Kinky Carnivale

One of our fave DJ's from Chicago is DJ World. Not only does he grind hardcore with The Soul Selectors ((sick army of DJ's)) but he's been down with the Kink Not mission since day one. When he and DJ Leon Q spun at Carnivale last week they asked Kinky Notti be their special guest hosts...you know Kink Not aint neva scared!

As The World Turns...

Speakers blasted out hot salsa rhythms as we stepped through the door. We watched at first trying to take notes on all the steps (we still need to learn how to salsa!) but then DJ World turned on some steppa's joints and Chiv and Chae LaFunk had to get loose real quick.

Care to Tango?....

It takes two!

Chae is instant comedy always acting so far beyond her years! Did you peep that "TT Hat-N-Shawl" combo she was rocking?! She got rode all nite for that. The killer was when TT Chae got to stepping and caught a charlie horse in her left leg!!

TT (Noun): Somebody's play auntie

Ouch...u might wanna walk that one out

When World threw on our first joint, "Beneath the Deck" we did a half-performance on the dance floor since we didn't have any mics (we were only supposed to host that nite!)...The crowd was really feelin it though. Later we even got a chance to take a silly pic with a couple of new Kink Not fans :)

Have & Chae can't stop singing after two rounds of mojitos

.....Peace to the Babies.....

Chitown Record Bangers

Chiv & Have bounced to another impromptu artsy affair. We had heard about this crew called the Chitown Record Bangers ((online radio station doing big thangs)). Anyway, we got word that they were inviting some local music artists over for a live set in their studio loft, so you know we had to invade the scene. We were hella surprised when we got there to find that a ton of muff-occurs who already knew and loved Kniny Notti.

A digital cam & huge vanity flash-gadget were already set up with Joe the photographer posted up on the other side. DJ Rebel 1 and DJ OuTaStyLe kept the "online party" head-bangin' all nite. We were just in time as peeps started literally jumping to have their pics taken....

Flashing Flashing Lights Lights Lights

Muff-occurs were really kickin it!

DJ Sam I Am prefers to sit on his elbow

Ill Eagle blesses the crowd with "The Wilhelm Scream"

C4?

The Gap Ad

Chivas got taste

Chitown Record Bangers = Pop Life!!

Guns & Brushes

Kinky Notti was hangin' out with some of our "artsy friends" (oohwee oohwee ooo). The invite to Guns and Brushes came in the form of one the most poetic emails we've ever received. The subject read "SAVING CHICAGO FROM ARTISTIC GENTRIFICATION..." Guns and Brushes turned out to be a gallery showcase, aimed to focus on the artists who chose to pursue work and talents over social status and formal education.


They called this month's exhibit "Live Jive", conceived by the hands of poet/ healer/ painter Smokie; Chicago’s own fresh engineer artist Casmir Mercedes; and event producer, Dustin. It was tight...We got to see some people we hadn't seen in a minute and we got a lil taste of what's good in the hood. We could see the artists' heavy nfluence by Basquiat... it was sort of like looking at a cave man's work on some Back-to-the-Future-Graffiti-type-shit. We could dig it.

Behold the Trinity behind Guns and Brushes

Word to Smokie, the artist behind this Kink Not portrait

"Her" by Casmir & Smokie

We were bobbing our headz and vibing all nite. We didn't even peep our guy, Sonny Daze hiding up in an elevated loft til the end when we were bouncing out. DrUNkeN MoNkeeE hosted and kept disappearing and reappearing all nite in masks and shit, on some real ninja shit. We missed his performance, but we still walked away with a small consolation prize.

DJ Sonny Daze pumpin through the speakers...
Looking like "All is Well"

DJ Sonny Daze sitting high

BTW, thankx for that hot exclusive, Drunk Monk!

I think they called this one Wine on Drywall

5 degrees was the high that nite

Note: art shows in sub-zero temps with busted heaters suckass! When was the last time you saw a bunch of free wine sitting out not being consumed? It was too cold to even get drunk! Some Maker's shots probably woulda done the trick. But overall, the event felt like exactly what we are looking for in our quest to begin a wild revolution within the Chicago artist community. A new "artist playground" is developing...POP Life is emerging, Kink Not??

C4 @ Urban Outfitters

One Friday, Kink Not gets a sporadic text message inviting us to C4's show at the Urban Outfitters on the Mag Mile, featuring Peanut Butter Wolf. Floyd the Fourth and DJ C.Y.Not are the dynamic Super Duo that makes C4, a choice hip hop group in Chicago. And Peanut Butter Wolf is Stone's Throw Peanut Butter Wolf. You know we had to catch the vibe...

When's the last time you got to shop for gear and hear classic, live, underground hip hop?! Did I mention that Floyd the Fourth's job title is "store display artist" at Urban? So of course we gotta give him his P's for also constructing the dopest in-store stage, with his bare hands.

I got a gold name plate that says I wish u would

We anticipated seeing Peanut Butter Wolf for the first time, but we found out that they were held up at LAX and wouldn't be making the show. It looked like the event was a wrap, but c4 still decided to rock the mic regardless. The show was super dope! Floyd the Fourth was on some crazy shit, jumpin on display tables...but that's the brilliance of retail shows.

Skills on Display

It got hotter & a few breakers got loose. Muff-occurs were sliding display tables out of the way to make room. DJ C.Y.Not came from behind the turntables for a go-at-it...such a cute time :D

Spotlight: Don't stop the body rock

Kink Not Photoshoot ©2007

First and foremost, Jess put her foot into this photo shoot. It took us all like 3 weeks just to get the date set...but finally that day we were able to John Witherspoon-it... co-ordinate (rabbit getting old). We woke up to a slightly overcast day with a whopping 40 degree temp in Chicago with the promise of rain. At first, we were thinking about writing a rain check, but then we thought of how cool the shots may be if it stayed dry. Clouds on overcast days provide perfect shadows, perfect light. Anyway, peep game. What's your favorite Kink Not Shot?

