When the first baby iPhone was launched in 2007 it generated a mass appeal enthralling millions of telephone junkies world wide evolving into a global merchandise. It’s only about time there’s actually a song cheering for the invention. 5 years later João Brasil and Marina Gasolina a Brazilian singer/MC (former front-woman of Bonde Do Role) created ”Funk Do Iphone” an epitome of our time, manifesting our love and fascination for the iPhone. The song is a homage to modern society’s own collective baby, celebrating today’s Iphone-frenzy generation.

iPhone ringtones are boring but this take revives it all. The chorus is a remake of the ‘marimba’ one of iPhone’s default ringtones translating into a dance hit accompanied by Marina Gasolina’s pitchy voice enhanced by her cocky portuguese. The video collage starts off with a flashback showing the original iPhone premier where a CBS reporter covers the story, followed by the singer dancing and posing with a toy phone and some random footage of kids playing marimbas and showing of some moves.

Man Recordings have done it again!

Released on Dec 5th, 2011 by Man Recordings

www.manrecordings.com

Directed by: João Brasil, Marina Ribatski

Produced by: João Brasil

http://joaobrasil.com/

For more on Marina Gasolina, check out:

http://marinagasolina.com/

http://marinagasolina.wordpress.com/

http://myspace.com/iammarinagasolina

Multi-talented rapper and cartoonist  Simon Gärdenfors-  is always up to some new stuff. A while ago, Simon teamed up with his friend Pike and  kick started a project for an animated series about Paco the Judo Popcorn. At a first sight Simon’s aesthetic style looks clean, but underneath there’s a roughness. His work is percieved as provocative to the mainstream audiences- but it’s just the kind of mind trip that we advocate.

We love him for it!

Paco the Judo Popcorn created by Simon Gardenfors & Jonas Pike Dahlstrom

www.pacopopcorn.com

Follow  Simon’s project on his  blog

In my life, there are two things that I love beyond everything: empowerment and graffiti. These two have come to define och redefine the person I am.

When world renown artist Tony “Tempt One” Quan was diagnosed with the degenerative nerve disorder ALS which causes total paralysis, in 2003, it was a dark time for everyone in the scene; especially for someone that had been dominating the pavements and walls of LA, for over two decades.

Today Tempt has lost control of every body part, except for his eyes. And here’s where it gets interesting: With the help of the EyeWriter, an invention specially developed and designed for him by his friends from the Free Art & Technology Lab, Graffiti Research Lab and OpenFrameworks teams, including Zachary Lieberman, Evan Roth, James Powderly, Theo Watson and Chris Sugrue; Tempt is now making graffiti using the movements of his eyes. The glue holding this project together is called The Not Impossible Foundation.

The EyeWriter system uses inexpensive cameras and open-source computer vision software to track the wearer’s eye movements. The whole idea is to make an affordable tool for communications for those in great need of it, but without the monetary funds to finance it. With the EyeWriter Tempt was able to start painting again, something that he’s been enabled to the past seven years.

During this amazing fight for love, Not Impossible Foundation founder and Executive Producer of The Ebeling Group (TEG) Mick Ebeling decided to do a film about it. It’s not released yet, so I can only provide the trailer, but I strongly advise you to see it. Also make sure to check in on the foundation homepage, you’ll find true inspiration right there:They’re changing the world as you see it.

Kenyan animator Andrew Kaggia, proves that disability is never inability in his animated short film “Wageuzi” which translates from Swahili to English as “The Changemakers.”

Referring to politicians and their role in shaping popular culture in Kenya (and in many ways the rest of Africa) this 3D short film showcases Kenya’s main political presidential candidates in a futuristic post-apocalyptic world similar to the popular Hollywood film Transformers.

Here, each of the political candidates duel for supremacy as the race for 2012 begins. Kenya will vote this year – or possibly next year for a new president. The short film is carefully filled with subtle references to political candidates and metaphors behind their personalities.

Culturally relevant and poignant, globally entertaining and amusing.

http://www.wageuzi.com/

Ever wondered what it would sound like if DJ Premier and Nas went berserk with the Berklee Symphony Orchestra?

Like a Star Wars battle according to some. A bit tame compared to Nas’ previous takes on Carmina Burana and Beethoven, if you ask me. Nevertheless, it is enjoyable to see Premier direct a whole symphony orchestra. So anyway, why are they doing this? On Feb 16th movie-goers can find out when the new documentary Re:Generation is released and five dj:s get to reimagine five traditional styles of music. So far, I’m really feeling the bayou jam between Mark Ronson, Erykah Badu, Mos Def – ok, sorry… Yasiin Bey (can everyone please stop changing their names) and top drummer Zigaboo Modeliste (of The Meters) in New Orleans. I was expecting a bit bolder thinking when it comes to genre clashes than classical music and hiphop though. Not only is it the foundation of the whole ‘Save the last dance‘-concept, but also well explored musically. What daring reinvention would you have liked to have seen instead? And by whom?

Humans are all in all pretty awesome creatures. We’re pretty smart and we seem to have reached a point where we’ve built things we simply cannot use our ordinary sense to detect, so instead we’ve built devices to detect other devices for us, making them visible to us. Wi-Fi is just one example of a massive network, which we through our smart phones and laptops use all the time- but we can’t detect ourselves. Which neatly brings us to Immaterials: Light painting WiFi, by Timo Arnall, Jørn Knutsen and Einar Sneve Marinussen.

