Open Rehearsals

Wow, our first installment of Open Rehearsals at the Kinky Notti Juke Joint turned out to be such betterwith! So good, that now we're making it a bi-monthly event. We thought "what better way for our fans & homies to get an inside look at our performances + see the evolution of our next music-project than to witness it all live at our rehearsals?"... Plus we love receiving any kind of instant feedback from people, so it's a win, win situation.

Last time at our Open Rehearsal we banged out a live photo shoot with our guy Ten Photos + performed... so now we have new photos for the upcoming Kinky Notti promotion (that we plan to unleash later on this week). Also Tshurhad Chivas got to play around with some of his new song-ideas for Havanah Maxie's fresh beat-collection. It was a super-tight sneak preview for all the newbies who came thru!

Dopest of all, is that there's recently been a string of nice show-offers collecting for Kinky Notti, such as our upcoming show at HOB Chicago. We're opening up for The Lyfe Jennings "I Still Believe Tour" Monday Sept. 27th... anyway, we can honestly say that so far, Open Rehearsals seems to be the perfect outlet for us to connect to for expressing that magical creative-connection shared between us with others... it's a beautiful thing!

Chicago--> check out our Facebook Fan Page or our Twitter Page for updates on the next Kinky Notti installment of Open Rehearsal at the Juke Joint... but for now, here's some behind-the-scene pics & vid-footagery.

::::PEACE TO THE BABIES:::

SOCIALIVE --> KINKY NOTTI LIVE AT LSPC

En Weezin It - Vol.1 + RESPIRATOR THUMP

Don't quote us, but it is quite possible that NYC naturally breathes & pulsates at the frequency of planet Mars. Kinky Notti's insanely-dope journey to NY led us to rockin out at Southpaw (Brooklyn's finest) with The Beatards last month ((catch Kinky Notti at Southpaw here)). Afterward, our girl Semaj swooped us over to Pyramid to do an encore performance at End of the Weak's Open Mic Set ((peace to the homie Vinyl Richie, the master of ceremony/dj of the evening... dude spotted us in the crowd & went nutz. He literally stopped the show & blessed us with a hot introduction onto the stage))... shit was amazing!

So here we are now... back home with a buncha random footage from our trip. We decided that we couldn't waste such classic material (can u say viral video?) So here's our home-video-style footage, accompanied by the song 'Respirator Thump' from our new album 'Succumb' ((listen to 'Succumb' here)) Check it out...

About the video:

We landed in Newark & took a ride on the monorail (we were sofa-king wo' out!)... we were headed to our lil come-up-room located right in the heart of Manhattan. At check-in the front desk told us, "the price you were quoted is for rooms on the 13th floor... the one that's under construction for the duration of your stay... but don't worry! All hotel rooms on that floor are completely renovated & we'll even throw in a free-breakfast voucher for each morning of your stay"... we were like wtf?? Then she dangled a warm, freshly-baked, chocolate-chip-walnut cookie in front of our faces. Pbbbbbbb...Done deal!

At first, HavMax was pretty salty about it, but actually once inside, the rooms weren't bad at all. It even became amusing finding the new developments each day walking back to our room -> NITE ONE= no carpet & no wallpaper. NITE TWO= carpet! NITE THREE= new wallpaper up... and so on. It's amazing how something as simple as carpet can make a huge difference when it comes to sound-absorbancy ;D

Anywho, the rally-scene was randomly captured as we rolled up on it & decided to jump in. We could hear a dope public-enemy-sounding emcee in the distance but couldn't see the stage from where we were standing, so we made our way through the crowd toward the stage for a better look. There we spotted the homies Bling Crosby & the Rebel Diaz crew, so immediately we fell right into the mix while muffoccurs went hard for the rally. They even took it to the streets & marched all the way through Chinatown. Shit was crazy, but peaceful... everybody was soaring with love-energy, even the babies.

The final scene was shot on a quiet Brooklyn street where we rolled up on a dude selling old albums & CDs for $2 apiece. He was pretty bored because nobody really buys CDs & albums anymore, so we stopped to chat with dude for a sec. He told us about how each weekend you can find him posted up, selling music in front of his momma's house. He even asked us to hold down the fort a sec while he ran inside. We were like "wow, OK... that's random as hell" lol, but dude's vibe was positive, so we didn't mind. The hilarity was watching Tshurhad Chivas interact with all the foot-traffic, calling out dude's sales pitches like "CD'S, RECORDS, 3 FOR $5 OR ONLY $2 EACH"... only in New York, lol

About the song:

Respirator Thump is track 5 on Kinky Notti's new album 'Succumb' which is now available on online music stores! Check it out on iTunes, bandcamp or Amazon

RANDOM PICS

That First Saturday at The Brooklyn Museum = salsa salsa salsa

We named him Captain Skerry Azhun Morgan

We party hard & remember to do the knowledge

Guess some rocked big-up-to-Africa-medallions

while others rocked big-up-to-the-sun's-atomic-makeup medallions

Chillin & waiting to politic with our guy Vince in Williamsburg

No not him.

We told this guy that they were shooting Res' 'Golden Boys' video thataway

We know enough Spanish to make out

what this protest is about: the need for some kinda job program

in other words: it's time to get some employment juming off, muffoccurs

Photos by Tshurhad Chivas

*****PEACE TO THE BABIES*****

Making it Happen - The Ghetto Love Video

Ghetto Love means more than just the obvious (yes, it's a song about hot sex in the hood) but we also wanted to show how Ghetto Love is something that can be felt when people come together in hood spots to kick it & have fun... but even more than that, we wanted the video to show how Kinky Notti can be the source of that feeling. In other words, the video is a reflection of how Chicago gets it in on a good day.

