Childish Gambino – We Ain’t Them: This song was supposed to be featured on volume 36 but mistakes and ish happens. I refuse to cheat my people out of good music, so here you all go.

Cocaine 80s – Queentobe: This song is very smooth and charming to the ears. I really like the lead singer’s voice; his voice is just smooth and refreshing. I really don’t care for the rappish part but overall this is a dope song.

Death Grips – Hacker: This beat is just dope! I have been coming across a lot of dope Dub Step-ish instrumentals, I like it. This beat kind of reminds me of British Trip-Hop because of its fast pace, loud sound, and lyrical content.

F.olk – Fool Me Dance: This is one dope song off of a dope ass album called Always Know. This song has a dark sound with some hard bass drums. The whole album is cool instrumentals like this one. Check it out for yourself. Trust me, you’ll love it.

Kendrick Lamar – War Is My Love: I would like to say this; I enjoy the way Lamar make songs. He knows how to compose a catchy but still thought provoking song. I really like his lyrical content, chorus, and flow on this song. I can’t wait for the album to drop.

Lupe Fiasco – Around My Way (Freedom Ain’t Free): My Jam of the Week! First, did you all know Pete Rock is pissed that Fiasco used this beat because Pete Rock made this beat for his dead friend. He also felt as if this song isn’t original. Well, Hip-Hop was built on sampling. This is a dope song with powerful lyrical content. This is the Fiasco I missed!

The Neighbourhood – Sweater Weather: My second Jam of the Week! This is an awesome f*cking Indie Rock song! I love the flow of the lead singer’s vocals. Something about his vocals really pulls me into this song. Really, just listen to this song because its an awesome song.

Oh No Featuring MF DOOM – 3 Dollars: I love real Hip-Hop. I love this beat and MF’s unique flow, delivery, and content. The beat really makes this song; I am not taking anything away from MF because he’s amazing. This beat is so sick!

The Plastics – Stereo Kids: I don’t know what exactly what I like about this song; all I know is I really like the sound to this song. The lyrics are abstract but the sound of the band is really great.

Tanlines – All of Me: Here is another song the lead vocals pulled me into liking it. The sound of this song is catchy, not the song; just the sound. The sound of this song is fun and body grooving from its collective overall sound to make a good beat.

Twin Shadow – Five Seconds: I think I might be a fan of Twin Shadow’s music. I have another song by this guy and I love it. I love this song also. This song sounds like an 80’s teen movie featured title track. I love it!

Vixion Allure – To The Moon: This song is so sexy! I love the production on this song. The production has elements of Rock, Techno, and a dash of Hip-Hop because of the drums. Allure’s vocals and lyrical content is just very sexy. I like this mix of genres only to create something dope. If you would like to hear more from this artist check out her website, www.vixionallure.com

Yasiin Bey – Bey: I have nothing to say about this song but this is an excellent way to end off volume 37. Yasiin is f*cking amazing!

“It’s Fresh Fridays; hope you have a nice weekend!”

Download Fresh Fridays Vol. 37

Some additional news was relayed from Sega today — the updated version of Jet Set Radio will make an appearance on the PlayStation Vita. The Vita version of JSR will feature “Vita camera integration” (which hasn’t been clearly explained as of the time of the press release), and touchscreen graffiti mechanics.

The summer release is expected to be playable for the first time on Vita at E3. Stay with us as more information appears on this great classic from the Dreamcast era comes available.

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 has been in Japanese arcades since September of 2011 with the rest of the world clinging onto a “late 2012″ date for releases on PS3 and Xbox 360. Since getting unveiled in 2010, the gaming community went into a frenzy for the sequel to the original Tekken Tag Tournament and today Namco Bandai has announced when TTT2 will be hitting home consoles.

September 20 10, 2012 is the date that’s currently being set as the release and along with the announcement comes some other news.

If you’ve been keeping track of the “console exclusive characters” that were revealed earlier this week, you already know Michelle Chang, Angel, Kunimitsu and Ancient Orge are on their way, but right now these additional fighters are confirmed only for European territories. Also expected (in Europe, so far) are some special edition bonuses known as the “We Are Tekken” Special Edition which will include a copy of the game in a metal case, a behind-the-scenes DVD, a 200-page hardcover art book, and a soundtrack remix album.

For the time being, these bonuses are only announced for European territories. As more news comes out, we’ll be sure to update you!

[UPDATE!!!]