By using light painting and a long rod including 80 lights, it can detect a Wi-Fi signal strength, which they’ve laid bare in the hidden Wi-Fi network of Oslo. It’s cool looking and all, but more than that, it shows us how networks we’ve built interact with more solid structures all around the city. It gives the Wi-FI network a sort of ethereal quality and makes me want to go measure other signals and hidden street life in the same way. A side effect of light painting, which by the way entails moving light sources around in a camera frame as the camera takes a photo with a long exposure time, means that almost no human life is visible in these images, it’s just the city and the network interacting in a surprisingly organic way.

If you want to know more you can read a bunch about the project over here.

Harlem-based rapper  A.$.A.P. Rocky teamed up with VICE/Noisey for this one creating a quintessential rap-video blending elements of formulaic rap video clichés. With already 815 294 ( and counting) views on Youtube, A.$.A.P Rocky’s new video for Wassup from his latest album LiveLoveA$AP will no doubt climb the charts and be the joint everyone will be nodding their heads to in the clubs.

When it dropped only a few days ago on Jan 20th 2012, I was ecstatic –“only thing bigger than my ego is my mirror-“is now my motto. Rocky has become a favourite of mine and has generated a buzz in the rap scene, recently nominated for the BBC’s Sound of 2012 poll for putting his signature swag on Peso, Purple Swag and now also with Wassup.

Apparently, the visuals are based on Rocky’s vision and inspired by the movies; Scarface, Belly, Enter The Dragon, The Warriors and Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. The key visuals start of with Rocky standing in a pentagram practicing what looks like a satantic ritual, followed by shots of benjamin’s, naked girls, gold teeth, Hennessy, Mercedes Benz, you name it, translating into cynical stereotypizations what Rocky calls ‘shit is a facade’.  It’s all a metaphor for stuff he doesn’t want. Topped of with a touch of 90’ hip hop aesthetic. He finally wakes up from this ghetto-gothic nightmare with a thumping heart. Proving he won’t sell his soul to the industry and bacially stating he’s not for the money nor the cars.

All I know is a gotta see him perform at Way Out West in August.

VIDEO CREDITS

Directors: A$AP Rocky and Andy Capper Director of Photography: Jake Burghart Executive Producer: Suroosh Alvi Track Produced by Clams Casino Projections: Matthew Caron Set Design: Olga Miasnikova, Austin Willis, Kristof Wickman Lighting: Brad Marro, Jason DeJesus Body paint:Justin West Assistants: Erin Carr, Adam Gong, Bernardo Garcia, Bryan Locke Special thanks to: Ciel Hunter, Annette Lamothe-Ramos, Geno Sims, Bryan Leach and A.$.A.P Mob Worldwide

http://www.youtube.com/user/noisey

http://www.liveloveasap.com/

In this interview, our favourite photographer Saga Berlin- wears a big, bling-bling necklace, and a Tupac t-shirt. So, aside from just looking cool- she’s also made amazing press pictures for some of Sweden’s most talented artists such as e.g. Mohammed Ali, Lorentz & M. Sakarias, Johannes Anyuru and Anna Järvinen.

In the video interview Saga talks about the solidarity of the streets, the shocking power of raw videos, as well as rap star Trina’s message about her love for hard working women. Yeah, so Saga is the premier photographer right now to keep a third eye on, who documents the street scene in Sweden properly.

Check out her homepage Nice Guzz

Stocktown is all about harnessing the tremendous positive urban vibe out there, and those familiar with TED: Ideas worth spreading know that those folks too have an eye for spotting social entrepreneurship. Globetrotter par excellence and street artist JR, anonymous yet with a French-connection, was awarded the TED Prize 2011, chiefly for his immensely well-received series “Women are Heroes” back in 2008, in which African and Brazilian faces and facades were fused together spectacularly. Four videos stand out as irrefutable evidence of the artist’s ongoing and never wavering sympathy for ordinary people, be it in favelas in South America, suburbs in Europe or remote rural areas in Asia.

The main feature, directed by the artist himself, is a brief and suggestive intro to a project of his in 2010, “The Wrinkles of the City”, a-  for lack of a better word; tribute to the elderly, but also a reminder of how cities, like Shanghai seen in the short-film, are living and breathing spaces that deserve our care. Next is the teaser of last year’s urban mission, “Inside Out”, a sped up how-to-participate bit inviting you to share your wall-papered face with the world along with your two cents on how to improve this ecosphere of ours.

In the third video, the visuals of “Women are Heroes” are cut together into a beautiful montage displaying hopeful, strong and fascinating women portraits. Finally, take the chance to hear JR talk as he’s interviewed in conjunction with the most recent highpoint, the prize. Recognition sure is nice for those who work hard to warrant it, like JR.

Credits: The main and the second one were shot by JR, music by Jean-Gabriel Becker for Sounds & Sons. The trailer, video three, also by JR and further accredited to Social Animals on Vimeo. The fourth one is by TED prize; Production house: COSA (cosaprod.com), and Post-production studio: OTRA / NightShift.

JR: http://jr-art.net/

TED Prize: http://www.tedprize.org/

TED: Ideas worth spreading: http://www.ted.com/