ESSENTIAL MUSIC OF 2009 (so far)

Recognize. Sayin’

10. Keri Hilson- Knock You Down: The fourth single from her debut album, “Knock You Down” is a wonderful blend of the talents of Hilson, and co-conspirators on the track Ne-Yo and Kanye West. The rapid development of Keri Hilson as the new Mosley Music femme fatale is an exciting development, as the Timbaland camp has made numerous attempts in the past to recreate the magic of the Aaliyah/Timbo magic and failed, though artists like Tweet have smoky, soulful and sonorous voices, there’s something in Keri Hilson’s statuesque Amazonian frame and in her multi register vocal abilities that provides something for everybody. Most had her pegged for success dating back to her debut on Timbaland and Justin Timberlake’s “The Way I Are,” but to see her keep her momentum going alongside Timbaland protege Nate “Danja” Hills superior production is a wonderful sign for the future of radio friendly R & B.

9. Drake – Best I Ever Had: Ever since LL Cool J’s decision to fade away from the game and occupy the space of physical fitness maven and the semi-retired status of “hip hop pioneer,” hip hop has been yearning for someone to occupy the space of lovestruck and lovelorn sex magnet, and with his “So Far Gone” mixtape, Toronto actor turned rapper Drake has turned heads with his decision to leave the battle rapping and male/internet crowd pandering to just about everyone else in the game, and actively attempt to court the underwear of every female that listens to rap music in 2009. Until his decision to become a part of Jermaine Dupri’s power concept group Oceans 7, Trey Songz, by mere mixtape hype alone seemed to occupy that space, but Drizzy is all about it, and “Best I Ever Had,” a ballad rap proclaiming love for a girl (simple concept, amazing, right?) he does wonders for showing record labels needing an artist just like this that he fully embraces the concept. This is a must listen as it defines what is the best direction for this young artist with promise for the future.

8. Kanye West f/Young Jeezy – Amazing: Due to it’s oversaturation as the theme of the NBA Playoffs, I really get to hear this track altogether too much, but it really deserves mention here for the symphonic nature of the sparseness in the production of the track. The wonderful marching band drum loops are almost secondary to the spooky imagery conjured by Kanye’s production. The track itself deftly handles the moment wherein an individual attempts to boost one’s own ego though still obviously and clearly manic depressive over a situation. The real stndout though on the record isn’t Kanye, but Young Jeezy though, as the Atlanta based rapper more than brings the goods in dropping a simple sixteen bars, but as always wth Jeezy, his voice, jagged, rough and seemingly perpetually agitated more than brings the goods.

7. The Lonely Island – I’m On a Boat: Yes, I know that for a great number of the music intelligencia, The Lonely Island’s Incredibad is seen as a jokey concept album two steps above Weird Al. But really sit and listen to “I’m On a Boat.” Even when claiming “I fucked a mermaid,” T-Pain certainly doesn’t treat this like a joke. Adam “Whyshmaster” Cherrington, who produced this track doesn’t treat this like a joke. There’s really not much about the track that is a joke until you realize that it’s three nerdy white comedians from Saturday Night Live rapping about riding on a boat. And that says something about the transparent nature of most radio friendly pop rap these days. Outside of Soulja Boy Tell’ Em’s “Turn My Swag On” (which will be covered later on), which has a phenomenal hook, so much of what is foisted on the listening public lacks any true heart or soul these days, and is variations upon a theme. To finally have SNL comics pair with T-Pain, someone seen as a maestro of this style, and create this magnum opus of silliness, it clearly creates a clarion call that something in urban music needs to change, and change quickly. Sure there’s space at the table for everyone, and for all styles, but, this track’s brilliance lies directly in letting us know we’ve gone too far.

6. Asher Roth f/Chester French – As I Em: “Nappy headed hos” be damned, “As I Em” is the closest thing that we’ll get to a classic underground “Eminem” track all year, save 3 AM. Eminem’s resurgence at the same time as young Asher and the Harvard hitmen makes it a great time for blue eyed interpretations of Afro-American initiated musical styles. “As I Em” is kind of a death knell for me for the first decade of Marshall Mathers’ rap career. The track, a beautiful paean to Em’s importance in the development of Asher Roth’s desire to be an emcee really touches wonderfully on everything that made Eminem the cultural wunderkind he was for so many years.

