by Caitlin White 24 mins ago

Guerrilla graffiti artist Banksy is well-known for his unrelenting and sharp cultural critiques—it’s what led to his immense popularity. Unfortunately, his most recent piece was totally misinterpreted and was subsequently destroyed.

A mural that went up in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, was actually an anti-racist commentary, portraying several pigeons touting anti-immigration signs and encroaching on a solitary, exotic-looking bird. The signs have sayings like “Migrants Not Welcome,” “Go Back To Africa,” and “Keep Off Our Worms.” But the context is key—Banksy’s work was satirically mokcing these implicitly biased attitudes that many in England currently hold, not supporting them.

However, after the building owners received a sole complaint that the graffiti was racist, they had it scrubbed off the wall.

Banksy

Tendring District Council, who ordered the mural removed, admitted on the BBC Radio 4′s Today that they only got one complaint about the work—by someone who clearly didn’t understand the satirical intentions of the piece.

“The site was inspected by staff who agreed that it could be seen as offensive and it was removed this morning in line with our policy to remove this type of material within 48 hours,” a spokesman told the BBC. “We would obviously welcome an appropriate Banksy original on any of our seafronts and would be delighted if he returned in the future.”

Did the council realize that the artwork was valued at over $600,000? Nope, they had no clue, but insisted even if they knew, they still would’ve had the piece removed.

Esteemed art critic ...

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by Adam Fleischer 4 mins ago

Back in 2012, Chief Keef burst onto the scene thanks to his mixtape Back from the Dead, and cuts like “I Don’t Like” and “3hunna (Remix)” that were included on the project. Now, the second installment of the mixtape is on the way.

Sosa took to Instagram on Friday (October 3) to announce the release date for the project: October 31. He also revealed the cover art for the release, which will be his first tape of 2014 — and, not surprisingly, it’s Halloween-themed. He also dropped “Cashin,” a self-produced, auto-tune-tinged track that will appear on Back from the Dead 2.

Last week, Keef dropped “Beetlejuice,” featuring Fredo Santana, where it sounded like he took a shot at Bobby Shmurda. “I still’ll come and rob you for your kilo/ And you know you ain’t catch no body ’bout a week ago,” he raps.

No word if the track will be included on BFTD2, but we’ll find out soon enough. Check out the artwork below:

by Maurice Bobb 8 mins ago

Flying Lotus fans will have to wait until October 7 to purchase his new album, You’re Dead, but in the meantime, the avant-garde DJ/producer is streaming his highly-anticipated sixth solo LP.

The catch? You’ve only got 24 hours to get your sonic taste of “Coronus, the Terminator,” the Kendrick Lamar-assisted “Never Catch Me” and more.

He’s calling it “Day of You’re Dead.”

The Los Angeles native-born Steven Ellison partnered with the Boiler Room to stream his new project on his website.

In addition to the free tunes, there is an accompanying film called “Psychedelic Death Trip,” which was directed by “The ABCs of Death” auteur Xavier Magot.

So hit play while you still have the chance—nothing lasts forever.

by Caitlin White 21 mins ago

It seems like Justin Bieber has decided to embrace the exact opposite of Drake’s “No New Friends” rule.

We recently found out that he’s working with Karl Lagerfeld, in Ibiza this summer he hung out with Kim and Kanye, he was rekindling things with Selena Gomez, and it seems like he’s also been getting closer with the Jenners.

So, after all that, maybe it’s not that surprising that today (October 3), Justin posted an Instagram of himself posing with not only Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones… but also Lenny Kravitz.

He captioned the photo “Legends” when he posted it to his Twitter account.

Not totally sure what brought this holy trifecta together, but if there is a musical collaboration in the trio’s future count us IN.

Supposedly, the picture was taken at L’Arc in Paris, which makes sense because we already knew Bieber was there for Fashion Week. Related question: does this mean Mick Jagger has listened to some Justin Bieber songs? That’s a pretty funny image.

by Maurice Bobb 20 mins ago

Good news, Twin Peakers! That gum you like is finally coming back!

David Lynch and Mark Frost, creators of the cult classic TV show “Twin Peaks,” took to Twitter Friday (October 3) to drop a very cool cryptic clue that only true fans of the extremely quirky ’90′s television series would understand.

“Dear Twitter Friends: That gum you like is going to come back in style! #damngoodcoffee,” wrote Lynch and Frost.

The gum comment refers to the odd dream sequence Kyle MacLachlan’s FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper had in which he encountered dwarf.

