Cold Gettin Dumb

My main man Nico Berry has been a professional baller since the day he was born, or so I hear. Really, by writing this blog I'm trying to legitimize our friendship so that next time I see him he'll hook me up with a free t-shirt or something.



Nico was the art director over at a little skateboard magazine called Thrasher for a minute, has done countless shirt designs for Timberland, Mecca, Sureshot, Kid Robot, etc. etc. The release of his vinyl toy had lines around the block in New York, and you know New York keeps it real, nawhaddI'msayin kid?





I've been trying to convince the big wigs here at the Walker for years to bring the Mr. Berry in for an artist talk, or at least for a workshop, but I think they hate red heads...

Recently he has been involved with Infectious desiging art for your car. Say word son.

But most importantly, he is spearheading COLD GETTIN' DUMB, which, if you've lived under a rock (which actually might be your current situation with all the foreclosures) you'll recognize as bay-area sland for, well... cold gettin' dumb. Actin stupid. Going yellow bus. Gettin' hyphy... I don't know, get yourself a case of slang flashcards if you don't understand what I'm saying.

Back to the matter at hand, COLD GETTIN' DUMB is like the hip-hop blog/website that fills you in on everything the Source and Vibe and XXL are missing out on... which is a heavy graffiti slant and hilarious commentary. Recently, CGD interviewed Sacha Jenkins of egotrip (Big Book of Racism, Book of Raplists, vh1's Race-O-Rama) about his newly released graffiti book Piecebook. (We got the whole crew at egotrip to come to the Walker a few years back to give a talk about the Big Book of Racism, and it was one of the most rewarding artist talks we've had in my opinion). The interview is a good look at graffiti from the perspective of someone who's roots reach deep into graffiti's best years, and the pictures make me want to put the book on every Christmas wishlist I have until someone get's it for me. It's my birthday soon blogosphere, email me for my mailing address.

Check out Cold Gettin Dumb, buy some car art, and most of all convince Nico that we're better friends than we actually are.