Ludicrous.

I got a book in the post this morning which contains all of the 'New Era' baseball hats me and a gang of other people decorated for their 90th anniversary.

I never thought I'd be able to say this, but pale scrawny pen-flinger from Hinckley and LUDACRIS - ridiculous southern-raised rapper responsible for some of the most banging tunes in our hip-hop section - are in the book together. What? Along with designers, assorted semi-luminaries and New Era staff, turns out he drew on a hat as well. Who'da thunk it?

Now he seems to be looking a bit calmer and more grown-up these days (and less interesting - look how Busta Rhymes metamorphosised), but I like to think of him looking like this:

See, we were in the 'Beat Street' record shop in Brooklyn (now closed) when this tune emerged from the monster speakers at either end of the store. The two stunned pasty-faced English people with bleeding ears approached the counter and announced (quietly) 'we need this'. And in exchange for some $$$ it was handed directly unto them, and life was good.



Anyway. Here's my hat that I drew on, in the book:


Here's the hat Ludacris drew on (it's all hardcore embroidery):

and here's the cover:
Honestly, how funny.

See the whole collection of hats here.
My blurb (slightly edited by New Era).
More Ludacris.

Grater. Scalpel. Holes.

I've just drawn on a cap for New Era's 90th birthday exhibition. I had grand ideas for this project, but with the cap arriving from New York much later than expected and with only a few days to fit it in, I went with a different version altogether.

This hat is tattooed and tired with piercing holes and injuries. It's had a hard life. I really wanted to hurt this cap; it came out of its box so smugly pristine and perfect and in immaculate expensive packaging that my first thought was 'Grater. Scalpel. Holes'. It was almost begging to be abused!

There is a rationale behind the choice of 'tattoos' on the skin-coloured stitched-together panels but if you're interested to know, you'll have to ask. The fact that the hat isn't made in the USA had something to do with my thinking. And I really enjoyed the sewing, rudimentary as it was - in there you'll find stab stitch, blanket stitch, overstitch, cross-stitch, and a sore finger and numb thumb. Oh and I tagged the box in true street style. I'm not sure I was supposed to do that...

The hat goes into an exhibition in LA and NYC along with some hats designed by students (who clearly had a lot more time to play with theirs - look at these! Oh to be a student again...) and a selection of other artists from Bernstein & Andriulli and Central Illustration. If you're into headwear, and live in the US, you might like it. Keep your eyes peeled for the dates.