Let’s be honest: it’s rare when something, or someone, comes along that’s worth more than a few days hype. We’re immersed in a culture, a world, full of disposable commodities slipping by on the surface of anything of significance. The Internet does a great job blowing up the latest collaboration or song for a day or two—it also shrinks the size of the planet. Good or bad, I wouldn’t have it any other way. When some kid has the opportunity to make a tune in his bedroom from—you pick a spot on the globe—and have it heard by thousands when iHeartComix, Discobelle or Big Stereo posts it, or some random kid with stars “all over” his eyes gets Hypebeast, Wooster Collective or Freshness jocking his steez, why the hell not. Just because they get 100 kilobytes worth of fame today doesn’t mean they’ll stroll the halls of credibility tomorrow. And chances are, it’s worth 10 minutes of pleasure. If not, just hit delete. When hype does march past its courtship stage of short-term fling into meaningful territory, it makes celebrating those things that filter through all the more special.
I don’t know what took so long for this Surface To Air cover. I’ve been an admirer for some time now. I think I actually said “doh!” out loud when it came to mind. They’re one of the few entities that succeed as both a creator with vision, as well as having a level of commercial appeal. Photography, design, music, film, fashion—there aren’t many companies in our world that get down on a level like the Parisian S2A collective. They’ve worked with Burberry, Comme Des Garcons and Tsumori Chisato, redesigned stores for the likes of adidas, host gallery shows for names like Banksy, Rostar and Kenneth Cappello (the photographer who shot our MisShapes cover, btw), they direct award-winning videos (check Justice’s “We Are Your Friends”—the one that had Kanye’s undies in a bunch). S2A has done what every creatively-driven DIY entity hopes to do: turn their Spidey sense and art into a lucrative model. They give obsessives like me a reason to obsess…and I don’t think their trump card has yet to be played.
BPM is all about mashing cultures and celebrating ideas. We put a lot of dots on the globe this issue. We found soul in Seoul thanks to a huge grassroots effort to prop up street culture. The level of innocence in the air is thicker than the rank co-opted culture for consumer gain often lingering around street culture. The new Harajuku district? We watched birds (battle-cocks to be exact) slash and peck each other in a bloody frenzy in the Philippines. It’s called Sabong and it’s like American apple pie or British humor…if you’re Filipino. The Red Light Fashion Project in Amsterdam highlights the city’s effort to turn their red-hued windows decorated with women in various states of undress into an avant-garde fashionable affair. We hit a small tightly-knit Trinidadian community in Queens where a group of teenagers are rattling suburban streets as they pedal around—think Puerto Rican blaster bikes in the ’90s-era Lower East Side or dub soundsystems in Jamaica. Speaking of the motherland, we touched down in Kingston, Jamaica with arguably the most important and influential musician and producer the country has ever produced: Lee “Scratch” Perry. Our goal: shooting video at a seedy, bi-level strip club. Mission accomplished. Of course we have a lot more of the stuff you didn’t know you needed—let the launch day stampede begin…
