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Real talk from one of my favorite DJs in the UK Funky scene. In this interview by Blackdown Marcus Nasty speaks out in his traditional opinionated way about why he thinks the grime scene died and the way forward for UK Funky which he has become one of the leading DJs in. I enjoy Marcus sets because as a fellow post-grime person he is playing house but keeping it raw. I love the new UK funky sounds and have been playing a lot of it and find that it is even leading me into some of the smoother stuff but basically I still like raw, percussive, heavy tunes. Getting into a lot of what people think of as ‘normal house’ is just too far for me and a lot of the DJs coming from there into funky play too smooth for me. Marcus has (or has had, he’s sounding a little more mature now) a rep for being a big muscle-y dude who will beat you up and you can tell he’s pretty unconcerned about offending anyone which lends a certain truthiness to this interview.


Marcus Nasty Interview at Blackdown.

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cross-posted to Mudd Up!

my10

Notable instruments: Oberheim DMX, Drum machine, Electronic keyboard, Sequencer

 

10 years ago I was driving through Boston listening to one of the reggae mix shows on WERS (i think). A riddim came on which nearly made me stop the car. It was Steely & Clevie’s Street Sweeper. A strident minimal percussion pattern, little fragments of guitar washing in & out. A string flourish there, a whistle sound here, a vocal snippet. I’d been following dancehall for awhile and was used to surprises, but Street Sweeper floored me. As a DJ, producer, and listener.

wycliffe-steely-johnson

[Wycliffe ‘Steely’ Johnson]

It was possibility and emphatic silence as much as it was a song. To clarify: Steely and Clevie built the Street Sweeper riddim, which a few dozen vocalists transformed into songs, riffing on the beat’s undeniable power to deliver some top-notch chatting. Here’s a youtube medley of the popular versions:

Wycliffe ‘Steely’ Johnson passed away in New York City & the world is poorer without him. Street Sweeper cracked things open for me; they had countless other hits but it was these moments of skullcrushing genius economy that made this riddim one of my all-time favorite pieces of music.

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“In 1993, at the height of apartheid in South Africa, the incarceration of black males was 870 per 100,000. In 2004 in the U.S., for every 100,000 people we are sending 4,919 black males to prison. And the majority of those are for nonviolent drug offenses. But we’d rather send people to prison than give them information and treatment.”

Great article on the benefits of full legalization & the drug-prison-cop industry over at Esquire.

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jahdan_general

A grimy mix of hip-hop, dancehall, electronic, dubstep,and pretty much anything else with chest-caving bass, Brooklyn’s Jahdan Blakkamoore is a vocalist who’s taking that pan-global headknock from neon-coated Philadelphia warehouses back to NYC, where cohort DJ/Rupture kicked this shit off almost a decade ago. It helps that he’s dragging it kicking and screaming through the streets. Blakkamoore’s Buzzrock Warrior has a hip-hop-centric noir feel that matches the darker, moodier topics it covers:…

Head over to the Village Voice blog SOUND OF THE CITY to read the feature on Jahdan and download an MP3 of “The General (Remix)” featuring Smif-N-Wessun’s General Steele.

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yqaFp981Yw&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
“Me nah run like track star / through the thick and thin she have mi front she have mi back star”

Been knocking this one around the house lately. Vybz Kartel in a surprisingly sweet mode. No gun ballad here. Dre Skull went in on the buttons, also check his tune with 77Klash ‘Call Me’. Sensitive thug music from the Gaza. Get it on iTunes.

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I could be mistaken, but I think Jahdan youtubery jukebox-ad was built by a Romanian fan. Not much to see, just a sweet example of how the internet works.

Pentru cine nu stie Jahdan Blakkamoore o arde foarte complex, in alta ordine de idei a colaborat cu DJ Premier, Afu-Ra, Dead Prez pe partea de hip hop, cu Noble Society (in care a fost si este membru), Diplo & Switch (Major Lazer) pe partea asta reggae, dancehall, roots, dubstep etc.

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Checking in (from backstage at a capital-J jazz festival in the Austrian Alps) to say — cop La Yegros now and brace yourself for heat to come, because we’re putting the finishing touches on an EP from Rita Indiana y Los Misterios.

what to expect? As she sez: “musica tercermundista con drummachines mal manejados, sintetizadores hechos en casa, bent toys y mucho mambo.”

F%#k translations, let’s dance!

here captured live in sultry mode, best use of gardening metaphors:

watch this one for ‘revelations’:

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la_yegros

Available now at Boomkat, eMusic, Juno, and other digital download stores, in MP3, WAV, and FLAC formats, a new release from Dutty Artz by a powerful vocalist/musician Mariana Yegros. The original track “Trocitos De Madera” produced by King Coya is followed by some extra-special remixes from DJ /rupture and Matt Shadetek, El Remolon, and Marcelo Fabian, throwing the pieces in other exciting directions, with fantastic results.

Artwork designed, and enhanced with handcrafted details, by a wonderful artist Claudia Rivas. As you can, it is absolutely beautiful. Claudia is also behind the cover of Solar Life Raft.

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zomby

[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/zomby-digital_fauna.mp3]

Zomby – Digital Fauna

Just when you thought you’re safe and updated in the Zomby department because you’ve been listening to One Foot Ahead Of The Other for a few days and realizing the simplicity and inventiveness that is in “Expert Tuition,” out comes Digital Flora –more freshness from out of nowhere, shout out to Mike for the heads up. “Ditital Fauna” is extremely warm, romantic, and intoxicating, and I’m only thinking about its surface groove –the “playful” beat and melodic structure. Is Zomby the most interesting dubstep producer/making the most exciting dubstep in the world right now? Is Boomkat comparing him to that other technoid auteur?

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[youtube width=”525″ height=”455″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UogeAFYnBo[/youtube]

Pill speaks about coming up in West ATL’s Pink City, the hard, un-glossed reality he deliberately portrayed in his video for “Trap Goin’ Ham” -which ruffled a few feathers, trapping and rapping, other generalities like blunt communication/honest expression thru rap.

(more…)

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JahdanBlakkamoore-BazookaShot

Just in case some dutty artz podcast subscribers haven’t gotten the new mixtape from Jahdan, here it is rendered as a single mp3-file. You should know by now, Buzzrock Warrior drops September 15th, but until then, enjoy the collection of songs and freestyles on the Bazooka Shot mixtape.  Think of the tape as the album before the album, because it’s just that good. Props to all involved, the artists/producers – Shadetek, Rupture, Geko, Klash, Spoek, Nate Mars, Joker, Subatomic Sound System, and let’s not forget Moonraker International Super-Phonic Hi-Fi Field Marshall No Partial Sound System Collective! ha.

[display_podcast]

Jahdan Blakkamoore – BAZOOKA SHOT MIXTAPE

1. Jahdan Blakkamoore- More Life (All The Above instrumental)
2. Jahdan Blakkamoore- Walkie Talkie Freestyle (Digidesign riddim)
3. Jahdan Blakkamoore- The Best I Ever Had ft. 77 Klash
4. Jahdan Blakkamoore- Dem Nuh Like It ft. 77 Klash and Spoek Mathambo (produced by Matt Shadetek)
5. Jahdan Blakkamoore- Turn The Other Way (Flo Rida ‘Shone instrumental’)
6. Noble Society- Forgiveness
7. Jahdan Blakkamoore- Never Gonna Stop (produced by DJ /rupture & Matt Shadetek)
8. Jahdan Blakkamoore- Like This (Reggae Got Soul Riddim)
9. Major Lazer feat. Jahdan Blakkamoore- Cash Flow (Dutty Artz Move It Refix)
10. Jahdan Blakkamoore – How We Gonna Get There (produced by Ova Ground)
11. Jahdan Blakkamoore- Dubplate For Moonraker (skit)
12. Jahdan Blakkamoore- Bad News (Rockin’ That Shit riddim)
13. Jahdan Blakkamoore- Cali Field feat. 77 Klash
14. Lee Scratch Perry & Dubblestandart- Blackboard Jungle (Subatomic Sound System Remix feat. Jahdan Blakkamoore)
15. Nate Mars feat. Jahdan Blakkamoore- Above & Beyond Dem

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djbeto

Tune in Mudd Up! with DJ Rupture on WFMU tonight at 7PM, as Roberto Ernesto Gyemant aka DJ Beto, the man responsible for putting together those wonderful volumes of 1960s and ’70s “cumbia tropical & calypso funk” from Panama, joins Rupture to talk and share some incredible music (most likely some exclusives that are not included on the comps.) The compilations are released on Soundway Records.  I am especially looking forward to the talk and the music Beto is going to play for us. I have been fascinated with the music of Panama ever since our visit from Wayne Marshall and Raquel Z Revera. They highlighted the unique position of the Central American country and its lasting contribution and shaping of Reggaeton and our current urban soundscape.  (Missed it? It’s streaming here. Subscribe to the Mudd Up! podcast if you want downloadable versions of my weekly show: , Mudd Up! RSS. Listen, get involved, throw in comments, questions. Again, tonight @ 7PM.

Of course, for those outside our FM broadcast range, WFMU offers live streaming and even has its own free iPhone app!

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Image

Back in 2003 I wrote an essay for The Wire’s ‘Epiphanies’ section. The piece detailed my high-school encounter with a bootleg cassette compilation of Japanese noise stitched together by RRRecords. It was published in their April issue (coverboys: Autechre). Here’s an except:

The RRR cassette was polarising, but it was also personal and fragile; and I had the sense that if I didn’t listen closely, it might pass unnoticed. I knew nothing about these groups, but it was obvious that an individual with photocopier access and a dual cassette deck could make a substantial difference in their world. This scene had a tangible scale. It stood within grasp, which suggested that I could actively participate in music – any music, especially the weird stuff – rather than remain a well-informed consumer.

…and here’s a PDF of the entire article.