MUSIC

Here are some of the new songs I've been working on, and an old classic as well. I have big plans musically for 2008 and will be dropping 3 separate projects. I will keep you all updated on when things are dropping and where you can get a copy.


mp3 music code from tasty mp3

Religion 101- this track was released on the 5.F.M. mixtape. Im rocking on a beat that The L.O.X. put out. I think the track was called Recognize produced by D.J. Premier and released on their second album "We Are The Streets". The song basically explains my beliefs on life and God.

Early Morning Tai Chi- Ahhh I love the vibe that I captured on this joint, and hope to make more music like this soon. An ode to the early morning bliss one feels walking in their hood. My boy Yang Chi is hitting up the hook with me as well as doing the add libs. This was a beat produced by my boy Nick from Skilloughby productions, he is also a DJ so if you need beats or a DJ for your party get at him his link can be found on my myspace top friends. It is also the first beat he produced.

Destined-This is Jendog Lonewolf and I bangin out on a sick beat produced by Yonkers own Beat Hustlahs. Jendog is also a talented photographer and you can get at her through her myspace or email-link-

www.myspace.com/ilovejendog and jendog111@yahoo.com

The beat hustlahs are a team of cats that produce and sell nothing but the sick shit-link-

www.myspace.com/gqpriest and keemeneememan@yahoo.com

Call Me-This is a joint collabo with the man of the hour, General Brolly the Ghost. An intelligent man who aside from being a dope emcee also designs websites for a good price so give him a shout if you are in the need to promote yourself or get your business off the ground. He really does it well. The song is self explanatory it's all about call me. Heres Brolly's links-

www.generalbrolly.com
www.myspace.com/generalbrolly

The beat is produced by my homie out of PA Koore Dub. He's got some interesting music far from the average and also runs an internet radio station. -link-

www.koore.net - theres a link to the station here.
www.myspace.com/kooredub

Rotten Metropolis Clothing Line

Rotten Metropolis Clothing- How does one define or express the output of creative energy?? To me there are many mediums of expression so I can never only limit myself to one. I have a growing desire to excel in all outlets that are being offered. Art is art is art, whether on canvas, paper, skin or clothing, it is all an expression of the creative drive within us all. You can take it a step further, you have the art of dancing and the martial arts( both these are arts of movement in essence). You have the art of writing the art of acting, the art of music and the art of life. So what is art? I can only define it as being an expression, a language of your choice, a playground of your creation, a temple of tradition, one that can grow with time, patience, hard work, focus and perseverance.




The beauty of collaboration- I could not do all of the things I love without any help. Without support and foundation all this would crumble. My girlfriend has been a major support in my life. A true warrior, and teacher (9th Grade) and one of the hardest workers I know. She wakes up at 6 and comes home at 9 all for the love of students. In a city where teachers are neglected and underpaid she gives 110%. On top of that she is the brains and brawn behind the Rotten Metropolis Clothing Line. All of the hoodies, jeans and jackets are hand sewn customized and cut by this woman. By the way her name is Melanie Sutherland. Heres her link- email her if you are interested in buying a pice from our collection-

melsu@earthlink.net


I do all the artwork that gets printed on the gear you can also contact me for orders or visit our myspace page for more info. Our website should be up and running by the summertime.

mrmetro7@yahoo.com
www.myspace.com/rottenmetropolis


The Photographer-We did this photo shoot on the rooftop of the photographers home. We threw a big ass party with food and drinks. The models were getting wasted before the shoot which wasn't a good thing. Our photographer was a lovely lady and talented individual. Her name is Samantha Casolari. I have respect, love, and admiration for the patience,time, and expertise she gave us and our models. I strongly advise anyone in need of a photographer to get at her, she is a shear joy to work with. Heres her link-

