SMH…in awe that is. Seriously, I was standing in front of his pieces, looking at all the colors, highlights, and crazy imagination, simply shaking my head, in disbelief of how dope his work is. Several times throughout the night, I was like, “fuck it, I’m gonnna break the bank and buy one of these.” But obviously I had to stop myself, because I can’t afford a $10,000 painting right now. Unless you guys by my shirts! So check out the Coup Street store now and buy something so I can afford a Craola painting! LOL. Well, schedule some time between now and May 4th to go see it at MK Gallery. You should definitely go check it out. Don’t miss seeing this incredible work in person.

MK Gallery – 170 S. La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90036

On Saturday, we stopped by the Full Circle Show and said what’s up to some of the folks, and brands we’ve met there. Full Circle is truly a grass roots art movement, that gets bigger every time. This time we met some of the artists from the brand Fat Kid. Their brand has a similar concept to ours, in that “everyone’s a fat kid trying to eat.” Eat, being the metaphor of hard work and being hungry. They’ll be one of the vendors at our For L.A. by L.A. event on May 18th. So be sure to check them out.

Coup Street hit up the Red Bull Canvas Cooler event in West Hollywood Thursday night to check out some of L.A.’s best artists compete for a chance to go to Art basil in Miami.

White Buffalo • Rose Masterpol • Dan Monteavaro • Jill Knox • Sand • SEK • Look At • Mtendere ‘Teebs’ • Annie Preece • Allison ‘Hueman’ Torneros • SEPTERHED • Blinky • TaylorSays • Man One • James Haunt • AJL • Vyal One • Mear One • SEIZER-ONE • 2WENTY

Twenty artists put their artwork onto Red Bull coolers as the public and guest judges voted on their favorite. At the end of the night, James Haunt and White Buffalo won a trip to Art Basil in Miami.

It was a dope event. Free drinks. Amazing work and we got a chance to meet some artists and fellow sticker heads. By the end of the night, Coup Street and some other folks had their own organically designed cooler out on the patio. Check out some flicks from the night.

Shout out to Angry Elephant and Sticky Rick. Let’s build!

Last night we hit up the Slap Ya Mama Sticker Exchange & Art Show that we participated in. It was tight being amongst a community of sticker heads, and graff writers. Shout out to Angel Once aka Angry Elephant for putting together the event.

After trading a few stickers and slapping a few spots, we hit up the Copro Gallery in Santa Monica for the Futurology Group Exhibit alongside the Heidi Taillefer opening of Land of the Blind. Saw some really amazing artwork. I discovered the artwork of Jason Hite. That dude has some amazing work. He had two pieces there. The American Nightmare and Game of Drones. I can’t say enough how much these two pieces speak volumes about our society and where we need to realize that it’s heading. Another dope piece of art I discovered was the work of Timothy Robert Smith. He painted a picture of the Los Angeles streets. It’s super sick. And lastly, in a separate room was the amazing work of Heidi Taillefer. I wish I could’ve gotten more photos. Her work was so realistic looking and popped with colors and imagination. Go check out the artists and the gallery before it goes away.

Info on Artists:

Jason Hite – www.hitestudios.com

Timothy Robert Smith – www.tumblevision.com

Heidi Taillefer -www.heiditaillefer.com

Coup Street is happy to announce a new affiliate that we will be working and building with, Left Coast Gear aka Left Coast Family based out of Oceanside, CA. We met them at the L.A. Breakers 30th Anniversary show, chopped it up, realized we both share similar missions and goals and decided we should work together. Similar to us, they like to promote others and are out to shed a light on the hustle and hard work of artists of all mediums.

Left Coast Family is Hip Hop. They are a group of people working together to promote each others skills. The Left Coast Fam is made up of MCs, BBoys, DJs and Graffiti Artists. Although they are based out Southern California, they have members from the Bay Area all the to New York. They support projects through advertising and attending the events. They offer networking through online social media and advertise Fam members album releases, events, shows, battles, website launches, and other projects facilitated by the Fam. They even offer advertising resources through their in-house graphic designers.

For more info on Left Coast check out http://leftcoastfamily.com or www.leftcoastbrand.com

That’s right everyone. We’ve attended and participated in enough great events that’s it’s time we throw our own. So get ready for “For L.A. by L.A.” Los Angeles artitsts and entrepreneurs putting it down for one day to give back to the community.

Today we hit up the Beat Swap Meet in Chinatown/Downtown LA for the second time this year, and as expected, there was a great crowd. A lot of passion, a lot of culture, and a great place to experience all the elements of Hiphop within a 1 block radius. Shout out to Beat Swap Meet and all the folks that came out today. See y’all next time! Stay Hungry.

This week we sponsored Pawz One’s trip to SXSW. Pawz has been putting in work in the hiphop world for quite sometime now. Soon he will be releasing his highly anticipated Face the Facts album. From March 12-17, Pawz will be putting it down and repping Coup Street on his road trip from Los Angeles to Austin, TX.  Follow the SXSW Pawz One experience here and on our facebook page.

