If you’ve read my blog long enough, you know it’s not a secret that I am a very big fan of The Lessondary-a crew of NY-based MCs that are simply dope as hell. Von Pea, Donwill (also known as Tanya Morgan), Che Grand, Spec Boogie, and Elucid just always come with a level of artistry and lyricism we should expect out of all MCs. They also manage to make songs to get folks on the dance floor (trust me, I know).

Late last year Von Pea dropped the album Pea’s Gotta Have It which was largely about life in Brooklyn during his high school years without sounding like a total throwback or dated (i.e. it doesn’t want to make you do those dances we used to do w/ the “hip-hop” hands). “Thanks for Your Children” is a cut off the album that isn’t really so much a story than it is about 3 dope MCs just spittin. How can you hate that? Add the beautiful rawness of a simple black & white video (shot by photographer Richard Louissaint) and you’ve got a feast for the eyes as well as the ears. Enjoy.

You can also check Von Pea along with J-Live and Oddisee August 23rd at Mercury Lounge in NYC.

Fam is a weekly Thursday night party in NYC with a rotating line up of  some great DJs. Every time I go, 2 things happen: I end up staying way later than expected because the music is so good, I drink a good amount of bourbon because Von has a nice little selection.

Fam is just a perfect mix of everything. The crowd is varied and the binding force is the music, since everyone eventually ends up doing some sort of movement to the beat while ponying up to the bar.  The music goes from old to new, across genres, and it all sounds great. Each DJ has a distinct groove and they play off each other well. I always have a good time. One of the few parties in NYC I try to visit as often as I can.

It’s good to now be able to take some of the vibe from Fam to my iPod with a mix! DJ Eleven, DJ Lindsey, DJ Myles, and DJ Sureshot compiled a mix of some Fam favorites. It’s just a little sample, but enough to make you want to head to Von next Thursday.

Download the mix here

Fam @ Von-3 Bleecker Street NYC. 9pm-3am Every Thursday

Speaking of NYC Parties, another favorite, The Good Spot, ended its 3 year run at CV (formerly known as 105 Rivington). DJ mOma and DJ Stimulus got a lot of people out late on a Monday night to dance and introduced a lot of songs folks didn’t think wouldn’t bang in the club but would bring The Good Spot crowd to its knees. They also brought out a lot of great guest DJs to add to the fun. Unfortunately, nothing is forever but we’ve got Two Volumes of The Good Spot mixes to rock  and both mOma and Stimulus can be heard regularly around NYC and abroad. I’m sure they’re already cooking up something new for the masses and I can’t wait.

I know I beat you all over the head repeatedly about SFNY 2 with good reason, but some of you still did not go! People were calling it the party of the summer…AND IT WASN’T EVEN SUMMER!

The third installment is this coming Sunday with DJ’s Moni*, Kon, and Ge-ology representing NY and DJs Mamabear, King Most, Freddy & Marky coming from the West.

The mixes in anticipation for SFNY 3 have been straight fire. My personal favorite is Kon’s, who drops some crazy unreleased song I am currently obsessed with by a Detroit cat named Chow Daddy. Also, if you know me personally, you know I love Robert Palmer with all my heart so it is great to see a lesser-known track getting some shine. It’s just great listening to this and a great way to hype yourself up to what will definitely be another great afternoon/evening/night of tunes, people, and good times. I hope to see you there! Don’t forget to RSVP!

*In addition to being a dope DJ, Moni is also an accomplished film maker. She’s leaving NY to take over LA and she’ll be missed. Catch her Friends We Love web series at the next First Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum of Art!

A lot of things have happened this summer! Unfortunately, not all has been good, but let’s not focus on that!  If you were in NYC this summer, you know how it went: hot, humid, blech. However the summer was just chock full of great events and music and I’m just glad I caught just a little slice.  I’ll give you all a recap in a few days.

In the meanwhile, I may as well start at the end: I was a guest of Jon Oliver on his weekly show The Main Ingredient, which is on East Village Radio every Monday night/Tuesday morning from 12am-2am. It was such an honor and a pleasure to just kick it and spin some of my favorite tracks to a sidewalk audience!

My brother also came through to chill which was really great. The whole experience took me back to when he and I would stay up late trying to catch The Underground Railroad on a Tuesday night or Stretch and Bobbitto on Thursdays. Staying up just late enough to press “record” on the tape player and hope we wouldn’t be in REM sleep by the time the side ended so we could quickly switch to record the rest of the show.  Those were our mixtapes growing up. I still have quite a few of those tapes stashed away. Sometimes I’ll even hear a song and remember that the first time I heard it was on one of these tapes. I actually was going to try and pay homage to that by throwing in some of these tracks in my set last night (E-Rule’s “Listen Up”, The Pharcyde’s “4 Better Or 4 Worse”) but alas, I took a more chill approach. You can listen to the show here if you were already in dreamland by the time we started. (Click “Listen” next to Sept 7th Show)

Also, if you didn’t know, Jon is also a part of an elite organization whose mission is to rock the sh!t out of parties, while spinning nothing but vinyl. This organization is comprised of some of the most knowledgeable and skilled DJs the WORLD has to offer. No hype. This is all fact.  Do they fulfull their mission? Each and everytime. Packed houses with lines snaking around corners, they are getting booties shaking and leaving dance floors dusty (ok not really but the visual made me giggle).

