A-trak, Armand Van Helden, and Dust La Rock collaborate on the Duck Sauce toy

I think I’m in love! DJ heroes A-trak and Armand Van Helden have turned their musical collaboration “Duck Sauce” into an ultra-cool, limited edition rubber duck toy now available at Colette France. “Duck Sauce” is the 2009 EP that found A-trak and Armand Van Helden crafting brand new mixes inspired by their favorite vintage disco house tunes. The record sleeve to “Duck Sauce” and video to their widely popular single, “aNYway” both feautre a cocky, baseball-jacketed, vinyl-toting, duck mascot designed by Fool’s Gold art director Dust La Rock. The beautifully sculpted, hand painted rubber duck is not only fun to look at, but it actually floats in water as well! This is the second time that Dust La Rock and A-trak have collaborated on a toy. Their “Grateful Bear” toy for Kid Robot was a hit and I’m predicting the same for this one. There’s a limited edition of only 1,000 pieces so be sure to act fast if you’d like to own one.   For more information on the Duck Sauce toy and to purchase, be sure to visit Colette’s website.  Also, don’t forget to download “Duck Sauce” on Itunes!

Treat yourself to Duck Sauce’s “aNYway” UK video if you haven’t seen it already! It’s Dope x1,000!!!

Links:
http://www.colette.fr/
http://www.myspace.com/ducksaucenyc
http://www.foolsgoldrecs.com/

Image Layouts: SB

Sarah Jane Owen of Sydney Australia

Christmas is over, and so is the New Years festivities that came soon after. It’s finally 2010, and all I have to say is WHERE DID THE TIME GO?! 2009 flew by in a flash, it was the year of Kanye West inspired interruptions, recessions, Chrianna Gate, the appointment of a black president, of course new heights in creativity when it comes to one of my favorite accessories: the sneaker. Sneaker Freaker Magazine has compiled a list of the best sneakers of 2009 straight from the feet of the supreme sneaker heads who rock them on the regular, in their live feature “Fiender’s Keepers: Best of the Best 2009″.

Amanda Lopes

2009 was the year was undoubtedly the year of sneakers being linked to famous faces, with Kanye West leading the pack by creating not one, but two pairs of highly coveted kicks, collaborating with heavy hitter Louis Vuitton and designing his first pair of Nikes, the Air Yeezy. Long lines and $1,000 Ebay listings later, everyone’s favorite loudmouth is only the tip of the iceberg.

NYC's own Kari Cruz of UNDRCRWN

Notable sneaker enthusiasts such as Producer/DJ A-Trak, Gareth Skewis of Pointer, and Ben Campbell of Melbourne Australia, counted down their favorite kicks of the year, the list encompasses higher end brands such as Lanvin, to the more tried and true companies such as Adidas and Nike. But let’s be real for a moment, a list just wouldn’t be a list without the ladies, and Sneaker Freaker has included some Very Important Female Sneaker Head’s we know and love, and some we’d like to know a little better.

Cecilia Sims of Saigon Customs

Cim Froeling of No Boy's Allowed

Sydney Australia’s resident femme sneaker head Sarah Jane Owen proclaimed her love for her Brooklyn bagged Air Jordan ‘Icey Pack’ kicks, while a M.I.S.S. favorite, photographer Amanda Lopez and UNDRCRWN’s Kari Cruz keep it simple in their ongoing admiration for Van’s classic Checkerboard Slip-On and the all white Supercorsa. Sometimes it’s too difficult to pick JUST ONE favorite of the year, so the Netherlands own Cim Froeling of No Boy’s Allowed selected three, while Cecilia Sims of Saigon Customs chose a shoe she designed for a client dedicated to the late great Michael Jackson. Although the picks from the worlds greatest sneaker enthusiasts most often began with Nike, Adidas, Vans, or ASICS the topping to the jaw dropping selections of coveted kicks came from our very own Liz Baca who brought us the features more refinded selection, that being luxury brand Chanel’s sneaker, and letting us all know that “lux brands are the new Quickstrike”

M.I.S.S. Liz Baca loves Chanel

Kid Sister rockin' Kerin Rose frames at a recent performance

It could have been the bad speakerphone reception, the apparent exhaustion of the artist, or the general goofiness of the interviewer (moi), but my recent conversation with up-and-coming recording star Kid Sister was – well – kinda awkward. She was bored with the questions about A-Trak (her boyfriend and the executive producer of debut album, Ultraviolet) and seemingly annoyed at the mention of the “rough draft” titles of her album (including Koko B. Ware and Dream Date). Also, I was nervous – ’cause I LUH HER.

