from L to R… chris prynoski (Titmouse), ollie green (Adult Swim), t-pain (Jive Records), carl jones (Iroko), monica jones (Iroko), nick weidenfeld (Adult Swim), jacob escobedo (Adult Swim)

What happens when one mixes a group of cagey animators and high profile hip hop stars in a venue with over 100 plasma TVs deep in the bowels of Hollywood?  Offspring caked in “ice” arguing about the powers of Dragon Ball Z?  Close, but not quite.  It’s more like a river of booze with high profile rappers slapping fives with some of the top artists in animation.  These are the types of parties Hollywood-based Titmouse animation studio throws.  Giddy up.

Last week I attended the Hollywood premiere of “Freaknik the Musical”.  This animated movie, airing on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, featuring the likes of Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg, T-Pain and Young Cash is quickly exploding across the country being called everything from a hood heater to a cult classic.  Apparently these types of projects fall into Titmouse’s wheel house and they wouldn’t have it any other way.

Known for bringing  internationally famous projects like “Metalocalypse” to life through their animation, direction and production chops, Titmouse rubs elbows with the most unlikely mix of creative and influential people in Hollywood.  If they aren’t hanging out with Slash at their studio or having meetings with Disney execs, they are fine tuning their reality show project called 7200 Frames or destroying sh*t at one of their infamous Smashing Parties.

The Hollywood premiere of “Freaknik the Musical” is no exception to the enigma that surrounds Titmouse.  The evening was hosted at the plasma screen mecca called Capitol City Bar and was flush with music  and comedy celebrities like T-Pain, George Clinton, John Witherspoon (dad on the movie “Friday”), Christopher “Kid” Reid, Mr. Marcus, Gene “Poo Poo Man” Anderson and Affion Crockett.

The evening started with DJ Stefi spinning a hip hop mix of bangers, underground heaters and classics.  Just when the party was hitting the 300 person mark, the music faded and all eyes went to the mic.  Co-Creators Carl Jones (Co-Executive Producer of “Boondocks”) and Nick Weidenfeld welcomed the eager crowd.  Jones kicked it off by thanking Titmouse.  Weidenfeld followed by thanking Cartoon Network and Adult Swim and then passed the mic to T-Pain.

T-Pain is the voice of the main character in “Freaknik the Musical” that looks like a ghost monster from Pacman plastered with green dollar signs.  After speaking about his enthusiasm about working with Cartoon Network, Adult Swim and Titmouse T-Pain gave the cue and and all 100 screens burst to life with the first public viewing of the movie.  The crowd went crazy.

I’m not sure how they did it, but Titmouse was able to convince hundreds of semi-drunk people in a club in Hollywood to stay quiet and watch a 45 minute animated movie.  It was like Grizzly Man and Steve Erwin came down from the heavens and did their uncanny mind melt on all of us.  However they managed to pull that off, they succeeded in hosting one of the most badass premieres in Hollywood.  So glad I was there.

The Cosmic Kids opened the evening.  They always manage to spin great disco/soul music with their modern touch.  The tone was set.  After that B-Real from Cypress Hill spun a set for a while.  He was spinning some old G Funk anthems and the crowd loved it.  Little did all of us know that he was going to surprise us with a quick rap performance too.  He still has the chops.

Then Dirt Nasty and Andre Legacy got on stage to get the crowd crunk.  They got the job done. Dirt Nasty did his “1980″ track.  I think New York DJ phenom Jesse Marco went on after him.  I happened to run into and see a lot of people that night.

I ran into A Girl Like You and she so kindly provided the photos you see in this post.  Check out her photos on her site and get stoked..  We also saw some of the El B Si crew, Eminem’s manager, comedian David  E. Taylor, DJ Killer Cam, the founders of Gnar Caps and many other local mover and shakers.  For those of you that don’t know the depth of Deckstar’s artists check out this who’s who of world famous DJs:  Peanut Butter Wolf, Steve Aoki, Glitch Mob, the late DJ AM, Jazzy Jeff and many other big hitters.

Deckstar seems to be growing and growing.  They’ve carved a unique niche for themselves as the premier DJ management firm with street cred.  Between internationally respected DJs like Grand Master Flash and Jazzy Jeff, ties to Mikey Avalon, Dirt Nasty, Andre Legacy, Paris Hilton and driving the Hollywood party scene Deckstar is becoming a bigger force to be reckoned with.  Stay tuned.

The word here in Los Angeles is that Netflix is “entertaining” Hollywood’s idea of delaying new releases by 30 days.  Are they taking kazi shots in the boardroom of Netflix?  I must be missing something on this deal.  Why would Netflix, a key player in the decrapification of Hollywood lameness, decide that the best decision for their brand is to piss off its customers?

Stop the insanity.

I clearly understand that Hollywood studios have a responsibility to their shareholders/stakeholders to deliver a desirable P&L statement.  What I can’t understand is why Netflix feels that it’s a better idea to save some cash in the short term, rather than consistently “giving the people what they want”.

Let’s face it.  The Neflix service is a great convenience to anybody that has the ability to play a DVD at home.  Netflix is able to deliver convenient service, low subscription costs, on demand viewing via computer and a broader selection of videos than any other video store.  These are great value-adds to a video service, but there is something else going on.

Netflix is giving consumers what they want.  It’s that simple.  We, as humans, view brands and people in much the same way.  We love them if they stay consistently pleasant and provide us with what we want/need.  We turn our backs on them if they change in a way that we feel is out of integrity of their core values.

Like MG Siegler at Tech Crunch mentioned, Netflix would be making a risky move that could easily lump them in the Dumb and Dumber category.  What’s more, he postulates that this move could increase priracy in the DVD world.  Do you agree?  Or do you think MG and I are insane?