www.samanthacasolari.com

The Models-I purposely did not want to use just ordinary models for our first photo shoot, not that I don't respect what models do, it takes a extreme amount of patience and dedication to be a model, and you gotta look damn good doing it. However I wanted extraordinary people and average joes to be the models that represent this gear. I cant stand having an anorexic figure setting the standard for what is hip and beautiful. There is so much more involved with the representation of something we all stand for...love and unity..from top to bottom we have-Allison Lincoln-who is a product design manager and aikido practitioner. Below her we have Elfisk Mota who would prefer to be called Xavier, an incredible graphic designer and good friend of mine who also has a career as an exotic dancer. Continuing downward you will find Hermes Rosa-known to the scene as Bazill- a brother of mine and a good hearted brooklynite, he is also an incredible emcee who is working on a solo album, for those that love that ruff BK head bangin shit check him out on myspace- www.myspace.com/bazisill . Under Baz we have-Hsin Jung Lin- aka Sammi who is a designer/thinker/ and also an aikido practitioner (aikidoka). Moving on we have Kareem Barrett- an artist/radio DJ/figure model. All of these people were wonderful to work them and I can't thank them enough. You can see more models, pictures and designs on the myspace page. Oh and those are Bazills legs.

The Wall-The wall was done by myself and a homie of mine, Ian Newman (BIG ROCCO) he is an artist and musician who has recently released an album that you can purchase through itunes. He is also one of our models and is portrayed under Bazills legs. Heres his link-

www.myspace.com/theanglerise

ITS ABOUT TIME

This is me beginning to design the interior ...read more below..


ITS ABOUT TIME- Ok so where do I start...I use to work at a tattoo shop in the crown heights part of Brooklyn. The owner of the building was an entrepreneur by the name of Kevin. He's an electrician, and hustler in all walks of life. He basically gets shit done and popping. He is also a dope printer of shirts, having a silkscreening lab in his basement, we use to bump out mad Ts and off them. He now owns a clothing line (doing way more than silkscreen Ts) called Krow Hill. The name Krow Hill was the original name of Crown Heights, they called it that because of all the brown folks there. Fucking racists. Later it became politically incorrect so they changed the name. Anyways you can consider Krow Hill a sort of combination between ECKO and Tommy Hillfigger. An urban wear for the grown and sexy.

Heres a link....
www.krowhill.com

Heres another shot of the interior in its early stages we plan to fill the back wall with paintings of different artist and a mirror so yall can see how fly you look with that gear on..

The Store-Its about Time will be open late February early March. The name has a double meaning. People long awaited Kev to open a store since hes always making gear so yeah ITS ABOUT TIME this dude opened some shit up for the public...but what's it ABOUT??? love? life?....well maybe...but its mainly about ...TIME... timing is crucial for all of us in so many ways...I did the interior artwork ..thank you...thank you...lol.. we will also be selling gear from other independent clothing designers and big dawg manufacturers as well as rare sneakers and possibly toys. On top of all that we will be taking orders for silkscreen shirts so if you need something printed get at us. Get at us if you are an independent designer, but come with some hot shit that will sell or we'll tell you to kick rocks.

Heres the e-mail of the man you need to talk to...

kev@krowhill.com

Paintings of January

This is a painting that has sentimental meaning to me, I put a big piece of my soul in it and buried feelings of regret within the oil and acrylic strokes. It is a representation of a an older being, could be man or woman who has the power of life or death upon the soul of a child. The orb of power and decision which floats between the body of the child and the hand of the being rests in the control of the elder. I will say no more. I made it for an old friend of mine who is a med for the Navy.


This is a video of an Art Battles event where we used ladies as the canvas...check me out my hairs on mad man status it looks like a bomb blew up in my face!!!




ART BATTLES- The concept of Art battles has been going on for a long time, however I must credit to a man out of New Jersey for giving it this name and promoting this idea. His name is Sean Bono (holy music and chimes aaauuuuu) along side of Max Bode, two Pratt students who had their first battle on a Waverly St. apartment in Brooklyn NY back in 2000. Since then it has gained much interest and public attention. MTV even had a battle in which the winner was a good friend of mine, Anthony Brown, known to the scene as Concep (check my myspace top friends-www.myspace.com/mrmetro5fm) also a b-boy/house dancer, clothing designer and international sneaker junkie. Sean Bono should have his website up soon www.seanbono.com no relation to Cher's husband at least none that I know of.

