recdep

SOUNDLIBBING

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 12:44:31 -0400

Last night for my birthday i guested for about an hour at a chill weekly series in Fort Grizzly hosted by Lil Tiger of Sound Liberation front (SLF), A BROOKLYN-BASED NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION eye-on-the-prized TO THE POWER OF MUSIC AS A LIBERATING AND UNIFYING FORCE CAPABLE OF CATALYZING POSITIVE SOCIAL CHANGE. The sound system organizes music and art events and brings people together to foster greater awareness and community. Big-up and blessed love to SLF. everyone involved not only recognizes but has a deep respect for the power of music. they’re constantly putting together a broad range of events that function symbiotically with the communities served.

I found out about the series through my man Double J (Doulja Raze) who’s connected to SLF through a couple of heads. JJ carried four or five crates of records--and a coffin--up five flights of stairs for me so JJ will always occupy a special place in my heart. He’s a lot more active than a lotta DJs i’m more personally acquainted with and does a lot more on the production end. He initially invited me out a couple months back but i didn’t make it.

Long story short, another homie, Reams (who introduced me to J) asked me to fill in for another DJ who was slated to spin with him on wednesday at the series, late march. That Date also fell through but he set me up for the third week of april which came and passed without event. but a day before my birfday Reams reached out again for another go at it.

I’m not complaining but it’s odd how many gigs I come into by default of owning a portable digital DJING system like serato. Reams took the gig after he’d loaned his digital gear out to Marco Polo and I guess marco was busy that night.

But for real, me and reams go back more than a few years. He likes to get up. On the way over last night he didn’t believe that i believed he was an ill dj. the last time we played-out together was october of last year for a Butta verses release party at the Royale, my Brooklyn Stomping ground. Since then I don’t think he’d even been playing in the confines of his own home. The majority of his wax from his glory days as a radio and concert SELECTA DOWN SOUTH IN FORIDA IS LONG GONE AND HIS Mac with the cracked screen wasn’t reading his external drive with all of the Jazzy Jeff sourcing that inexplicably wound up in his possession.

A couple acquaintances are still analog holdouts but one is starting to recognize the benefits of digital systems the more and more he gets booked outside of a lower east side residency he’s been holding down for the last two years. One of the major reasons why I use Serato is because of the literal load it takes off my back. I can play out a lot more and on shorter notice because my crates and equipment are now compact enough to transport in a backpack. And now that i’ve retired my ten-year-old 100gb lacie drive made out of what used to feel like cast iron for a palm-sized 500gb external it makes my travel for weekly engagements less cumbersome.

it was a relief last night to step into the booth and only have to connect my laptop. and because of a program malfunction I ended up just plugging my external drive into his Macbook Pro. Next time all I have to do is show up with just the drive to spread love the brooklyn way.

But that’s one of the drawbacks of digital systems. My serato program has been crashing like clockwork for the past few month. a couple times during crucial points in the curve. When that happens I have to revert to wax. The Serato hardware lets you switch between analog and digital simply by flipping the line into the phono...zone

I can’t see wax ever going obsolete. and even if it did, in some alternate or parallel universe, it’d be the turn of a new golden era for crate-diggers globally.

Tiger impressed me with his ethnomusicology. His selection of music was diverse but rooted in original rhythm and blues black music. It made me feel comfortable and people were eased back into the corners digging it. a few people were dancing, a black girl with a big blowout and her boyfriend. Comfortable conversation in front at the bar. I prefer lounges to bars because it’s less pressure reaching an apex. This place felt like an apartment in the back like it was my birthday and I was at home celebrating with friends by lacing them with a set. At least that’s what I always picture myself doing.

--PHONO

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BOHEMIAN RAP CD FREE

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:44:06 -0500

Last week I caught up with one of my favorite Rap groups OF LATE at the Bell House in Park Slope, Brooklyn. First time I’ve been over to the Bell House since it openED a couple of years ago. It was for the Bohemian Rap CD release featuring Third Party. Kats and Domer were in the house with Jake Lefco, IllSpoken, RYAN O’NEIL AND DJ SMUTVILLAIN. THE QUEEN TRIBUTE BY THE ART OF SHOOTING WAS HARD TO MAKE OUT STANDING OFF TO THE SIDE OF THE STAGE IN FRONT OF THE BAR. THE ACOUSTICS IN THEre are negligible. IT’S A GREAT SPACE. CAVERNOUS WITH THE QUALITY OF A CERTAIN BILLYBURG MUSIC HALL BUT when IT’S NOT JAMMED TO CAPACITY it’s like crickets chirping in a valley of echoes.

I WISHED SMUTVILLIAN WOULD’VE ROCKED IT A LOT MORE. HE DIDN’T PLAY ENOUGH AS IT IS. HIS ESOTERIC SAMPLING IS RIGHT UP MY ALLEY. AND HE PLAYS A LOTTA STUFF I RARELY HEAR OR EVER HEARD BEFORE. ALWAYS NEW STUFF I’M GETTING TURNED ON TO WHEN I LEND HIM an EAR. HE MOSTLY BACKED DOMER &C. WHICH WAS COOL BUT THE NARROW bandwith TOOK THE TEETH OUT OF THE PERFORMANCE.