For the US, information regarding the four console exclusive characters has been revealed. GameStop pre-orders of TTT2 will get day-one access to four DLC characters: Ancient Ogre, Kunimitsu, Michelle Chang, and Angel. For gamers looking to use Best Buy and Amazon, pre-orders only get Michelle Chang and Angel. [Most likely, Kunimitsu and Ancient Ogre will make it in later scheduled DLC.]

Honestly, I think Paramount’s shooting themselves in the foot with this decision. For one, I think they’re grossly overestimating how well the film will do in March, based of of films that are far removed from the kind of film G.I. Joe: Retaliation is. One, it’s a sequel to a movie that many, especially fans of the property, thought was crap. This film was on no one’s radar until the first trailer was released, and seemed to indicate more dedication to the fans based on the visual aesthetics alone, especially when we saw we’d be getting a more visually faithful representation of Cobra Commander. Seeing other fan favorite characters like Flint, Lady Jaye, Roadblock, and Jinx, certainly got fans excited. Two, you’re losing that fan momentum that would have helped when coupled with being a summer release. People who hated the first film were genuinely excited about this new film! Couple that with all the kids out of school, and the modestly-budgeted ($125 million) action film could have easily made $50 million opening weekend without breaking a sweat.

I suppose Paramount should be commended for honestly telling viewers that they’re making us wait 9 months for this movie solely so they can get us to pay more money to see it, (God only knows how much 3D ticket prices will raise by next March!) but c’mon!!!!! This is bullshit!!!

Incidentally, Greek mythology (the ‘real’ version Roth is referencing) is also rife with blood and tragedy, it just tends to throw in a lot more sex for good measure. And on this front, Roth’s ‘Ancient Dreams’ has hit the note: while wrapped up in the idea of being particularly dark, if she’d taken out the modern-day scenes and maybe thrown in Zeus transforming someone into a farm animal so his wife wouldn’t find out he was boning some human – again – it would read, in mood and content, very much like a Greek myth.

The writing itself is choppy in some places and solid in others. The comic opens with backstory in prose, describing Roth’s interpretation of the end of the Trojan War. Roth knows her genre and her style reflects that. Occasionally, however, she will wander into awkward or tired descriptives, or switch perspectives in the middle of any given paragraph. She seems to hit her stride as soon as the switch from prose to comic comes into play, and the format works better against her words, especially in the initial segment.

This is almost lost, however, against the backdrop. The art is gorgeous. It is admittedly filled with beautiful well-endowed people who appear to only be able to contort their bodies into poses approved for the covers of romance novels, but this book is selling sexuality – beautifully drawn and colored sexuality – and sexuality, while not necessarily what everyone who might pick up the book is looking for, is a perfectly legitimate selling point. Despite the common phrase, there are some things you can glean about a book from its cover, and since ‘Ancient Dreams’ features a cover wherein a naked woman arching her back is hanging upside down by ribbons, anyone who complains that the book isn’t what they expected on this front has grossly insufficient observational skills.

The first scene is the least focused on this, however, as it tells of King Menelaus seeking advice from the Fates. King Menelaus is primarily known as the husband dumped by Helen of Troy so that she could run off with Paris, but the story opens after the war is won. Menelaus, despite the victor, is utterly miserable, and seeks to know what would happen if he takes his own life. The Fates give an ominous answer with no real reason behind it. They also give him the infant child of Hades, also with little reason; it’s somehow vengeance against Ares, although why he might care about Hades’ son is left utterly ambiguous, since they claim the boy will cause all kinds of death on earth, which is basically what Ares delights in and feeds on. The Fates are, however, so fabulously twisted in their visual representation that it’s hard to care if they make sense.

In the rest of the story, however, the things that don’t make sense stick out somewhat more. Things seem to happen more because they’re dramatic than because they make any sort of sense – such as a woman running through the snow in the Grecian equivalent of a negligee with a knife in her chest. As in most erotica, weather has little impact on clothing – there’s clearly a very low maximum body coverage on the women, a rule which sadly doesn’t apply to the men. The circumstances of events in the story, though clearly meant to be explained in future issues, seem more impractical than ominous. The text – mostly inner dialogue throughout the second half of the issue – is almost unceasingly dramatic, so when dramatic things happen, they don’t slam into you as they might otherwise. But events and impractical spinal positions aside, it remains beautiful to look at – neither the line-work nor the coloring ever falter.