But as the interview progressed, Kid Sister Melisa perked up at the mention of the Cosby show and when we spoke of her former employer Bath and Body Works, we bonded over our mutual disgust for all things Sun-Ripened Raspberry-scented.

Check out these highlights from our conversation, including her describing her struggles with losing weight (“You can make it, even if you have cottage-cheese thighs”) and her proclamation that she is “just who she is; not constructed in a boardroom.”

Kid Sister is my friend in the head for sure.

Also check out the review of Kid Sister’s MTV performance, our post about Kid Sister and the Diesel watch contest, and our review of her album, Ultraviolet.

From the stage to the street Karen O's look has been replicated by fashionistas everywhere

Karen O, the frontwoman of the New York band Yeah Yeah Yeahs is this week’s muse, or mine all the time.  She gets her striking looks from her Polish father and Korean mother. Her flamboyant stage costumes come from friend, Christian Joy, she keeps an updated blog that I suggest checking out. Joy shares her inspirations for costumes and fashion musings. Could you imagine being a fly on the wall while they are doing a fitting? Soon you will have a chance, Moop Jaw Films just shot a documentary with Joy and her husband, Jason Grisell which will be released early next year. They also mentioned that Joy will be art directing some films based on the process of her costumes.

Performance shots

Recently I got the chance to see the YYYs live at The Electric Factory in Philadelphia. Hands down one of the best shows I’ve attended in 2009, everyone was talking about it the next day. I remember being entranced with the kimono style tops that she wore, and dancing a whole lot. Above are some of my favorite performance shots, store it in the visual inspiration bank. Graphic makeup, sublime costumes, a precision hair cut, and a beautiful voice? Karen O you are speaking to my punk heart!

Karen O channeled her youthful spirit into the production of the soundtrack to "Where The Wild Things Are"

The cover of Kid Sister's new album

Kid Sister’s debut album Ultraviolet dropped yesterday, and she can definitely be the companion doll to My Buddy, A-Trak. A-Trak is the executive producer on the album, but unlike many other critics of her sound, I will not credit the glory of the album strictly to the producer and his artfully used samples. No, this is Kid Sis’ gem, and she doesn’t even need to rely on the popular single “Pro Nails” with Kanye West, who apparently, is going to let her finish.

Let me first touch on “Pro Nails” for a tic, as it WAS the single that granted Kid Sis all of her Myspace fame. The video featured breakdancing hand puppets and a sample of Three 6 Mafia’s “Good Googly Moogly”. The track was a hit and there were quite a few remixes of the original version. It was supposed to be the lead track on her album, which was supposed to be released last year under the name Dream Date. Word was that Kid Sis didn’t like the direction of the tracks, and wanted to start over. That’s the PR version of the story, I’m sure. Instead we have Ultraviolet, with a cover designed by Dust La Rock, and it was well worth the wait.

The album definitely has a different feel than what we normally see from female rappers – as a matter of fact, it is best described as ClubVerse, as it is definitely in its own genre. The tracks are HEAVILY influenced by the house music that made Chicago famous. Nods to the house genre include repetitions of the lyric “the bass, the bass, the treble, the treble” on “Life on TV” and the XXXchange-produced “54321”, which could easily be one of those Madonna remixes by JellyBean Benitez. The songs contain samples or interpolations of samples of “Don’t Go”, “Love on a Real Train”, and “Boogaloo Anthem” by Funkmaster Ozone, which was used “with kind permission.” A lot of the tracks sound like Jock Jams, but I mean this in the nicest way possible. Everyone got amped by Jock Jams, and they WILL get amped by this whole album. There are virtually no pauses between each song, so the album plays like a mixtape, with every song as danceable as hell.

