Deams in the graffiti world) has always had a graffiti style which contains many aspects of graphic design and the work at this show was a superb showcase of his current style in its prime. The show is open Tuesday – Sunday (9am – 6pm) and runs until Sunday 23rd October at 29 St Edmonds Rd, Prahran.

Seasons of Change RDC recap

A few weeks back saw the first instalment of Revolver's Seasons of Change one night graffiti events. First up were the legendary Jors & Shem of RDC (Royal deviates Crew), which once announced caused a flurry of excitement. These guys created an impressive body of work, including painting the outside wall to look like an old Hitachi train complete with classic B-Bpy characters and wildstyle pieces that could rival even the greatest work to come out of New York since the golden era.

To those who were lucky enough to buy work on the night, treasure those pieces, they were selling for well below their worth and big things will be happening with these guys in the near future.

Here is a little teaser clip I made for the guys in the lead up to the show and a few pics from the night.




Shem vs Bodé




The train


Amazing marker skills




The detail on this is ridiculous, check the wood grain behind his head


Nubreed

Cozzabags Boganics

I'm not one to listen to much hip-hop these days, especially anything that has been released recently. But my mate Cozzabags (an Aussie living in London) has just fulfilled a long time dream and actually recorded a hip-hop album. I kid you not... he used Samples from music and comedy most of us would have heard growing up. Seriously, when was the last time you heard Kevin Bloody Wilson? He calls it "a tribute to all 80s and 90s stuff", which these days is the preferred chunk of music I like to listen to along with a pinch of 70's stuff. If you want to hear a few tracks that might even make you laugh here's a link to the whole album for FREE. Track 2 "Fire" is a personal favorite  ;)

His deets for the info seekers.
Originally from Melbourne’s Eastern suburbs Cozzabags was a part of the city’s vibrant graffiti scene in the 90’s and 00’s. He also DJ’d in small Melbourne clubs during the burgeoning Hip Hop scenes earliest days. His first influences were Funk, US Hip Hop and seeing local punk & hardcore bands perform in community halls in Melbourne’s outer East. His unusual influences are often reflected in his music whilst still giving a tip of the cap to Old-School Hip Hop.

Lyrically Cozzabags is poignant, often cynical but always earnest. Whilst some tracks delve into the political arena, the general sound is brash, upbeat and a light hearted take on things, but if Cozzabags’s influences tell any kind of story it’s just beats ‘n’ rhymes. It’s apologetically Australian and it was born in London.

Stay updated:
cozzabags.com  Facebook  Twitter

He's also made a video for the track "Better than you" which is on Youtube here, it's a big diss to Hollywood, people making fun of celebrities always makes me laugh, I'm so cruel.

SDM x NGV Video and finished wall

A few weeks back we painted at the NGV in Fed Square, now we finally have the finished wall and the video for you to check out. Thanks to Joske, Gabe, Red & Beris for all their help putting this together and an extra special thanks to Plutonic Lab for providing the beats! To view the complete wall click here.

Remember that votes are still being counted, so save a small animal (think puppies, kittens, shetland ponies) by either going to the NGV Facebook page and liking any status updates that mentions SDM, commenting and liking the SDM gallery they have setup or if you prefer Twitter, just tweet "@thesdmcrew to win @ngv_melbourne, #ngvstudio" (click the link if you are already logged in to twitter). Then karma will come your way in the form of an awesome 5 day weekend!

And make sure you watch the video below  ;)

SDM Crew painting NGV

It's no secret that on occasion I like to paint stuff, but this week we painted a huge wall at what will be the new NGV gallery space at Fed Square. It went really well, heaps of people came past to say hi and the general response has been overwhelming to say the least.

The cool thing is that the wall was part of a competition which is being judged by the public using social media. So if you happen to like graffiti, or just want to give us a hand to win a group exhibition at the new space once it opens. Please spread the word and either go to the NGV Facebook page and like any status updates that mention SDM, comment and like the SDM gallery they have setup or if you prefer Twitter, just tweet @thesdmcrew to win @ngv_melbourne, #ngvstudio (click the link if you are already logged in to twitter). And this will all help towards getting us an exhibition at the new NGV Studio.

The wall is currently on show everyday by the Atrium in Fed Square and you can find more information on us via the links below:
SDM site
SDM Twitter
SDM Facebook page

Thanks for the support! Once the joinup photo is done I'll put it up here at Lifelounge  ;)

Bone Thugs and Homies

People that know my wardrobe, they know I'm not one to splurge on too many things these days. Once in a blue moon I drop some cash on a T-Shirt, every leap year I buy a pair of jeans. But so far the best quality stuff I've bought comes right from the mind of a Melbourne man, Pete Homies.

His jeans are next level, long lasting and a damn fine fit, while his tees have just enough "Fuck off" in them that you can just as easily slide in to work without getting fired or skate down the street.

For The Homies is exactly, what it says it is. Unfiltered and real. Live and direct from the street.

Here's what Mark Drew of Making Ends & China Heights has to say about his Tee print...
Testament to the Cassette Tape:
Growing up, album artwork and sleeve note shout-outs were the origin of a lot of my information. Being strictly into Hip-Hop, it was difficult to get news on the artists I was into. Rage would play the occasional filmclip late at night, and Smash Hits would have some small gossip about the Fresh Prince (and many, many interviews with KrisKross), but it was mostly dead ends. Plus also I didn't want to hear about kids my own age in backwards pants, I wanted to hear about guns, over beats!

Living pretty far from the source (and not being able to afford The Source), repeatedly reading the fine print of my cassettes, I pieced together the personal feelings of rappers, noted which god they were down with, which MC's they dissed, learned their mother's names and who's couch they slept on during production. Only getting a new album every few months at the most, there wasn't much else to siphon knowledge from. Each crack and fold on this graphic comes from the bottom of my schoolbag, and is a testament to the tape.