THIRD PARTY WAS A DIFFERENT STORY. THEY murdered it, an empty house, WITH A FEW OF MY FAVORITES. MOST NOTABLY, “PEOPLE OF MY NATURE” OFF RABBI DARKSIDE’S ALBUM BUILDING THE BETTER BOMB. I BURN THAT JAZZ-INFUSED JOINT RELIGIOUSLY IN THE CLUB. SO IT WAS REAL SPECIAL HEARING IT LIVE FOR THE FIRST TIME. WHAT I LIKED MOST ABOUT THEIR SET THOUGH WAS THE RAW LYRICAL INTERPLAY BETWEEN RABBI AND HIRED GUN AKA HG WAILS. THEIR CHEMISTRY IS KILLAH KINETIC AND EFFORTLESS. AND THEY’VE MASTERED THE ART OF BREATH CONTROL. FARBEON WAS/IS FAR BEYOND AND LIVED UP TO HIS NAME. HE GETS THAT ONE HUNDRED YARD STARE WHEN HE GRIPPED THE MIC. HE WAS FLOWING LIKE HE WAS KNEE-DEEP IN THE PHONO ZONE!

THIRD PARTY KINDA REMINDS ME OF ANTI-POP CONSORTIUM IN THEIR DIY APPROACH. RABBI RAPPED, BEAT-BOXED AND BACKED HIS COMRADES ON THE ONE’S AND TWO’S WHILE TAPPING OUT BEATS ON HIS MPC. HE’S A B-BOY TO THE FULLEST IN STYLE AND SUBSTANCE. LIKE GUN (WHOSE ANGULAR FLOW’S EVOCATIVE OF APC’S BEANS), HE TAKES NO SHORTS.

before he hit the stage, rabbi hit me with a track of his he recorded with j-Essential and doron about a month ago at his synagogue in the slope. one listen and IT’S clear that rabbi’s the sort of mc who can adapt to virtually anything thrown in front of him, his mind is so unfettered. a cypher’s sigh for wordplay on any given day. really hard not to dig this dude’s approach to putting in work. DITTO FOR MY BOY J. IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING THAT HE REMAINS ONE OF MY FAVORITES.

RABBI and j would work great on stage together in my opinion. with me right behind em backing for a five minute set segued by that song. the SONG’S VIBRANT RAPPORT IS FULLY FLUENTIAL AS I’M SURE YOU WILL AGREE, IF I EVER GET A COPY. YO, RABBI! HURRY UP AND MASTER DAT!

Bring Dat Beat Back

Tue, 2 Mar 2010 13:34:15 -0500

Last week was hectic toward the end starting with the Leaders of the New Cool Showcase downtown at the 92nd street Y in tribeca. I went to peep a band from Philly called Rich Hill but came away more impressed with an emcee from Chi-town named Mikkey halsted. God is a monster on the mic when it comes to hard Rhymin.

it’d be cliche to say his steez is SIMILAR TO Common since his style is much more IN YOUR FACE AND TO THE CHEST. But yeh, he’s conscious to the core AND AS PERCEPTIVE AS a bird on a wire WITH the poeticism of an urban griot. Pure fire. DJ absolut tried to shit all over him by dropping some of the songs to his set but Haltead didn’t get too stressed. He rocked a capella and broke a lotta necks. Even the haters in the front frontin like they’d heard it all before. Honestly, in my mind, it’s immature non-participatory cross-armed standoff ish as such that kills the scene in New York and takes it down a notch as far as the culture goes. (SMFH) At least if you’re gonna front do it in the back and let the others who wanna uplift it to the front.

In the end, it was all love. Halsted laced em with benevolence in the end when he praised NYC as the mecca of his cultural pilgrimmage. He’s definitely on a mission and his music (produced by No ID) speaks for itself.

Click here if you wanna listen to the Best (mixtape) You Never Heard.

--dex

tracklisting:

Intro
Celebration feat. Miss Criss
You Ain’t Know feat. Ken Rock
I’m A Ryder feat. Uncrowned City
Grind Mode (Dark Room Preview)
Israelite Gangsta
Frozen (Dark Room Preview)
U Luv My Style
Whoa feat. Bump J & Skooda Chose
The Funeral
Collapse feat. Phil G
Words of Wisdom feat. YP
Revenge 2 [snippet] (w/ Jay iLLa, Rhymefest, Juice & Twone Gabz)
Got It Made
I’m The Man feat. Sly Polaroid & Cloak Hancock
Chi-Town Streets feat. Khari Lemuel
Papers Line
1st Class
Corners
Tired
Bang On Em
Just 2 Get By
Runnin My City (Dark Room Preview)
On My Own
Chi-Town Shit feat. Mic Terror
Dead Wrong
Till I Die
Can’t Stop feat. Da G & Da Rock
Competition Is None feat. Uncrowned City
So Mean
KRS-One Freestyle
Ten Things (Prod. by Kanye West)
Ghetto Life (Prod. by Kanye West)
Piss Poor
Mattress Money feat. KT & Famous
HHG Freestyle
Mikkey Outro
Bonus