Kid Sis has the flow of rapper Twista on some tracks (on “Big N Bad”) with exaggerated drawls of sing-songy vocals in between her sped-up verses. She sings on a lot of the tracks, and her voice is pretty good, if not purposely comical at times. The Kid actually has something to say, and there are a handful of hilarious lyrics laced throughout the whole album, including:

“We keep it Big (Tom Hanks)/We Keep it Bad (MJ)”
“Karl said ‘Kani?’/Yes you can!”
“Doing my laundry with pockets of change/Famous in a Hyundaiiiiiii”

Standout tracks include “Let Me Bang 2009” produced by XXXChange, which isn’t the version that I’ve heard before (and not my favorite version, sadly), “Switch Board” with DJ Gant-Man, which is a BANGER (reminiscent of Bmore Gutter), and “You Ain’t Really Down”, which sounds like a Teddy Riley jam performed by En Vogue. I mentioned this to Kid Sister on her Twitter page (follow her here), and she RT’d, replied, and said “Couldn’t have said it better.” The track “Control” is also amazing, with her brother Young Josh from Hollertronix on the track vocals – but if you are really a Kid Sis fan, you have probably been rocking out to this for a minute already. I predict the general population will jump on “Daydreaming” featuring Cee-Lo, because it was produced by Brian Kennedy for Team BK (who crafted the song “Disturbia” for RiRi), and it has the same sound as “Disturbia”. It probably has the most mass appeal on the album, although it is personally not one of my favorites.

If you need some music to keep you going once the snow and the S.A.D. hits, get Ultraviolet by Kid Sister. Especially if you gotta work out your “Coca-cola shake with an onion in the back” after Thanksgiving dinner (hey! Apparently it worked for Kid Sis, who was once reportedly over 215 pounds). This album is going to give me a soundtrack for Randi’s Workout Plan – I’m definitely going to let my “wrist and my knuckles bang” to this album for the remainder of 2009.

New Kid Sister Single! “Right Hand Hi"

Soooo….we were supposed to have a Dream Date with Kid Sister in Sept. 08, but she stood us up! The rapper, nee Melisa Young, was scheduled to release the Dream Date album, but wasn’t happy with the final product, so Downtown/Fool’s Gold pulled it back a bit to remix and add new tracks. The debut LP, now called Ultraviolet, will be out October 6th on Downtown/Fool’s Gold and it features the new single “Right Hand Hi”. The track is produced by Sebastian Ingrosso and Steve Angello of Swedish House Mafia, and it sounds like it has a club focus, much like the rest of her tracks. We also hope her recent hand surgery, which we learned about via her Twitter page, did not affect her “Right Hand Hi”

Kid Sister is sure to make you shake your “Coca-Cola shape with an onion in the back” on the rest of the debut, with tracks produced by A-Trak, Rusko, Steve Angello & Sebastian Ingrosso, Sinden, XXXChange, Brian Kennedy, Herve, Yuksek and DJ Gant-Man. We suggest you follow the Fool’s Gold Twitter for more updates on these producers! The tracklisting for Ultraviolet seems to include some tracks that were previously leaked, or that were supposed to be on Dream Date (like “Pro Nails” and “Control”), but the “Let Me Bang” track seems like it will be a new mix for 2009. The Sis is keeping it consistent with the art direction of the album, ‘cause the graphic on the cover of the single for “Right Hand Hi” looks like it was done by Jersey-born artist Dust La Rock. We are excited for the release of her debut on Fool’s Gold, and will give updates about Kid Sister’s album as we hear about it! Until then, check out “Right Hand Hi” on Fool’s Gold, as well as the proposed tracklist for Ultraviolet.

Tracklisting:
1. Right Hand Hi
2. Life On TV
3. Daydreaming
4. Let Me Bang 2009
5. Big n Bad
6. Pro Nails (feat. Kanye West)
7. Step (feat. Estelle)
8. Switch Board (feat. DJ Gant-Man)
9. Get Fresh
10. 54321
11. You Ain’t Really Down
12. Control

DJ A-Trak, Canada’s hottest export and vinyl-backer of Kanye West, sits down with Vimby to tell us why, as a kid, he ditched his friends at the arcade to perfect his scratching techniques at home. His commitment doesn’t hit home until you actually see archived footage of him as a youngster cuttin’ all the way through his awkward stages! Fast forward to the present, he rocked a jam-packed Avalon in Los Angeles and explains how he’s taking his love for Hip-Hop to the next level, and why he just can’t get enough.

His newest mix album, Infinity + 1 is out now, so head over to his Tumblr and see how it all came into fruition.

Best of the Beast - an art exhibit by Dust La Rock

What do Kid-Cudi, The Cool Kids, A-TRAK, and Kid Sister have in common? Besides being dope, the new crop of hip-hop electro superstars all had their album covers designed by graphic designer extraordinare Dust La Rock! As the in-house art director for up-and-coming label Fools’ Gold, Dust’s bright colors, quirky and cartoonish designs, and signature lettering have finally been garnering the attention they deserve (Diddy tweeted about him recently, and you know when Diddy tweets, it’s on!). With design work for Bijules NYC, OxyCottontail, Tank Theory, and the hipster haven Studio B under his belt already, Dust is definitely carving a name out for himself in the streetwear-oriented design world.

Kid Cudi album cover, designed by Dust La Rock

To celebrate his epic achievements, Fools’ Gold and Red Stripe are making sure that Dust finally gets an exhibit in the Big Apple this Thursday, the 23rd. DJs Dave1 (Chromeo), Nick Catchadubs, Vin Sol, and Queen Majesty will be in the house bringing you dope beats, so if your’e in town be sure to hit up the Christopher Henry Gallery and get to know Dust’s work!

Continue the read to see more of Dust La Rock’s work!
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Women Making History: Roxy Cottontail

We couldn’t let Easter go by without bringing you lovely readers something special! Today we bring you an extra special Women Making History feature highlighting our favorite New York bunny, Roxy Cottontail!

Now, Roxy Cottontail is the kind of girl books are written about. She came to New York with dreams, drive and a tube of lip-gloss ready to work her little Cottontail off and make people come together, dance and have a damn good time. From Baltimore to Philadelphia, she has been around the musical block picking up friends, acts and experience along the way. She helped establish Diplo and Low Budget, of the legendary Hollertronix party, as well as Spankrock’s rap career and even booked one of Chromeo’s first NYC shows.

Women Making History: Roxy Cottontail

Her skills, talent and varied tastes have helped her rise to the top of the promoting, DJing, hip-hop and fashion worlds. Her signature style is part of everything she touches and has deep roots in punk, electro, dance, house, hip-hop, reggae and rock. Ms. Cottontail hosts her infamous Monday night party at Sway and assorted events all over the world. She hustles on a regular basis. She hosted the second stage on certain dates of the Rock the Bells tour this summer and was recently featured on the cover of URB Magazine. This fall she debuted her new radio show with co-host and partner in crime DJ Melo X, aptly named Booty and the Beat. She writes a column for Missbehave Magazine and will be featured in upcoming issues of Wadklub (Paris) and Status Magazine (Manila). Because of her relentless DJ and live show tours, Roxy is known and loved nationally and internationally by a herd of fun loving bunnies around the globe. Roxy has DJed with DJ AM, Steve Aoki, Afrika Bambaataa, Stretch Armstrong, Ni** Sky and A-trak, just to name a few. She has thrown and hosted parties with live performances by Spankrock, Slick Rick, Devin the Dude and countless others. Her collaborations also carry into the studio where she has lent her voice to Armand van Helden, Drop the Lime and legendary Electroclash icon, Larry Tee.

Women Making History: Roxy Cottontail

DJs, and parties, and recording! Oh my! She does it all!

Want more Roxy? We know you do…Get your fix with more pics, video, a Q&A and a download-eggstravaganza, after the jump!

Press Photo & Bio by: Baby Rox Pebbles

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