I just got these fresh off the press yesterday from my homey Addy. These posters accompany my best efforts to help document something historical as an artist.

Rest in Peace, Dilla.

We wish you freedom and clarity above all things. With Love & Respect from North of the border. – Bryan Espiritu”

This is the posters relative size in comparison to the LL x RGG beads that many of you guys copped to help raise money for Schools Without Borders’ initiatives in Kenya. I’m still blown away by your thoughtfulness and support.

This is the posters relative size in comparison to the LL x Food 3-finger African black wood and silver rings that will be released in the next few weeks.

$80 per ring, available exclusively at LiveStock. Be sure to check out Food’s other products available at Nomad.

The posters are 12.5″ x 18″ full color, 100 lb gloss finish and will be sold at LiveStock for $10/each. Anyone who cops the Obama’s Time tee will get a poster free with purchase.

Cassidy is one of my favorite emcees to listen to. He’s hella greazy and his word play and flows are enormous.

New shit with him featuring Cory Gunz. You dig ‘em?! Body bags.

Cassidy feat. Cory Gunz – Body Bags

Download it HERE

Papoose goes in on everyone claiming hard on his myspace comments, and youtube thuggin’ in general. Word, there’s a lot of these cornballs out there.

Papoose – MySpace Gangsters YouTube Thugs

Download it HERE

DAY TWENTY SEVEN RESULTS:

Face Shape: A little too rectangular and narrow, which is unfortunate, because I think otherwise, this would have been a great 5 Minute Me.

Eyes: I actually really like the eyes in this self portrait. There’s something that’s more connected to me when I see myself have a level of intensity in these drawings versus just staring into a mirror to illustrate my features. Even though they’re not that well done, they’re still a very good depiction of my eyes.

Nose: It’s a little to triangular at the top, but overall it’s pretty accurate. The nostrils are also a little too big.

Mouth: I promised myself I wouldn’t run out of time before being able to draw the mouth, and thankfully I actually made it. It’s not that well drawn considering I generally run out of time while I’m drawing the lower half of my face, but it’s still pretty accurate.

Details: The darkness around my eyes is a telling feature when it comes to these self portraits. The narrow groove next to my right eye is something that I think I should pay more attention to in the future 5 Minute Me’s because its a detail that is characteristic of how my eyes look in actuality. It seems like I’m unable to match the level of detail in Day 17, no matter how quickly I draw or how hard I try.

Final Thoughts: The comfort is coming back, in my writing and in my drawing. This was a big relief. To be able to draw yesterday’s 5 Minute Me and execute and then do today’s 5 Minute Me at this level gives me confidence going into the final 3 days of this crazy project. Today’s writing piece was definitely a favorite of mine aswell.

DAY TWENTY SEVEN PIECE:
Goals in Golden. (written in 5mins 00secs)

We’ve got goals concealed in golden wraps,
but hide them,
tucked in pillows, napped amongst our dreams and
sewn the seam ends;
known to only diary reams
and our
best friends.

Or maybe no one at all.

We keep them sheltered,
shut and muted,
hide the most devine,
consumed with sealing off all the shine.

Like the ceiling does from 9 – 6.

We see them build like
cinder blocks and stick
their means within our thoughts.

And in our golden wraps we’ll find them hidden
when we pass.

But never sought, they’ll never last.

be.
08.15.08

DAY TWENTY SIX RESULTS:

Face Shape: From what I drew in, it looks pretty accurate.

Eyes: The eyes are pretty good. The left eye is the closest to my likeness that I’ve drawn my eyes in a while. The right eye, for the first time, is the feature that I started on in this illustration. I think that this 5 Minute Me is the first one possibly since Day 17 that looks like a person and not a caricature.

Nose: It’s not that accurate, but it is pretty well done. The detailing is nice, though not totally alike to my nose in real life.

Mouth: I’m starting to set a trend here I think – run out of time before getting to the mouth.

Details: The detail on the nose is the best feature on this 5 Minute Me, although it’s not totally accurate. There’s not much else going on for the rest of the face other than the eye quality and the shading on the ear.