The Painting -So this I did at an Art Battles event at Galapagos, a club in Williamsburgh Brooklyn. It was probably one of the biggest Art Battles I ever been to. I mean the spot was packed. Mad heads chillen vibing to music and watching artists on stage doing their thing. It is really nice to see something like this grow and get attention. Visual Art needs love too! Anyway you basically got an hour to make a painting and people route for who they like best. In my opinion there are no winners or losers in a thing like this. competion is for chumps if you walk out with or sell a beautiful piece of work and had fun promoting yourself and gaining exposure then yo win .period. but they did like the other guy better...lol ...also a good friend of min Ben Angotti..just google his name if you want to see some dope ass work...he also does animal portraits so if you want your pooch painted by a pro get at him...he hates doing that shit by the way but hes damn good at it.




This is a painting of the reed flute caves in Guilin, China. To me this was the best place I visited in China. It has a warm jungle like climate and beautiful scenery and landscape. The caves were immense and colorful the mountains are some of the most gorgeous I have ever seen. I think they showed the mountains and river in that kung fu flick crouching tiger, hidden dragon. The town was awesome and so were the people. It was like a big ass market. I wouldn't mind living there. Id make the caves my home if I could.

Paintings

When it comes to paintings I feel like I have a lot to live up to. My grandfather Mario Pastorelli was one of the best painters that ever lived. Sure I might just be saying this because he is my grandfather but you be the judge. Contradicting myself I should say there is no best we can all learn from each other and what moves me might not move another. He was a teacher who was admired by many and passed away a couple years back of lung cancer. I miss him very much and regret never spending enough time with him. He was born and raised in Peru. Father of 5 my mother being the oldest. He never wanted his paintings put in museums, although possibly socialist above all he cared for humanity, people of poverty, and workers, much of this depicted in his paintings. He was also very religious but still hit me one time because I kept turning off the T.V. when he was trying to watch.  He is my biggest influence and I can only hope I am making him proud by growing on the style he created. This is a painting of his that he did shortly after we took a trip to chan chan, capitol city of the Chimu empire. The Chimu were greatly influenced by the wind and sea, which they called Ni, and believed it to be the source of all life. The Chimu also related to the sea lion which they believed accompanied the souls of the dead on their journey to the afterlife. They built ruins. pyramids and labyrnths made of mud and preserved for thousands of years. Chan Chan meant sun sun. I will one day make a book of my grandfathers paintings so his work can influence other people in the same way it has influenced me. The world needs to know how dope he was!!!

TATTOOS OF JANUARY

The Butterfly-Although a common tattoo amongst many females the butterfly has many meanings and is deeply imbedded in symbology. To me a butterfly stands for beauty, freedom and transformation (since it was once a caterpillar). Get this tho the Greek word "psyche" means soul and butterfly. This is so because it was believed that human souls became butterflies while searching for a new reincarnation. An allegory of the souls union with the body was told in a myth of the maiden psyche who was beloved by the god Eros. In Celtic mythology fly, bird, and butterfly souls would float around seeking a new mother and women became pregnant when they swallowed such creatures. There is also an Irish myth where Etain became a butterfly for 7 years before being swallowed by Etarre after entering her drinking cup, only to be reincarnated and in this second reincarnation she married the Irish High King Eochy. In Cornwall, Mexico and Siberia it is said that the dead take the form of white butterflies. In China a jade butterfly is the symbol of love and is a good wedding gift but only for the groom to give the bride.

The tattoo- self explanatory, a butterfly in flight. I love playing with color and negative space.

The person the tattoo is on- Saquera, a beautiful young dreamer with big goals and plans of world travel to escape the mundane city life. She came with her mother to get this tattoo. I was impressed with the things she said, as well as her relationship to her mother. They really have a beautiful thing going on. They were also very entertaining and funny as well. Her mother is a writer and her father an acupuncturist.