Chiv: Set the stage baby!
Have: We would like to welcome everyone to the Kink Not Photoshoot
Chae: Where the fuck is Kinky Notti?

Chiv: Now wah-me superman that ho! Youuuuu...
Have: How's my hair?
Chae: Come here girl, lemme hook you up...

Chiv: Here comes the hot stepper
Have: Yo soy una modela!
Chae: My boobies are cold...Chiv, lemme share your jacket

Chiv: Look- is that a titty in the rope?!
Have: Now what is this girl doing down on the flo?
Chae: Fuck that- these heels are five inches, bitches!

Chiv: Yeah bitch...fuck you say??
Have: Now What??
Chae: Oooh! I gotta pee!

Chiv: Excuse, please
Have: What u know about them Daisy Duck heelz?
Chae: TT rest-ta-go...

Chiv: Us girlz can boogie too...we can dance, we can shake it!
Have: Puss-n-boots
Chae: Shakin' in them boots

Chiv: kick it over here baby Pop!
Have: I know kung-fu!
Chae: Lemme stand back here and catch my breath

All: (Nuf said)

Chiv: As if you can even fuck with it?
Have: Wow..my leg looks eight days long on this one
Chae: Since when is TIME a measurement on the metric scale?

Chiv: Heyyy ayyyy nowww...you done got me ackin wild!

Have: Wait! What's my motivation?
Chae: I told you that boy got problems!

Chiv: "Said now I...I...I..."
Have: Chiv on that James Brown shiddddd again
Chae: I'm serious...he really got problems!

Chiv: Aint shit sweet
Have: I think my hair is starting to feel the buzz
Chae: Gimme some

Chiv: Don't make me f*ck yo ass up
Have: Feeling a lil Kinky & Naughty by now
Chae: Ooh yeah!

OK...so now we're down to the hot shots. These are Kinky Notti's five favorite photos from the photoshoot. We seriously can't decide which one's the hottest, but yo- did you peep the "Hot Shot Poll" in the sidebar at the top of the page? We wanna know which one you dig, so vote for your fav pic.

Hot Shot 1

Hot Shot 2

Hot Shot 3

Hot Shot 4

Hot Shot 5

Grammy Dinner

Now doesn’t that look beautiful sitting there on the mantle?
That’s called foreshadowing for all of you non-literary muff-occurs

First off-- this is a pre-point-&-shoot-purchase post...so naw, we ain't got no damn pictures other than the souvenir book! But anyway, jumping ahead to October, we got an invitation to attend the Chicago chapter of the Recording Academy Honors Dinner from our G.O.O.D. friend John Monopoly ((his life is the game)). He blessed Kink Not with seats right next to Ye's table ((Ye = Kanye, in case ur a blockhead)). It was set up perfect, right? Kink Not in the spot, demo in the pock, looking hot, doin' it ta def non stop!

It was like we could see the light at the end of the tunnel

...OK enough shots of the damn book cover! Needless to say, we felt like we were doing it real big when we sat down in our finest linens to a spread of culinary excellence. The dope thing about the Grammy Dinner is that it honors cats who are really doing their thing in Chicago, like my man Joe Shanahan.

If you call yourself a music artist in Chicago and you ain’t rocked at one of Shanahan's spots, you ain’t really doing it, B! Double Door was where Kinky Notti has rocked consistently ((we killed that Res show, btw...big ups to our peeps at Swank Society for the show booking))

Respect goes out to our man, Joe Shanahan

Anyway, you know who is wild deez? Dude from Cheap Trick, Rick Nielson . Who cares about what he said exactly that night...he had us dying just based off his stee alone. Kanye’s speech was mad inspiring. There were points in his speech where we could see how passionate he was about his craft...and we could truly relate.

We all know Ye isn't afraid of shouting out his accomplishments for the world to hear! His rationale was "why wouldn't I say that I'm hot if I know I'm hot right now?...That's like it being somebody's birthday, but they don't let anybody know...but instead waiting til the next day to say 'it was my birthday yesterday'...so why didn't you tell anybody, muff-occur??" It was the perfect analogy to us.

Dude is crazy...but doing pretty good as far as geniuses go.

The whole time we were there, we were on this high, like “this is where we should be”. We were sitting there as Plain White T’s and Flosstradamus both commanded the stage. Kink Not could have been there with them. Oh well, maybe next time. As blurry as the evening was, the one thing we'll never forget was seeing the lovely, Dr. Donda West. The event was ending and we were walking over to the Ye table to say what up to Don C and the rest of the entourage.

As we were walking up, Donda West gave us this look like she recognized us, but not the same way she would recognize a former student. It was more like she recognized our purpose for being there and acknowledged that we should've been there; like she knew where we were going. She smiled as we approached. It was a warm and genuine smile. It made us want to get all our moms together for lunch so they could all talk about how proud there were of their children. 

We had never met her before so as we spoke, we felt the urge to reach out and hug her...but we didn't know if that would have been appropriate. Although her smile spoke that she would have accepted the embrace of strangers, it was an awkward moment in time. It was one of those moments that seems so much longer when you think back on it...everything gets slow enough for you to say, “Damn, I shoulda done this, or I shoulda done that". Hindsight really is 20/20…regret and mistake-free. Instead of us getting geeked at Kanye's performance on stage, maybe we should've been inappropriate. Maybe we should've hugged Donda West.

One love to our fellow Chicagoan, Kanye West