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SHIT I’M DIGGING THIS WEEK

19 Mar

aka avant garde musical water cooler conversation.

1. Ron Trent and Chris Burns present the inaugural “Body Music” on Friday night, March 19th 

Chris Burns is a Silver Spring, MD native and New York absorbed deep house kid turned phenomenal DC deep house DJ. He does it the old fashioned way, hunting for rare disco, R & B and balearic grooves and making smooth funky edits along with playing nothing but the classic grooves that the genre was built upon. Ron Trent is Chris’ main inspiration, and now joins him for a regular party at the deepest of deep house spots in the city. Trent is a Chicago house legend, and frankly I’m so so so so excited to jack my body all night long to the funky drum breaks and soulful grooves the two of them will conspire to bring. Burns just played a set with new school West coast rising star Dam Funk last week (expect an audio interview with Dam on the site VERY soon), and is a unique anomaly in a city that with extremely rare exceptions is a phenomenal follower but not a leader in unique or restorative innovation.

2. RUSKO IS A GIANT STAR

Rusko – Woo Boost from Pomp&Clout on Vimeo.

So yeah. Gonna have to cosign staff superstar and fellow HUSTLER OF CULTURE Chris “Lenins Tomb” Kelly with his love of Rusko’s debut video post signing to release his album with Mad Decent. Leave it up to the “mad” scientists over there to turn Rusko from looking like just another grime obsessed UK dubstepper into being a dude that looks like a superstar. Mad Decent has had a way as of late of re-imaging underground performers and giving them marketable and VERY mainstream personas that sell records. Add to that the SXSW carnival and Carribean themed Major Lazer hosted sonic beatdown planned for WMC, and Mad Decent is really beginning to distance themselves in the race for underground superiority.

3. Do we all remember Funkstar Deluxe?

Little known fact about the author. Back in 2000, I was at my height of being an extremely pedestrian bar, frat party, bar mitzvah, high school dance and wedding DJ named yes, DJ Casanova. I made great money doing it, and if you want a good reason as to why my mental encyclopedia of music runs both broad and deep, well, there you go. In 1999, Funkstar Deluxe, a Dutch funk keyboardist turned house DJ released this MASSIVE remix of Bob Marley’s “Sun is Shining.” I think it’s the only track that was current at the time that I could play at literally every single one of those gigs named above without complaint. It’s warm vibes, insistent hi hat and tropical drum patterns along with mellow yet hot synths mix with Bob’s one of a kind vocals to create a party smasher extraordinaire. If that cut’s not enough for you, get with my other Funkstar track in my arsenal those days, his take on Barry White’s “Let the Music Play.” WOW. 

4. Paul Wall and Chamillionaire have reunited at SXSW!

http://www.youtube.com/v/qk3WNDqZywk&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1

On occasion on the site you get to indulge my abiding love of the trap and fuck related, grimy, grits and bacon grease with a side order of lean feel of Houston hip hop. Last night at an AllHipHop.com party at Austin’s La Zona Rosa, hell froze over and the former Swisha House cornerstones, the leader of the “Chamilitary” and the man that once “had the internet goin’ nuts” reunited. Chamillionaire and Paul’s initial split from Swisha House Records was actually one of the major events that led to the explosion of Houston hip hop, as Paul eventually had creative issues with Chamillionaire and resigned with the label and ended up all over Mike Jones’ legendary debut Who is Mike Jones?. and Chamillionaire on the other hand continued to grind on, and eventually be famous as a leading member of the hip hop underground, and yeah, “Ridin Dirty.” Paul and Chamillionaire as a unit are the Jordan and Pippen of Houston hip hop, the two having combined for more legendary adlibs and jaw dropping rhymes on the mixtape circuit that combined number of blocked shots Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwon had when they were the Twin Towers for the Houston Rockets. Angered that the reunion tour hits nowhere near DC or Baltimore, I at least want a dop album or mixtape tracks ad nauseum from the duo.

HARD JAMS: Chamillionaire, Slim Thug, Paul Wall, 50/50 Twin and Lew Hawk – Before the Kappa 2K1 (Freestyle) (2001)

11 Feb
 
“Before the Kappa 2K1” could possibly be the the hardest, greatest and most unheralded Houston hip hop track of all time. Yes, it’s a freestyle, but five of the hottest MCs in Texas but also mainstream hip hop history lay down some of the most crime riddled and misogynistic rhymes ever recorded.
Continuing in the giant footsteps of the 80s and early 90s legacy of southern independent label Rap-a-Lot Records, who loosed the legendary Geto Boys upon the universe, Swisha House Records, started by DJs Michael “5000” Watts and OG Ron C was primarily meant to be a vehicle for the duo’s chopped and screwed records. The Texas based “screw music” movement took tracks and halved their BPMs, (screwing) and at the same time creating awkward breaks over the “screwed” rhythms (chopping). The movement has as much to do with innovation as it has to do with the popularity of “lean” in the Texas hip hop culture, codeine flavored drinks that slow the system down considerably, allowing the user to want to sit in their tricked out Cadillac and cruise the streets leaning to the side in a most comfortable condition. The label grew however, and by 2001 boasted one of the deepest and heaviest rosters of talent alongside two exemplary producers.
The Kappa Beach Party is merely a more depraved version of the HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) dominated, Atlanta hosted Freaknik parties of the mid 90s, parties that featured streets filled with hot cars, trashed coeds, suggestive music and wild behavior. Sex and fighting were the norms, and by the late 90s, the party had moved to Daytona Beach, FL. The spirit of the party though moved to Galveston, Texas by 2000, and with an influx of Houston locals (it’s the largest city near Galveston), the Kappa Beach Party became a legendary weeklong affair featuing again, sex, fighting and considerable drug use. Youthful libidos fueled by those additives are cause for ridiculous behavior, and since the parties of 2001 mentioned in the track, like Freaknik, the curbing of lascivious and dangerous behavior has occurred. But let’s take a look back to the party at its craziest.

http://www.youtube.com/v/hCmR64STJaA&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01
Michael “5000” Watts creates one of the chunkiest and funkiest and most hard, bass heavy tracks in the history of the chopped and screwed genre on this celebratory track. And in screwing the vocals of the five emcees as well, every flow sounds powerful, harsh, real and filled with impact, and makes each emcee appear iconic on the track. To that end, we’ll highlight bars from the braggadocio laden ridiculousness regarding Kappa Beach Party antics that spills out over these bars over a vastly entertaining ten worthwhile (yes, ten!) minutes.
Slim Thug – “we don’t want no pu**y we wanna f**k some face/run trains on yo brain/we throwed in the game/let me see your tongue ring/don’t show no shame”  “Put that ho under the sheets/and watch her eat my meat!”
Chamillionaire – “I see more legs, breasts and thighs than a plate with three chickens.” “I’m up in the Comfort Inn with twins/wearing nothing but comfortable skin.”
Paul Wall – “Don’t wear a thong unless you plan to get molested.”
50/50 Twin – In his rhymes he claims to have both sold crack to George Bush and gotten a collect call from Suge Knight
Lew Hawk – “I was riding to Baltimore with four keys (ed. note – ostensibly of cocaine. He’s not opening doors here) under my bumper.” “Sendin’ shouts out to my dawgs in the Texas prison system.” “I sell powder, fuck hoes and write hot checks/tote glocks, chop work and keep Galveston wet.
Houston goes hard.
HARD FACTS: The only artist that still remains on Swisha House is Paul Wall. For visual proof of all of the activities mentioned in “Before the Kappa 2K1,” search Youtube for Kappa Beach Party. You’ll get MORE than an eyeful.