Live Mechanics

E REECE reintroduces you to some of his previous work in the form of THE RE: INTRODUCTION MIXTAPE. Mixed by DJ MARK-1 and presented by DubCNN.com, Live Mechanics, The Originators, and KevinNottingham.com, this mixtape will get you up to speed before the new material drops.

Copy and paste the link below for the tracklisting and free mixtape download. Props to Kevin N.

http://ereece.bandcamp.com/album/the-re-introduction-mixtape

 

 

 

Bruce Johnson from Ny Giants in Live Mechanics styled by Celebrity stylist Khaliah Clark

Story by Nate Denver; Photography by Alex Prager; Styling by Anoma Ya Whittaker

"A year after giving birth to her first son, Ms. Arulpragasam is finally back with her first Complex cover and a fresh third album, ///Y/ (a.k.a. MAYA), slated for release next month. We’ve obviously had a thing for the MC/producer/Oscar nominee/tastemaker for years now, so our latest cover collabo was like a dream come true. The June/July 2010 issue on stands now."

COMPLEX: As a mom, do you hope for struggles for your son in his lifetime?

M.I.A.: I don't hope for them, but he's probably going to have them. I think their generation is probably going to have the craziest, you know?

COMPLEX: In what respect?

M.I.A.: Any kid being born in these times is gonna have to be resilient to a million and one things. We thought we'd seen it all, and our parents thought that they'd seen it, but every generation it gets more and more intense.

COMPLEX: Do you think our grandparents would think we have it harder than they did?

M.I.A.: Yeah, I think so. When I look back on my grandparents' time, there was no rush in their lifestyles. More family values, better food—I'm assuming everything they ate was organic because it was grown really locally—localculture, and all of that is gone now. My baby's generation, in his lifetime everything is gonna be a struggle to gain all the things they took for granted: privacy, good food, and time to spend with family. It's gonna become more isolated and more technology-based.

COMPLEX: As painful and tough as those times are, I hope my kids have tough times to learn and grow from.

M.I.A.: I have those thoughts about my son, but I think his adversities are going to be on a different scale. I had to spend ages on stupid shit, like getting to know about racism on a really street level, growing up in the projects. I think he's gonna have it in a different way.

COMPLEX: How so?

M.I.A.: At the moment, he's staying with me at my mum's—her house is in the projects, so the house is like the size of somebody's closet in California. But at the same time, he's got his grandpa on the other side, Ben's dad, who is at the complete opposite end of the spectrum. I think as long as he has both extremes, that's where his lessons are gonna be learned. I want him to grow up here and spend as much time as possible with his grandma to learn the things I learned growing up in this house. He needs to hang with everybody and meet people and find out what they need and find out what the problems are and what the solutions are. I can't explain it.

COMPLEX: No, you have.

M.I.A.: Good—I've made it clear to Ben that Ikhyd will be working in a sweatshop at age 4. [Laughs.] But sometimes I do get caught up. I always say I'm gonna send him off to China and I want him to learn Chinese, because the next hundred years is about China being a superpower and he should know how to speak it. So maybe he'll go there. 

COMPLEX: Did you see much violence growing up?

M.I.A.: Yeah, all the time. My kid's gonna see it, but he's gonna see it in computer games. I don't know which is worse. The fact that I saw it in my life has maybe given me lots of issues, but there's a whole generation of American kids seeing violence on their computer screens and then getting shipped off to Afghanistan.

COMPLEX: What's the link there?

M.I.A.: They feel like they know the violence when they don't. Not having a proper understanding of violence, especially what it's like on the receiving end of it, just makes you interpret it wrong and makes inflicting violence easier. When I put on the History Channel or Discovery Channel in America, there's this insane fascination with the end of the world. Every program on television was, "The end of the world! Armageddon! 2012! 2016! Unlocking the theory to when it's gonna end!" And supersonic intercontinental ballistic missiles and nanotechnology that's gonna end the world. Everyone's so obsessed with Armageddon, the dates they're talking about is Ikhyd's generation.

COMPLEX: Has your idea of America changed as you've grown up?

M.I.A.: When I first came in the mid-'90s, I was listening to loads of hip-hop, and the gangsta-rap era completely engulfed me. There's where I spent my time. Those were the clubs I went to, and those were the people I was hanging out with, so I had a weird understanding of it. But now I get to see a bigger picture of America. It's different.

COMPLEX: What's changed?

M.I.A.: The thing that I enjoyed about it when I came to L.A. was that it was just people doing whatever they liked. It was your life and you could do things and you were in charge. There were barbecues all the time in every park, house parties. Just so much more joy. And now it doesn't seem like that. And it's because it's so expensive there. By the time you've got to doing your house, insurance, your car, and paid a bill for your baby, it's just too hard for you to have any fun, you know?

COMPLEX: I don't think it's that dismal...

M.I.A.: It's not that dismal, but if you go to South Central now, there's not speakers on every side of the corner and people hanging out. Maybe culture has changed, but I also feel like the hustle's changed. It's come into this corporate hustle world. That's the times we're living in.

For the complete story and more pics visit www.complex.com

 

 

 

an·droid     (ān'droid')   
adj.   Possessing human features. 
n.   An automaton that is created from biological materials and resembles a human.  Also called humanoid. 
The interstellar collision of street and lux design have birthed Android Homme.  

 

USA will opened their tournament against England in Rustenburg which resulted in a tie score 1-1, then travel to Johannesburg’s Ellis Park Stadium to face Slovenia.

 

Chamillionaire tries on a purple/white button down by Live Mechanics, while Andrew “Boos” Fennell(our videographer) and I arrange the rest of his options.

Chamillionaire was a fan of this striped button-down shirt by ..... and red jacket by Live Mechanics…

But this striped piece by Live Mechanics ended up being the winner.

Hmm, which one to choose…

Next up, Drama tried on a fresh army green jacket by Live Mechanics.

The grey Live Mechanics piece was the winning piece of the night:

Check out Boss Lady’s video from the red carpet, with Birdman, DJ Khaled, Gucci Mane, Slim Thug and more telling us their favorite things about the South by clicking the link below: