you see, pimpin' is big business

and it's been going on since the beginning of time
and it's gonna continue straight ahead
until somebody out there turns out the lights on this small planet

I found the above in the library the other day. Trip the fuck out. It basically functions as an addendum or corollary to my previous post about the World box set. Clyde brings to light some of the same points, especially with regard to Rocco. However, I do have a couple [Popeye's chicken] bones to pick here. First, not including The Creeper among the list of elite Nineties graphic design dudes.
Come on now.
In addition, including the almost universally-maligned Lick in any list of elite Nineties videos surprised the fuck out of me, but if he's co-signing the XYZ vid and Uno it kind of makes sense from the persective of Mr. Singleton's un-edited mindstate. However, when combined with listing Alphonzo Rawls as one of the elite talents of the whole decade, that seemingly left-field choice caused me to draw the following conclusion: Alphonzo Rawls is underrated as fuck. I would also go so far as to say the following:
Alphonzo Rawls was The Black Danny Way.
The dude was one of five or so people in the whole world that could pull legitimately cool, progressive shit on both vert and street. Alf, however, displayed a much more palatable delivery than Way's trademark "mechanized Aryan super-soldier" style.

HOT LAVA!!!

Attn: Scott Johnston--better be on your shit. Watch your q's and be on your p's, my friend; as you can clearly see, I kill it at shoe design. Picking up the gauntlet thrown down by Watson, I threw together a Koston 1 select Hot Lava colorway in about three minutes using some markers and a silver crayon. Along the way, I decided to forego paying homage to the red and black Nike Air Tech Challenge II in favor of the blue and orange; although, come to think of it, a white shoe with a black sole and a big red "E" would be Nineties as fuck.

A couple notes on the design: the silver heel collar (?!) would be constructed of that mesh stuff, and the lava on the heel goes all the way around to the other side.

While I was hard at work, I pondered why the fuck I am so psyched on this colorway; the nostalgic forces that surround it are powerful. The kids that wore Air Tech Challenge II's and Bo Jacksons were always just a little ahead of the curve when it came to important shit like seeing naked ladies. For example, they always had the SI swimsuit issue whenever it hit the stands around mid-February. It's hard to verbalize the gravitas the release of the swimsuit issue commanded at that time. Keep in mind that, at the time, the internet was used primarily for academic types to communicate with each other. Consequently, it was virtually impossible to see [mostly] naked ladies unless one had some kind of hookup like Cinemax or an older brother. Presumably, the swimsuit issue was intended to raise the spirits of demoralized dudes in the deadest dead of winter, in the negative zone between the Superbowl and the NBA All-Star Game. So opiate-like was their siren-like power, the young ladies therein became H-list celebs, after a fashion.

They also inspired a cult of sorts, depicted and immortalized by Michael Rapaport's character in Beautiful Girls. Note: although I am not psyched on "The Hundreds," if they re-reissued the shirt featuring this famous monologue I would definitely fuck with it.

*note: Brooklyn Projects is not actually located in Brooklyn.

**note 2: The Fountains of Wayne no longer live in Wayne.