Keith "Guru" Elam: 1966-2010

I decided to take a break from custom sneaker blogging for a moment just to speak on the loss of one of my favorite hip-hop artists, Keith "Guru" Elam, formerly of Gang Starr, who passed away this past week.

I remember the first time I heard Guru. It was during the "Manifest" video by Gang Starr, which was also my introduction to the group. As a kid, I was a huge fan of that song and it stuck in my head after hearing it. This unique duo, consisting of Guru and DJ Premier (in my opinion the greatest producer in hip hop of all time), went on to release the follow ups to their debut album: Step In The Arena and Daily Operation..it was these 2 albums that made me a huge Gang Starr fan and one of my all time favorite groups. The unique combination of Guru's signature monotone voice along with Premo's one of a kind boom bap style and original use of sampling along with the scratches on the hooks (a DJ Premier staple) just seemed to naturally go together and when you heard a Gang Starr track or picked up a Gang Starr album, you knew exactly what you were getting: 100% hip hop in it's purest form. No gimmicks, no nonsense, just good music with substance.

Then I remember later when Guru embarked on a new side project called Jazzmatazz. I was somewhat intrigued when I heard him in an interview talk about the concept of the project and I remember getting the first album of the series simply because his name was attached to it. When I heard it it was like nothing I ever heard in hip hop: a unique fusion of Rap with Jazz music..but it was more than just a rapper sampling and rapping over jazz tracks, Guru actually collaborated with jazz legends like Donald Byrd, Roy Ayers, Branford Marsalis and Herbie Hancock, as well as artists such as N'Dea Davenport, Chaka Khan, and Angie Stone. On the hip hop side, Guru included artists like Big Shug (from the Gang Starr camp..Shug sings as well as raps), Kool Keith (one of my favorites), Philly's own Bahamadia, and French hip-hop artist MC Solaar (up until this time I had no idea that there were other major hip hop artists in other countries. I knew hip hop was big worldwide, but had no idea that other countries had their own major hip hop artists!)

I enjoyed Guru's side projects as well as Premier's (mostly producing for other artists), and that made me cherish even more when the two would come back together to do a new Gang Starr project (Moment of Truth, Hard To Earn, and Step In the Arena are my personal favorites). I heard in the later years that Guru & Premier had a falling out and that Guru was working with a new producer named Solar (not to be confused with MC Solaar). I admit i'm not as familiar with the work he did with Solar and i've heard many people speak negative on Solar after Guru's hospitalization (I have an opinion on the issue but i'll reserve it since this is about Guru and not Solar). I still would have loved Guru & Premo to put their differences aside and give the people another Gang Starr album, but unfortunately it was not to be.

Hip hop lost one of it biggest shining stars this past week. Rest in peace Guru...your music has brought me many great memories and has helped to make me proud to be a lifelong hip hop fan. Let's not remember Guru for such things as the Solar controversies, but for the influence and contributions that he has brought to hip hop.

Rest in peace to Baldhead Slick, you will be missed but your music will live on forever.

Elom aka Ecentrik

Ecentrik Presents: The Spectrum Series

Back when I started doing customs in 2002, I mostly stuck to what's referred to as 'Basic Colorway' designs, meaning custom shoes consisting of basic solid color combinations. No abstract design patterns or pictures, just shoes consisting of various colorways. I used to sell these basic colorway designs to friends and associates for prices that would be considered dirt cheap in the custom world. As time went on I developed my craft by experimenting with new styles and techniques and got into doing more detailed and abstract type of art on not just sneakers, but other types of footwear such as womens boots and dress shoes (I still have old sample pairs of womens custom high heels that I was going to put on ebay but never got around to it). As a result of the style changes, my work began to fall more into the high end category, with customs shoes selling in the $300+ range.

Although I went the high-end route with my work and enjoyed (and still enjoy) doing highly detailed stuff, I never lost my love for cleaner, simpler basic colorway styles although by this time I had gone years without doing them. But recently I got the inspiration to sort of "return to my roots" with what I call the Spectrum Series (the name referring to the colors of the spectrum).

