I. Am. Fucking. Exhausted, PEOPLE!  Woke up at 4am in Brooklyn yesterday for Nico to drive my ass to LaGuardia to catch a 6am flight, only to have a “strange smell” in my connection flight from Atlanta which caused the entire aircraft to turn around (well of course it was the entire aircraft, this isn’t Lost). When I actually got on my LA-bound flight, I had to sit next to this old flexible dude who kept doing pliés to impress the girls on the flight.  When I finally tuched down, I hightailed it to Occidental College to facilitate a workshop at Brave New Voices, the world’s largest youth poetry festival.

There’s something about BNV that keeps me coming back, even after my teen years, and even amidst my somewhat jaded perspective of spoken word.  There’s something about seeing brilliant young people in cypher that never ceases to inspire me.  BNV is like a ritual…a recharge.  Tonight I attended the MC Olympics Qualifier, a subdivision of BNV’s signature slam competition that allowed for the emcees to share their hottest 16 bars.  50 spitters in 3 hours.  Hot fiyah.  I definitely got my fill.

And I took some purdy pictures.  More to come all week long.

At long last, summer has arrived!! There are so many things that excite me about it being hot and sunny in Brooklyn, none of which are uninspired by what is pictured above. Hey. We endured through the lunacy of the worst winter since ’96. I think we get to enjoy ourselves at least a bit.

This past weekend it was all about our lovely borough. Soul of Brooklyn – a week-long celebration of African diaspora – kicked off with some lovely events, including an extremely crackin block party at the MoCADA, an art show, and stampedes of beautiful people all over the place. Mmm hmmm, me thinks me can get used to this town. Some snaps by yours truly below, and a video about this week’s events. Hit up SoulOfBrooklyn.com for details.

Yesterday was Nico’s birthday!  And even after all these years, he’s still convinced that if he flips off the camera in enough photos, one day Canibus will invite him to pose on his album cover.  Anyway, I am uber excited that Nico can now rent cars and grow facial hair (one more than the other).  Last night we hit up a BK whiskey bar that Nico’s been eyeing for awhile. Hit the jump to join our adventures.

On Friday we managed to pull off a stunt that has been long-coveted but hardly ever accomplished since moving out to NYC – WE HUNG OUT FOR NON-WORK-RELATED REASONS!!  And though our checks from the spring tour were a bit more scantily-clad than we had hoped, it at least provided us the license to guiltlessly window shop in SoHo and pick up a breast massager in Chinatown (clearly for Ada Clock).  Hop on over for some pix.  Just a day in the life of…

Told you there was a breast masssager.

More photos from the Chicago show!!  And even though Nico missed it due to food poisoning, maybe one of these days I’ll find time to photoshop him in.  Or surgically alter his face to look like Ada’s.  Whichever takes the least amount of effort (I’m banking on the surgery….Photoshop is tedious).  This set comes from Columbia College’s David Lai, and also features a bunch of great shots from the folks who performed before us.  OBSERVE!

Photos by Jane Chu

On Friday we had an amaaaaaazing show at Chicago’s Columbia College, which I also like to refer to as Xavier’s School for the Gifted.  I stepped into the pre-show meet-n-greet late (because I was getting poor food-poisoned Nico some kombucha…he hates kombucha) and found myself in a debate about Yo Gabba Gabba.  Nice.  The student body is completely comprised of artists, and as everyone in the room introduced themselves as filmmakers, illustrators, musicians, dancers, and sound engineers, I realized that, as anyone who we had mentioned Columbia to had said, this was going to be a great show.  I must admit, when Nico gave the fateful call half an hour before the show that the little viruses in his stomach had mutated into the worst migraine ever and he couldn’t move his legs, I panicked (first for his life, of course…………….and then for the show).  Even still, we managed to assign/improv his parts and the show was fantaaaastique!

The extravaganza took place at Columbia’s Stage Two, and was set off by a plethora of talented Columbia students, as well as members of MCYP (Multi-Cultural Youth Project).  The lovely Jane Chu took some very fresh pictures.  Enjoy, and see y’all in LA on Saturday!

The spectacular Ariel Zambelich, who shot our infamous original Blockhead shoot, posted some pictures so took of us at SXSW and they are raddddd!  I love this one above, with the shining stars that are Sonnymoon thoroughly enjoying themselves to the right.  I screengrabbed it, and Ariel will probably yell at me, so please kindly visit her blog where you can see more iLL-pix, as well as Freeway and Jake One, Bone Thugs, and many many more!