Ultimately, this book is a matter of what the reader is looking for. If you’re looking for beauty and erotica with a Grecian twist, then this will go down like a cool delicious visual treat. But those elements are its priority, and while it indicates that more of a story will be forthcoming, the pieces of plot that it offers the reader in this first issue are functionally scraps.

Trying to psycho-analyze Bond with word association?
Shrink: “Murder”
Bond: “Employment.”

Opening in theaters and IMAX on November 9, the film stars Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Dame Judi Dench, Naomie Harris, Berenice Marlohe, Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney, Ben Whishaw, Helen McCrory, Ola Rapace and Tonia Sotiropoulou.

(A symbol, not the group’s name.) – Trap Sh*t V6: This is track here is a great kick off to volume 36. This instrumental is f*cking sick! The drums will have your earlobes rattling from dope-ness.

Aiden Grimshaw – Is This Love (II Figures Remix): Some of the things that pulled me to this song are the female’s vocals over the male’s vocals and the Techno, Brit-Pop sound to the beat. This song gets really good as soon the first chorus begins.

Azealia Banks – JUMANJI: Okay, I must admit, Banks is growing on me. This song here is a banger. She reminds me of a mix of M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj on this song because of her strange lyrical attack and the tone in her voice. For real, this song is hot! P.S. I think she’s kind of cute.

Bedroom – Nostalgic Feel: I love this song for its mellow tone and just all around awesome sound. The way this song begins is really fantastic because it’s over a minute of instrumentals then comes in some great vocals. I grooves out to this song.

Black Light Dinner Party – Older Together: Great lyrical content and flow on this song. The words that the lead vocalist is saying really make this song for me. The beat is almost hypnotizing. 

Blue Boats – Summer Down: I love this song. The tempo of this song is so upbeat. Sometimes I am in need of a good Indie Rock-ish song like this to just groove out to.

Childish Gambino – Unnecessary Featuring ScHoolBoy Q & We Ain’t Them: The reason I am always featuring Childish Gambino because he’s an artist I can relate to in more ways than one. Donald Glover’s success makes me feel good as a young African-American male. It’s like seeing my big brother graduating from college and getting a good ass job as a VP at a great company. Donald Glover inspires me to reach to that status/my full potential by just working hard everyday. I am not a groupie fan; I am just a proud Black man seeing another Black man (Glover) excelling in his career. I can’t relate to selling crack, pimping hoes, or riding in a Bentley. BUT I can relate to,

“Small Chick with a fat ass. Did I say that out loud, let me backtrack. I know my game ain’t that bad. Have you ever made out with a Gap ad?”

The Danks – Automocar: I love hearing the mix of a classic Rock band and a New Age band sound together under one song. The collective sounds of the drums, clash, guitar and synthesizers are so freaking awesome!

Daughn Gibson – In the Beginning: This is another song that’s hot! Man, the beat is great and the lead vocals are amazing. The deep voice tone in the vocals and awkward lyrical delivery reminds me of a mix between Talking Heads and David Bowie.

Haim – Forever: This song is so awesome! This song sounds like an 80’s Pop tune. This song had me hooked at the moment it begun to play but once the chorus starts to flow so nicely…Oh my! I am in love. You know I love lead female vocalists, FYI.

Hassuani Kwess – Mad T.V. – This song is so sick; I tried to turn it up beyond the max volume when my volume was already at its max. This artist sounds as if he should have been in Tribe Called Quest with his smooth, clever, smart, and nice lyrical content; that’s how nice this song is. The horns in the background are the icing on the cake.

 Purity Ring – Obedear:  I have never heard an Alternative or Electronica song with southern Hip-Hop drum rolls. Now that I listened thoroughly, this beat sounds like a Hip-Hop beat. This song is really amazing for its blend of Hip-Hop elements and Electronica theme.

Rebeka – Stars: This song sounds as if it could be House music with its body moving beat and flamboyant lyrical delivery from the group’s female lead vocalist. I love it! I hate House music but I love this song.

ScienZe X King I Divine – Hero: YO! This sound is like the surface of the Sun. This beat is so f*cking ill. The lyrics and flow from ScienZe is amazing, impressive, and astonishing. Really, my words do not do any justice for this track. It’s solar HOT!

Sphynx – Orbs: This is a great catchy song because of the beat for one. The beat pulls the listener into the song. The beat is kind of all over the place but this sound really works for this song. The sound of the lead vocalist’s vocal is catchy along with his lyrical content.

