After months of well received tracks in HipHopDX’s Audio Section; DX favorite Wordsmith is releasing his new anticipated mixtape as a free download to the DX viewers and Wordsmith fans. The mixtape is blended by DJ Furious Styles and features all of The Nu Revolution Camp (Wordsmith’s collective associates). Get yourself 20 featured tracks and 2 bonus songs with production by Sketchman, DeMo, Strada, Capish, Street Level and more.

As a special bonus to show appreciation to the fans of both Wordsmith and HipHopDX.com, there is also a 10% off code for Vintage Limited (since we sponsor Wordsmith) included in the download.

HipHopDX Presents: Wordsmith – The Revolution Begins With a Takeover Vol.1 downloadable HERE (101mb)

My favorites and highlights of the mixtape include: “05. Grudge of a Madman”, “08. Microphone Bully”, the HOT laid back banger “16. Mrs Musica”, and “19. Hard to Forget”.

Support REAL hip-hop.

-Shaun

Wow, can you really believe its 2008 already!? I don’t know about you but 2007 was a tough year for me. I always take a few moments to reflect on the past year on New Years. I try to think about all the mistakes I’ve made, and successes I’ve achieved. Try to put things into perspective and move ahead.

2007 was the year Vintage Clothing Limited was born. Since that 5th of May we have had allot of grass roots success and the word is spreading like wildfire as the brand grows up a little. As designers Eric and I really try to think outside the medium of what everyone else is doing. I call that a good thing. We’re not too concerned with following trends and we definitely take risks. I think in the end that will pay off.

Going into 2008 we are working on some of our best pieces to date. I’m really excited about what this year has to offer and we’re making great strides to build a brand that remains timeless. Quality is a big issue with us. For me, its my #1 priority. Our stuff has gotten allot of positive feedback and the absolute high level of quality be it the materials (fabrics), the graphics, or the intricate printing techniques. Its good to see the emails come in that proves I’m not alone.

So I’ll end this by saying… in 2008, you have no idea. You are in for some fresh new designs and quality threads! Watch what happens.

-Shaun

Download the new mixtape “Special Education of Theory Hazit” from this Vintage Clothing Limited sponsored artist for free!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8L3JWA78

-Shaun

MTV and Pepsi linked up to follow 3 fashion designers as they undergo the struggles to break into the clothing world and make their mark. 8 web episodes take you from pre-show bio’s on the designers, to the mecca of apparel known as the MAGIC tradeshow in Vegas. The booth setups, the samples being made, trying to solicit buyers to look at their lines, even post show wrap-ups all voiced over by designer Danny Shaw’s punchy commentary and rules for exhibiting. This is great! We’re looking at exhibiting at MAGIC in 2009 and these are some good insider looks at the what-to-do’s and what-not-to-do’s. I really enjoyed watching these. Check it out for yourself HERE.

-Shaun

DJ Idull and Braille linked up to give you a MEGA mixtape which is actually a collection of Braille’s 13 years rhyming. The mixtape is a collection of Features, Classics, Rarities and Upcoming Material. The 60 minute mix was cut as two mp3 files for easy downloading and burning to disc for your listening pleasure. There’s some HEAT on here! Stuff I never heard before and I thought I had the definitive Braille collection. Guess I was wrong. haha!

Go cop this FREE download while you can! Available HERE at the interactive website. If you dig the tunes you can donate some change via Paypal to support future projects. Be sure to check out the track list too. Its the rhyme book pages on the site. When you mouse over different parts on the site it takes you to different stuff. You can even download the album art and embed it into the mp3 using an iTunes friendly file size. Nice job guys!

ps. Be patient! Takes a little while to load.

-Shaun

Imagine if you will a grooved record that actually plays on a turntable but is only the size of a standard CD. Below the vinyl record side is the same optical shinny silver media you put in your cd player and listen to. Fact or Fiction?

Well, a Germany based company called Optimal Media Production has made that a reality to cater to some special interest media buyers. The vinyl/CD hybrid is just like a normal CD except that on the top, it has vinyl grooves etched in. Place a VinylDisc on your turntable, drop the needle at the start of the track, and you’ll hear up to 3.5 minutes of music at 33 RPM. Since CDs have a hole at their center that’s too large to fit on a vinyl spindle, you’ll need to use the little rubber adapter that comes with each disc to center the disc on your record player; otherwise, it’ll go off-center and you’ll hear the music speed up and slow down with each revolution. Now that’s a pretty cool way to add some spice to your marketing campaign!

Now artists and labels can offer something new to their customers: a CD that everyone can play, with a secret bonus track in the grooves on top for those who have record players. For hip-hop heads and DJ’s this is a really cool spin to get people talking. Some other weird stuff they make is multi-colored discs, scented discs, a pretty cool transparent disc technology, a freestyle disc that “due to a partial metallization of the disc, specially chosen images float through the room, appearing three-dimensional and extraordinarily vivid”, etc. It’ll be interesting to see how new media affects the way we buy and sell music physically. As the digital medium continues to grow and evolve, the physical manufacturing, distribution, and sale of albums has been playing catch up to peak peoples interest again. Not a bad idea to spice up the discs themselves. Guess we’ll have to see how the market takes to it.

-Shaun

I came across a pretty cool gadget today during a random web surf. If your an old school head like me you probably made your share of mix tapes in your day. Collecting my favorite jams from random places and assorting them on a series of single cassette tapes to play in the car on my way to high school was pretty much the norm. Giving them really lame names and drawing random art on the labels (okay, maybe I’m alone on that one but oh well Haha!).

