?uestlove's new Nike sneaks; Raekwon the Chef talks about his collab with Dre

Although sneaker purists will tell you that the quality and design of kicks have fallen short since Nike's mass marketing and global takeover of the last decade, there's still a religious fanaticism with certain shoe releases that your average consumer just won't get (literally and figuratively).

Like camping out on a Vine Street sidewalk to buy a pair of Nike Air Force 1s.

For the 100 sneaker fashionistas gathered on Wednesday night, it was worth the wait. Most people, lawn chairs in tow, waited more than a day in line just to secure a spot in front of the Ricardo Montalban Theater in Hollywood for the release of limited run shoes designed by DJ/drummer/producer Amir "?uestlove" Thompson of the Roots hip-hop collective. It helped, of course, that ?uestlove was also treating the sneakfreaks to an event-exclusive DJ set.

His Air Questo's lime green colorway and elephant print design is exotic and bright, but according to ?uestlove, candy had more to do with the shoe's concept than the jungle.

"We decided to put a twist on it … a quasi-Willy Wonka Golden Ticket twist," he said of the $175 shoe.

A self-proclaimed sneaker fiend, ?uestlove's collection is paltry at 700 pairs, compared to his famously  huge record collection. He said part of the inspiration to go over the top with his first shoe design came from the "invisible" Nikes designed by NY street artist ESPO.

"When the ESPO's came out it in 2003, it just changed the whole game. It was a transparent shoe. When I seen that I was like, 'Yo!' "

The musician, always recognizable for his throw-back '70s 'fro, has a home in Silver Lake (you can sometimes catch him digging for records at Amoeba) and has plans to open a wine bar next year, but he wouldn't elaborate on where just yet.

He's hoping for more collaborations with Nike, and said that although he loves designing, it's much harder than making music, what with all the color swatches and styles to match-up and consider. He says the process can be grueling and points to the years-in-the-making of a certain Chicago musician friend's signature Nike.

For those who hung around, ?uestlove played an hour-long "old to the new" DJ set of source material followed by the hip-hop cuts that sampled them, but many cut out early to go try on their new sneaks.

Later that night, and just a few blocks west of the Nike event, Complex magazine was putting on a party for a launch of another kind at Element. With free cognac flowing and a varied yet masterfully gangster DJ set by Cypress Hill's DJ Muggs, the party was a promotional event to hype the upcoming DVD release of the Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker L.A. cop thriller, "Street Kings."

Although Raekwon the Chef of Wu-Tang Clan was the headliner for Wednesday night's party, it was Muggs' nearly 90-minute DJ session that proved to be the most entertaining musical event of the evening. As different industry types schmoozed, including an MTV reality star and "Numb3rs" co-star David Krumholtz (who said he's a huge Wu-Tang fan), Muggs went deep into the gangster catalog of hits, from Cypress Hill tracks to street-certified opuses by CNN, Mobb Deep, the Game and Jay-Z. He also established the party vibe with a healthy sprinkling of R&B and reggae.

The party was capped off by a lightning-quick performance by Raekwon. Only about half a dozen songs were performed, including "Heaven and Hell," "Incarcerated Scarfaces" and "Ice Cream," all tracks from his late '90s classic "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx." His performance seemed like it was just a sampler of what his Rock the Bells appearance Saturday will be like, though hopefully it'll be more engaging considering that his cohort Ghostface Killah will join him in re-creating some of that highly regarded album.

The long gestating follow-up, "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II," had been preceded by rumors Raekwon joined forces with Dr. Dre, apparently as an artist on Dre's Aftermath imprint. But as Rae put it backstage following his performance, things didn't work out as many fans would have hoped.

"It could've happened, you know? But things didn't work out like that," he said. "At the end of the day, I'm a big fan of Dre. So it ain't even really a loss. He still came on the album. Just the collaboration effort is crazy, so y'all going to hear that," he said, regarding a production from Dr. Dre that's slated to be on the forthcoming album.

A veteran of the Rock the Bells rap tour, Raekwon sees his pairing with Ghostface Killah this year as acknowledgment of his, and Wu-Tang's, relevance to a diehard hip-hop audience.

"It just feels good to know that we're still relevant. The rhymes never went nowhere, the style never went nowhere," Raekwon said. "It's just about adapting to the 'new age' era. Young kids took over the [rap] game, the ones that do recognize the real authentic hip-hop is now more into the grown-man element, where they're just dealing with life. They don't have the desire to listen to the same repetitious [music]."

Any fan of rap arguably sees the duo of Ghostface and Raekwon as a veritable Lennon and McCartney of rap, given the tag-team effort that made much of "Cuban Linx" such a perennial classic of street music. To Raekwon, it's just the way things came about.

"It ain't really no special chemistry," he said of working with Ghostface. "It's a big thing to y'all, but it's normal for us because it was made like that. We always told everybody from the door, '[Wu-Tang Clan's members] have their own philosophy and direction on where they want to go.' So, when me and Ghost get together, that's like Christmas coming, you know what I mean? You get Rae and you get Ghost—then you get Rae and Ghost. That's three things in one."

--post and photos by Camilo Smith