Tabi Bonney Featuring Yasiin Bey – CHOP CHOP: Man, a track with one of my favorite emcees of all time and another rapper that should have more shine in the industry because he’s actually nice. The beat is beautiful and the chorus is my sh!t! I first heard the chorus at the end of Curren$y’s Breakfast video. I love this f*cking chorus! Man, my lucky Friday because this song is the sh!t!

“It’s Fresh Fridays; hope you have a nice weekend!”

Download Fresh Fridays Vol. 36

The series also stars Colin Donnell as Tommy, Katie Cassidy as Laurel Lance, David Ramsey as John Diggle, Willa Holland as Thea Queen, with Susanna Thompson as Moira Queen and Paul Blackthorne as Detective Quentin Lance, and will air Wednesday this fall.

***UPDATED***
A New trailer is out now, with more actiony action than the one released yesterday.

Check out rockthebells.net for more info.

While Brown’s hits including songs like “I Need Some Money”, and more popularly “Bustin’ Loose”, Brown is known as one of the instrumental figures responsible for “Go-Go”, a subgenre of funk music developed in Washington, D.C. In the mid to late 70s. Brown would be followed in Go-Go by groups like Rare Essence, Northeast Groovers, The Backyard Band, Little Benny and the Master, and Experience Unlimited, better known as EU.

While I was personally never the biggest fan of Go-Go, there’s no denying its place within D.C. culture, and Brown’s contributions will most certainly be remembered.

For one day, in one rural community in Wisconsin, the dead returned to life. And not just to life but to their lives as well. Rather than being mindless zombies, the “revived” in the new Image Comics series REVIVAL by Tim Seeley (HACK/SLASH) and Mike Norton (Runaways, Battlepug), seem to be the same people they were before death.

That impression gets put to the test when a murder is discovered and everyone — living and dead — is a suspect. With Wausau quarantined and under government surveillance after the revival and strange sightings of something otherworldly in the woods, isolation and fear will begin to take their toll on the close-knit town.

Seeley and Norton, who both hail from small towns, call REVIVAL a rural noir, and for writer Seeley, it gives him an opportunity to explore another facet of the horror genre.

“Revival is … rooted in psychological horror — the fear of what happens to us when we die, the fear of not being sure if we can trust those closest to us,” he said in an April Comics Bulletin interview.

The environment in REVIVAL is part of creating the tone of existential dread. Norton works with colorist Mark Englert to create barren winter landscapes, reinforcing the themes of life and death.

“I’m excited to try and create an environment for this mystery we’ve built,” said Norton. “Mark and I are working hard to set a mood that hopefully sets the reader on edge. I couldn’t be happier with how this is turning out.”

REVIVAL is a full-color, ongoing comic book series from Image Comics. Its first issue is available for pre-order in the May issue of Previews and will be in stores on July 11. REVIVAL #1 features two covers, one by Jenny Frison (MAY120495) and one by indie comics superstar Craig Thompson (Habibi, Blankets) (MAY120496). It will be supported by a promotional poster shipped to comic book retailers ahead of the series’ first issue.

Quote From Fashionably Geek:

Mark Pearson, a 44-year-old car mechanic from West Yorkshire spent 14 months creating it out of household items including an ashtray and 400 sheets of fiberglass covered cardboard. This was a true labor of love that started with a helmet, but snowballed into an entire suit. Unbelievably, the suit doesn’t even fit Pearson. It fell to his 6’2″ friend Darren Higgins to wear the armor at the local opening of The Avengers.

Step Yo Cosplay Game Up!!!!

I’m a week removed from running my job’s Free Comic Book Day. Comic shops don’t really have seasons or championships but I’ll be damned if FCBD isn’t our Super Bowl. Folks who aren’t normally interested in us, pop their heads in and witness the spectacle we put on once a year. If we do our jobs right; we leave them wanting more and I think we did. That weekend, exhausted, I left Free Comic Book Day and finally got to see The Avengers; this thing that as a kid growing up in the 80′s, I never thought would have been possible without looking entirely cut rate.

Yet, here I was watching this spectacular thing that just four short years ago, felt like a dream. I sat in that movie theatre and damn near went giddy watching a beautifully executed big screen version of the clashes I grew up with in the comics of my youth.

Hulk vs. Thor!

Iron Man vs. Thor!

