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Back then the early 90’s/
Where they at, where they at, get the gat, get the gat was a popular phrase/
Bally animals and rugbys was a popular craze/
This the vivid memoirs of a obnoxious slave/
I pave ways like Nat and Harriet/
I blast on Judas’ Scariot/
and peel off in a chariot…

*

Lames get they plane shot down like John McCain

[audio:https://duttyartz.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/jay-electronica-exhibit-a-transformations.mp3]
Jay Electronica – Exhibit A (Transformations) (Prod. by Just Blaze)

~PS – Happy Turkey Day! Get stuffed!

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yazG1hKuCww[/youtube]If you live in a major metropolitan area, you’ve probably seen these shirts, with the big STOP SNITCHING graphic on them. In the video above, taken from the Criminals Gone Wild DVD series, we hear a masked self-professed criminal commenting on Dipset rapper Cam’ron’s interview with Anderson Cooper where they discuss the subject of police cooperation and whether Cam would snitch on a serial killer next door. Saying he would move and not tell anyone Cam seems to be taking the whole stop snitching ethos to a ridiculous extreme.

The moral code of not snitching arose as a response to the divide and conquer techniques of white slave holders. By rewarding slaves for snitching on one another the masters were able to ensure that slaves remained divided from one another and would never be able to trust one another enough to organize and revolt. If you can’t tell your fellow oppressed people about your plan to overthrow the bosses for fear that they’ll tell on you then you will never be able to build a group insurrection to overthrow them or take revenge.

Katt William’s in a fairly recent comedy routine decried Lil’ Kim’s going to prison for as he says “NOT snitching, something your MAMA ALWAYS TOLD YOU TO DO!” The fact that a culture of not-informing arose in response to a coordinated program of divide and conquer, setting the oppressed against one another is completely un-surprising and makes perfect sense.

That that would be incorporated into a criminal code also makes very obvious sense. Criminals do not have recourse to the law to settle their disputes and therefore often need to police themselves and those around them, often through violence. Indeed, as the masked man in the video points out, if you are not going to snitch on the serial killer then you have a moral responsibility to as he says “get your boys and go deal with him”. But as he also points out, if you are not a criminal, this shit does not apply to you.

Taken to the furthest extremes, basically, of never cooperating with the police for any reason, as Cam’ron seems to propose with his serial killer comments, reflects a completely amoral view, basically that none of us have any responsibility to anyone but ourselves. In truth, this is not at all surprising considering Cam’ron is one of the major proponents of crack rap, a genre that unrepentantly glamorizes selling drugs in your community and basically reflects a sociopathic and completely self-involved ‘everyone for himself’ attitude. The fact that Cam’ron is being given a lesson on ethics by a masked, self-professed violent criminal on a DVD that advertises among it’s features “assaults, shootings, drivebys, rape, getaways, carjackings, setups, drug spot robberies, home invasions, deadly retaliations, interviews, and more!!!” (from their youtube description) should give all his fans and knee-jerk “stop snitching” advocates something to think about.

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t&b dec 12th flier

Dec. 12th Dutty Artz will be throwing down alongside long time NYC homies Trouble & Bass at the newly revamped Studio B in Greenpoint BK. We’ll be in the side room throwing down all night, me, Geko and Uproot Andy, who if you haven’t heard his Guacharaca Migrations tape, check it, IT’S CRAZY!

Lineup:

Main Room:

Fake Blood

Mikix the Cat

Drop The Lime & Star Eyes tag team set

The Captain

Side Room:

Matt Shadetek

Geko Jones

Uproot Andy

At Studio B, 259 Banker Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, USA, The World. 19+, 10$ Advance, $15 at the door, 10PM to 4AM.

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I don’t know why I felt compelled to post this track here.  It feels completely irrational.  Anyway, above (beneath?) the graceful, cool atmospheric surface, there’s something peculiar and brutal.  It’s convulsive, dark, beautiful,…

[audio:https://duttyartz.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/my-brightest-diamond-of-fear-and-wonder-i-found-a-universe.mp3]
My Brightest Diamond – Of Fear and Wonder (I Found a Universe)

& here’s some raw, grimy, defiant, and self-reliant rap music from Brownsville-Brooklyn’s Mash Out Posse to dutty things up a bit. Download the mp3 for clarity. The content delivery platform/audio preview thing is contaminated with some persistent, annoying static.

[audio:https://duttyartz.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/mop-sharks.mp3]
M.O.P. – Sharks

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it took a minute, but the vinyl version of Jahdan Blakkamoore’s WE ARE RAIDERS EP is out now in the UK!

This dutty slab of New York Tropical contains ‘Go Round Payola’, ‘Nice Green’ (both prod. by Matt Shadetek), Buss It Pon Dem (prod. by Buenos Aires bredren Chancha Via Circuito), and the vinyl-only exclusive futuristic ladies-tunes ‘Pon Time’, beat crafted by Austria badman Stereotyp.

