Fortress Of Solitude

My friend Greg, who is an avid reader of Complex, showed me a recent issue with an interview with legendary graffiti writer KEO. Needless to say, it was a great read. In the past 10-15 years, everyone has probably heard or seen at least a little bit of KEO. One example is his work is the artwork for Operation Doomsday, under the alias Lord Scotch.

The main thing that blew my mind was the fact that KEO is in fact the brother of critically acclaimed author Jonathan Lethem, who penned Fortress of Solitude and my personal favorite Motherless Brooklyn. Jonathan's books take a lot from the universally-studied 1980's NYC youth culture, but we all know now that his inspirations are quite close to home.

*Finally, I'd like to take a tangent into some old but not too old NYC rap, that I had the pleasure of discovering after its zenith. Kurious, as seen in MF DOOM's "?" video and song, was one of three main talents at Bobbito's subsidiary of Columbia Records called Hoppoh. The other two features of Hoppoh were Count Bass D and Nas. Now we all know what happened to Nas, and some may still listen to the independent releases of Count Bass D. But where was Kurious all this time? I don't know either, but apparently he's making music again as seen in some new youtube joints. Who knew that Max B or The Beatnuts would be making new music with Kurious. He looks like he's having fun.

-Carryout