So anyway, I came across this cool actual working tape dispenser masked as an old school cassette tape and I said to myself “I gotta get me one of these!”. Go ahead and laugh all you want. You know your gonna get one too. You can pick one up here for about $19.99 + shipping.

–Shaun

Our homie Braille has a new album coming out in ’08. His fourth, entitled “The IV” which is subsequently the name of his lead single produced by none other than Marco Polo (of Rawkus Records) along with cuts by Rob Swift. The single was leaked this week and featured on Okayplayer along with the site www.rappersiknow.com where the track can be downloaded in mp3 format and rocked continuously without stopping. Some pure heat from Braille on this one! If your not familiar with Braille’s brand of hip-hop you need to be.

I understand the new album also features production by The ARE (who is recording with Lil’ Kim, Ludacris & more right now), DJ Spinna, OH NO, Symbolyc One, and a bunch of other top notch producers! This album is gearing up to be quite a project and I know I can’t wait for it to drop in Spring 2008. Hip Hop Is Music doing big things. Keep your ears posted for new stuff coming from their camp all year long including a new album by Othello which is out October 30th and a must have for jazzy-tip smooth hip-hop lovers the world over.

-Shaun

In a follow-up to the story that recently broke on hip-hop sites all around the web regarding Nas’s track “Surviving the Times” off his upcoming greatest hits album being a direct rip-off of Wordsmith’s “As the Art Fades Away”… HipHopDX.com listened in on a conference call between Nas’s A&R Mike Brinkley and Wordsmith who attempted to work out the rapidly spreading discussion among the industry and fans. The gist of the call basically was that former NBA star Chris Webber produced the track at Nas’s request because the two where discussing movies and the sample came up as an idea that was pursued. The shady thing here is… Webber has a mutual contact and has heard Wordsmith track as far back as May, and likely Webber knew about it long before making the Nas track. Was he forgetful or just decided to rip it off? If you’ve heard the two songs its undeniable that they bare a striking resemblance. The same intro, the same hooking samples, used veritably the same way. I would have serious doubts that this was a coincidence!

Having said that, in a turn of events Wordsmith’s song, although cataloged with ASCAP a year ago, was not cleared in samples. Nas’s camp did however clear them and is still planning to put the song on the greatest hits album. Wordsmith decided to retract his statement about the lifted track and after being accused of using the story as a publicity stunt he basically replied that he would rather back off than be seen trying to catch shine off a controversy. Instead Smith stated that the fans will ultimately make the final decision.

A unified remix with Nas and Wordsmith was mentioned as an idea to help clear the air but was quickly denied by Brinkley.

Transcripts of the conference call along with the full story where it broke can be found HERE.

-Shaun

If you came to the Vintage launch concert back in May you probably seen the Baltimore native and underground hip-hop artist Wordmsith rock his set live on stage. Among his set list is a track called “As the Art Fades Away”. The concept of the track is nostalgic calling for hip-hop fans today to remember the pioneers that helped pave the way. Word had approached us to perform at the show and not knowing him personally I was hesitant. Then I heard the song “As the Art Fades Away” and I knew Wordsmith is representing the same stance on the art form and elements of our culture as we do! So it was a no brainer to give him the green light.

Fast forward to this month where it has come to Word’s attention that Nas’s soon to be released greatest hits album contained a song called “Surviving the Times” hauntingly similar to Word’s track produced a year prior. Not only was the Nas song utilizing the same samples (The Wiz – “What would I do”)… but the two tracks started off the same way, used the same hook + similar concept. Suspect? Yea, I’d definitely say so.

As Word stated in an interview with HipHopDx.com

“No producer is going to start a track the exact same way and no producer is going use the same sounds, loops, rhythms, etc. to create a track. My version starts off with a sample of my own voice saying “The pop rap charts make the art fade away” followed by “That’s the whole tragic point my friend.” Now, whoever produced Nas’s version, and I heard its Chris Webber, which sounds rather odd to me, would not start their track off with the same sample unless they heard it somewhere else first.”

I’d have to agree with that! Sampling is sampling… allot of producers could have used the same one. However, the same hook, the same intro, similar concept? Nah.

On a side note, the original rough cut version of “As the Art Fades Away” is available on our Reinvintage Mix CD that comes FREE with every purchase of Vintage Clothing Limited at our online store! As far as I know this is the only place this version can be found on CD! Wordsmith re-recorded the track on October 6th and that revamped version will be released on December 1st on Wordsmith’s “The Next Level Experience” album. At least that was until this issue came up. The verdict is still out if the track will make the album now? Although Word had planned to follow-up the album release with a video on MTV and BET. Hopefully rockin a Vintage shirt!

Emerging from being a local artist out of Baltimore, Wordsmith recently penned a deal with a pretty big Indie label in the UK and is planning to move there in February as well as touring the UK with G-Unit. He recently opened up for Fabolous and B2K, working on an album with the legendary Chubb Rock, and yea he’s pretty much doin it big these days! He is one of the first artists we sponsored and has always been a huge supporter of our vision and our apparel. Going as far as to wear our stuff on stage at any appearances and including a link to our site in every email he sends out.

Nas, we love ya man… but remix that joint for your album and tell your producers to stop biting. People might not know who Wordsmith is now.. but they soon will. That’s whats up!

Both songs can be heard HERE. So go ahead and judge for yourself.

–Shaun