5. Bang – Rye Rye f/M.I.A.: The most amazing thing about this track is that we’ve reached a point where everyone either thinks they can place a different spin on, or simply outproduce Blaqstarr, one of the more underrated and rising producers in music today. Everything about this track is so on point. The drum loops, to M.I.A. on the chorus, and Rye Rye’s hyperkinetic emceeing really make this entire song more than just listenable, it makes it immediately a hit, as it’s totally stuck in your head without any hope of ever being released. When it finally hits the mainstream, oh, six months or so from now, I guarantee this is going to make a little noise, and really open doors for Blaqstarr and Rye Rye, and help M.I.A. reappear on the radar, now that Paper Planes is a damn near iconic one hit wonder.

4. Lady Gaga – Pokerface: Lady Gaga came from literally nowhere to hit the top of the pop charts with hits “Just Dance” and “Pokerface.” Endemic in both tracks is really tight production to accentuate Gaga, who is a fairly average singer and average dancer who just has the type of image that you can’t bear to turn away from, as she just appears to be the coolest person to hit popular music in quite some time, with her autotronic and robotic countenance. I’ll only choose “Pokerface” because it woke up long dormant hip hop producer extraordinaire Pete Rock to remix this track, creating an amazing evening drive time R & B alternative to the power pop gooeyness of the song, very reminiscent of the infamous remix of “Tom’s Diner” by Suzanne Vega conceptually. It also allowed for “Poke Her In the Face,” by Kanye West, Kid Cudi and Common, which serves as a background for A-Trak’s obscenely deft scratches, which take the song immediately from the pop vein to the hip hop banger phase, and were the background for the most unfortunate four bars of the year from Common’s verse, “But they say that you be on the conscious tip/Get your head right and get up on this conscious dick/I embody everything from the godly to the party/It’s the way I was raised on the Southside safari” Ohhhh, Lonnie Lynn, so happy to see that your well deserved riches are treating you so well these days.

3. Major Lazer – Hold the Line: Diplo’s Mad Decent imprint is clearly at the forefront of music. Housing Portuguese party poppers Buraka Son Sistema, Dominican firebrand Maluca, DJ Sega and the entire Brick Bandits family of what seems like 37 of the hardest, bass loving Bmore by way of Philly/Jersey DJs ever, and globe hopping and perpetually genre pushing sound bwoy Paul Devro, along with Bmore wunderkind DJ Blaqstarr would seem like enough envelope pushing sounds for one man. However, let’s go to this extreme, with this press release from Mad Decent regarding Major Lazer:

Major Lazer (the Jamaican commando who lost his arms in the secret zombie war of 1984 and had them replaced by lazers) lands on US soil this June with some help from his friends and Grammy-nominated producers Diplo and Switch. Presenting stateside audiences with the futuristic dancehall and digital reggae sounds crafted as a soundtrack to a not-so-distant dystopian future, clubs everywhere will be thwarting oncoming evil forces through the liberating tunes on Guns Don’t Kill People, Lazers Do.

“…the Jamaican commando who lost his arms in the secret zombie war of 1984 and had them replaced by lazers…” Yes. For real. It’s a totally left field concept for totally left field times, and Mad Decent veterans Diplo and Switch on the album “Guns Don’t Kill People….Lazers Do” create the soundtrack that the Major would be listening to. Dropping June 16th, the album promises to be the sountrack for many deejays for the summer, as Diplo and Switch stay true to the authentic rude bwoi sounds, but accentuate them with some of the most entertaining production choices in quite some time. On the lead single “Hold the Line” featuring dancehall veteran Mr. Lexx and hipster chanteuse of the moment Santigold, somewhere between surf guitars sped up to 130 BPM on a traditional reggae dubplate and seamless 16 bar patterns just going and going without a true hook, with samples of horses, and about a million other odd and quirky sounds, the track batters the listener into getting up and just wilding out on the dance floor.

