Tomorrow I’ll be in Indiana to help get folks to the polls, after which I’ll be heading over to Obama’s election night party in Chicago’s Grant Park, so stay tuned to our Twitter feed for updates.
Last time I was touring around Europe DJ Elected invited me to play at one of his Harlem Jungle parties in Amsterdam. I can’t remember exactly how we made contact, but I hadn’t been aware of his music before that. Since that time I’ve become a big fan. He’s been producing and releasing some serious tunes on his Sirkus Recordings label, in addition to making some great bootleg/remix tracks and dope DJ mixes. Here are some examples:
I’m noticing an emerging theme; M.I.A. has been inspiring some hip-hop activism on her remixes. I’m glad to see her and Jay Z (!) taking the lead by talking about leadership. Jay seems to realize that his piece of the bling-pie will be eaten by someone much more wealthy than him if he doesn’t speak up and push for change.
Gotta get Bush out the chair.
Give Obama the floor.
Lets bring back Ragen,
at least we were gettin’ that raw.
These Politicians don’t give a s***
The hood’s still gettin’ ingnored
Then there’s this Paper Planes remix by Rock City that I posted recently.
I ride for Obama
I ain’t messin’ with McCain
Stop the War on Terror
Cause we ready for a change
Gas prices to high
Plus these jobs ain’t payn’
I ain’t a politician
But my N**** I’m sane
Obama ‘08
Doesn’t that sound great
My president is black
Yours is a disgrace
Over the past year DJ C has produced and released a whole slew of mashups and remixes, many of which have been available as part of our Free Tunes series. For this release we present those mashups all together as a free download album entitled “Mas Hits.”
You can preview and download all the tracks below, or download the full album .zip file and you’ll also get a few secret, extra-special bonus tracks. If you missed the teaser mini-mix (leaked by Time Out Chicago), and music video check them out - >
Wayne pointed out this post on Vibe’s blog about the abundance of M.I.A. “Paper Planes” remixes floating around. I had already collected a bunch over the past year, but recently they’ve been popping up like mushrooms on shit after a rain storm. Many of them seem to be legit/official (or semi-official) versions featuring prominent rappers like 50 Cent, Jim Jones, and Bun B.
To top it all off, the new T.I. track “S.L.U. (Swagga Like Us)” features a “Paper Planes” sample as the main refrain. M.I.A. repeats “No one on the corner has swagger like us” while T.I. and his brothers in top-40 rap Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, and Kanye West, do their thing over the top.
In light of this situation I felt the best thing is to make a mixtape, reggae-style, on which I juggle the “riddim” — in this case Diplo’s crunked-out, Clash-lifting beat.
It’s been just about a year since we re-launched Mashit.com as a blog, online shop, podcast, and all around place for fiends. Over that year Mashit boss DJ C has produced and released a whole slew of bastard-pop-style mashups and remixes, many of which have been available as part of our Free Tunes series.
Now we’ve decided to release those mashups all together as a free download album, along with a few secret bonus tracks. The album, entitled “Mas Hits”, is out now. This is the teaser, in the form of a mini-mix (leaked here by Time Out Chicago), and music video.
DJ C “Mas Hits” Mini-Mix (’80s Cartoon Music Video Version)
Meanwhile, If this post over at Mad Decent is any indication, DJ mini-mixes are hot right now. Check the Bang Gang DJ’s mini-teaser for their upcoming mix album on Modular which features the DJ C and MC Jorge Stylo track “Juce”; forthcoming on Man Recordings.
The Bang Gang Deejays “D is for Disco, E is for Dancing!” Minimegamatronicmix Download here ->
3 years and 3 days ago John McCain and George W. Bush ate cake to celebrate McCain’s 69th birthday. At that very moment hurricane Katrina was bringing devastation to the gulf coast.
Now it’s election season, and almost exactly 3 years later the Republican National Convention was due to begin today, but another monster hurricane has disrupted the plan. I hope that Gustav is a more benevolent beast then Katrina was, but this new storm does bring a silver lining. It reminds us of Katrina and the way she was handled. Gustav shines a light once again on the Bush administration’s horrible bungling of the disaster. Not only before, during, and immediately after the event, but the continuing botches that have left FEMA-trailer-park refugee camps spread across the region to this day. And now those camps themselves have been evacuated as Gustav begins to bear down on the coast.
Coincidently my friend, filmmaker Lucia Small, was here in Chicago this weekend for the debut theatrical run of her new documentary “The Axe in the Attic”, a film about Katrina.
But that said, and with a big shout-out to my hometown Boston, MA, I still often say that my favorite city in the world is Berlin. After a number of years of touring there and hanging out with peeps like Aaron Spectre, DJ Donna Summer, and so many more, I’m a convert to Berlin’s laid back creative spirit. It’s affordable enough that artists like Jamie Lidel and Fiest, who had moved there to be able to make their art, sprung from it’s loins to become international stars.
Meanwhile, so many more in Berlin continue to develop their craft day-to-day, unknown to the greater world outside. One such music production trio who I’ve been feeling, and playing in almost every set over the past year is Schlachthofbronx. Though their Myspace says their from Berlin, rumor has it that their actually from Munich, Bavaria.
In the end this post isn’t about a city, but is about the international breed of bassline-influenced, mashup club-hop and dancehall-infused dubstep that Schlachthofbronx is crafting. Wherever they happen to live, I’d like to emphasize the comm0n-ground between us by highlighting a couple of tracks they’ve made:
Nice write-up on MC Zulu in the Chicago Reader today. "Space Dancehall: MC Zulu works on Planet Lazer Bass?" http://bit.ly/lazerbassTwitter ->15 hours ago
Dear President Elect Obama. Please put Van Jones in charge of the "Green Collar Economy": http://bit.ly/vanTwitter ->15 hours ago
Lets begin with a brand new political bounce-step track from DJ Flack, the title of which sums up part of our longing for change right now:
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