112112112112

look for it in all shops stocking bass weight, here’s what Boomkat had 2 say:

The DJ Rupture/Shadetek curated Dutty Artz imprint moves from strength to strength with the labels first drop from Jahdan Blackamore, longtime vocallist for Matt Shadetek and Rupture himself. The A-side reels hard under the pressure of two of the heaviest street anthems we’ve heard this year with matt Shadetek cocking back on ‘Go Round Payola’ and Austro-dub specialist Stereotyp releasing the chain on ‘Pon Time’.

Matt Shadetek’s effort may split opinion for the simple but divisive issue of liberal auto-tune application, which in our opinion sound ridiculously good here but there’s a few out there who’d rather suck toes than listen to 3 minutes of hyper-emo pitch corrections. The cut itself is a rude 120bpm soca indebted smasher with rampant electro squlechlines adding to the severely artificial flavour, and it funking kicks like a camel on heat, only compounded by Blackamore’s singjay kinda style auto-tuned to order by Matt S. If you loved the Silverlink & Jammer ‘Message Is Love’ 12″ you’ll be all over this.

Stereotyp shakes up the bashment proper on ‘Pon Time’ with mentally detuned rave signals and a slightly less brutal application of auto-tune vox for a wicked and wild party track, and Matt Shadetek finishes off the one-two with ‘Nice Green’. A hymn to the sticky icky from Jahdan with a wicked dancehall dubstep flavour reminding us of Sizzla & MRK 1’s finest moment on ‘I Got Too’ but given the Shadetek overhaul with some unhinged LFO sub wobbles. Chancha via Circuito steps up finally to manufacture the beat for ‘Buss It Pon Dem’, switching styles once again to a sick reggaeton bumper with minimal beats optimized for club play at the slowest and heaviest rave you’ve ever been to.

We loved the last EP on Dutty Artz and we love this one even more. If you’re into anything from Hud Mo, to Rustie, from Ikonika to Rupture, to Roska or DJ Mujava we’d recommend you clear a bit of dancing space for this one. Very Large.

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[audio:https://duttyartz.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/lilwayne-canitalktoyou.mp3]
Lil Wayne – Can I Talk To You (Feat. Nutt Da Kidd & Mack Maine)

I’m not going to talk about this track (from The Leak V) It’s great, you already know… but what can we say about this new picture/image? Emotional, laughter, astonishment, what do you feel?
Lil Wayne threw away the pen and the pad, completely erasing the distance between himself and his art.

pictures courtesy of The Smoking Section.

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHO_mYFURZE&feature=related[/youtube]

Mi amigo Jean Bernabe went down to el Districto Federal en Mexico and did some recon on underground sounds coming outta there. Among the gems he brought back was a CD he found at a flea market/garage sale with 168 unmixed cuts of poorly labeled mp3’s simply titled Lo Mejor del Tribal. The cover has three indigenous face masks from different eras and a crowd at a rave. I have it from on high (via text from Toy Selectah) that this stuff is what los carnales are calling Tribal Gurachero.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct3kFYKzPwQ[/youtube]

As you can hear its tribal house with a cumbia/guarachero twist for the ravers out there in D.F. and surrounding areas.  Its miles away from the latin house we get bombarded with here in New York. Strictly bounce this scene seems to be coming out of San Antiguo and D.F.

” Tribal  Guarachero is the Mexican ghettotech…Very undeveloped yet, but that with a lil bmore and fidget….”

– Toy Selectah

And if you’ve heard Toy play out you know the brother knows what he’s talking about.

The bad news… The vast majority of the tracks on the CD clock in at 80 kpbs so its of no use outside your i-pod unless you want to listen to it as reference for production ideas.

The good news is  I don’t really take no for an answer so I’ve been digging and I found these RAR‘s this morning. Most of it is a lil too euro for my taste but there’s a couple heaters in there if you go through them. If you have any of this stuff throw it up in comments

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i have enormous respect for the mastering work of Rashad Becker, he did the Timeblind 12″ I put out on Soot (and inscribed ‘Soot’ in the vinyl written in proper Arabic!), among many other projects.

mastering 73 mastering 78 mastering 88

Here he talks to Robert ‘Monolake’ Henke* in great detail about mastering [via]. If you’re into production or mastering, it’s certainly worth a read, I especially like his ‘don’t do it unless you have a reason’ vibe with its emphasis on simple intentionality.

mastering 68 mastering 99 mastering 69

excerpt: Most plugins provide too much visual feedback for my taste, which keeps me personally away from mapping the sound to my body, and to my ears – and thats how I master like: that I scrutinize the sound how it hits me. Not necessarily brutally, but how it addresses my body, and if I have to focus on a computer screen and operate with a mouse that is something else, its just a different world.

excerpt: Mistakes – there are a lot of things I have to cope with, which derive from being uneducated or inexperienced, like for example people keep sculpting their sound by boosting frequencies if they feel an element is not prominent enough in the mix. Lets boost it! If it has not enough bass or not enough high end – lets boost!!!

Instead I try to educate my customers to think the other way round: Scrutinize every singal for consistency, check for what disturbs it, and try to remove that, and not primarily check the signal for what’s too little…
I always think negative. I know this is much less fun actually, but the results will be much more consistent and also louder.

