URLA Brand featuring Cozz and Tha Committee

Cozz for URLA Brand

Underrated Los Angeles, more popularly known as URLA, is a lifestyle clothing brand originating in Los Angeles, Ca.

URLA's moniker and mission is an exposé of sorts, as the brand showcases, highlights, and promotes a class of artists undiscovered or underappreciated in the Los Angeles area and beyond. The creative forces, be them rappers or models, join URLA brand in projects such as collaborative t-shirts and lookbooks. URLA uses its website and social media platforms to feature the works, and then visibility is increased by the garments' real world implementation like on stage at live music shows.

For instance, in the past, California rapper Murs (Making the Universe Recognize and Submit or Making Underground Raw Shit), collaborated with URLA on multiple t-shirts, like "The Youth Have The Power," "Everybody Is Somebody," and the most recent "Three Sixteen" capsule. (Listen to his song called "No Shots" with producer 9th Wonder and Pittsburgh rapper Mac Miller.)

Additionally, the latest collection and collaboration from URLA cannot go overlooked. The streetwear label's new range of products, consisting of branded beanies, dad caps and a long sleeve logo T-shirt, are modeled by rap group Tha Committee, front manned by Cody Macc, aka Cozz from Dreamville Records. The clothing and lookbook release comes roughly two weeks after Cozz dropped his latest mixtape, Nothin Personal. MEEZ, the tape's executive producer, and Correy C, who appeared on Revenge of the Dreamers II, are also featured in the curated visuals. 

Underrated Los Angeles' brand execution, the partnership with relevant artists, and promotions underline the up and coming talents people need to take notice of. Through its clothing collections, URLA shows appreciation to the art and the culture at face value.

Shop URLA at urlabrand.com.

Throw Up by COOP

Urban environments, with their numerous wall spaces, mass transit vehicles, bridge and roadway stanchions, abandoned structures, street signs, trash can covers, and traffic boxes provide graffiti artists the essential and visible platforms needed to showcase their art.

Even after getting busted by law enforcement and serving community service hours for a crime under a previous tag name, Pittsburgh, Pa. graffiti artist COOP has no problem using the city's public and private property as the canvases for his pieces.

"When we go on TV we see advertisements. These big corporations are paying for billboards and what not. I'm advertising for free," said COOP.

From time spent with the artist, it can be observed that graffiti is stimulated by self-promotion, creativity, respect, and secrecy.

 "I have a secret identity. I'm like Bruce Wayne and Batman," said COOP.

Artists' personas are reflected in their "throw-ups," jargon for graffiti signatures boastfully painted to city surfaces and complex masterpieces that mark territorial ownership, ultimate exposure, and beauty.

Popularization in the graffiti underground is granted by the widely viewed nature and unique location of artists' work, amongst style, technique, and daring exploration. Pittsburgh native Mook, aka Michael Monack, is notorious for having his tag name painted atop Pittsburgh's 10th St. Bridge.

As COOP enters into an abandoned girls dormitory tucked away in Swissvale, a borough east of downtown Pittsburgh, he mentions to me how he wants his pieces to be seen on a larger scale. Amongst the artist's goals is expansion; COOP desires to spray his nom de plume all over the Steel City, in areas such as East Liberty, Squirrel Hill, Homewood, the Waterfront, downtown, and the North Side.

Most commonly, COOP tags around Pittsburgh outlined ghosts, different versions of the "COOP" throw-up, S.K.S. (Stay Killen Sh*t) and "Wreckaz Gang," a promotion of his Swissvale friends. When COOP begins to tour me and two of his companions around the dormitory, his graffiti is visibly tagged to walls, doors, windows, and rooftops throughout the rundown, dilapidated building.

While standing in a room adorned with a mural by lauded Pittsburgh graffiti artist Kavis, COOP speaks about familiar artists in the Burgh's graffiti culture. He likes THOR, GEMS and internationally known British artist Banksy.

If COOP is able to popularize his own work, I am curious as to what comes with graffiti fame. He says, "Probably nothing for real. Respect for the most part," and describes an instance when he had beef because somebody crossed out his work in the girls dormitory:

“I noticed somebody painted over my piece. I wrote above the x-out, ‘It’s on sight, p*ssy.’ The next time I went in the dorm I came across the perpetrator who disrespected my art. I pulled out a knife from my pocket and told the person to leave their paint behind and scram. The person didn’t move so I stepped forward. He ran away and I yelled to him, ‘Thanks for the paint!’”

