I hope you are all balls deep in some summer fun. Your balls, of course. [ll] to me referencing your balls.
The i.C. collective has been ruminating on which outdoor music festival we would fucks with this summer. The Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival is on and popping again. I thought we did a pretty decent job covering this single day event by posting four (4) videos of our exploits there. My favorite joint was the final one titled ‘The Lost Tapes’. This is where I think you can really see how much love we have for this Hip-Hop shit. Plus, Rafi came off with the greatest line evar when he asked Killa Sha what he did for Traj Kadafi other than holding dude’s sacks [ll]. Classic.
With this event under our belt we trudged around Randall’s Island in a downpour to film the scene at the Rock The Bells concert. On that day the ‘i’ in i.C.’s should have stood for intrepid. The grounds were a fucking mess and the event organizers treated the press worse than the shit that was festering all summer in the gang of port-a-potties on the campsite. None of the difficulty in producing the video was evident and what you see are Rafi and I having the time of our lives enjoying the soundtrack to our lives while kids injured themselves mudwrestling and someone gets to smoke some good ass “white boy” weed.
You would have thought that we would be invited by either of these event organizers to return this summer and produce videos of these concerts that surpassed the quality of our previous work? You would be wrong in that thinking however. The iNternets Celebrities remain as the Rodney Dangerfields of this outdoor Hip-Hop concert shit. This lack of love from the event organizers had left one i.C. member a bit unmotivated to return to these events.
I can’t blame Rafi totally since I am the dude that said “Eff the Bklyn Hip-Hop Fest!” I found myself feeling a kind of way because of their previous swagger jack from i.C. material. I know who taught them dudes their language and I didn’t even get a Brooklyn Bodega New Era fitted cap as a thank you. Rafi feels that Guerilla Nation doesn’t represent or support that ethos by not recognizing our transcendant guerilla filmmaking.
At the end of the day we are both correct. Our love for the subject matter was never based on profit. We cover these events because we love this music. Sometimes though we have to use tough love even if it breaks our hearts so that we don’t contribute to the bottom lines of the vultures that are picking at the bones of the Hip-Hop carcass. I would love to cover the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival and the Rock The Bells concert in true iNternets Celebrities style with all access press passes that allowed us into the craft services area and the hooker bus. But alas my friends, not this year.
However, our outdoor concert season isn’t totally fucked the fuck up…
We were interviewed a few nights ago on the Brian Lehrer show which airs to the five boroughs of NYC on CUNY TV. The staff - all the way up to Lehrer himself - made us feel really welcome and seemed to be genuine fans of our work which was probably the best part.
But the highlight of the evening for me may have been just before I left my house when my daughter ran over to me, grabbed the bottom of my shirt and begged me to take her with me so she could be on TV too.
When you’re a kid the idea of being on television is magical. I guess it still is something special even when you’re supposed to be a grown-up.
After the iNternets Celebrities returned from the Sundance Film Festival we were inspired to cover other events with our lens and our perspective. The first major summer event of 2007 was the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival. In a newly gentrified neighborhood underlooking the Brooklyn Bridge we gathered to watch a few artists from borough of Kings and some artists from other places spit their hot shit.
Unlike the film series that was created by our weeklong experience in the Utah mountains, the film set for the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival is the product of a single day of shooting. I give a lot of credit to Terrence Elenteny for finding the material in several hours of tape to create these films…
But I also need to shout out Cas and Rafi for being hardbody filmmakers who braved the oppressive 175 degree heat sunshine to remain at the festival until the very last minute.
My favorite video in the series was titled ‘The Lost Tapes’. Terrence and Cas describe the serious aspect of Hip-Hop in this video as they show the business people as well as the artists that encompass rap music. Inside of this video is a line from Rafi that has fully described my feelings for appreciating rap music - discerning. The other truly classic moment in this video is Rafi’s interchange with QB emcee Killer Shah.
What I always find to be sort of remarkable is the fact that I only see Rafi and Cas on days that we film, yet we never have too much of a problem finding our rhythm and speed after we give each other pounds [ll]. I’m still not sure what the future holds for the i.C. movement, but I will always enjoy watching the exploits of discerning Hip-Hop fans.
What is good party people? Aww ish, we are about to drop another heat rock on the asses of the masses. This next film is called ‘Cereal Is Dope’, and it takes you into a supermercado with Rafi and I as we shop in our favorite aisle.
