My album The Empire Never Ended is finally out. The weight of waiting has lifted! Â Waiting to release things drives me crazy so I am super super happy to be able to finally share this music with you. Â I put a ton of time and effort into this record and I feel like it’s some of the better stuff I’ve done, sonically, song writing wise and in the way it all fits together. Â I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.
It was a great full weekend of Dutty Artz performances and events. We started out partying hard at Glasslands for Matt Shadetek’s album release party, and ended up Sunday night all winding down over cheap drinks and stretching out our musical legs at Bushwick’s Bossa Nova Civic Club.
In support of Matt Shadetek’s The Empire Never Ended album, Dutty Artz is hitting the road! The tour kicks off in Brooklyn tonight with Matt’s album release party at Glasslands in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Details on individual shows below:
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Yerp. Iswayski here once again. Today I want to talk about this new internet flare up, Zouk Bass. Apparently this is a thing now. Buraka Som Sistema went on Boiler Room – the best place online to watch people dance awkwardly to good music – and spawned the whole mania. They say it’s a slower, more electronic version of zouk they “created.” Really, it just kinda sounds like moombahton.
Of course we could just ignore the whole thing and let it blow over next month when the kids get distracted by Bollystep. But it raises a lot of meaty issues we like to talk about over here.
Tomorrow at the Winter Music Conference, Mr. Jahdan Blakkamoore will be rockin the Winter Music Massive Stage alongside Reggae legend Johnny Osbourne and Jovi Rockwell. There’s a host of DJs from the Rice and Peas, and Electric Punanny crews in New York. If you are in Miami this is a must see show!
RSVP Here:Â http://wintermusicmassive.eventbrite.com/
This month, Dutty Artz kicked off a series of monthly livestream/podcast events called the Duttycast.
The Duttycast will alternate between conversations/interactive experiences where we dig deeper into some of the issues all of us, as artists crossing borders and boundaries, have to deal with; and live musical experiences representing the wide range of Dutty Artz talents.
One of things that connects fellow Dutty Artzer Thanu and I is that we both see dancefloors as political spaces. This doesn’t mean that people spend much time talking or signing petitions or getting out the vote in the club, it only means that the ways people relate to each other in the club (or warehouse, or open field, or basement) can shape what kind of power we have access to, individually and collectively. Some time after playing and dancing together and experiencing each others’ skills at building those moments through smashing dance parties, and finding more and more like-minded people (like Anthology of Booty, in DC, for example) we decided to organize a session for the Allied Media Conference called “Radical Organizing from the Dancefloor” where we got together with a crew of folks and strategized about how those liberating, connecting, transcendent, and unsettling moments on the dancefloor come about.
Friday March 15th we’re welcoming EL FREAKY from Bogota Colombia to NYC. Having just wrapped shows at Moombahton Massive in DC, and Tormenta Tropical and Afrofunke on the West Coast, we’re looking forward to hearing some of the new material they’ve been working on featuring Colombian Dancehall artists and Reggae veterans Tanto Metro and Devonte.
Brooklyn’s iBomba party is hosted by DJ Beto and our very own Ushka, whom a lot of you got to meet digitally last month via her Foreign Brown mix for our Mixtape Mondays series in February. She and Beto’s residency at Bembe has been turning it out on Mondays and bringin out some really great acts over the last year, so I’m looking forward to hearing what’s in their crates.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCiEPsjRCi4&[/youtube]
I just wrote a long piece on the Somali-American Rap group Malitia Malimob over at Africa is a Country. I won’t write too much more here so you can head on over to check out the post, but you DA readers should know that Malitia Malimob will be playing alongside Matt and myself in Seattle at the Dutty Artz Showcase at The Crocodile on April 3rd. The show will be the first out of town stop for Matt on his tour to promote The Empire Never Ended.
(Image via Brandi Muffins, because we got firrre.)
Yooo! Iswayski here. Nice to meet you, loyal DA legions. I used to help /rupture out on Mudd Up!. But now that the show is a part of history and fondly remembered by the present, I’m going to use this here space as my new excuse to go hunting for strange and wonderful tunes. I’ll be here once a week from now on, bringing you a collection of heat, wrapped neatly into a fresh blog post for ease of digestion.
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This Saturday March 16th, DJ Rupture & Talacha will join L.A.’s contagiously fun latin roots dance band Very Be Careful for a welcome-the-spring-with-a-sweat-sacrifice party at Brooklyn’s Littlefield! VBC specialize in fast accordion jams throwing in vallenato, cumbia, and more. For this special set, Rupture will be play mostly NYC cumbia poblana, joined by Oaxacan malandrÃn Talacha on the mic, sonidero style. For a taste of what Rupture & Talacha will bring, you can pick up their mix CD with Sonido Martines available only Tacos Zaragoza in the East Village (ask for it!), or check the excerpt below.
Saturday March 16: DJ Rupture & Very Be Careful @ Littlefield, Brooklyn.
This Saturday I’ll be djing between acts at The Apollo Theater’s Africa Now! Concert. Today, I had an interesting conversation with the Apollo’s director about the different African crowds in New York (last year they had Tiken Jah Fakoly to an enthusiastic crowd of Francophone African Harlemites), got a tour of the building, rubbed the tree of hope, and stood on the stage where every American black performer of significance in the last 100 years has stood. Besides the fact of my inclusion in the symbolic welcoming of a new generation of Africans into the folds of Black American history, touching the log (while the Apollo stagehand watched me unamused) is really all I needed.
Click through for all the info:
photo by Oscar Bambo Castillo
The following is a dispatch from Venezuela by Dutty Artz crew member Mariana aka Mpeach. She is in Caracas this month, and gave us a first hand account of Chavez’ passing, as well as her feelings on the future of her beloved homeland.
“No mourning, No Celebration”
(Frase taken from el Libertario)
I am an artist, musician and designer based out of Brooklyn and I am currently in Caracas, Venezuela for a month-long visit. I moved to NY after graduating from college, but travel back and forth as much as I can. This is because my artistic work, musical work, and family (who for the most part still lives in Venezuela) are deeply rooted in my country and culture. On Tuesday afternoon I was taking a nap in my home in Caracas, because I had woken up really early for a radio interview, and had gone to bed really late because I had a triple birthday party the night before. Daniela, a friend, opened the door yelling “Chavez died, wake up!”
This evening our very own Jace Clayton will be moderating a panel for the Mic Check: Hip Hop in North Africa and The Middle East event at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Many of the Dutty Artz crew will be in attendance out of interest (we’ve been exchanging quite a few emails around the subject of youth culture and North Africa), and in support of our guy.
If you would like to dive in a little further before the panel tonight, or if you can’t make it, check out the post I did over at Africa is a Country, and share your thoughts!
On Friday March 22nd at Glasslands Gallery in Brooklyn, Dutty Artz presents Change The Mood: The Empire Never Ended.
Matt Shadetek will perform material from his album The Empire Never Ended live! with a guest performance by Brooklyn rapper Troy Ave, and DJ sets by DJ /rupture, Geko Jones, and Chief Boima.
Buy Tickets Here:Â http://ticketf.ly/10fRLma. RSVP on Facebook.