Final Thoughts: Finally, a 5 Minute Me that looks somewhat like me. I was getting pretty down about these fucking things and this one has given me a little bit of a boost of confidence. One thing I never seem to comment on in my ‘Final Thoughts’ is the writing portion of the 5 Minute Me. It almost has become secondary to what everyone seems to see, and that’s the self portraits. Today’s writing piece was actually one of my favorites. I hope you like it.

DAY TWENTY SIX PIECE:
A Round Of Applause For Things That Have Passed. (written in 5mins 00secs)

I’m gone
like tomorrow will be a day of reflection,
a moment to be
missed,
for the cold and misted walks through paths
and talks with preachers about the life after passing.
I’ve got passion like the man you find yourself for forgiveness asking,
and I’ve taken lashings,
learned lessons and been double crossed.
I’ve tried,
but am tired of exhausting thoughts,
meddling aimlessly,
and peddling venom and gems to a
‘plain as you can see’ audience whose
ignorance is audible.

And through all the bull
we’ll find yesterday as the time most applaudable.

be.
08.14.08

DAY TWENTY FIVE RESULTS:

Face Shape: The face is a little funhouse mirror-ish, a little Rhymefest-ish, and a little Biz Markie-ish. But this may be an illusion created from how exaggerated in size I drew the nose and mouth.

Eyes: The eye that I did get to isn’t half bad. Too bad it doesn’t look like my eye at all.

Nose: This nose is actually bang on in detail and in proportion. Unfortunately the nose is not bang on in terms of its relative proportion to the rest of the face. A little too big, I’d say.

Mouth: This mouth is also pretty bang on, but again, too big it seems.

Details: The nose is the only part of this 5 Minute Me that got any love in the detail/shading department, and it’s pretty accurate. The rest of the drawing though, not so much.

Final Thoughts: I felt a little more comfortable drawing this 5 Minute Me, and I thought that if I started with a larger canvas, that being the bigger face, I’d have more room to make the features more accurate. Unfortunately it resulted in me trying too hard to make the features large as well and I ended up with a very realistic cartoon of someone trying their best to look almost like me.

DAY TWENTY FIVE PIECE:
Thinking about her made me too nervous to write enough. (written in 5mins 00secs)

She makes ‘happy’ seem like my last beat, so we dance proper
and act uninhibited, a tidbit like we’ve visited too much vodka…
makes my wake up at 8 being late for a meeting seem kinda fleeting
and offers to rub on these feet when I’m back at home.

She makes alone time feel like I should check on my phone line
to make sure I haven’t missed her customizable phone chime.
But she knows that when I need it I’ll still

be.
08.14.08
(day missed)

DAY TWENTY FOUR RESULTS:

Face Shape: Almost perfect. I obviously didn’t complete the chin though.

Eyes: They’re not that bad, but they don’t resemble my eyes at all and they lack detail.

Nose: I was only able to finish half of the nose, but from what I had done it looks like it had some potential. I don’t know, the way things have been going with the drawings I wouldn’t be surprised if I just totally fucked it up.

Mouth: Once again, N/A.

Details: There isn’t much detail in this 5 Minute Me. It’s getting ridiculous. The only thing I can comment on is the mapping out of the shading, but even that is poorly done. I’m getting unbelievably disappointed and discouraged by this.

Final Thoughts: I’m getting so preoccupied with not doing a shitty 5 Minute Me that all of these illustrations are coming out like shit. It’s disheartening and makes my approach to the project one of lacking faith and hollow expectations. I think I need to do the drawings earlier, because I get so caught up in other work I have going on that I’m getting late into the night doing these and maybe the fatigue is weighing into the quality of the work.

DAY TWENTY FOUR PIECE:
Knownliness. (written in 4mins 44secs)

I need to be alone again
and feel the warmth of knowing more than the cold of
assumption
and blank sharing.
Let’s face it, we were closer when we didn’t know each other,
and you were a lot more exciting
when your stories were your voice.

I can’t listen as well as I can imagine

but I’ve heard my story a million times
and frankly
I’m getting bored of telling it to
people with no more imagination than their want to act silly and have fun.

My question is this:
When the fad is over
and your cloaks are worn,
our sky diminished and flags long torn,
how well will you be known when you are not blankly sharing
and we
both are alone?

be.
08.13.08
(missed midnight)