Ladies and Gentlemen: I Love Vinyl.

They’re crossing the bridge this coming Friday for their monthly Brooklyn aka B-Side version at Brooklyn Bowl. Definitely check it out. If you can’t make it this Friday, you can check their regular Manhattan party the last Saturday of each month at LPR.

Yes, its been a minute since I updated and I’m soooo very sorry. At least it was with good reason-busy working!

After SFNY, did a few more gigs, including Venus vs. Mars, the 3-Day weekend delight brought to you by DJ Parler where 4 DJs-2 Male and 2 Female-rock all night. We kicked off the first one Presiden’t Day weekend and kept rockin until the club kicked us out so we knew we had something good going. We brought it back Memorial Day weekend to equal success. Definitely honored to spin alongside Parler, DJ Stimulus, and DJ Chela.

Then it was my birthday and I got to spend it with some great friends and relatives. So blessed!

Managed to FINALLY catch Dam Funk perform in NYC at Bowery Ballroom. Monk One and Waajeed kept the funk rolling with great pre-performance sets. Chin-Chin opened up for Dam (not really a fan of their stuff), and then Dam hit the stage with his band, Master Blaster. While I enjoyed the show, it felt a bit static. I’ll blame this on Dam not having a bass player on hand. They pre-programmed the bass and it was definitely funky and I hummed along all night, I feel not having someone doing the bass live didn’t leave much room for improvising and really jamming out like I felt they could.

Photo courtesy of Paper Magazine)

Then, this past weekend DJ Stimulus invited me to guest at his monthly residency at Deity in Brooklyn. One thing about Brooklyn crowds-they love their dancehall. I was happy to oblige. I haven’t spun that much reggae in a minute but I got to do all the classics I grew up listening to.

It got pretty hotbox in there after the reggae came on but it was cool to see a little bashment vibe. I hope to do it again real soon!

Can’t leave you without some goodies so here they come!

First is a (relatively) new Beenie Man joint. Gotta love the Whitney Houston interpolation.
Beenie Man-Skettel Shadow

The next is a new Dam Funk track he posted for download a week or two ago for just 24 hours Here’s your second chance (note: I didn’t get a chance to fix the tags on this!)
Dam Funk-Unreleased Joint

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.

 
(photo by Joann Gomez)

Wow. I think after 20 days, I’m recovered. What a night!

Seriously, we (RareForm) do this every year because of the outpouring of love and support folks have for Dilla’s legacy. Its really amazing. We had no clue that when we did the first one at Galapagos Arts Space, that we’d be going strong four years later and beyond!

We raised $4,400 this year! That’s a thousand dollars more than we raised last year! The J Dilla Foundation is incredibly grateful and they are already putting that money to good use and have already located music programs that can benefit from the money!

While DJs Parler, Low Key, and myself held it down in the lounge, DJ Brainchild was absolutely killing it on the main stage with some live blends with some Ruff Draft acapellas he created. He did one with “Nothing Like This” which was really dope.

There was just a ton of great energy in the room when it came time to introduce ?uestlove and Dilla’s mother, Maureen “Ma Dukes” Yancey (!!!) to the crowd. ?uestlove literally stayed up all night to prep his set and performed in his pjs! The Roots recreated 70 something Dilla beats for the occassion, and we got to hear quite a few woven into ?uest’s set. It was truly a fitting tribute to a great friend of his and I’m glad he was willing to share it with the rest of us.

We are really forever indebted to ?uestlove for bringing Donuts are Forever to a whole other level.

Y’all really don’t want to hear any more of my take on it when you can see and hear a bit of what went down, do you? Of course not.

You can see some photos as well as video of Ma Dukes greeting the crowd on our Donuts Are Forever website.

And since I’ve been away so long, I’d like to do some penance by sharing with you some of the “sandwiches” of Dilla beats that The Roots recorded for ?uestlove’s set. You can download them here.

Finally, there are so many folks to thank and I’m going to try and do this now. We couldn’t do this without the help of: Brooklyn Bodega, DJ Parler, DJ Brainchild, DJ Lowkey, Okayplayer.com, Stones Throw Records, Hot Mop Films, Decon, Rule4080.com, Richard Louissaint, N. Corren Conway, Liz Allen, and Joann Gomez.

I’ll always have a Valentine as long as I have music. Come through to Fat Baby on Sunday. DJs Chela, Stimulus, Parler, and myself will be spreading the love in a friendly battle of the sexes.