With the glut of “designer toys” cluttering shelves and display cases and floating around the interweb, it has naturally become a bit more difficult for designers and artists to distinguish themselves from the plastic masses. Difficult, but not impossible.

Enter The Mirf.

No, it’s not a blaxploitation-era Kung Fu flick about a housing project super who’s visited in the night by a mystical cockroach—the body of which houses the spirit of an ancient Wu Shu master—who then blesses said super with near invincibility and the fighting skills of the 12 most powerful Shaolin monks of antiquity, thus allowing him to clean up the streets and kick some Vice Lord ass, ending their reign of terror, getting the girl and generally saving the day and all that jazz.

Though that would make a pretty dope flick, The Mirf’s got little to do with the stuff of Kung Fu legend. The brainchild of 1134NYC’s graffiti duo Mint and Serf and NYC’s art toy house Thunderdog Studios, the Mirf is truly the first of its kind: a graffiti-inspired, wall-mountable soft-vinyl toy. Available in four different colorways (with 200 pieces of each), the Mirf’s creators consider the piece more of a sculpture than a toy. Getting bump from design and graffiti world luminaries such as HAZE, Claw Money and Carlo McCormick, as a bonus the limited edition piece comes in so fresh and so clean packaging which features a slide out box, silver foil and a two-sided, flocked blister tray.

And to bleed off the steam that’s been building since hype over this paradigm-shifting piece of soft-vinyl deliciousness first buzzed about the Lower East Side a month ago, 1134NYC, Thunderdog Studios, Rogue Status and Vapors Magazine are putting their power rings together to drop the Mirf bomb in dual Left Coast launch events tonight and Thursday night. New York hip-hop trio Team Facelift will be holding it down at both events. With that said, expect lots of nudity (thank you Fat Jew), more than a few Jewish girls from Long Island, a tangerine bathrobe or two and possibly even some drunken, passionate Mirf chants (most likely in the nude). You know you love it.

After a three-year hybernation period, PPP, formerly known as the Platinum Pied Pipers, is finally back! It is all worth the wait as the new album takes music production to the next level. After a long searching process, the core PPP — consisting of Detroit-bred, now Brooklyn-based duo, Waajeed and Saadiq — found some outstanding musicians to match their talents for this highly-anticipated album.

July 8th marks the release date of On A Cloud, their first single from their new album Abundance. The title track features new vocalist Karma Stewart, a singer whose powerful vocals recall Aretha Franklin’s soul-shaking force, while the beautifully layered instrumentation blends elements of Led Zeppelin-esque rock tunes, soul and gospel-flavored melodies matching Detroit’s Motown legacy with high energy horns and drums into a sound that is super fresh and is so characteristic of PPP’s pioneering musical experiments. On the flip side is Angel, boasting a similarly big sound inspired by another Detroit roots, Funkadelic. Angel features their brilliant St. Louis-based new vocalist-songwriter-poet Coultrain, who wrote the majority of the songs for the album.

Waajeed means both “finder” and “seeker”, and it was probably not accidental that he was given this name by an elder. As he describes the making of Abundance, “this new album is as much about the process as about the outcome” — as much about the process of seeking to realize this new project as about finding the perfect vehicle for it.

You can catch Waajeed doing a DJ set on Thursday, July 10th at Sutra (16 1st Ave, NY), with old-time friends, T3 of Slum Village and Dwele.

Europeans are ahead of the game, PPP have already begun touring the old continent with the album, but if you’re lucky you can catch them live at their home-base on Saturday, July 12th at Southpaw (125 5th Ave, Brooklyn) as they will provide the highlight of the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival at the Official Afterparty, along with DJ House Shoes, Invincible, and DJ Parler. Not to be missed, people!

Make sure to peep the PPP page for the rest of their concert schedule.

“Primordial Punk,” reads their mission statement, “represents what’s been missing from the cultural dialogue of beauty. It calls upon the talents of professional artists to challenge, confront, rearrange, and revisualize the standard against which AFRICAN-AMERICAN beauty is measure.” What better way to celebrate a new aesthetic for beauty than with some funky pictures and a party?

The Pictures: The 1st-ever BLACK PUNK PIN-UP CALENDAR 2 Primo Pin-Ups, Tamar-kali, Imani Coppola, Sylvia Gordon, MilitiA, DJ Reborn, dj.shErOck, Ife Mora, Nneka Bennett, ninja.bot.body.rock, Josiane, Lesley J, and Bailey Davis. Each model was styled after song lyrics written by a Black rock artist or band. The Calendar ships out in October with proceeds benefiting the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls and the Black Rock Coalition. But until then, we can satiate our punk pin-up cravings by sinking our teeth into…

The Party: Primordial Punk’s 1st Annual Debutante Ball runs in conjunction with the 4th Annual Afro-Punk Fest in Brooklyn. The event will feature 4 hot numbers by our loves, Brown Girls Burlesque with live accompaniment by Mackie Riverside & the Street Pushers, live sets by Apollo Heights, Betty Black, Chewing Pics and Sweetie, DJ Tjade on decks, and live painting by Fly Lady Di. Information will be on-hand to pre-order the Black Punk Pin-Up Calendar for $10.

Debutante Ball Launch Party
Friday, July 11th
Galapagos @ 10PM
70 North 6th Street in Williamsburg
FREE and open to the public

The visual artist INSA lays down a stack with his latest exhibit “Dirty Cash.” Set in London’s Flawless Gallery “Dirty Cash” is an ode to INSA’s raunchy style of artwork. With vulumptuos curves, dripping paint and roots in the art of graffiti INSA places himself in a category all his own. The exhibit will be open through the month of July. For more information click here.