Biggie Smalls...the story continues

If you listen to rap radio you might wonder if Notorious BIG actually died in 1997...his camp has come out with nearly as many rap single releases and collaborations as when he was alive, and he's still going strong! Now, I don't normally get into rap trivia, but this story in the LA Times caught my eye (read it here on MSN).

A federal judge has ruled that the City of L.A. should pay $1.1m to the family of Notorious BIG. Why? Because there is proof of concealed evidence and a coverage up because two disgraced LAPD officers were implicated in the killing of the rapper. Wow! If it wasn't real life I'd think it would be a great screenplay!

eBay Addict and Master

And the winner is...Stevio! How does 'stevio_1' slip in with 2 secs to spare to scoop the goodies from under my nose!? Shhh: Ryan B told me about sniping application. It's technology at it's best...a redundant server cluster on a high-speed Internet connection which delivers a bid with so little time to react that you can only mess up by limiting your max bid amount.

But what have I been bidding on? It's all Hip Hop trivia...

I lost out on a Basquiat art catalogue book from the '80s and another downtown NYC punk art scene book. I was too tightfisted on the Benjamins! Shite! (But there is some justice - I just found that book online again for a quarter of the price ;-) Yes, mate!) I also grieved over a classic '88 adidas leather baseball jacket which went from $50 to $230 overtaking my limit of $180?! Shite! Tougher than Leather, baby!

But what have I won? Nike Futura 'P.Rod' (Paul Rodriguez) limited edition (1/500) skateboarding sneakers...prices varied between $150-300. I paid somewhere on the lower end of the scale...and I copped myself a pair of limited adidas (1/4,000) Superstars Lee Quinones 35th anniversary. These were going for $100-320 and I paid somewhere on the lower range. I'm just collecting and 'investing' in the graff artist sneaker collaborations!

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But who needs eBay for sneaks! I found a site that has the Nike Jordan reissue range. If you have $400-500?! may be you can own a pair of Nike Jordan retros. Me? I paid much less for my Jordan I, II, IIIs back during the early reissue in the '90s, not the umteenth resissue in the '00s.

I'm not mad...check this guy out. He's crazy!

Hip Hop Nation...under attack!

I went to GreyOne in Pasadena today as they had a big sneaker sale. Up to 40% off adidas shelltoes, Top Ten snakeskin, Nike XYZ....you can't knock it!

I had to get the car serviced so I didn't reach there until 5pm, and of course the shelltoes were long gone, but I still got me a pair Top Tens for $50 ($70 on adidas.com). But then I thought about all this consumerism...I'm a big supporter of most of it, but check this...

Where does Pepsi get off with this Hip Hop advert? Stylistically, it's flawless (down to the typo) and represents all facets of Hip Hop: graff, MCing, DJing, BBoying, but frigging 'ell. Pepsi Cola is now Hip Hop?! No, people! And what's with the black dude's hand holding the can?! STOP IT NOW!

But keep the sneaker sales coming!