Each time COOP uncaps his cans of Rustoleum spray paint and writes across Pittsburgh's cityscapes he is communicating and protecting his self-pride, neighborhood, and artistic ability.

In order to turn COOP into an icon, however, he must find valuable and viewable locations to promote his image, and acquire a savvy that does not get him caught in his endeavours. After, respect may follow.

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In an effort to track COOP's growth and offer a unique perspective on the over-looked, criminal, and appreciated graffiti culture in Pittsburgh, InTheRough Style staff will photographically and video-graphically document COOP's processes around the city.

Next, ITR travels with COOP to Squirrel Hill where the artist tags a staircase wall. If you are curious, you can see it most commonly at your right, if you are in Pittsburgh, driving on Interstate 376 Parkway East, and using the Homestead Exit headed to the Waterfront.

Visit @intheroughstyle on Instagram to preview the motion picture.  

"Christmas In America: Happy Birthday, Jesus" by Jesse Rieser

Missouri native Jesse Rieser captures the most wonderful time of year, Christmas in America.

The photographer, Rieser, frequented suburban neighborhoods in the west coast for a time period that spanned 2011 to 2013, so says his Instagram, to portray people's festive spirit. His pictures depict an overload of Christmas cheer manifested in Santa Claus costumes, tacky household decorations and dubious moments where merrymaking does not seem to mix.

Rieser says "Christmas In America" was inspired "by the absurdity of a five-story inflatable Santa who appeared to be guarding a tree lot." While the images depict Christmas tradition, they also speak to the superfluity of the holiday unconcerned with pizzazz.

Browse through Rieser's "Christmas In America" above and explore more of the photographer's work here.

Source: It's Nice That

Playground Football

"Whatever you think about your little back-door tournaments where you just tag 'em, no.  This is damn near tackle without equipment."  ~ O.G. Pamz, Carver Mobb

Rice Cakes Turkey Bowl 6 Champions, photo by Alex Young

Being from Western Pennsylvania, football runs through my veins.  From my earliest memories of making game-winning interceptions against an older third-grade class on the playdeck of my elementary school to experiencing two Super Bowl victories by my six-time Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers, football has always gotten my adrenaline pumping.

Naturally, a lot of people feel this way.  The NFL virtually owns a day of the week and on every fourth Thursday in November, friends and families gather to compete in their annual Turkey Bowls.  Things are different though, for the participants of the Street Bowl Championship.

Football is not always an outlet for people who live in the inner-city, especially in New York. There are basketball courts in practically every park in practically every neighborhood within the boroughs, but the Concrete Jungle doesn't offer many locations for the gridiron.  The lack of grass to play pick-up football was just a slight inconvenience for the teams of the street football leagues that emerged from the Bronx in the 1970s.  In the infancy of this pick-up phenomenon, teams from bordering projects would gather to play on concrete with elbow-pads while having no regard for their opponent's safety let alone their own.  

It was NFL Street in real-life.

Competition and intense rivalry brewing throughout the New York City squads coupled with the crack era led these football leagues to take on a whole new life of their own.  Much like any other game played in the streets--basketball, dice, chess in the park--games where teams played for pride and street-cred turned into games of money and betting.  Now, earnings between $70k and $100k for a full year's worth of playground football is enough to have every inner-city neighborhood forming a team.

After fifty plus years of wins, losses, and squabbling, organizers have decided to settle the debate of New York's best football team on the field.  In Vice Sports' six part video series, Kings of the Underground, the drama of these storied pick-up games unfold as the best eight teams in New York gather to play in the Street Bowl Championship.  The series will follow these teams on their two-day journey to immortality and $16k cash prize. Check out episode one below, and be sure to return as more of the videos are released. 

P.S. If you're interested in seeing how the games panned out, YouTube user, Don Holman, recorded several hours of game footage here. 

Poison by Sean Beauford (Opening Reception Recap)

Sean Beauford captured by Keep Pittsburgh Dope

Inside The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's 707 Gallery on Friday, Dec. 11, I halted my note taking, sparked by the installed TIME Magazine covers titled "Are We Giving Kids Too Many Drugs?" and "Kids Who Sell Crack," to say to Makayla Wray, after previously meeting her at the corner of Penn Ave and 7th St walking to the show, "I know you're a fashion designer." She smiled and replied emphatically, "That's what I like to be known for! You should write that down. I'm quick with it," finishing her statement with a "dab."

