I get this tweet from one of my good friends:

Instantly, my life has been changed. The momentum for this blog build a little more. It is packaging like you see in the video below that fortifies my belief that artists need to make collectable goods. It only took 15 seconds for me to find my wallet and make a pre-sale purchase. I am a fan of Jake One and I dig some Freeway stuff, but if not for the creative shelf-worthy packaging, I would have passed or waited for a friend to send me a CD rip of Stimulus Package.

Holy Collectable CD, Batman!

Now none of this would not be happening if not for forward-thinking independent labels like Rhymesayers Entertainment were not on the job. This particular packaging was designed by Brent Rollins, who has been deemed by Jeff Chang to be the best graphic designer in the hip hop space for the past decade. Rhymesayers fans may remember the unique packaging for Atmosphere’s last album When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold.
Mind you, both Atmosphere and Freeway have seen success on a career level, so they can afford to put that kind of money into their projects. It is probably going to be a stretch to see a lot of the smaller acts having packaging as lavish as Stimulus Package, but that does not mean you should be lazy on your physical goods you plan to sell.

Make sure you buy it at Fifth Element Online or Amazon (affiliate link – I make money if you use this) for Stimulus Package.

Post-industrial-pre-resurgence Detroit meets Clockwork Orange. If you like this, please share. This gem has been on Youtube since SEPTEMBER and it only has 150 views. My marketing brain has some thoughts on this, but consider this my way of doing what I can to help some talented folks.

The group is Blackreign and Ohkang, featuring O’Nasty as a guest. They are from Detroit, MI, where a lot of great music is made that does not get heard by the mainstream populace. I swear it is not bias either. Save a talent with a retweet or a Facebook update!

Saw a tweet from my favorite urban tastemaker magazine, The Fader, about this video and I had to check it out.

My first listen to Zomby was on a mix curated by Your Brutha brub, who is someone that should be on your radar if he isn’t already. He is definitely the most organized dude when it comes to his social media interaction AND he still uses MySpace faithfully.

I usually want to have a ton to added info, but I got some bigger things coming up for the site. Enjoy the trippy visuals and the Zomby sounds. If you like what you hear, dig deeper and search his catalogue.