The #damngoodcoffee hashtag, of course, was Cooper’s catchphrase about his favorite cup of morning Joe.

Although Twin Peaks had a serial cult following and was critically acclaimed, it only lasted two seasons in 1990-1991. Many people (us included) argue that the show didn’t last because it was ahead of its time.

Now, perhaps, thanks to the proposed reboot, it will finally have the proper spotlight.

The show was based on Cooper’s investigation of the murder of the homecoming queen Laura Palmer. The show’s name hails from the name of the fictional town in Washington state where all of the wonderfully weird things happened.

by Caitlin White 8 mins ago

Taking selfies has progressed beyond a cute little habit that only some people participate in — it has become a national past time. From cameras that easily facilitate the process to the little bump of affirmation that a Facebook “like” or an Instagram heart on these miniature self-portraits provides, selfies are here to stay.

Which means that people are taking the concept and expanding it into social and political realms, op-eds and other projects, like Chicago comedian Bente Engelsoft, who decided to take a selfie every morning when she first woke up — no matter what.

On the Instagram account ijustwokeup — which Bente created before Beyonce dropped her album, believe it or not — she has posted a selfie with #nomakeup and #nofilter every single day for a year. Engelsoft told The Daily Dot that her goal was to emulate performance artists like Tracey Emin and Tehching Hsieh, both of whom both had similar projects that involved cataloging the passage of time.

She began the project with this selfie on October 2, 2013:

And as of today, October 3, 2014, she has officially completed her goal. Surprisingly, Bente came up with the project six years ago (!), but when Instagram became popular she realized it would be the perfect vehicle for her idea.

Over the course of the year, she posted photos with her boyfriend:

With her mom—which was her most-liked photo:

And even with friends:

Although Bente said she didn’t originally ...

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by Rob Markman 22 mins ago

Separately, Young Thug, Rich Homie Quan and Birdman make some serious street tunes, so when they collectively dropped Rich Gang: Tha Tour, Part 1, we were expecting some real murder music. What we weren’t expecting was the love that they peppered to balance out songs like “730,” “Imma Ride,” “Throw Your Hood Up” and “Bullet.”

We are in no way questioning the Rich Gang’s gangsta, but rather celebrating their diversity and vision. After a few spins, we started to realize Thugger and Rich Homie are really romantic. In fact, if they keep this up, they may give Drake a run for his young money — get it?

Here’s what we learned about love listening to Rich Gang: Tha Tour, Part 1.

Love can be scary

RHQ expresses some serious fears on “Hate I,” and you can’t help but feel for him. “I hope I ain’t fallin’ in love,” he says after taking a deep sigh. It’s okay Quan, we’ve all been there.

But love is unconditional, too

When you’ve really found the right one, you can just accept them for who they are. “Girl I want everything that comes with you/ Even if you got stretch marks and two children,” he raps on “Milk Marie,” before telling his girl that he loves her for who she is.

So, if you find her, keep her

They say opposites attract — and maybe that’s true — but sometimes, just sometimes you want a girl just like you. On “Givenchy,” Thugger sings ...

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by Marissa G. Muller 16 mins ago

It hasn’t even been 24 hours since A$AP Rocky dropped his shade-throwing “Multiply” video, where he calls out Been Trill and Hood By Air, and someone is already cashing in on his beef. That someone is Been Trill designer Heron Preston, who is proving to be one of the smartest people in streetwear.

Related: A$AP Rocky Takes Shots At Hood By Air And Been Trill In ‘Multiply’ Video

Instagram

Heron is now selling t-shirts printed with a screenshot of A$AP’s Been Trill dis for $50, as part of his Heron Preston Bootleg series. As eye-catching and lightning fast as the design is, the real genius behind it is how he’s subverting and reappropriating A$AP’s critique—”I ain’t really f****** with that Been Trill, swear that s*** is booty like Tip Drill/ And I ain’t really into throwing shots, but these motherf****** better gimme my props!”—into his own profit.

It’s an interesting move for a couple of reasons: Heron is not only turning coin on Rocky’s shots, he’s also making a smart commentary on how fashion and rap have become intertwined. In another Instagram post, he writes:

“what happened to rapper on rapper beef? the days of biggie vs tupac & jay z vs nas are over. Remember how Nas’s ‘Ether’ or Tupac’s ‘Hit Em Up’ made you feel? Remember what that meant for rap music? The fact that a rapper dissed a clothing company is a ...

Oct 3, 2014 | No Comments on Been Trill Already Has A Response To A$AP Rocky’s ‘Multiply’ Dis

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