I go to so many different dances, some of them are not safe but i take chances.

Last friday was of course BoyBetterKnow @ Cargo.
So I rounded up a few of my grime apreciating freinds, and a girl from Salisbury who wasn't at all familiar with the genre, sort of as a fun experiment to see how she would cope. Aparently she really enjoyed it, so all is good.
Any way, like with most things, we were late so we didn't manage to get in for free as we had intended. Nevermind, the venue was fantastic, the crowd were cool, drinks weren't too expensive (before eleven anyway, after it was £4 for a bit less than a pint).
So at about ten to twelve we elbowed our way into a reasonable possition in the fucking huge and crazy crowd. As we got in there the previous act were just finnishing up, in the change over the DJ started spinning parts of familiar grime records to get the crowd in the mood(wiley, dizzee rascal etc), evidently the crowd didn't need warming up because the reaction to Wiley's 'Gangstas' particularly was mad!
Skepta, once he came on actually performed mostly by himself which suprised me, but I thought this was better than the forwardriddim-esc maddness I had expected with sort of 10 angry males taking it in turns to remind the crowd that they shouldn't go to east london at night.

No, Skepta actually did most of it himself, he brought on two little known MCs, who's names I have already forgotten, in order to get them a bit of recognition, which was cool.

This was all after the fuck-up by the venue with the mics, or lack of them. Once this was sorted out, Jammer came on, and then later the brothers Adenuga performed together.

Overall it was a thoroughly enjoyable performance, and the best crowd atmostphere I have witnessed since Dizzee at Reading '06,
if not ever.

There's a lot of people who bad-mouth grime, some comments I agree with, but what you can't deny is the explosive raw energy, unique to the genre.

"when I spray, everyone gets haps, jumping around shouting BRAP BRAP"
A.C.

I told you already we nah play, spray the swag mc right away.

Basicly, you dun know, shatap! tommorrow is gunna be huge. Skepta is going to be peforming live tommorrow evening at Cargo over at Rivington Street E2. If you didn't already know then you're drum, and if you did I'll see you there.
Now the related point I would like to address is to do with over-used metaphors and self-proclamation.
A few days ago myself and freinds were discussing Lethal Bizzle Cribs (in all their YouTube volumes), when a scenario was described in which Da Bizzle(Bizzle) was told he was 'the king of grime' to which he replied with something along the lines of "I aint no king of grime blud, the king don't run shit, the queen don't run shit, I'm the prime minister of grime".
What reminded me of this and the reason I chose to bring this up, is because of the numerous occasions I have seen Skepta labelled the king.
To my way of thinking, the people calling Mr Adenuga 'the king' are either not as philosophically adept as Lethal da B, or more likely find the image of Gordan Brown a bit less glorious than that of dude with the priceless hat, huge yard, and face that appears on all types of currency from coin to note, home to abroad. However I do find Lethal's point interresting, I just don't believe the part about him to be true.
If anybody is 'The Prime Minister' it's Joseph Jnr. he is to play a relatively small venue with relatively little promotion and relatively low commercial success yet, mine is one of tens of blogs I have seen to mention the event, aswell as it being covered in a couple of the free papers on the tube. Plus with boy-better-know-tshirt-rockers visible on most streets, his following is clearly strong.

Mr Pow on the otherhand... last I heard was doing a gig at the Zoom sports centre in Harrow for a-nug-a-ticket.
So in conclusion, if 'prime minister' is the new, catchy title to aspire to, I would say it's with skepta until the next election,
Bizzle on the other hand will have to stick with mere 'king' (personally I think jester could be a more apropriate role in the palace, thats just me though).

Enjoy, and remember...

"Man's got da bigboy rum and raisin you know, man can only get dis from Iceland yeah"
A.C.

Patiently waiting

AC og logo, I've been drawing this shit on my books since i was like 14...it had to happen!

P.A.F.N.A tee.

This colourway is actually gunna be a sweatshirt rather than a tee, I've decided now.

OBIE tee front

OBIE tee back

Ok folks, after some complications, my autumn/winter shit(emphasis on the winter now) is ordered and possibly even being printed as i write this.
The collection consists of three designs, one in four different tshirt colourways, another in four different colourways(one being a sweatshirt), and one final design in just one tshirt colourway.
It isn't much, but its all I can afford for now, hopefully though with the profit from this season, next season will be much bigger and better.
That said though I am still bare exited about this little lot of 132 tees and 21 sweaters.
Now I must just sit tight and wait sort of like all those "what the dunk" br'ers, only I'm warmer and more comfortable.


"you know it's coming? you motherfuckers don't even know, do you?"
A.C.

Close but no crills, toast for po' ills, POST NO BILLS (coast to coast joe schmoes, flows ill, not suposed to overdose no doz pills)

Right so stage 2 of this whole blogging thing..... you're set up but how do get anyone to read the fucking thing?
I mean I changed my status on Myspace and Facebook to the URL of this page, and stuck it in my msn screen name too, but that will probably generate like 3 readers if I'm lucky.

While pondering this problem a few days ago, an over-sized light bulb suddenly apeared above my head with a sharp ding! as i raised my index finger and instinctively shouted 'by jove!...'.

I picked up MR. Bigfatmarker.


Then MR. Glitzystickybackstuff...


...and commenced to scrawl AE-CI.BLOGSOT.COM many times, before cutting out, and using to spread the word.

Who knows if the glitziness will spark intrigue amoung potential customers or if it will simply instigate a sharp rise of magpies in the city.

If you're reading this in response to a sticker, MADE YOU LOOK!
thankyou for your interest and please be sure to check back every couple of days


'FIGARO, FIGARO'
A.C

Hello new world...

What-o to all who grace this page at one point or another. My name is Alex Charman, and this is my introduction to Alex Charman's/ A.C's/Ae-Ci's blog.
I'm undecided as to whether I chose to start a blog in order to join the army of Mr. Me-toos in this street wear world....or in hopes of being able to take part in the deep thinking, philosophical and conscious nature of the afforementioned fashion niche/ canyon.
The truth is probably somewhere between the two, eitherway though I have started a blog because of the influence/ choke-hold 'Streetwear' has on me, but also because my entire life I have always had way too much to say for myself, this here, I'm hoping, shall vent that nicely.
I aim to write interestingly at all times, at the moment I can't put up any pics, but don't worry there will pictures soon for those with the reading tollerance of myself.
Documented toppics shall be: the life and times of Alex Charman, strong opinions of Alex Charman, shit I see day to day that is worthy of broadcasting, and most importantly...THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE AE-CI BRAND, which at the moment is more a collection of lightbulbs in clouds. But really I'm starting to make moves now, or atleast I know which moves it is I would like to make.
So I hope that soon you shall get to see the first round of clothing designed by myself, I do hope you will like it, take my word for it, googletastic cut-and-paste hiphop/basketball/pop-culture, disposable, kasbah bullshit will never bear my mark.
No, that shit really does get my goat, I like to think that what you'll see from me will be original ideas and real concepts...I'm sure you all just pulled that "Jimmy, Jimmy Hill" face just like when Pee Ubunga e-mails you with news of your $850,000,000 winnig. And I wouldn't blame you because quite frankly the state of the game (or atleast the state of the game's newest additions) is dire, much like the world of Hip-Hop, but that fascinating corelation I shall explore in the posts of tommorrow.


"LOOK OUT WORLD, I'M ON MY WAY"
A.C.