A Hip Hop Excursion in the Big Apple - NYC.
  
I just got back from my yearly pilgrimage to the Big Apple, NYC and thought I'd share with you some of my experiences in case you might be headed out that way anytime soon. I have included info on getting around, places to eat and where to find the hip hop shops in Manhattan.
 Getting Around: The quickest way to get from JFK to downtown Manhattan is to take either a cab or hired car (usually black Lincoln Continentals) right outside the baggage claim on the curbside. Ask for a flat rate into town ($25.00 w/o tip). If the driver jives a little with you and seems to know where he is going give him a 5 spot, otherwise don't bother.
You should know the cross street for anywhere you are planning on going in NYC. This helps cabbies and yourself with navigating around town. Basically NYC is broken up in a nice grid with the 6th Avenue (aka Avenue of the Americas) splitting Manhattan right down the middle (vertically). Anything to the left of 6th Avenue is considered West and everything to the right is East. Avenues run North and South and Streets run East and West. So let's take for instance 168 E. 8th Street. This would be situated one block east of 6th Ave on 8th Street (remember Streets run east-west).
I wouldn't advise staying in Manhattan hotels unless you got loot to blow. Try to find something right outside of Manhattan like in Hobokken, NJ (take the path over for a $1.50) or Williamsburg, Brklyn (one subway stop outside of Manhattan).
We stayed with our good friends Peter and Ji Won (and Oliver the Gangter Dog) in Brooklyn in a neighborhood called Williamsburg (big art community, much flava). The area is very industrial and has a ton of cool stores and eating spots.
Places to Eat: Here are a couple of spots that I would recommend you check out for good eats in Brooklyn:
Planet Thailand (fresh ass thai and japanese food, DJ 9pm to close)
133 North 7th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211
(betwn. Bedford Ave & Berry Street in Williamsburg district)
tel: 718.599.5758
hours: Sun - Wed 11:30am - 1am
Thurs - Sat 11:30am - 2am
On our first full day, we hit the city about 11am in the morning to go have breakfast first. A lot of the shops don't open til noon or 1pm for some reason. Here is a couple of nice spots to get cheap eats in Manhattan:
DOJO Restaurant (cheap, greasy but filling)
24-26 St. Marks Place, New York, NY 10003
(8th St. btwn. 2nd & 3rd Aves.)
tel: 212.674.9821
Congee Village Restaurant (best joint in town for Congee, try the sweet bread - hmm)
100 Allen Street, NY, NY 10002
tel. 212.941.1818
fax. 212.226.1905
Avenue A Sushi (Art, music, a bar, and yes, sushi; reasonably priced for NYC.)
103 Avenue A, NY, NY 10009
tel. 212.982.8109
Republic (relatively cheap for location, nice chill spot and music)
37 Union Square West, New York, NY 10003
tel. 212.627.7172
Hip Hop Shops:
 Manhattan has a ton of hip hop shops in walking distance of each other and you can usually hit them all in a day trip with no problem. I suggest you start around St. Marks Place and work your way down Broadway Avenue for some shopping (just window shop here to compare prices). If you are looking for some new kicks, I suggest you definetely make a trip down Broadway, there is about 10 shops or so that carry all the new and hard to find footwear. Once you get into the Soho area, you can stop in and visit the Stussy shop and Union. You probably don't want to do much shopping in Soho (unless you got holes in yo pockets). Use the map to navigate west to Recon, Supreme, H272, Triple 5 Soul (block North of Supreme), XLarge (block South of Supreme), SSUR, 360 Toy Group and ALife. These shops have the freshest gear. (click the map to the left to print out a larger version of it.)
  
Alife (must stop shop for graf heads, nice shoes and art - respekts to Jest)
178 Orchard Street, NY, NY 10002
tel. 616.654.0628
fax. 646.654.0629
creative 646.654.0630
www.alifenyc.com
Union (this is one of my favorite spots for mix tapes and indie-made tshirts)
172 Spring Street, NY, NY 10012
tel. 212.226.8493
fax. 212.226.8495
Supreme (popular skate and clothing shop)
274 Lafayette Street, NY, NY 10012
tel. 212.966.7799
fax. 212.966.7907
Recon (Futura's retail location in NYC)
237 Eldridge Street, NY, NY
tel. 212.614.8502
SSUR Plus (Surplus - popular amongst Japanese clientele.)