As you might imagine we fuel our madness with sugar and with beer, and sometimes sugar coated beer. Fuck the breakfast of champions, cereal is the dinner for losers, and the ground troops on the interwebs. You don’t want to have to put a delay in your downloading of illegal music or illicit pr0n videos while you wait the two or three minutes for something to heat up in a microwave. Who has that kind of time, plus who knows how to cook anyhoo? I sure don’t.
One of the first things that Rafi and I learned about cereal was the abundance of racist caricatures contained on cereal boxes. From Black smack junkies to Latino horse dealers and Colombian cocaine addicts, we had uncovered a veritable buffet of racist imagery. The next time I look at a box with Snap, Cracker and Pop on the front I will feel the sting of the master’s whip upon my back. I always knew that racism could hurt, but who knew that supremacy tasted this good?
Another thing that jumped out at us were the abundance of products that were now flavored with honey. Typically honey is used as a sugar subsititute, but in the alternate reality of breakfast cereals honey is just the vehicle to give you more sugar. It’s like turbo charging your breakfast, or sprinkling your weed with coke. What about pouring honey birch beer on your Honey Nut Cheerios? The iNTERNETS CELEBRITIES are the future like that.
So sit tight and get ready to enjoy a big salad bowl of cereal with the iNTERNETS CELEBRITIES
I’ve been dieting for the past four weeks and have lost seventeen pounds in that time - going from 265 to 248 pounds. I’m hoping to break the Mendoza line by my 31st birthday in February. I haven’t been sub-200 since college. I did get down to 205 when I decided it was time to get healthy after my son was born in 2002 but in the five years since I had put it all back on plus some.
I’m really psyched about the weight loss and lifestyle changes that I think will keep the weight off but I hope this doesn’t ruin my credibility for our junk food videos.
We have two new videos coming out very soon (one on a great food topic) but both were shot before this transformation began. So don’t expect to see it this month. But an October project or two will reveal a slightly smaller Rafi.
On a related note, do you think Dallas and I should start video blogging in between our official video projects? I think we should launch an Internets Celebrity Fit Club and show those VH1 fools what’s up.
The Internets Celebrities Mixtape is a new feature we’re going to be rolling out at InternetsCelebrities.com. Think of it as a video sampler, a pu pu platter of visuality, a cultural collage for viewing.
Essentially, we wanted to be able to make videos that offered a more raw look at cultural events the Internets Celebrities were attending while not worrying so much about unifying themes. In other words, we shot a lot of footage worth seeing at the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival and just wanted to get it out there posthaste.
In the true Mixtape aesthetic, what it lacks in polish and nuance, it makes up for in timeliness and gruff enthusiasm. Look out for other IC Mixtapes coming soon. We’re going to be attending a lot of summer events and the Mixtapes will help us do them justice.
At the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival, we chop it up with Saigon, Sean Price, Emily King and catch performances from Dres, Price, Jeru and Ghostface.
This past Friday, Internets Celebrities were in full effect at the Rooftop Films screening of Bodega in their New York Non-Fiction night. The response was huge - lots of applause and the biggest laughs we heard all night (okay there weren’t that many comedies in the lineup but we’ll take it). It was gratifying and even thrilling to sit among a crowd of 500 people enjoying our work.
The opening act was young emcee from Yonkers named Loer Velocity. Coincidentally Loer did a song with his very low-key hypeman Donnan Linkz called “The Hood Diet”. The subject matter was perfect with Bodega coming up.
There were a lot of good films that night. Highlights included: The Guarantee by Jesse Epstein, Bongo Barbershop by Charlie Ahearn, A Son’s Sacrifice by Yoni Brook and Toxic Brooklyn by vbs.tv
Afterwards we had a chance to speak to Wild Style director Ahearn who approached us shouting “Bo-De-Ga!”, announcing himself as a fan.
Cue Zoro’s brother “Is this being an Internets Celebrity what you’re gonna do with your life? Stop fucking around and be a man already. There ain’t nothing out here for you.”
Oh yes there is.
By the way you can catch Ahearn and Wild Style for free this coming Friday June 22 as part of the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival. And the big concert is Saturday June 23. The IC’s will be representing at both events.
The event starts at 8pm
350 Grand Street @ Essex (Lower East Side, Manhattan)
F/J/M/Z to Essex / Delancey
In the event of rain the show is indoors at the same location.
Tickets - $8 at the door or $5 online HERE with code: RFJUNE Presented in partnership with - IFC.com, New York magazine & Open Road New York.
