With the taping of VH1’s Hip-Hop Honors being at the Hammerstein Ballroom last Thursday (the show aired this week), New York City was overflowing with parties and events that brought back a million memories of back in the day adventures. Indeed, it seems like just yesterday that Dante Ross was playing me some of De La Soul’s debut album, I was eating Philly cheese steaks with Cypress Hill for a Source feature (shot by the talented Daniel Hastings), hopping on the Jersey transit to meet Naughty By Nature and hanging out in Too Short’s ritzy hotel room during a photo shoot.

Though I have never interviewed Slick Rick, believe me, it was not for lack of trying. In 1988, his classic track “Children’s Story” was one of my favorite songs.

Two days before the VH1 taping, I was invited to a book party for the upcoming DEFintion: The Art and Design of Hip-Hop edited by Cey Adams and Bill Adler. Old friends since the old Rush/Def Jam days when crack heads used to be lurking and smoking across the street (Cey was the graphic designer, Bill was the publicist), these gentleman put a lot of effort into this beautiful book. While there have been some rumblings about the overt sexism of the cover (sexism…hip-hop…I’m shocked), I encourage folks to look beyond Mike Thompson’s aptly titled Lust and open the book.

Overflowing with beautiful images by painters (Kehinde Wiley, Keith Haring) sneaker designers (I wrote the essay for this section), filmmakers (Charles Stone III, Spike Lee), graffiti artists (Cope2, Sye) and graphic designers (Brent Rollins, D.L. Warfield) this book is a must-have for cool coffee tables and offices.

The party itself had to be the throwback event of the season, with cats like Positive K, media assassin Harry Allen, DJ Chuck Chill Out, Roc, a few Beastie Boys, Andre Leroy Davis (the cool Cancer who drew “The Last Word” cartoons in The Source years back), producer Dante Ross and my adopted brothers-the Ego Trip boys were all in attendance.

While my “Old School Hip-Hop Week” began with the thrill of seeing my first New York magazine in print (a four page joint on Kool Herc) it ended on Saturday night with Common and N.E.R.D. blowing-up the stage at Roseland. During Common’s set, my man Cee-Lo Green (you know he’s a mean machine) joined the windy city rapper on stage.

As my former Billboard columnist/present p.r. maverick Havelock Nelson kept yelling Friday night, last week was “the best week ever.”

NEW YORK MAGAZINE OLD SCHOOL STORY:

http://nymag.com/anniversary/40th/50665

DEFinition: The Art & Design of Hip-Hop

http://www.amazon.com/DEFinition-Design-Hip-Hop-Cey-Adams/dp/0061438855/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223325501&sr=1-1

This originally appeared on Michael Gonzales’ blog Riffs&Revolutions.

Tags: DEFintion: The Art and Design of Hip-Hop, hip hop honors, Kehinde Wiley, Keith Haring, michael gonzales, naughty by nature, new york city, old school hiphop, riffs&revolutions, VH1