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

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 .

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.

Its time!

My third job involves throwing on and supporting dope events in NYC. This by far is our biggest event each year and is the one we hold dearest to our hearts: Donuts are Forever-our annual tribute to James Dewitt Yancey aka Jay Dee aka J.Dilla aka Dilla aka my most favorite producer/MC. This is the reason why my blog remains without updates for yet another week and rightly so-there’s a lot of work to be done and this year is going to be EPIC.

We finally were able to get Drummer/DJ/Producer/Bandleader/Music Director extraordinaire Questlove to DJ. If you’ve been following him on twitter (@questlove) you already know he’s literally in the studio prepping for this event. We also have some other suprises up our sleeves so if you can make it out, please do so. GET THERE EARLY.

I love our event because its also a great mix of folks who knew Dilla personally, as well as DJs and MCs who were personally influenced by his body of work, which was prolific during his short  time here on earth. This year I’m honored to be a part of the DJ lineup. I’ll try my best to honor the man who gave me so much enjoyable music.

Also, thanks for bearing with the site! I know the color on some browsers is pretty awful. I’m hoping to get that remedied soon!

Sadly another amazing talent and one of the greatest DJs ever has passed away this past weekend after suffering some serious injuries some weeks ago. When I first started learning how to DJ and trying to learn some tricks, I’d watch footage of Roc Raida on the internet every once in a while and I learned two things:

1. I could NEVER be a Turntablist
2. Roc Raida handles turntables like second nature.

That’s TWENTY SIX years of turntable skills. He had been DJing almost as long as I’ve been alive and still doing it better than most that came before and after him. He was a contributor, a teacher, an artist, a father and husband and is a legend.

R.I.P. Grand Master Roc Raida.

One day she and I were talking about a less-than-favorable critique she just had. She did a painting that was of a very personal nature to her and was intending on making it her thesis project moving forward and the faculty that was critiquing her was very discouraging. Basically their point was: “Ok, we see this is personal to you but why should we care?” Of course a statement like that stings, but damn it if it wasn’t spot-on. I don’t know why that stuck with me for all this time since I’m so not an artist, but it did. At the time I felt for my friend and I did see the truth in it though it was harsh, but only recently did it really get driven home and reinforced by a very tragic event.

I definitely did not know DJ AM. I definitely was not his peer in the DJ realm by any stretch. I definitely was one of his many admirers. Granted I can’t wax poetic about DJ AM like some of his close friends or like ?uestlove did because I suck at writing, but the recurring theme of the numerous blogs and tweets about this man was his ability to present music a way that respected the genre and got people open to new and different things. As ?uestlove says in his tribute, with DJing you have to use your knowledge of music to SHARE music. That’s my goal as a DJ. That’s my job as a DJ. However, the one thing I think I haven’t quite figured out is: Why should they care?

I think the greats have figured out the why and the how in a way that is just universally felt. I may never get there. It is an individual journey and no two are the same, but DJ AM was one of those who figured it out and never strayed from it, even when he was getting stupid paid. That’s not only a testament to his character, but to his dedication to the craft and love for music. Rest In Power, DJ AM.

Its been a busy month for me! Unfortunately, it has taken me away from getting this website together (and subsequently updating this blog portion).

I found myself DJing a couple of house parties this month. I don’t really get to do that very often since I don’t have speakers or a car that would accomodate me being more mobile. However, house parties are always fun and you know you’ve done a good job when its 3am and people are still dancing and you aren’t in some club in a “cool” part of town, but are in a very beautiful historic brownstone in your own neighborhood (Bed Stuy!) with a bunch of people who are very serious about their music. It was awesome.

Spinning @ The Potluck Crew's Annual BBQ

I also found myself DJing another unlikely venue-a shoe store! Yours truly was on the 1s and 2s at Sole Food NYC, a sneaker store on Lispenard St in Tribeca. That store is so dynamic-I’ve been there a few times before to view some art on display and this time around, I was DJing a trunk show they were sponsoring for an up-and-coming jewelry designer. Gotta love a store that has turntables on hand!

Spinning @ Sole Food NYC's Ladies' Night

Then on to my other-other job (from non-profit employee by day to DJ by night to event planner with Rare Form on other nights). We got to do something super cool this past weekend and hold an event on Governor’s Island at Water Taxi Beach with the original Hip Hop Karaoke crew. The weather was perfect, we had one of my most favorite DJs Rich Medina warming up the crowd between sets. Governor’s Island is absolutely great. Felt good to rip around the island on my bike without worrying about cars! The houses are really beautiful as well. I definitely recommend heading out there before the summer ends-especially you staycationers!

And it still doesn’t stop! This weekend is a bit action packed, as I’ll be DJing both Friday and Saturday in Brooklyn. Friday night I’m teaming up with Never Leave Brooklyn:

NLBKLYN is proud to present the One-718 Jump off at Public Assembly. This event celebrates the digital age by honoring bloggers and any other forms of digital communitcations and entertainment.

Hosted By Disko D, Rlfnowhere
Photos by Rule4080.com

DJs:
Tony Tantrum
DJ Brainchild (The Roots Jam Sessions / Gordon Gartrell Radio)
DJ Tara (Rare Form / sugarcuts.com)

Special Guest DJs throughout the night

Free with RSVP/ $5 without
*RSVP to: nlbklyn@gmail.com

Doors Open at 10pm
Public Assembly
70 North 6th Street
Williamsburg| Brooklyn, NY

*****

I’m also DJing the farewell party for the talented poetess, Aja Monet. She is the youngest ever to win the Grand Slam @ Nuyorican! I’ll be DJing alongside Jasmine Solano, who is ill in her own right (she DJs and MCs!), and there will be additional performances from folks such as Amanda Diva, Oveous Maximus, and Miss Angelina.

Boy! This post was a mouthful. Promise not to stay away as long as I have and I’ll keep plugging away at the site! Thanks for checking in!

(DJ)Tara