At the December Art Walk we met Diego and Wale, the creators of Full Circle Show. After seeing our booth and mannequins, they thought we’d be a great fit for Full Circle and invited us to come check it out. Full Circle goes down every 1st Saturday of the month. It’s a great community event, that brings together artist from all back grounds. A place that brings inspired and passionate people together, to appreciate art and the elements of Hip Hop, and that’s really what it’s all about. Diego introduced us to a lot of vendors and people there and it is definitely something that we’d like to be apart of. So you can come check us out at the next show going down February 2nd.

After the Silver and True Blue battle, we hit up an art show at the Copro Gallery in Santa Monica. It was a packed event that featured several artists and some crazy sculptures. There we met Erwin from the LA Taco blog. So hopefully we link up with them soon.

This past weekend Coup Street went hiking with Paul Alvarez Jr. and did a fun photo shoot with some local hotties. When it came down to editing the photos, there were so many great shots to choose from,  narrowing down the selection was difficult. In the end there were still too many, so instead of uploading a bunch of photos, we decided to create a collage of all the coolest shots from that day.

You can check out more of Paul’s work HERE.

Coup Street went to go check out Cypher Adikts in downtown where our boy Koolski was hosting. It was dope. I’ve always enjoyed watching B-boys and B-girls getting down. If you aren’t too familiar with Cypher Adikts, it’s pretty much the essence of real Hip Hop. It’s not about the battling and competing, it’s about freestyling, getting out there and doing what you love, and being surrounded by people that love it as much as you do. I really wish I could see a time-lapse aerial shot watching the whole thing. To see all the different cyphers forming and breaking apart, people moving around to each cypher, it’s like a living organism.

I got a bunch of footage, but for me, this was my favorite part. People just letting loose, having fun and bringing back the old school moves.

For more info, and where you can find the next cypher, check out www.cypheradikts.com

Our friend at Zeta Photography recently took a trip to Mexico City and put in a little side work for us with the locals and spread the word. We’re global now! Lol.

Check out more of his work here.

We had a dope weekend, getting in the mix with a few art shows and hiphop events. Friday we stopped by the X-Large store for the release party of the collaboration between Akomplice and X-Large. Akomplice has been coming up a lot this past year. I gotta give them credit for taking their brand to the next level. We also met the guys behind TLR&CO aka the Lacoste Alligator with the head chopped off. They’ve been making big moves too. I got respect for anybody that stands up to the corporations and their civil rights. After that, we hit up The Root Down. The energy is always amazing when you get around places full of inspiration and passion. Real/True hiphop fans are so loyal and represent to the fullest. The next day, we hit up The Gift Show over at the Scion AV gallery in Melrose. The event was put on to help folks that were affected by hurricane Sandy. It was another night with a free bar, and dope art. Can’t beat that with a bat. A few celebrities stopped by. RZA and Krondon are cool as hell. I was really hoping David Choe might make an appearance, but he didn’t. The night was still dope as hell.

Coup Street linked up with rapper Sacrifice, and got him a Grimy Grind shirt for the Jeru the Damaja show at The Terrace in Pasadena.

This weekend we participated in the Beat Swap Meet. It was our first time, and it was a really dope event. Definitely the definition of real hiphop. I look forward to attending more events like this. We met a lot of cool people, networked, and enjoyed the grind of getting out there and making this dream a reality. Badazz stopped by our booth and was feeling our gear. He’s a real cool dude. We gave him a shirt, so he’s now rocking with Coup Street. Shout out to Beat Swap Meet, the city of Los Angeles, Chinatown, and all the people who attended to share in bringing real hiphop to the streets.

This past weekend we continued on the McLogan wall. This wall is everything but easy to work on. Not only are the bars a difficult surface to paint on, but there’s barbed wire at the top. In order to keep Cels from getting cut up, we needed something to cover them with. He requested a sleeping bag, and settled for some baby blankets. LOL. Definitely not the best addition to some graff photos, but it makes for a good story. They also came in handy when we got a little sleepy. Stay tuned for the progression of the McLogan wall.

This weekend Coup Street brought together two dope graffiti artists to collaborate on a wall in the back of McLogan Screen Printing Supplies in downtown Los Angeles. Solver from JHF and Cels from CSM spent the day doing their thing. We took a bunch of photos, got some great video, and spent the day doing what we love most. One of our goals at Coup Street is to produce dope art. Whether it be a solo project, a collaboration or whatever the case may be, we strive to raise the bar. Just because your art hasn’t hit the mainstream, or you’re getting paid big bucks for it, doesn’t mean it isn’t worthy of it’s own space and recognition. Cels and Solver are definitely on their way up. We plan on doing big things with these two guys.

We recently linked up with graff artist Solver, originally from Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico. Last week we invited him out to our shop to paint a mannequin, and this week we’re bringing you one of his designs called, “Alfabeto” which is an alphabet of his letters. It was really hard to decide which colors to print it in, since every combination seemed to look dope. In the end we went with the following 3 styles. Once these color combos sell out, we will print another set of colors for the design. Right now there are only 20 of each style available, so get them before they’re gone.

*Although the shirts are on a female mannequin, they are mens tees. They are being displayed on the mannequin he painted.

We look forward to working with this dude in the future and will be having a mini doc on him coming soon. Stay true to your hustle and support you local artists.

If you’d like to buy one check out our store HERE.

Keeping the ball rolling. Check out the article on us from Style Engine.