TODAY'S MATHEMATICS....

KULTJAH: THE ESSENCE PT.2

12 JEWELS....

KNOWLEDGE
WISDOM
OVERSTANDING
FREEDOM
JUSTICE
EQUALITY
FOOD
CLOTHES
SHELTER
LOVE
PEACE
HAPPINESS....oh...and BLING.

From the times of Pharaohs, and perhaps hundreds of years before, humans have adorned themselves with (what Cash Money and Hip Hop Culture have galvanized as...) BLING.
The phrase itself is rather played out amongst "those that know",
but it still makes the average person, and the "yea I'm down" sector feel cool saying it...so let it ride. However, the acquisition, and "rocking" of BLING is a primordial passion that entices every
race, gender, nationality, lifestyle etc. The jewelry you wear, or don't wear, is usually a symbol of who you are....what you wish to reflect...and eventually leave in the material realm.

...So when it came time to create the "material presence" of our logo, the "SUNPALM" (*see LEGEND of the SUNPALM coming soon), I felt it was important to find a true Craftsman for the task. I'm not throwing salt on the Canal St. or Fordham Road clans, but....yooouuu know what I'm sayin!!?? (i.e. Canal St. and Fordham Rd. Notorious for "sub par" Jewelry). While chillin' wit a good comrade of mine, Shane aka "Captain Dreddy" one day, I peeped a DOPE Heru (Son of Osiris & Isis) ring on his hand...and BAM! He hit me wit the connect and it was on....
I was blessed to be pointed in the direction of Ba Ba Heru at Studio of Ptah. Not only is Ba Ba Heru a Master Craftsman, whose created jewelry for Erika Badu, Wesley Snipes, Ben Verine, KULTJAH and so many more...he's also a Khamitik Spiritual enlightener....and all around cool black man. He not only created the original the original KULTJAH medallions, but we've also copped an extensive collection of rings, bracelets, chains, pendants and such......with each piece crafted to Khamitik perfection.The second series of SUNPALM medallions was a lot less spiritual, and more spontaneous. I bumped in to Gabriel Urist at a trade show, when he was just gettin on with the mini "Dunk"
pendants. We both thought it would be a good idea to do a collabo project...and the results speak for themselves.We made a bunch of these for immediate fam and comrades...though a few have been traded for currency from dedicated KULTJAH collectors. So in all...you can't take it with you when you go, but while you got it...rock it wit respect.

HUSTLE DON'T STOP!!!!

(*Last disclaimer...I swear I'ma Blog more)....So I'm fresh off a trip "abroad", Europe n Africa to be exact, and thanks to BBC & CNN World News, Al Jazeera and the many other satellite broadcasted international points of view...I was able to keep abreast with the downward spiral of the AMERICAN DREAM. Thanks to Obama.....a sobering spark of "HOPE" has been injected into the main vain of Lady Liberty...or at least a whole bunch of foreign backed legal tender...sounds like hope......but the majority of us residing in the "Land of the Free" find ourselves at pivotal crossroad.

Without gettin into allllll thaaaat...we know shitz bad...n prolly gettin worse...from financials to real estate to environmental to moral...it's hell in a Hermes Handbag...unless!...Now I'm not tryna sell emotional Amway, but "only we can save we"...and since when have the "PEOPLE" really looked for the GOVERN U MEN(t) to save our asses???...whenever there's a drought, that's when the HUSTLE comes out...get it how you live...but most of all...spread the LOVE.

One of the most important jewels I picked up from the Ethiopian portion of my trip (besides a piss yellow African gold link) was the genuine sense of mutual respect and struggle. Don't get me wrong, the same demons haunt their society as the U.S....and in many cases...a lot worse,
but the overall sense of....Yo...it is what it is...let's make it happen...if we ain't got shit...let's get it...eat off the same plate...I gotcha back...my home is yours and so on...that permeates their everyday lives....either never TRULY existed in AMERICA or must be manifest if this new "HOPE" is to save thangs.

Perhaps most of all was the sense of HUSTLE...erthang from clothes to cosmetics to water to tissue to goats to grain and whatever you need in between. In the U.S...when someone talks about HUSTLIN'...9 times outta 10 they're talkin bout sellin
drugs. Let's be clear...drugs sell themselves...people wanna get high....you just gotta "have" drugs and accept money for trade...oh and don't get caught. But I'm talkin bout that real live hand to hand...take it to the streets...HUSTLE...I seen a cat take a roll of toilet paper, make a carton of neatly packed bundles n get money from passers by...or a man with a scale stand there n get people to pay for weigh ins...besides countless other clean, legal HUSTLES...it don't and won't stop....the streets is watchin and waitin...make your stimulus plan......YES U CAN.

A VIEW TO A KILL...PT.2

RUGGED LIFE STYLE PT.1

.....So we find ourselves at the beginning of a fresh new year (I'm truly workin on keepin up wit this blog thang..). Though Time, Knowledge, Space etc...is Infinite...I always like to take this point in time to reflect on past, present and future movements. Lookin at this picture (above) I zoned out on how we got into the "Rag" business....being Artist...Style Generals...Social Scientist etc...and I couldn't help but long for "those days". I know every generation says "back in my day" or "when I was young..." you know the phrases...but (yo hold up I'm buildin GOD!!) those we're the days of "our" days. Late eighties, early to mid nineties was that shit! without giong into some MTV or VH1 like synopsis of "Hip-Hop" or "Black Culture"...I'm jus sayin...the energy harvested during those times...synthesized by years or slavery, oppression, struggle, re-education, music, traditions, hustle, style & fashion, business savvy n so on....are what gave birth to our concept of "RUGGED LIFE STYLE".....to be continued...

THE TRANSITION IS COMPLETE...

the Lab Loft...Hubcap...
Sunsets...

the BAT.

....Ok so we're back...it took a sec but the transition is complete. You never know how much "stuff" you got til it's time to move it...thank de lawd foe the freight elevator.
I definitely slept on the "blog" potential of the move...cause I didn't take any pics...but it went something like...

November ? til November 15th we had a blowout sale...people came out the wood works to get cheap KULTJAH dead stock and erthing else...we packed up as people shopped...my man
Marko came thought wit the box truck...we recruited a rag tag bunch of semi-pro movers...moved the studio and lab in two and a half trips...I went to war with a BAT n won (god bless the dead)...unpacked, which seemed much more stressfull than packin...ran into a cat named hubcap (who I think pisses in the hallways)...realized the spot has dope sunsets...finally got the wireless connect...continued unpackin...cleaned over 4 thousand square feet of 100 year old wood floor...burned mad frankincense...stepped outside the lab, turned around n said (think Beat Street) "It's Sooo Clean, Ramo we gotta hit it (talkin bout the walls outside the lab), So I started the first in a series of "Lab Burners"...It's Like havin your own A train to bomb, whenever...So we're in, and it's back to work...perfect timing...