Note how we said 'on a good day'... days prior we obsessively watched the weather to be sure to shoot on the first hot day in April, that way Bronzeville's 47th street was sure to juke extra hard for the camera. This worked both for & against us. Because of the attention the whole production brought, po-po's kept pulling over, tryna warn us about the danger we were in being out on the street with such expensive cameras & equipment. We weren't really sweating it then, but in hindsight we could understand why the forces urged us to rush along. Chicago made national headlines later that week with waves of senseless & deadly shootings on the south side.

Anyway, we basically had one weekend to make all the video-scenes happen. We were in all kindsa retail & landmark locations: Ibiza Clothing Store, Cut-Rate Liquors, the 47th-Street El platform, The Willis (or Sears) Tower... even that dope graffiti-covered alley in Hyde Park. Then the final scene of the video was shot at Havanah Maxie's uncle's Bronzeville mansion, which made the perfect backdrop for the basement/house-party scene.

That Saturday nite we were up til 3am shooting the house party scenes over & over. Previously we had casted dancers & actors to help with certain scenes. BTW we're really appreciative of those who came through & helped us put our vision into motion. Videos take a lotta hard work & patience to make happen, it's not always just fun & games... until there's a bar scene with real drinks involved... then everybody WINS.

About the staff behind the scenes... the 'Ghetto Love' video was directed by Tshurhad Chivas of Kinky Notti, produced by Kenyon Scott & Takamasa Ota, shot by Kacper Skowron & crew Flint Chaney & Giovazkie Perez. Peace to Gretchen Hasse, Antonio Barnes & 10Photos.net for the bangin' photos. Henri Mitchelle, for a job well-done on the makeup. And lastly, a BIG UP goes out to Dana Anderson & Concrete Runway for the project-consulting. YES, WE ARE WINNING! :D

After The Ghetto Love Shoot is Kenyon Scott's short documentary of how we exhaustedly wrapped things up...

(click to view)

*****PEACE TO THE BABIES*****

Hip Hop Howlery at SXSW

This is dope... more footage from SXSW recently surfaced on the Miz Metro Unlimited Show. Peep the hot clip of us (about 1:30 in) from the Hip Hop Howl showcase at Red Fez. We got it in with so many other great acts --> Miz Metro, The Beatards, Jasmine Solano, Jovi Rockwell, Circa '95 & Shinobi Ninja (just to name a few)... feel free to click on em & get familiar with the new hotness coming out of NY... Oh! Speaking of NY, Kink Not will be in your area later on this month for a show or two, so please be on the lookout for updates on our myspace &/or facebook pages.

*****PEACE TO THE BABIES*****

Kinky Notti Cameos

Always a bridesmaid, never the bride is kinda what it felt like... doing cameos on all our music-artist-homies' videos, wondering in the back of our mind when it would finally be our turn. Well, our time is now! We've been taping the video for our new single 'Ghetto Love' since last weekend & already we're like: OH YAYER, we can definitely get used to this! It's exciting seeing all the dope footage we've been getting... so yeah, definitely be on the lookout in the next few weeks for the 'Ghetto Love' premiere/release party. Promo will be all over so you won't forget who "told you it'll be off the chain", lol... Anyway, we thought it'd be fun in the meantime (just for shits & gigs) to take a look back at some of our 'video training days' lol (click image to peep the videos).

Chip Tha Ripper - Feel Good Video

Anacron - Get Stoked Video

Hot 2 Def - Walkin Around the Club Video

*****PEACE TO THE BABIES*****

Succumb Album Art - Lil Known Facts

Dude, Havanah Maxie KILLED this album artwork... she's quite the designer beast! A lotta muffoccurs have been asking about the significance of the visuals, so we thought we'd give a lil insight/fun-facts about how it came to be...

1.) We all know how much Tshurhad Chivas LOVES his ties... the problem was that he wasn't happy with how the wind had twisted it all up on the original album photo. Not to worry! HavMax knew she could easily "photoshop" his tie into its proper position... lol, chuch!

2.) Our photoshoot took place at the homie Floyd The Fourth's backyard/courtyard. During the middle of the shoot, he pulls out this big dopeass boombox as a prop, just playing around... it ends up inspiring the whole concept behind our album theme/identity. Thanks Bud!

3.) The tie around HavMax's head was originally to be worn properly around her neck... but at the last-minute, she thought it would be dope to rock it bohemian-headband style. It just kinda worked... can u say new fashion trend?!

4.) The global figure in the background represents the Earth & the moon all in one... it's life & death while also representing the dual nature of man, yin & yang, conflict & balance, all that good stuff.

5.) The geometrical-circular pattern behind us is called the "Flower of Life". According to wikipedia and other sacred sources, it represents "a visual expression of the connections life weaves through all sentient beings." The intricate design possesses every-known shape or form within itself. So basically it represents everything universal... sorta like the sound of Kinky Notti.

6.) The boombox represents "audio ammunition" which we use to combat this world of turmoil. On it we've placed our one common wish: PEACE TO THE BABIES!

SXSW Blind-I Quality Showcase 2010

Yo SXSW was insane! Shouts to the homie Nolis for these tight shots ((video footage of our shows & more coming soon))... These stills are from our performance at the Blind-I Quality Showcase @ Soho Lounge in Austin. We kicked off the Chicago lineup with a short-n-sweet 10-min set. At first we were like 10 mins? Can u say A-D-H-D? but we found out that's how it goes down at south by. Gotta give em your hottest shit & keep it moving. Anyway, this set was dope, even tho most cats in the audience were from Chi & had never even seen us rock. You know we had to get it in & bless em all with the new CD, Kink Not?!