N.Y. State Of Mind

New York is the only city I’ll ever live in. It’s like that, and that’s the way it is. I’ve been here for 27 of my nearly 32 years, and I can’t really imagine the scenario that would uproot me at this point. There are other amazing cities around the world, no doubt. And I quite enjoy visiting them—you know, for a change of pace—but nann-not-a-one has made me say out loud (or even in my inner monologue), “I’d rather live here.” The pace, the rhythm and the tension of NYC are just so unique and, frankly, so addictive. And they change you. Anyone that knows me knows I’m absolutely riddled with neurosis specific to 5 borough living. Shit, forget a license—I don’t even know how to drive!

So you understand why when the fine folks of ACCLAIM Magazine, Australia’s answer to Mass Appeal and Complex, reached out to interview me, alongside NYC legends like Futura and Ricky Powell, for their New York Issue I was beyond flattered.

Me So Hornet

Think fame is easy? Spend three-plus years working on your passion project—while dashing off a few certified classics along the way—and get back to us. As he prepares to drop The Green Hornet, the genre-bending, big-budget opus he wrote, produced, and stars in, Seth Rogen muses on the good life, and how hard it is to make time for It. By Noah Callahan-Bever.

Seth Rogen is just like you and me. You know, that affable, well-liked stoner who fills silences with awkward laughter, reads comics, collects KAWS toys, plays Xbox, and yearns to be romantically un-challenged. But this is a lie. You have been hoodwinked. BAMBOOZLED! We didn’t land on Seth Rogen, Seth Rogen landed on us! Wait…what? Never mind. The truth of the matter is that the 29-year-old auteur who’s managed to be the funniest man in Hollywood for the last three years is absolutely all of the above things—but he is nothing like you. Or me. For all of his laid-back jokes and seeming mellowness, Rogen is a relentlessly ambitious creative with a definite vision and the follow-through to see it executed.

Project Runaway

In the space of six months, Complex editor-in-chief Noah Callahan-Bever confided in Kanye, flew to Hawaii, and found himself in rap nerd Nirvana.

“Did you look at my eyes?” asked Kanye West over the phone. He was calling from Milan. It was the middle of October 2009. It had been over a year since the completion of his last LP, 808s & Heartbreak, but this conversation was my first glimpse of what would become My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. “I mean, really look in my eyes in the ‘Run This Town’ video. If you do, you can’t tell me you’re surprised by what happened. It was all there in my eyes.”

Das Racist

“Swate” feat. Lakutis

Produced by Mike Finto

I’m a bad person. About 18 months ago a lady-friend tried to talk to me about Das Racist, some ironic new hipster rap outfit she’d just read about in New York Magazine, saying they sounded hi-larious.