2. DJ Class – I’m the Shit: Imagine you’re a DJ and you got your hands on a white label record of the hottest dance track anyone has heard in years. You play it out in the club a few times, and Jermaine Dupri comes in, loves it, and asks for the record. What do you do? Well, you give him the record, and a few weeks later, a remix appears where JD and Trey Songz record verses over the record, not even using an instrumental of the track, with Songz going in over the record’s fade out. JD doesn’t even know who made the record, but, he knows it’s hot, and wanted to put his stamp on it. Move forward, and Lil’ Jon, who’s attempting a resurgence by aligning himself with the burgeoning alternative club movement, and Kanye West who most likely enjoys the self aggrandizing tone of “being the shit, up in this bitch,” hop on the record and record a remix as well. Well what happens from there is that Bmore club veteran and Unruly Records stalwart DJ Class becomes the most unlikely of stars in music right now, and when his Universal Records debut “Alameda and Coldspring” drops this fall, the Baltimore club revolution in the clubs will be full steam ahead. And with a video that has cameos from every artist on the Unruly label, along with Bmore and international club music legend Ultra Nate, and DC DJs Tittsworth and Will Eastman, it’s clear this video, and this song by extension isn’t just a victory for DJ Class, but for the entirety of the club music scene of the Mid-Atlantic region.

1. Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em – Turn My Swag On: Sure this pick this high may seem controversial, but the barely 20 year old Alabama native has an ability to craft both a marketable sound and look that is very conducive to mainstream acceptance. “Turn My Swag On” may be his best yet from a production and lyrical standpoint, as, well, his lyrics will never have the spiritual depth of Mos Def or the wild and clever delivery of so many others, but, he’s carved a niche for himself that others dare to enter, but few rule with his ability to create cultural statements instead of rap hits. “Turn My Swag On” was an immediate pop cultural catchphrase across the board, and a sign that the dirty South rapper is a worldwide phenomenon to whom we must always pay attention.

ESSENTIAL MUSIC OF 2009 – THE RUNNER UPS

1. Nyle – Let the Beat Build: Alongside Charles Hamilton getting assaulted by a female poet in a very average emcee battle, Nyle’s video clip for “Let the Beat Build” may be my most beloved hip hop moment of 2009. Nyle, a Philly born to NYC transplant student at NYU, and struggling rapper with five years in the game in 3:55 reminded everyone why they love hip hop, taking Lil’ Wayne’s instant classic, Eddie Kendricks sampling, Kanye production and breaking it down in it’s purest musical element with a live band and breathing the life of a starving, underground emcee into it. Nyle, who almost nobody in the hip hop blogosphere knew of prior to this production, became an instant ingrained memory, hopefully pushing the alarming plethora of rappers and producers circulating the globe to take a second and remember what it is they love and appreciate about this industry, and to always respect it.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4189528&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

Nyle “Let The Beat Build” from Nyle on Vimeo.

2. Chester French – She Loves Everybody: DA Wallach and Maxwell Drumney’s debut is appropriately entitled “Love the Future.” They most certainly do, and have taken amazing steps to ensure that they will continue to be at the vanguard of marketing a type of lifestyle and musical concept that mixes sixties Brit, soul infused power pop with everpresent hip hop swagger to just create quite simply a fun, fun time. Please note at no point did I mention music. It’s not so much about the music with Chester French. It’s there, and it’s developing into something fairly phenomenal, but, Chester French isn’t so much a band as it is a conceptualization of merging the best of the highpoints of faux conservative, pseudo crusty, hippie/hipster cool and allowing everybody in on the gag, all the while singing and dancing along.

