Rush Hour 0.5:
How a random IG DM quickly became a full fledged buddy cop adventure, featuring Dragons, kung-fu, Doughnuts, and a race against time.
part 1: THE INTRO
So the story starts on a regular day, i’m just moving around, doing what a bootlegKid does, checking my DM request, to see if there’s anything interesting in there besides all them A.I sexbots. So i’m scrolling, scrolling, and then **WHAM**. An actual DM from an ‘a u g u s t’
i thought to myself: “Hmmm, cold DMing the infamous bootlegKid ? you got balls kid”
I proceeded to open the message…:
AUGUST:
Bro, nice to meet you
I’m the owner of xxl property
BTLGKD:
Yessir, same here bro
Where'd you get the idea from
AUGUST:
I got my inspiration originally from ASAP mob. And I used to be a fashion editor, so I always got love for fashion game
This is my first year here in UK, I love the culture here, I can feel the energy of the street and ppl
The idea for this brand is we open to any culture background, we embrace whoever you are, no matter ppl are straight/ gay/ queer, as long as they have style/ taste and love what they or have love for street culture/ fashion culture, we vibe with you.
[lets] Bring the community together to create more interesting things…
Despite not knowing his age, he reminded me of myself when i was his age - this guy had meshugana. Originally from Beijing China, he’d recently moved here from Australia, where he spent 2 years studying architecture. He mentioned that he wanted to work together on something, he wasn’t sure what yet, but he was adamant. and I had no reason to say no. I respected the fact he had just moved here and was already building something, and on top of that, we both felt like we could bring value to each other's movement.
Approx 1 week later, we met up to discuss ideas and look at the board and see how we could make this work. Fortunately the stars were already starting to align. As i had already agreed to do a pop up shop at the upcoming WORKINGONIT event - a hiphop beat cypher where producers pull up with their MPC’s & Rolands, and play their home cooked instrumentals. We started to bounce around concepts, as well as talk about the core philosophies behind XXL PROPERTY & bootlegKid. August mentioned that he wanted to create something that referenced both our cultures in an ironic way…my specialty.
part 2: THE PROCESS
In the process of developing the idea, a lot of different things were volleyed across comms to one another:
Sketches *whack* mind-maps *spock* Moodboards *whack*
Eventually. something started to take shape. Taking inspo from ancient chinese emperor garb, we used a similar concept of there being an all over print that heavily featured dragons, but we flipped it to include a repeating dragon print on a satin durag. The reason behind it ? well, the durag has been getting a bad rep for a long time (thanks fofty) but through adorning this same garment with royal symbols, we hoped to reinterpret it as a symbol of strength, good fortune, and freedom. After we settled on that, I thought it'd be a really cool idea to create an elaborate display to hang the pieces on for the pop up. Presentation is everything so it makes sense to put as much effort into the presentation as we put into the product itself.
The production phase is my favourite part of any creative project, because all you have to do is create, in whatever medium that may be, not much planning, just doing (that counts as a NIKE reference) But before we could do anything, we had to get the supplies for the project: paint, calicoe sheets, wholesale Durags, and also a creative space to work in. And so it began. Painting supplies an all that was the easy bit, one little trip to NQ and that was supplies sorted. But we still needed 2 things: durags to print on, and a space with printing facilities.
So August and I set a date to link up at my friend Omni’s spot ‘Wellington house print studio’ , the perfect environment to create the piece. This studio was like something straight out of an Artist documentary - chAos ! High ceilings, swinging lights, easels everywhere, dried paint on the floors, and pure Incense being burned. After the introductions are made, we waste no time in laying the sheet out on a table, making sure it’s secured tightly enough before we start attacking it with our utensils. And just like that we get to work on the backdrop - the plan was for it to consist of 2-3 large dragons, in the sky, and the drugs would be hung where the dragons hands are, to make it look as if the dragon was actually holding em. We start working on the piece until late in the night, whilst Omni kept us supplied with green tea & moringa, between bouts of Kung Fu practise: “Hssss….Tss..Tssss” followed by swift chopping motions. It all made for a very interesting environment.
Next on the list: Durags. On this occasion my black book was really black book-ing, as I found a link to a wholesaler i’d previously done business with, who does pretty much everything, including Durags !! I guess the stars really were aligning.
The day had come to collect the merchandise ! I pulled up to the location, the streets were oddly quiet, it’s like this particular street existed in its own dimension the way all the background noise fell off a cliff. I goes inside this dingy warehouse, full of rooms with identical doors, the only thing separating them was a piece of A4 paper informing any passers by, which business was renting which space. I find the door i’m looking for, knock twice and wait before i’m ushered in by my connect. The room wiiiiide and mostly empty, with soot demons accumulated in every visible crack & crevice. By the time i’d finished scanning and taking in my environment, the plug was standing in the middle of the room, next to a hefty box, which was full to the brim with white packets. We exchange pleasantries and engage in a bit of small talk - as you do - but once that was done he handed me one of the small white packs which contained a folded durag. i didn’t expect much, i just needed to get the rags and get em printed. I took it out of its packet anyway and opened it up, only for the little folded fabric envelope to unravel itself before my eyes, revealing the finest, silkiest, shimmeriest, smoothest, most reflective satin durag I'd ever seen in my life. It was perfect. I won’t go too much into prices as that's potentially incriminating, and just bad bidness, but just know: I got us a very, very….Very good deal on em. And that meant that one more thing was ticked off, now all we had to do was print on the rags, and get the backdrop finished.
Time is ticking, we’re getting closer to the event, the backdrop is quite a big task and takes up more time than we initially thought it would, so much so that the focus had fully shifted to getting it completed in due time. All the while the durags were sitting there still waiting to be completed. Tunnel vision had struck but in the same breath, perhaps we were unrealistic about what could be done in a relatively short time frame. Hmmm. Well in all honesty, it wasn’t a cause for concern, because to us the focus is on encouraging our audience to appreciate your culture. Not just music and clothes but all the minature nuances in how you operate, that only someone who came from the same place as you would understand. And in order to do that, we didn’t have to release a product first.
We can make an introduction first, with the mural as an intro to this ongoing collaboration between myself & august AKA ‘Lucha Yibre’, and then the durags are released as a follow up ? At least this way we’d have more time to create some content as well as do a whole rollout for em. In my mind this approach made more sense, so I decided to share my thoughts with August. and instead of hitting me with a closeline and telling me ‘肏你妈’, he’s actually onboard. Meaning we could just focus solely on getting everything lined up for the show. And do the durag stuff after.
part 3: ABRUPT ENDING
The final hurdle, from here all we gotta do is turn up to the event, and tell everybody wag1 with our piece, what the meaning is behind it and what’s yet to come. And that's exactly what we did that day, it was pure vibes all evening, sick beats, good people, smiles, headnodding, compliments on the piece, pictures taken infront of the piece, and some more headnodding.
in the interest of laziness, lets wrap it up with this: the event went well - well actually, it went amazingly. But for me, the reactions are the least important part of the process, I'm just in it for the experience, especially when it’s doing something way outside my comfort zone/beyond my field of expertise. I'm not a painter, so I have no business attempting to create a big ass painting, but still we got it done. This really was an experience worth experiencing, from meeting August, to the gathering of the supplies, to linking up at Wellington House studios, to painting in some big ass calicoe sheet until early hrs of the morning whilst Shakuhachi flute music plays in the background. Don’t forget the pressure of having a rapidly approaching deadline. It all came together like a perfectly seasoned dish
*chefs kiss*.
Thank u for reading, your friendly neighbourhood bootlegKid
