December 27, 2005

{     Citizen Urban Icon     }    

These fugly little bits of shark-jumpage are a real turd in the custom-culture punch bowl. Biting the styles of Jason Siu, BrothersFree, Eric So and other true kings of the 12-inch custom format, this line is an attempt to cash in at the crossroads of Urban Vinyl and Urban Fashion, a sort of male thugged-out hip-hop street-punk analog of Barbie, draped in the latest designer urban duds. Debuting in ‘04, Citizen Urban Icon is the brainchild of nauseatingly monikered X-Concepts which seems to be an offshoot of Tech Deck, the mini-skateboard guys, who’ve already proven themselves adept at repackaging underground flavor for the masses (witness their cleaned-up Hook-Ups mini-board graphics and their success at mainstreaming and turning a buck off skate culture in general).
Thankfully, nobody’s buying these lumpy hunks of shit, or if they are then they’re just snatching them from the discount bin and salvaging them for parts for their own customs. In the meantime, I’ll continue to enjoy hating them almost as much as I enjoy this ridiculous little hunk of ad copy, ripped straight from the Tech Deck website describing our friend “Propaganda” pictured above:
“Citizen Propaganda wears his Obey outfit with street attitude. In his pouch are his Obey flyers and paste. He has on his favorite black t-shirt with the Obey Star in hopes that someone will mistake him for Shepard Fairey! Camouflage pants and black athletic shoes complete his ensemble for today’s subversive action.”
I’m sure Shep’s out there laughing along with me, while swimming in his Uncle Scrooge-style money-pit, doing backstrokes through piles of gold dubloons.