Common is tired. Between wrapping up production for his role in the upcoming film Terminator Salvation, becoming the face of Microsoft’s Zune campaign, and spreading the word about his eighth studio album Universal Mind Control, the 36-year-old should be snuggled up with a Gap blanket and taking a nap right about now. But that isn’t the case.

Instead, the rejuvenated MC is headed to Washington D.C. to begin a promotional tour and he is extra excited because this past November his homeboy Barack Obama became the first African-American to win a United States presidential election.

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It’s ninety minutes before Kevin Pereira, co-host of Attack of the Show, has to be live on air and he’s just been handed an overly accented t-shirt to wear. “I’m actually sending a text message to our wardrobe to please get me a shirt without so many metal studs on it,” he says with a laugh, “this is my life. This is what I do.” Actually, what he, co-host Olivia Munn, and the rest of the Attack of the Show crew do is prove on a nightly basis that geeks and nerds have flipped the script and are now the new “cool.”

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One might think an actor who’s been a part of blockbusters such as The Lion King, Drumline and ATL would have seen it all when it comes to Hollywood. The current climate of the industry, however, is something that is a new phenomenon even for Jason. Rather than lament the situation Weaver focused on some of his other loves as he hit the recording studio with his longtime girlfriend Kelly Sheehan and started taking classes at Le Cordon Bleu, a culinary school in Los Angeles. Although there might be hard times everywhere, including Hollywood, the good news for Weaver is he’s honed so many talents that he could act in a movie, write and sing the soundtrack, and cater the premier.

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Unless you've been locked in a closet your entire life, you definitely know who Marc Ecko is. He's the guy who's clothes everyone but the Amish are wearing. The streets are ruled by Ecko Unltd., the skate parks ravaged by Zoo York, and all the bums on my block have Avirex jackets. Ecko was once just a kid from Lakewood, NJ, admittedly fat, white and Jewish—not the most likely contender for the fashion world's heavyweight division. But people are often shaped by their surroundings. “I was exposed to things in the 80s that were really unique,” he says, “the paradigm of the skate culture emerging, hip-hop emerging...Lakewood had a strong ethnic cross section that made it very unique to that part of the state.”

 

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tommorelloooo

“Sometimes you choose a thing but sometimes a thing chooses you. That was me with my guitar playing,” Tom Morello admits. And perhaps the same can be said for his recent switch to the folkier side of music with The Fabled City, his second solo release. Known primarily for his rock awesomeness via Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, it seems pretty strange that he would put down the electric and pick up the acoustic. Or on second thought, maybe it isn’t.

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Christopher Wallace, aka Notorious B.I.G., touched the lives of millions during his rise to hip-hop superstardom in the mid-'90s. Since his untimely murder, which to this day remains unsolved, B.I.G.’s legacy within the hip-hop community continues to evolve, while reaffirming his status as one of hip-hop’s all time greatest emcees. In the beginning of this year, B.I.G. received one of the ultimate symbols of pop culture icon status, as his life’s story was translated into a major motion picture earning $21.5 million in its first weekend at the box office.

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The photographs of Rod Mclean have the power to transport confined urbanites beyond brick and glass to cliffs, trees, lakes, and snowy mountains, or, as Mclean says, to “an environment that wants to be explored.” Although Mclean himself is not a sports person, he is “inspired by individuals who are constantly pushing themselves to be their best,” and this mainly involves sports close to nature, where the athlete’s challenge is to conquer or move through the terrain, while competing against his/her self.

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Trudging through these difficult economic times has proved a sobering reality for many across the country and the world, with few lucky enough to avoid its effects. There are millions, however, who continue to survive within even more tragic living conditions.

Sol Guy, co-creator and host of the television series 4Real, has taken such icons as Cameron Diaz, Joaquin Phoenix and Mos Def, out of the limelight and into the depths of countries ravaged by poverty and violence. “We [Guy and Josh Thome] had the core idea for 4Real pretty early. We were going to take celebrity guests who are high profile and connect them with these young leaders who are doing phenomenal things to change their communities."

 

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"We’ve been doing a lot of unpacking lately, having just moved into our third
house in the past year and a half. Music has taken up the majority of space in all
the storage units we’ve lived out of, so why can’t I bring myself to get
rid of my cassette tape collection?" - Tom Gabel

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zeroboys

During the prolific ’80s D.C. era of American hardcore lurked one of the best hardcore punk bands…in Indianapolis, of all places. Front man Paul Mahern first got into punk rock in the early days of 1977, through the same band that influenced most of the ‘second wavers’ of punk, The Sex Pistols. “I just fell in love with the aesthetic, the humor, and also like the frightening quality of the whole thing...I think it was at that moment that I was like, I am starting a band tomorrow.” That band would turn out to be The Zero Boys, who would go the way of most of the best punk rock bands, influential in their scene but rarely heard by anyone not cool enough to be in the know.

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We’ve hunted in far-away places—Toronto, Jamaica, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Tel Aviv…and of course Brooklyn—to find 25 bands/artists that are worth your listening time. So grab a pen and take notes because we think these artists (in alphabetical order) are going to be the next big thing!

 

 

 

 

 

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whiteshakaboy

Meet Brad Mahon. Brad is a white kid who aspires to be a rapper, but nobody takes him seriously. While applying for financial aid, Brad is denied because it turns out that he is heir to a fortune in Africa. Even more shocking is that he’s a descendant of a white Zulu chief. Soon he finds himself trying to win back his inheritance by arranging a different sort of warfare: a rap contest to settle things. While this is the premise for the graphic novel White Shaka Boy, it isn’t far removed from reality. For Alan Brody, who grew up in the Zululand section of South Africa, the idea was born from an unlikely source: marketing.

 

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Every year Anthony Hamilton’s neighbors get together for a “lobster ball” where they eat lobster and drink something they call “hookah,” which, according to Hamilton, is a mixture of lemon juice, sugar and whiskey. Although he can’t bring himself to put his lips to the bowl they pass it around in, Hamilton feels he may have created a soundtrack for the gathering with his latest album, The Point Of It All.

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If you can imagine a band that actually sounds like a band, sans the processing, mixing, and Pro Tools (I saw that the majority of times it was listed as two names) perfection that runs rampant today, then you will have conjured The Secret Machines and their self-titled album. Secret Machines (which they wanted to remain titleless) is a truly honest record, though it was also an uphill battle after the loss of their former guitarist to School of Seven Bells. The album reveals the slightly modified band yearning and reaching, but though the album is rather dark, there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

 

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