So I’m still sitting on our footage of SXSW, which I know I know I know is very bad form of me.  Here’s what I’ll do…if I still don’t get the HD footage of it by next week, I’ll throw up the handicam version we have, EVEN THOUGH the show that we just did at Smith last Friday was much better.  I promised that we’d let you into our process, and my word is my bond (usually).  But in the meantime, check out these amazing pix taken by the fantastic David E. Greenwald!  Hope this whets your appetite for now.  Oooh look at me, using the word “whet” correctly!

Yesterday we caught up with the charming lad Theophilus London at his videoshoot for “Humdrum Town” to film the very first episode of Ruby Says Hi, Ruby’s new show that’ll be airing in 2010 on our new video channel ILLAVISION (or ILLtv? we haven’t decided which overused/unoriginal moniker to go with yet).  Soooooo much craziness coming up this year, thou hast no idea!  Scroll down to check out some screenshots (which I’m not gonna front like I didn’t stylee jack from T. Enami) and enjoy the track below, featuring Jesse Boykins III who also happens to have a creepy moving picture below.

Theophilus London “Humdrum Town”

Ruby Says Hi coming to a screen near you, son!!!!

Earlier this week I showed you how to build a basic press kit, which is basically a way to brag about yourself but through a humble PDF format.  Once you get your press kit out, hopefully you’ll start receiving (dun dun DUN!) press coverage.  However, unless you’re Kanye, you won’t always be followed around by photographers with cameras you can disassemble, meaning that oftentimes when bloggers, magazines, and other press people want to use pictures of you they’ll have to resort to swiping pixelated Myspace pictures of you playing beer pong.  Unless you have a photoshoot, of course.

Here are some tips for your photoshoot:

1. Hire a real photographer: Not just a friend who got an SLR camera for Christmas and carries it around parties to take pictures of chicks.  Now trust that if there’s anyone who is all about taking bootleg photos taken on a $60 digital camera and Photoshopping them until they look all artsy and usable, It’s me.   But if you’re serious about promoting yourself as an artist, I highly recommend dropping some dough on a professional photographer who understands stuff that’s kind of important, like lighting and focus.  Another benefit of a professional photographer with experience is that they can help cut through the awkward posses that musicians have a natural gravitation towards.

2. Step your style up: Just because your mom liked the way you dressed up for your cousin’s wedding doesn’t mean that it’ll hurt to summon the help of the likes of a stylist, makeup artist, blah blah blah.  I know I know…you’re thinking to yourself, Aww fuck that!  I gotz my own stylee, son!  Can’t no one tell ME how to look! (it’s true, your inner voice talks like a member of No Limit Records) And yes, many of you out there are very fly and can probably clean up nicely.  But if you’re not, it’s a good idea to humble up, lest you end up with 200 pictures of you posing in a white tee in front of a Cadillac you found parked in front of IHOP.

3. Tell a story: the point of a photoshoot is to display images that will capture interest, fascination, and a desire to write or learn more about you.  Remember that oftentimes people will see your photo before hearing your music (especially if you’re posted on a blog), and if they don’t recognize your name, the photo will often determine whether or not someone clicks the link at all.  When someone sees your shoot, they should be able to get a sense of your personality, emotions that your work incites, sense of humor, how seriously you take yourself, etc..  For example, if your shoot entails you just standing there dogging the camera, it might suggest that your song will bring back memories of a middle school yearbook.  I’m just sayin.

4. Have your files ready: As a graphic designer, there’s nothing more annoying than an artist sending me their Facebook thumbnail and telling me to turn it into a poster.  Make sure that your photos are high-resolution (300 dpi is best), and you have color options for print (CMYK) and web (RGB).  If you have no idea what I’m talking about, a professional photographer will.

5. Always credit the photographer!!!!: When working with a photographer (as well as graphic designers, engineers, other artists), the more you make it a mutually beneficial process, the better the results will be.  In the same way that you need a shoot to show off yourself, photographers prefer to take shots that they like as well and that they would want to put in their portfolio.  It allows them creative freedom, and also having you showcased in their portfolio will help publicize you more!

With all that said, I present to you iLL-Literacy’s most recent photoshoot, c/o the wonderful, magnificent, painfully talented Ariel Zambelich!  Great shots in her portfolio linked to her name, as well as on her running blog.  Besides her being kind enough to introduce us to Tilt, she’s also an amazing documentary photographer with a great eye for lighting and positioning.  We needed someone to capture the fact that we take our art seriously, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously, and her style was perfect for the tongue-in-cheek approach that we made on this one.  I know it’s a little…different, but .

Click the jump for the shoot.

Click to enlarge.  If used, please credit Ariel Zambelich (www.arielzambelich.com)

Many more to come!