Wray's use of the hit dance craze alerted me to the national and local contemporary flavors on display at the exhibit curated by Sean Beauford.

While I gazed at a lucid black, purple and white painting called "Codeine Crazy" by Amani Davis, Travis Scott's platinum record "Antidote" played. Around me, Chancelor Humphrey of Keep Pittsburgh Dope was dancing and taking pictures of people, like rapper Mars Jackson. A friend of KPD, visual artist, and food photographer Cody Baker heard the tune from outside and instinctively joined the party.

Space began to crowd and I looked down, as to not step on any feet and to find room to walk. I saw multiple pairs of Vans, an olive green pair of Eras, Sk8-His in blacked out and classic black-white colorways, and Old Skools. Along with Timberland 6" Boots, colorfully painted Timberland 6" Boots and "Wheat" Air Force 1 High, Yeezy Boost 350 "Moonrock," two pairs of Chelsea boots tan and black respectively, green Dr. Martens and Jordan silhouettes filling the room.

I stood next to a podium that read, "The Kids Aren't Alright," and observed owner of JENESIS Magazine and co-founder of Pittsburgh event space Boom Concepts Thomas Agnew, along with cultural practitioner D.S. Kinsel, artist Baron Batch with an eye painted on his red sweatpants and many more among the active, youthful, creative and intuitive attendees who celebrated Beauford's Poison art show.

Photo by LinShuttr

Photo by LinShuttr

Via Poison

Beauford, a young man from Mansfield, Ohio, works in Pittsburgh to deliver atmospheres attractive to popular culture. His latest project taps artists for an introspective exhibition that comments on America's drug use.

The show alludes to the amplified life experience drug users become addicted to. Drugs heighten reality, take away pain and stimulate euphoria; they make people feel alive all the while destroying their lives in the process.

Outside 707 Gallery, where Poison is located, plastered on its front window in bright pink is the phrase, "WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE."

Artist and Poison contributor Hannibal Hopson said, "You have life and you have death. There is a time to be alive and people choose to cut that short in a number of ways, like drinking 40 oz."

Positive and negative values fill every piece featured in Poison. Hopson's "Teuton Fury |40 oz|" is cement casts of Steel Reserve and Colt 45 with sunflowers pushing out of the top. Another contributor, LinShuttr, has canvas covered in crayon drawn clouds, sun rays, trucks, and fish accented with attached crack vials and boxes of Arm & Hammer baking soda.

"Teuton Fury |40 oz|" by Hannibal Hopson

Along a wall, I viewed photographs by Good Mike. The images chronicled heroin and cocaine users cooking on a white stove top and shooting up while sitting in a bathtub. Once viewers reach the end of the consecutive images they are greeted by a hooded figure passed out face-down on top of a mattress on the floor, a scary symbol that death's reality is lurking.

Performer Grits Capone, standing on an orange milk crate, said in his spoken word piece exclusive to the opening reception, "Death is inevitable, but baby patience is a virtue."

"What A Time To Be Alive" emerges as a theme and underlining message to Beauford's Poison because the exhibit reflects upon the parallels and choice of evocative experimentation and destruction resulting from drug use.

Subjects like hip-hop and streetwear intersect with drug culture because artists glorify the lean sipping, pill popping and blunt passing used in their creative processes. The excitement lies in the masterpieces being created; drugs are used as a celebratory aid. Hopson and Davis spoke to gallery patrons with Olde English 40 oz stuck to their hands.

Beyond the relevance of "What A Time To Be Alive" as Drake and Future's mixtape title, the phrase and the opening reception for Beauford's Poison actively describes a progressive environment.

A group of guests congregated outside the show. A girl named Morgan said, "It's nice to see them [referring to Poison artists] doing something. Growing up here, I did not see this progression in Pittsburgh."

By utilizing fashion and lifestyle outlet Keep Pittsburgh Dope to promote the show on Instagram to other actors in Pittsburgh popular culture, combined with the art itself showcased in Poison, Beauford illustrates there is no better time than now for people to create and offer positive output to their environment.

See artists Amani Davis, LinShuttr, Mathias Heavy, Good Mike and Hannibal Hopson's work at Sean Beauford's curated Poison at 707 Gallery on Wednesday and Thursday from 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. - 8 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. through January 10.

707 Penn AVE

Pittsburgh, PA 15222