KHAFRA-Khafra also known as Khafre and in Greek Chephren also spelled Kephren, was an Egyptian Pharaoh of the 4th dynasty, the golden age of the old kingdom dating 2575-2467 BC another source said it was 2650-2480 BC. One way or another this dude popped off a long ass time ago. Some believe he was the brother and successor of his brother Khufu, others claim Djedefra was his Khufus successor and that Khafra was that of Djedefra. No one is certain how long he was in power some say 20-26 years others say 66 years. Khafra was responsible for building the second largest pyramid at Giza as well as the Great Sphynx, and a temple which is the only one that survived this dynasty. His name means "Rise Ra" or "Like Ra" who was the ancient Egyptian sun god.

The tattoo- This image was taken of a photograph of a diorite statue of Khafre which was found in his temple. The original picture shows the god Horus as a falcon as he is sitting on a lion throne. I edited this photo to my clients taste. He was happy with the outcome. I greatly urge people to look up and study more about the fascinating history, philosophy and mythology of the ancient Egyptians. These people were intense and way ahead of their time. Also look in to detail facts of the pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphynx . Guaruntee you will have your jaw on the floor with the knowledge and secrets they posses.

The person it is on- This guys name is Dustin Highbridge a cousin of my girl. Pretty much my cousin at this point. He has a team of people who makes films so I guess you would call him a producer but he also directs. His latest fascination has been with ancient Egypt and soon wishes to travel there. He has recently worked on several film projects one being the River of Copsa Mica a full length film with amazing cinematography. Check out his team and their website at www.radius5.com . They also do music videos so get at them if you need one!







I CHING- The I Ching is a very ancient book whose roots are more than 5,000 years old. To the Chinese the I Ching is somewhat of a holy bible which was written by 4 honored sages of history, Fu Xi, King Wen, The Duke of Zhou, and Confucius. Ching means classic, and to the understanding of the Chinese people Ching is the tao, the truth, the holiest of ancient books, one of ancient wisdom and divination. It is a book that consults its reader on his present situation and future potential, it also gives instruction, the do's and don'ts to avoid misfortune and gain good fortune. It is based on natural laws of cause and effect. The original I Ching consists of 64 decisions made by King Wen and 386 Yao texts composed by the Duke of Zhou. The decisions are brief summaries of the meaning of each gua, dense in meaning yet simple in style. The texts are parables and metaphors of the 6 lines in each gua which represent the 6 stages of a given situation. This book refers to the tao of change or the tao of I..The book of changes... Each gua is composed of solid and broken lines, solid being yang, broken being yin. To simplify shit there are 8 trigrams each relating to an element of nature (Heaven, Wind, Water, Mountain, Earth,Thunder,Fire, and Lake) combining those there are 64 possible combinations for the guas or hexagrams and each has a specific meaning.there are 30 in the upper canon, from Qian (initiative power of Heaven) to Kun (responsive power of Earth) to Kan (Darkness of the Moon) to Li (Brightness of the Sun), this sheds light on the natural phenomenon of the yang. Then you have the lower canon, which contains 34 gua, from Xian and Heng (which represent the mutual influence and long lasting union of man and woman to Ji Ji and Wei Ji (representing the the endless cycle of human affairs from Already fulfilled to not yet fulfilled. This sheds light on the Yin phenomenon and the Tao of humanity. DAMN THATS A LOT TO SOAK IN!!! I LOVE IT!!!

The Tattoo- So this is a tattoo of Da You-Great Harvest Li-Fire, over Qian-Heaven - Seeking harmony- Seeking Harmony brings about a great harvest. A great Harvest lends wings to seek harmony,completely complements each other. After seeking harmony with people, things are sure to respond to you, thus after seeking harmony great harvest follows.