Unlike my more detailed work that many are used to seeing from Ecentrik, the Spectrum Series customs are not limited edition and will be available in both mens AND womens sizes. Also, beings as though they are basic colorway customs, each pair from the series will be listed at a much lower price (!) than my more detailed work. Think of them as economy priced customs with the same grade A quality that has always been provided by Ecentrik Shoe Artistry.

The series starts off with the 3 styles pictured below and the current plan is to put out a new colorway on either a monthly or bi-montly basis.

Orange/Turquoise Air Force One Mid:



Red/Blue Air Force One Low:





Grey/Turquoise/Black Air Force One Low:





All 3 styles are available on www.ecentrikart.net.

Evolution

Haven't made a post in a while so I thought i'd give some insight to everyone on how I got into making customized shoes. I've had the idea of blogging this for a minute now and since I haven't posted in a while (currently working on some new material that's not yet ready at the moment) this seems like a good time to do so.

The year was 2002. As a fashion-crazed youngun' flipping through an issue of The Source, I came across this article and picture:



The picture is of two guys who started a company called Remix Da Kickz. Two NY guys who made a name for themselves by customizing Nike Air Force Ones. I remember being in awe of seeing pics of their custom sneakers sitting along side some matching throwbacks (this was during the time of the throwback jersey trend). As a guy who's big into fashion (which seems to be rare here in Philly, but that's another blog) and into matching my clothing from head to toe, The first thing that came to my mind was "Where can I buy these shoes?". I had a lot of throwback jerseys at the time and wanted some of these sneakers to match them. But then later on I thought about me having a background in art (self-taught artist to be exact) and instead of wanting to buy these shoes, I instead thought "How can I MAKE these shoes?". So I spent months of researching the right paints and materials to use, along with months of trial and error trying to get the technique down right. My first few pair were pretty so-so, some even terrible, but it was something I knew early on I wanted to pursue. My passion for customizing sneakers developed quickly.


(my first few custom sneakers)

I managed to find an old pic of the first few customs I ever did (seen above). The yellow & blue ones in the upper right hand corner are THE very first ones I made. You can't tell on the pic, but the paint job was horrible (used the wrong stuff on them) but I was proud of them at the time even though they cracked horribly after like 2-3 wears! but as time went on I continued researching until I found the right formulas as well as kept practicing and developing my craft. Never once asked anyone what to do or how to do it, I pretty much learned everything on my own (especially since sneaker customizing was still pretty new at that time I had no choice but to teach myself).

As time went on my craft continued to improve. Here's some more pics of my early work:


(my first throwback jersey matchup)


(another early pair)


(a pair I made for my sister)

As time went on I felt confident enough to do shoes for other people. I would make shoes for friends and family on occasion but still mostly did stuff for myself.

Fast forward to 2010. Ecentrik Shoe Artistry is in full effect (I actually came up with the name in 2008 but didn't create the website until sometime in 2009). It's kinda funny to look at old pics of my early work and see how my work has changed/evolved since then (and still continues to). I still feel like i'm a work in progress (which is natural as I think we as people all are).

Some recent work:







One of my main motivations for this blog post is to show that if you have a passion for something and want to be successful at it, perseverance is the key. The old saying "practice makes perfect" holds true. Am I exactly where I want to be career wise and skill wise? No, not yet, but I know I will get there as I have made significant progress and continue to do so. Like I said we're all works in progress and if you're dedicated to what you want to do then the sky's the limit.

Before I wrap up here I wanna shoutout all the custom shoe artists who inspired me & continue to do so as well as some of the ones I highly respect: Remix Da Kickz, Methamphibian, SBTG, Sweatshop Clothing, Mizzee Customs, Emmanuelabor, Yoa Kustoms, and a few others I may have forgotten. Some of the ones I mentioned I know personally, some of them I don't, but either way...I salute you!

And on that note, gotta get back in the lab and finish working on some new product. Expect a ton of stuff from Ecentrik Shoe Artistry this summer!

Later