People try to achieve loudness by saturating media and thats just the wrong way, its the other way round! Saturation can be done at the very very end. If you saturate your medium from step one on, you will have music which will have a constant high level but will not sound loud.

The basic mistake is that people compress or limit without a musical vision.

* Monolake and I played a bunch of shows together in Brazil a few years back and ate really good food every single day. Right now I’m in the Newark Airport — stuck here due to weather conditions (I’m playing Montreal tonite.. or trying to!) — it’s November, humid, and the recycled air smells like fried food kept warm under heat lamps and is making my face greasy. Businessmen are hogging all the electrical outlets.

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QUE BAJO?!

A free latin weekly focusing on afro-colombian and tropical rhythms like cumbia, bullerengue, palo, gaga, champeta, mambo y mas out there latin rhythms than you can play with a ta-te-quieto stick, especially scraped from the bottom of el caldero by resident DJ’s Geko Jones and Uproot Andy

Tuesday Nov 11th El Embajador del Bajo… DJ/Rupture will be by to play and exclusive all latin set inside Rose live.

No Cover. Kitchen open late.

345 Grand St (btw Havemayer/Marcy)
Williamsburg Bruglin
L Train to Lorimer
G to Metropolitan

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUT1WgHat6I[/youtube]

Yes we did. Oh yes we did America.

I was riding over the bridge this morning on the subway and saw the American flag on top of the Brooklyn Bridge and felt different.

My sister quoted to me a great statement from President Elect Barack Hussein Obama, during the campaign. To paraphrase, she said that someone had asked him who Dr. King would have endorsed in this election. And he said that Dr. King wouldn’t have endorsed anyone, he would have put together a movement to pressure whoever took power. I agree. As Barack said, this is not the change that we have been waiting for, but an opportunity for it.

And yes I’m sure all my radical friends will have many things to say to deflate some of our euphoria at this. But to see Obama carry Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico… The southern states alone, for a black candidate for the most powerful office in the land to win in the former confederacy, with many individuals who sat in at lunch counters, rode buses and faced death against segregation and jim crow looking on, in their lifetimes, the mind just boggles. John Lewis was on MSNBC talking right after the win and he just looked, for lack of a better word, thunder-struck. Having not lived through those times I can only imagine what it must mean to have experienced the segregated south first hand, and then watch pieces of it vote for a black president.

“I just don’t know how to express myself.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo-ijYnzn1w[/youtube]

And make no mistake about it, it was NOT the black vote which elected President Elect Obama (I just love writing that). There are not enough black people in this country to do it. Millions of white voters looked at him and saw, if not themselves, someone they could trust with their security, prosperity and future. Even if we call it purely symbolic, it is a massive, awesome event.

And I’ll put on my critical hat, and watch every move he makes to see if he fulfills his tremendous promise, tomorrow. But today…. Man. I’m so happy.

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can’t remember, but i like it

[audio:https://duttyartz.com/mp3/phantom.mp3]

T-Pain – Phantom

that “aay” sound (not in this track) is a much more common effect than autotune…, plus it is a more psychological thing to talk about, trees for forest sometimes. His skits involve ‘rings’, as in straightfaced circus jokes rather than Tolkien or marriage.

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QIGJTHdH50[/youtube]

Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO talking about racism in the context of this election. Just watch it.

This goes to a point that I don’t have time to talk about enough which I feel that a lot of people miss: a huge amount of the evil that is done and called racism is actually about class, rich people oppressing poor people and using any issue they can to keep people from recognizing that.

I feel like Race In America, as much as it shouldn’t be marginalized or ignored, is really a smoke screen for class warfare advocated for and perpetrated by people like the Republican party. I feel that the biggest differences are not between me and a black friend who grew up comfortable (aka rich in the eyes of 97% of the world), with two parents and access to education and resources, like me. I feel the gap is much greater between myself and someone who grew up in a much rougher situation, without all of those things and the outlook that arises out of that, whatever race they are.

Those gaps, the differences, are the cracks that racism grows in, along with the fear and resentment that arises when people fail to understand one another. When these differences are watered and fertilized and nursed and encouraged by people like Sarah Palin, trying to turn Barack into the ‘frightening other’ the ‘socialist’ the ‘muslim’ who ‘isn’t a real American’ all that she is trying to do is continue the familiar tactics of divide and conquer, to keep the have-nots at one another’s throats while the haves consolidate their wealth and power. The Republican’s are very, very explicit about this, with their policies of trickle down economics (table scraps anyone?) and belief that the free market will take care of everyone (everyone who matters anyway) and it is only through the use of things like racism that they are able to keep poor people divided enough to believe that someone like John McCain or Sarah Palin is on their side, one of them, with their best interests in mind.

We’re 32 hours out from the first polls closing. I’m confident but also deeply impatient. I was talking about some music business with someone on the phone last night and he said “We could meet Tuesday night?” I told him “I am not gonna be anywhere besides on the edge of my mom’s couch in front of the TV until Barack wins this fucking thing.”

It’s super-realness time America. God save us if he doesn’t win.