As exciting as all of this was, nothing thrilled me more than Captain America as peacemaker. There was Cap, shield in hand, standing between The Invincible Iron Man and The Mighty Thor; doing what needed to be done so they could fight the real enemy. It was just so damned cool. It was just so damned Marvel.

And I let my inner twelve year old own it.

The movie finished and I knew I’d seen something special and with that, I was already looking forward to other things.

There I was, after watching this boyhood dream, looking forward to what’s next. And then, it hit me, for those of us who grew up “geek”, we are living in the greatest generation.

In this generation, a bunch of geeks pushed forward the technology that allows for things like The Avengers to happen. We watched as a computerized Hulk did battle with a very real human playing Thor and we didn’t even blink. We were too busy accepting this as the  new normal.

This summer containing a Free Comic Book Day the after the American premiere of The Avengers movie moved into the next where I watched the PBS premiere of the UK series, Sherlock and all was good.

I sit here typing this with a stack of comics staring at me; wishing to be read. In these pages Avengers fight X-Men, Batman fights secret organizations and they’re being written and drawn impeccably. The production values of comics, in my eyes, have never been better.

Yeah, there are things wrong out there; folks are rolling their eyes over things such as Watchmen toasters and they should but what’s as going on is a new level of ownership never before seen in comics. While I love a superhero dust-up as much as anyone, the books at the top of my read pile; Saga,  Saucer Country and Danger Club are decidedly creator-owned. The reason? They’re great. There’s a different sort of energy going on in these pages and it’s refreshing and I just want in on it. Creators, established and new, are going out there with nothing but an idea and initiative and absolutely changing the way things are done and we, are for the first time are something more than witnesses.

We’re seeing a new shift in the way comics are done and we’re playing a huge hand in its execution, creators are taking to the internet and creating a new system of patronage via Kickstarter. We, the readers, are putting our money down to help shape a new comics landscape, one based on initiative. Kickstarter has become something more than a way to fund something DC, Marvel or some other entity wouldn’t publish; it’s become a belief system. If you believe in something, you fund it. It’s just that simple. No meetings. No corporate decisions. Kickstarter makes YOU the publisher. Kickstarter makes YOU the patron. YOU help make the comics you want in your personal library. It’s just us helping push a dream into reality. There’s noting more exciting than that and if I can help, I want in on that.

There’s nothing more exciting than ownership and I think, as a whole, we’re waking up and embracing this while becoming more saavy. Fans know when something is genuine and will get behind things they believe in. Whether it be a comic book that needs $2,000 to succeed or a blockbuster movie that costs a quarter of a billion dollars to make, if its intent is good, we will respond in kind.

There’s a beauty in that.

Over the next few weeks, in comic book stores, The Avengers will continue to fight The X-Men.

In theatres, Batman, the character that sort of made outright geekery possible, will soon return with the highly anticipated movie, The Dark Knight Rises. I am as excited about this as I am about anything.

A new reboot of the Spider-Man franchise will try and get us to fall in love with The Wall-Crawler all over again. I suspect we will.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation looks to be the movie 80′s G.I. Joe comic book fans have long been waiting for. Bruce Willis as the original G.I. Joe?!? You know, the guy with flocked hair and Kung Fu Grip?!? That’s brilliance. That’s consideration.

That’s what we fanboys and fangirls have done all along. We’re happy the rest of the world are finally catching up.

Pop Music Festival 2012 is proud to announce that media icon, designer, model and recording artist, Paris Hilton, will make her DJ DEBUT as one of the top artists of the evening. Paris will close the show for thousands of attendees, immediately following a performance by Jennifer Lopez. The show will mark Paris’ global debut, as she has been traveling around the world attending music festivals and working with important music influencers in the industry. Brazil is very excited to watch her perform her first live DJ set in San Paulo and fans will travel from all over the world to be a part of the incredible night.

Loving the people and energy of the country, Paris is excited to return to Brazil for the Pop Music Festival 2012. In the recent years, Paris spent time in Brazil working on a successful campaign with Devassa beer and attended Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. She has also been the face of the popular fashion brand Triton, walking in Sao Paulo Fashion Week in 2011.

Paris Hilton is one of today’s most recognizable figures, she is a purveyor of fashion and celebrity, from Tokyo to London to Brazil, Paris is a global brand. Since 2006, Paris has led her own company and business, Paris Hilton Entertainment, which was established to create entertainment and business ventures. Paris takes an active role by overseeing product development, design, marketing, and promotions. The company has an extensive portfolio of 17 Paris Hilton product lines, 35 international stores, three television series, two best-selling books, countless brand endorsements and the company is currently in preparation to release Paris’ sophomore music album.