219 Mulberry Street, NY, NY
tel. 212.431.3987
H 272 (this is DJ Honda's hip hop clothing store, cool ass CD player on the wall for sale.)
272 Layayette Street, NYC 10012
tel. 212.324.1333
email: info@h272.com
www.h272.com
B. Burkina (hip hop clothing, CDs and mixtapes)
177 E. Houston Street, NY, NY 10002
(btwn Orchard & Allen St.)
tel. 212.460.9348
fax. 212.375.8092
email: burkinajoint@aol.com
XLarge (Beastie Clothing - Thanks for the sticker Jay)
267 Lafayette Street, NY, NY 10012
tel. 212.334.4480
www.xlarge.com
Misc Stores:
360 Toy Group (the most gangsta toystore I have ever been to, even had Ricky Powell tshirts.)
239 Eldridge Street, NY, NY 10002
tel. 646.602.0138
fax. 646.602.0146
specializing in 1/6 scale collectibles. toystore / gallery.
H&M (way cheap clothes, tshirts and kangol looking caps, I copped one.)
558 Broadway, NY, NY 10012
www.hm.com
Mini Mini Market (at the Mall)
218 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211 (nice retro store for bgirls w/ local made clothing)
tel. 718.302.9337
If you still have time in your day and energy then you can catch a subway train or hail a cab over to Fat Beats for some records, videos, magazines, mixtapes, gear or to just chill and listen to the DJ spin the latest cuts in store. I happen to run into DJ Tony Tone from the Original Cold Crush Brothers while looking at mixtapes. DJ Eclipse from Non Phixion is the manager at the store and can help you out with any questions. These cats know there hip hop inside-out. Plan on spending about 1 hour at this spot if you are a true head.
Fat Beats (your one stop shop for Hip Hop, Sup Breeze)
406 6th Avenue, NY, NY 10011
tel. 212.673.3883
fax. 212.673.4021
hours: Mon - Fri 10am - 9pm
Sat - 12pm - 7pm
www.fatbeats.com
Here is a few numbers for Car Services:
Northside - 24hrs car service
tel. 387.2222
City Ride Transportation (24hr door to door service)
26-26 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, NY 11101
tel. 718.706.6666
toll. 800-248-9743
www.cityridelimo.com
If you are planning on going out in the evenings then pick up a Flyer magazine.
You can find this in just about any music store and all of the stores noted above.
Another good resource for clubs and shows is the Village Voice, this is a freely
distributed newspaper that can be found all over town in newspaper boxes.
 I don't really have any club suggestions but I would advise you to try to check
out a live show if you can. We went to the MF Doom, Lone Catalysts and Masterminds
show at the Knitting Factory (www.knittingfactory.com). The venue was just big enough
for a tight underground hip hop vibe. They have all ages shows here and also server
drinks for the 21+ heads. This show was off the hook and probably one of the craziest
I have experienced since moshing at Cypress Hill's Lalapolooza's performance back in the
day. I was trying to take some pictures for the site you know and some knuckle head kept
jumping up and down with elbows out and I had to regulate. The whole crowd began to push back and forth and it turned bad for a couple minutes until MF Doom jumped into the crowd and tackled elbowing dude next to me. The guy later jumped on the stage only to be body slammed by Doom.
 Once Doom put on the metal face mask it was on. He continued to spit lyrics for two more hours non-stop and the show ended around 3:40am. The other peformances by a few local groups including Lone Catalysts and Masterminds were nice too. D-Stroy from the Arsonists hosted and MC'd the show spitting sick freestyles during each intermission.
Check out the Start of our Brooklyn Graf Tour - More to come.
One,
Brian aka theory
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