misshapen musings: The art of "Super Ugly"

I first came across this artist a few years ago when listening to some super dope underground hip-hop that a friend in San Francisco introduced me to. This artist is called Super Ugly, and he is the emcee of a hip-hop duo from the bay area titled Unified School District, the other half of which is a DJ named Ecto One. Anyhow, their music stood out to me because it was something I felt like I identified with immediately; songs about life, video games, and an elephant man, among other things. Beyond that, they were unique, and actually sounded new, which wasn't my experience with much of the music that was coming out of the bay area at that time (circa 07-08). Here is a little video of them to give you a better idea:

I always liked the art that I saw on the bands website, on their flyer's and on their CD's, and wondered who was making it, but that was about as far as it went, just wondering, then I'd lose focus and wonder about some other weird shit probably, but that's beside the point. One day I walked into Shoe Biz on Valencia street in SF and I saw some purses with crazy characters painted on them in what looked like acrylic paints, the characters looked strikingly similar in style to the work I saw on USD's records, and on the price tag it said they were by Super Ugly who I remembered was the rapper from the group. I looked him up online and the rest was history, his work was dope, and still is. And what I have found through recently emailing back and forth with him is that he is a really down to earth person. I actually think I am going to buy some original pieces from him for our new apartment in Brooklyn pretty soon.
A lot of what I like about his work is the playfulness. I think a lot of people from my generation can relate to what he is doing because of both the content, and the style of his characters. Cartoon characters were something that I would get lost in as a child, as I'm sure a lot of us did. His characters remind me of that time in my life, but they have this other side to them which makes them harsher and more jaded. They are in my opinion "adult cartoons", going back to the Fritz the Cat and Heavy Metal tradition, but of course more modern then those, and totally on their own tip. Anyway, here are some of his works and you can find him online at: thesuperugly.com