Conceived and produced by XYZ Live, Pop Music Festival has already confirmed for 2012 edition Jennifer Lopez, Michel Telo, Kelly Clarkson and Cobra Starship in its line up in Sao Paulo. The Festival’s first edition, in March 2011, brought to the country another hurricane, Shakira, the American band Train, the Jamaican Ziggy Marley, the superstar DJ Fatboy Slim and the Brazilian band Chimarruts. In its first edition, the Pop Music Festival had editions in Porto Alegre, Brasilia and Sao Paulo, bringing together an audience of over 100,000 people.

I know, right?!?!

NEW YORK, NY – May 15, 2012 – Crossover hip-hop artist Yitz “Y-Love” Jordan is speaking out for the first time about his life as a gay man of color, while straddling the worlds of hip-hop and Hasidic Judaism – two communities not known for supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. On May 15th his latest release, “Focus on the Flair,” will bring a new, authentic voice to the hip-hop world and the LGBT community.

Said Jordan, explaining his decision to publicly identify as a gay man for the first time: “I want mine to be the last generation of LGBT Americans that remembers what a closet is. I want kids in 20 years to sit annoyed through LGBT history class to learn about that long ago time ‘when gay people used to have to lie,’ much like segregation is a far-off time to many of today’s middle-class black youth.”

Continued Jordan: “Why come out now? I’ve wanted to for a long time. I feel like I have wasted years of my life worrying that my ‘public reputation’ will be negatively impacted by my identity. Now that I’m over 30, I simply can’t care as much about what people think, despite the prospect of alienating the community I dedicated my life to as an artist and a man. My hope is it will open their eyes – and hearts. I’m ready to live authentically. I’m ready to find a husband. I’m ready to live without fear of being outed or the stress of keeping my whole self from people. And I’ve waited too long to do that.”

Born to a Puerto Rican mother and an Ethiopian father, Jordan converted to Hasidic Judaism in 2000, subsequently studying at Jerusalem’s Ohr Somayach yeshiva. Now, he is prepared to risk losing much of his former audience by being true to himself. Said Jordan: “So many conservative-minded hip-hop fans have listened to me to be their ‘voice of Jewish values’ for so long that I’m sure some will huff off in disgust at seeing the real me. What will not change is my art. My rhymes will still be 20% Hebrew and full of Jewish quotes as always. I also fully expect that these people who no longer find me “appropriate” will be replaced by fans who can truly appreciate the real me — with a particular emphasis on LGBT hip-hop fans, who I think will be able to identify with my struggle and triumph and have few out artists and role models.”

When Y-Love released his first mix tape in 2005, the world took note of the first African-American Orthodox hip-hop artist. Now, Y-Love is leading a new era of “global hip-hop” — where global social consciousness combines with pounding rhythms. Y-Love’s club-friendly tracks are influenced as much by rap vet Chuck D as by new artists like Major Lazer and Nicki Minaj. Y-Love explored a variety of new styles on his 2011 album “See Me”, from dance to hip-hop to pop, channeling each one to express his underlying anti-prejudice message: “Unity builds the world, all divisions destroy the world.”

Y-Love gained worldwide praise with his first album This is Babylon, which propelled him to appearances from BBC World TV to Late Night with Conan O’Brien. The world’s first black “Jewish MC”, Y-Love has featured his compelling perspective in hundreds of publications, including USA Today, XXL Magazine, The Australian and Italy’s La Repubblica.

Now, Y-Love is speaking frankly about the influence of his sexuality on his work, and how his coming out will be felt by listeners of his upcoming album “Focus on the Flair.” Said Jordan: “If anything, I’d say that being closeted about my sexuality gave an edge of anger to my tracks, which, while couched in revolutionary terms, stemmed from a place of inner anguish and frustration.” Continued Jordan: “‘Focus on the Flair’ is my first album where I feel like my music reflects an inner happiness and joy instead of primarily an inner conflict. And that is a reflection of what it means to come out and be true to oneself – the joy, the relief and the hope. I hope that is what people will see and focus on.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO: http://thisisylove.com & http://wearebancs.com

Filmmaker James Winters came out with a rather interesting tribute to Adam Yauch (aka MCA) of the Beastie Boys, who died on May 4th. I’m honestly surprised a kid version of “Sabotage” had come along sonner!