Jax Da Ripper – a classic Frolaboration.

This is the second picture that I did for the “Who’s Jax Art Show” in Atlanta last week. As before, I used a photo of Jax to draw from but this time the photo was provided by the Frolab. For those who don’t know, the Frolab is an umbrella of multimedia and apparel being brought to you by Cognito (The Visionist) and Jewell Green (Miss Frolab). In the late 90’s, Jax was hired by Nito to work at the Fat Beats store in Atlanta. Their friendship extends much deeper than that but, it’s where a lot of Jax’s ambitions excelled.

This is one of the photos that Nito took for Jax’s “Sharper Images“ album. He was initially gonna display it at the art show but decided to Frolaborate with an artist instead. I started to draw the picture exactly as it was taken but, after drawing his face I began to see something different. Without the mirror reflection in the scene I no longer saw Jax looking at himself. It appeared as if he was looking outward… at something you could only see from an elevated position. I knew that I was gonna change the picture but the knife in his hand stayed stuck on my mind. So I started thinking of all kinds of blades… an axe maybe, for Jax the Axe Handler… cuz that was also one of his alias names. But as I referred back to the photo, I saw two blades and turned them into swords.

In my opinion, there’s no other figure with a warrior’s spirit like the samurai’s. They didn’t use guns, they fought to the death and prided themselves in protecting their people. In so many ways Jax also embodied those same methods of living. So I kept the Japanese theme throughout… and the letters in the flag are Japanese for “the ripper”. On the Sharper Images album Jax has a song called “Jax Da Ripper”, in which is his remake of the LL Cool J song entitled “Jack The Ripper”. In this joint he pays homage to all of the lyricists from Queens, who helped to pave the way for him to have a chance in music. This is a quote from one of the four & a half verses he went-in on: “I’ma slow it up, my flow is tough, chop B.S. promoters up / Cash for the verbal slash, Jax is gonna blow it up!”

Jax photo taken by C.Nito for Frolab.

Deluxe Apartment in the Sky.

This is the first picture that I made for the “Who’s Jax Art Show” in Atlanta last week. The visual artists who submitted their work, were given a collection of Jax’s photos to draw from. I chose a picture that shows Jax making a face, that he sometimes made before cracking a strange joke. It almost reminds me of the sad-face clown, or someone who’s parade had gotten rained on. So I ran with that feeling and thought of a scenario that might equate to this expression.

Jax is originally from Queens, NY and a neighborhood known as Rochdale Village. He often referred to this place as his home so I wanted to add this into the picture. Jax also made references to his life through TV… and a song called “Weezy” is what always comes to mind. This song talks about him wanting a woman like Louise Jefferson, who was George Jefferson’s wife from the TV sitcom “The Jeffersons“. He used to sing the show’s theme song and it would make everybody laugh… and that’s where the concept of this picture comes from. Jax has finally moved on up and back to his deluxe apartment in the sky.

Rochdale Village photo by Flux.

When Coney Island heads connect.

When most people think of Coney Island, they think of an amusement park… or one of the largest tourist attractions in Brooklyn, New York. But when you look towards the West past the Parachute Jump, there’s a skyline of projects over 30 blocks long. Three avenues wide with the ocean on all sides and each building standing at least 16 stories or more… this would be the Coney Island on which I was raised.

Besides Stephon Marbury, Buckshot and M.O.P., a few of our people were able to break out of the neighborhood threshold. One of them would be an MC named Shamrock… who was one half of the duo known as Sham & The Professor. I always respected dude’s hustle because, you had to work hard to get put on in the late 80’s. He was hanging out with established cats while I was reading about them in magazines. Recording in professional studios before I even saw what one looked like. I don’t think he knew I rhymed until around the time I moved to the “A”. So we never got to work on anything together until recently.

The design of the Claddagh symbol shows two hands that are holding a heart, which are also usually surmounted by a crown. This is an Irish symbol for friendship (the hands), loyalty (the crown) and love (the heart). With Sham being the Irishman that he is, he wanted to incorporate it into his logo. So he came up with the idea to have the two hands gripping mics that plugged into the heart… with the words “hip-hop, loyalty & love” at the bottom. He also made it a point of not wanting the image to look soft either. I must say, this was one of the more challenging logos I’ve ever had to do… keep rockin’ it Sham!

T-shirts by Glenn Jones.

There’s an art to T-shirt designing that a lot of people seem to grasp very well. When the right design meets the right color of shirt, a person like myself just can’t help but notice. It’s hard to get an image to screen print as good as the drawing was made. It’s also hard to make consistent images that people will gravitate towards. But for those who pull this off everyday, I give yall props because it’s no easy task. Glenn Jones is an artist from New Zealand, whose concepts and images are witty and fun. His style of illustration seems simple to the eye, but that’s the complexity of making a good screen.

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Le Chapeau Noir by Cristiano Siqueira.

I know some great artists who use linear hatching, for adding shades to their inked drawings. I’ve always admired their patience because, if one of their lines were drawn too close to the others, it would ruin the entire picture. Cristiano Siqueira seems to have a different approach to linear hatching. While using lines to show tints and depth, he also uses the same lines to make objects. It also looks like there’s some gradients involved but, my mind could be playing tricks on me. You can see more great work from Cris at his website.