The Person it's on- This is a good friend of mine and a major influence in my life. His name is Brian Rothwell known to the scene as Yang-Chi, an artist and musician. A wise man with a lot to give the world. Check him out on myspace.

use this link...if it does'nt work use my myspace link and hes on my top friends- www.myspace.com/mrmetro5fm

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=61215747&MyToken=93e571df-e317-4bef-980d-ad531f6935d1




Quetzalcoatl- is suppose to be pronounced Nahuatl, he was an Aztec god of the sky and also the creator god. Quetzal was a brightly colored bird of Mesoamerica and coatl meant serpent. In other words it was a feathered serpent. It was also connected to the planet Venus, although in some other cultures Quetzalcoatl was also attributed to be the morning star (Venus) and his brother Xolotl was the evening star (also Venus). kind of confusing I know but since Venus reaches its maximum brightness shortly before sunrise and shortly after sunset this is why it is known as both the evening and morning star. When he was given the title "lord of the morning star" he was known as Tiahuizcalpantecuhtli. He was known as inventor of the calendar and of books, the giver of maize (corn) and was also known as a symbol of life and death, resurrection. His name was given as a title to the high priests of this civilization.

Many beliefs included cycles of suns, our current time being the 5th sun. The last 4 were destroyed by floods and fire. Quetzacoatl went to Mictlan-the underworld to create the 5th world of man from the bones  of the previous races and the blood of his penis.

This actual image is of a vision serpent, through rituals of bloodletting classic maya nobles conjured up images of serpent who would belch ancestors and gods. such images are related to penis and tongue bloodletting, and arise in the clouds of smoke from the blood offering. The vision serpent is a metaphor of birth and rebirth. The vision serpent is linked with the Maya god of lightning.

The person its on- The Broke Emcee, a nomadic lyricist who travels in a car with a studio in it..check him out heres the link,
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=52431087

TATTOOS

Tattooing has been a Eurasian (meaning the traditional land masses of Europe and Asia) practice since the Neolithic times (that we can prove). Otzi the Iceman, dating from the fourth millennium B.C. was found in the Otz valley of the Alps had about 57 tattoos all over his body, lower back, spine, ankles, behind his knee, and legs which consisted of simple dots and lines, and a portrait of Jimi Hendrix!!! (just kidding). Other mummies have been found in the 2nd millennium BC in the Pazyryk (modern day Russia near the border of China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan,) and Ukok (modern day Siberia) plateau. Tatooing in Japan is thought to go back as far as the Paleolithic era (10,000 years ago) Various other cultures have their own tattooing practices including cuts and scarification.

The word "tattoo" is borrowed from the Samoan word tatau, meaning to mark or strike twice (the latter referring to traditional methods of applying the designs). The first syllable "ta", meaning "hand", is repeated twice as an onomatopoeic (a word or grouping of words that imitates the sound it is creating, onomatopoeia) reference to the repetitive nature of the action, and the final syllable "U" translates to "color". The instrument used to pierce the skin in Polynesian tattooing is called a hahau, the syllable "ha" meaning to "strike or pierce"

Tattoos have always served as rites of passage, marks of status, and have also had religious and spiritual devotion. Sometimes they are rewards of bravery, sexual lures, signs of fertility, pledges of love or pains of punishment, amulets of protection, as the yantra tattoo symbolizes in Loas, Cambodia and Thailand.some are magical, and some are criminal, some are for and from the family. some relirios, and some memorial...to me all are beautiful in their own way.

*many of this knowledge was taken from wikipedia ..I changed what I could in my own words...please don't castrate me for plagiarism ..not sure how or to whom I can credit this information...I need my nuts.

The Rotten Metropolis

Welcome to all the supporters, haters, lovers, thugs, workers, bosses, individuals, intellects, friends, comrades, family, teachers, students admirers, and artists. This is the start of something new for myself, a monthly  blog/newsletter in which I will keep you up to date on what I have done throughout each month, a place to share insight, knowledge, and stories of things that have influenced me as well as the meanings of things I admire.  This will also be a place where I can promote other artists and people with dreams of their own. A place to teach and learn. Lets all make the best out of what we have and not forget each other in the process. Heres to life and all the good shit it has to offer. Thanks for reading. Thanks for supporting. If you're a hater thanks for that to, it motivates me to do better.