Photos by: Ace Knuckles

At Rock the Bells in San Bernadino, it was a great day to be in California. Backdropped by a characteristically Californian 86-degree sun,  hip-hop enthusiasts were blessed with performances from some of Cali’s best: La Coka Nostra, Cypress Hill, Evidence, Alchemist, and Ice Cube.  They shared stages with Nas, Damien Marley, The Roots, Reflection Eternal, Slum Village, Busta Rhymes, Big Boi, Murs, Pete Rock, Raekwon, RZA, and GZA among others who rocked both stages for almost 11 hours straight.

Main stage performer Tech N9ne, who is releasing his 10th studio album K.O.D. this Fall, shared what keeps his stage show kinetic. “[You have to] keep the energy up…it has to be ‘out of this world’ because ‘out of this world’ will never depreciate.”  The energy from this Rock the Bells tour has already led to a Slaughterhouse + Tech N9ne tour this October.

Ice Cube closed the show and summoned up enough West Coast love to resurrect Tupac. I knew he struck a cord when our photographer started crip-walking (no lie!). If you missed the festival, you can live vicariously through the photos after the jump

On May 1st, the Vapors crew hit SneakerPimps down at the Vanguard on Hollywood, & man did we feel the love!!  For those of you who don’t know, & clearly live under a rock, SneakerPimps is the largest touring sneaker show in the world. Other than showing up with over 1500 pairs of sneakers you’ll only get to see, smell, and attempt to touch once, they also bring some legit music & absolutely everything sneaker related you can imagine.  Best of all, there were tons of brands out there with some pretty sweet graphics, & I gotta send some love their way.

Check out the rest and pics after the jump

Our boys over at Halloway Clothing & Limb x Limb hit us up on Twitter to go visit them, so we made that our first stop (after hitting the bar of course!).  The clothes were dope, & Jawn introduced us to the other brands they work with, including Adapt Clothing, who had some sick shirts!! We picked up some sweet threads from all those boys, including a bright blue shirt with white & hot pink lettering on it that says “Gossip Kills”, & then decided to go visit the rest of the vendors in the building.

Some other people definitely worth mentioning: BBall Junkies, who had a sweet shirt that was a basketball hoop made out of laces!! Another amazing one was Neue Marvel,who had this one shirt called “Love & Alcohol” that you should totally scope out on their page, & Royal Prospects, who hooked us up with some amazing graphics, including their newest one released for SneakerPimps with old school Duck Hunt on it.  Sanz Pareil was representin the West Coast with some sick logo’s, while Chicharon Adventures showed off their amazing fabric, amazing message, & sweet designs. Jay from Diamond Crew was awesome, & had some some cool stuff to show us!  The kicks & hats on his table were sweet (especially the black & pink LA one!), & they gave us a preview of the new stuff coming out, & let me tell ya, it’s sweet.  The boys over at Dilligence Clothing had some sweet threads to show off to us, as did Ghetto Rock LA.  Fully Laced, was also there showing off their shirts & best of all, hats with the solar system under the bill. Villany had some amazing stuff there, & had their shirts folded on the table to say “See Aye Aye Day” (CA All Day.. yeahh you guys get it ). & last, but most certainly not least, SneakTip was out there showing us their jackets full of stash pockets, holes for headphones, & sweet sweet designs.

All in all, it was an amazing night! House of Pain, B-Real & DJ Muggs from Cypress Hill, & some others were on stage all night, the crowd was breakin it down, the XBox 360 crew was there hosting a competition, & the sneaks on display were amazing. Not only were there limited editions there that would make even the most oblivious drool, but, Asics showed up with their Onitsuka Tiger line, C1rca brought some pairs, & even Van Taylor Custom Shoes came out (with their Coraline shoes!!).

If you missed the LA show, I hope we made you jealous. The tour goes on through September, so roadtrip it out to another city if you have to!!

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Young De is Hip Hop Official‘s “Artist of the Week.” In this segment he discusses his move from Philly to Cali, his connection to Kurupt, the Homeland Security mixtape, his affiliation with B-Real and Cypress Hill, and some of his future plans. Look for a live segment to drop on HHO at the end of the week.

Last week we posted up the footage of Raekwon The Chef from the Akomplice Season 9 release party at Tradition. We just received this footage of Young De’s performance that took place just before Raekwon took the stage. Look for De’s upcoming projects with B Real & Cypress Hill, and be sure to download his DJ Whoo Kid assisted mixtape with Ca$his (Shady Records), called Homeland Security.

B-Real sat down with Vimby to discuss his upcoming album “Smoke and Mirrors” dropping this February on Duck Down Records. This feature was shot on the set of B’s upcoming video for the track “Don’t You Dare Laugh” featuring the homey Young De. Look for the video to drop in the next few weeks.

B-Real from Cypress Hill just leaked his first single from his Duck Down Records debut, “Smoke and Mirrors”, called ” Don’t You Dare Laugh” featuring Young De on the hook and second verse. This track is a straight West Coast anthem… “Smoke and Mirrors” is slated for release in late January, with a new Cypress Hill album to be released a few months later.

Hello my name is…
Young De.

I was raised in…
Philly raised me and Cali made me.

The reason that you’re reading about me is…
Because I’m the next best thing smokin’. I’m probably the only artist that moved out to Cali two years ago and I got two of the biggest groups backing me: Dogg Pound and Cypress Hill.

Right now I’m working on…
Promoting my DJ Skee & B-Real presents Young DE “Audio Hustlaz Vol.1 Mixtape,” hosted by Kurupt. You can download it for free on my MySpace page (myspace.com/youngdetho). I’m also working on my new mixtape with Ca$his who is signed to Shady/Aftermath. Right now I’m in the studio lending my talents to the new Cypress Hill record and B-Real’s solo album. So you could say I’m on my grind!

The first thing I do in the morning is…
Brush my teeth—morning breath is nasty.

The last thing I do at night is…
I usually don’t remember because I try to drink myself into a haze.

My momma always said…
“You gotta go for what you know.”

I love it when people…
Do what they say they’re going to do.

I hate it when people…
Don’t know how to relax.

If you ever see me walking down the street…
Say what’s up. Holla at me like you know me!

My most notable run-in with the law…
There’s been a couple, but I’d rather not talk about them…bad memories.

If I had to say sorry it would be because I…
Did something really bad to someone cuz I’m stubborn.

Yo, you see this scar, I got this when I…
That would have to do with that run-in with the law question…

The last time I swore I’d never drink was after a night of…
You must not have seen the YouTube clip of me drinking a whole bottle of Patron!

Future projects and plans…
Keep staying focused on making good music and getting it out to the people.

And before I leave I’d like to give a shout out to…
Mellow Man Ace for putting me on with Cypress crew. Kurupt, Damizza, Tangled Thoughts (my brothers in this music thing), and Con-spiracy. I would also like to give special shout-outs to MySpace for keep me in contact with all of you (myspace.com/youngdetho).