NYC is arguably the best place to be when its warm. All humidity and the odor of garbage in the heat aside, its GREAT here. Great restaurants and bars with outdoor seating, walks and bike rides, Shakespeare in the Park, live FREE shows with all your new favorite acts-we’ve got it all! The vibe and spirit in the city is just immeasurable in the summer and its always good to start it off right.

And that we did, thanks to a few great guys from San Francisco.

(Clockwise From Top Left: King Most, Moi, DJ Moma, Rameen, Freddy, Marky, Dee, Monk-One. Photo by Human)

SFNY was greater than I had ever expected. The weather was fantastic and we had over EIGHT hours of non stop dope music from a great group of folks that I’m honored to be peered-up with. Monk-One and mOma are 2 NY DJs I’ve admired for some time and to be able to rock with them was a blessing. Marky can get a party started. Freddy spins ONLY vinyl (!!!) and has a bicoastal flavor for dance music. He was rockin some hip-house that had me on the floor. King Most has these crazy edits and mixes and I did what I absolutely hate when people do-I just stood and watched him work instead of enjoy myself. I soon snapped myself out of that though b/c I love to dance and the tunes were hard to resist for very long.

Here are some more shots of the day.

After DJ Auto and Marky warmed up the crowd, I kept it simmering with my set.

When the sun set, we all just took turns back on the wheels because the crowd just would not stop!

If you love hip hop, funk, soul, boogie. house, afro beat, latin jazz, reggae, 80s pop and were there that day, you got your fill. This was the best way to kick off the summer. Even the Village Voice got up on it. I only hope the rest of it is full of as many good vibes, music, and people as there were on Sunday.

I want to give special shouts to Leonard, JP, and The Mighty G-Man who co-hosts The Underground Railroad in NYC (this show is one major reason why I’m as big a hip hop head as I am)  who also helped keep the crowd moving by MC-ing alongside our illustrious host, Dee.

Though it wasn’t played that day, this song I’m leaving you all with would have fit right in and is currently my newest obsession. Dee sent me this via King Most. Its a remix of Ryan Leslie’s “You’re Not My Girl” by DJ Big Jacks. I have no idea who he is other than he is from Canada and is obviously magical. I played this song and all of a sudden I was wearing a dress with shoulder pads, my hair was teased, and I had on tights with rhinestones on them and I nearly shimmied myself into a seizure b/c of his blend of Leslie’s vocals with Sherrick’s “Just Call”. I did find these two websites on his Facebook (no stalker-o) so let’s all get familiar. Catch up is probably more like it.

Ryan Leslie-You’re Not My Girl (DJ Big Jacks Call Me Mix)

I’m super excited about my next gig this Sunday.

3 NY DJs

3 San Fran DJs

1 amazing rooftop in Manhattan

1 lovely sunny Sunday

Massive Selector is back again to do their second installment of SFNY, a party bridging 2 of my favorite cities in the world.  Its going to be a day of great folks, amazing music, and good vibes all around. You have to RSVP for more details

You can also check out a quick mix and interview I did with the homie Dee for the party here. There are also mixes by the other DJs spinning the event and theyre all dope: Monk One, King Most, MoMa (whose Good Spot party on Mondays is KILLER) as well as Marky and Freddy. Can’t wait to rock with them all! Hope to see you there .

After my post and giving the album more spins,  I had to say I still wasn’t as amped about Quadron as my BFF Dee or DJ Brainchild, who is pretty much the reason why our circle was put on to them.I was definitely far more warmed up than I was after I posted about them and kept the album, also titled Quadron, on my iPod for a few more weeks, but I wasn’t head over heels. However, something has occurred since that post that has made me really eat my words.

I’ve seen Quadron perform live.

Quadron has been signed stateside to Plug Research (who also have such awesome artists on their label like Bilal, Shafiq Husayn, and Om’Mas Keith) and are now starting to make their way around the country to meet their growing fan base. They performed in LA recently and did a very small, intimate show at the Cornerstone/Suite 903 offices. I have no sort of pull so Dee, being the tastemaker that he is, let me tag along on his invite.

All that was set up in the room was a mic, midi keys and controller, and a laptop. They did a 3-song set of Pressure, Simili Life, and Slippin. I have to say that Coco’s singing is the truth. Sometimes in an intimate setting like that people are very conscious of their sound and not in a good way-either they hold back or ham it up. There’s something about being very present in a space but yet you are able to express what you need to without giving it all away and not being reserved. Coco definitely was able to balance and had the group in attendance bound. Robin Hannibal on keys/production/co-writing just brings it all together. Speaking of Robin Hannibal, why the hell didn’t I put 2 and 2 together and realize that I was already familiar with him musically from Owusu and Hannibal???? Seriously, if you haven’t heard Living With Owusu and Hannibal stop reading this and get yourself to iTunes or Amazon and buy it. Its just got everything-broken beat, Beach Boys covers, sexy soulful strut music, futuristic funk, all that. I’d do it no justice trying to describe it any further. Listen for yourself. However, this little fun fact was not what turned me over to them. Their performance did that. I know a lot of folks in the “audience” were familiar with them but a lot were not, yet they managed to captivate every single one there, including myself, with just 3 songs and 15 minutes.

So why didn’t I like their album on the first go-around? I don’t know! Living with Owusu and Hannibal immediately clicked for me and Quadron just didn’t-not that the two are entirely comparable-they are not at all. I’m just going to chalk it up to not wanting to hear something so deep and moody at the time  which makes sense why I dug  “Jeans” which is more upbeat and why I stupidly threw out that Little Dragon comparison. (Which also explains why I dug Machine Dreams more than Little Dragon since that album is also far more upbeat). I’m in far more somber moods nowadays so Quadron is fitting right in . Jokes. However its playing off well with Living With Owusu and Hannibal, which I’ve put back on my iPod and I’ve been playing the two albums all morning quite happily.

I can’t wait until June 24th. You’ll soon know why.