3. Ninjasonik – Somebody’s Gonna Get Pregnant: If you take yourself as seriously as the Brooklyn trio Ninjasonik takes partying and causing a generally ridiculous ruckus, you’re bound to, just in the everyday nature of living said lifestyle, come across everything as being hook worthy. Some people just have a natural funk step to their everyday life where there’s a beat and rhythm to what they do. “Somebody’s Gonna Get Pregnant” will be discovered one day by someone with access to a lot of money, and will make this punk hop conglomerate very very wealtly young men. There’s entirely too much talent just wandering about being very very talented when they hit the stage for this NOT to be the case. Ninjasonik’s the kind of band every prepubescent kid forms in their bedroom, and they cut the tracks that you’d write down on graph paper and shove into your backpack. They’re just better and far more accomplished at it than you’d ever hope to be in a million years.

4. Bird Peterson – Torture Motherfucker: Okay. So Bird Peterson is like the king of deep, spine rattling bass deejays in Austin, Texas. Austin being a hotbed of music and of alternative cultures, this is quite the amazing accomplishment all things considered. Burlesque of North America’s BRLSQOTHEQUE imprint, in tandem with SXSW, released the Do It to It 2 album, which, unless you’ve heard this track spun out in the club (which if you haven’t is unfortunate), purchased said album, or, well, likely know Bird Peterson personally, is the only place to find said track. Well, why is it here then? Well, because it samples the skit before Wu-Tang Clan’s Method Man’s M.E.T.H.O.D Man, it containes some of the most filthy, out of control, deplorable and almost comically violent imagery every thrown onto a house, club or dance music record. And it’s great. It’s just about as far as someone can go into the deep bass genre conceptually and still keep mainstream ears glued. The bass is back, and, this is one of the more fantastic explorations.

TEN TO BUMP THIS MONTH

American by way of Sweden soul electropop dancefloor exciter Mapei

Only doing seven this month, as there’s new music posted all over the site, but, as always, these are some winners!

1. You – Asher Roth feat. Slick Rick / 2. As I Em – Asher Roth feat. Chester French – Shawty Lo couldn’t say it better if he said “Big ups to all my haters!” If Asher Roth leaves anything in his wake for the advancement of hip hop as a recording artist, in my mind it will be these two tracks, the former the bonus track on the UK release of “Asleep in the Bread Aisle,” and the latter the most poignant track on the full worldwide release of said album. In this digital atmosphere of here and now, the wonderful thing an artist can do before being released to the mainstream is ascertain where he’ll have problems, and assault said issues with a bat before the mainstream gets to hop on board, and everything snowballs and makes life ugly for the artist. Asher’s had an entire two years of the internet belittling him for being an Eminem soundalike, and punting him in the balls at every turn for not attempting to sound like something other than a white suburbanite from 10 minutes north of Chester, PA. So, in a manner stereotypically befitting his status, he writes two of the most reasoned, rationalized and well written damn near ballads about the issue, almost taking the mainstream listener into his though process.

“You” could easily appear on Sesame Street with Asher having Prairie Dawn on his knee and Big Bird, Snuffy, the Cookie Monster and the two purple guys that honk when they phonetically pronounce words correctly all bopping along to the track, and if seeped into the mainstream could have a profound affect on lost Middle American youth. “As I Em,” well, for the twentysomething set, it’s a helluva reminder of not taking yourself so seriously and remembering when you heard an artist for the first time and it made a difference in how you thought about or saw the universe. Truly poignant stuff that most bloggers will have their head too far up their ass sniffing their own shit to pull out and remember there’s a world that does not include them to remember.

3. Mapei – Leader of the Pack – If you’re new to reading this site, understand that I really think that the Swedes are onto something musically, and have always been. There’s something about the Swedes as a people that puts their ability to achieve at a higher level than most. It’s the concept of “lagom,” a Swedish term that sort of translates into just enough, sufficient or adequate that makes their music really go, as there’s a lack of stress, a lack of pressure, a flowing freedom that permeates things. Be it Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist, Adam Tensta, Lykke Li, ABBA’s Agneta, Bjorn, Benny and Anni-Frid, there’s a tie there that clearly makes them all Swedish. The music is fun, it’s intentionally catchy, and fairly awesome. Including some American DIY by way of the Pghettoes of Providence, RI attitude from Jackie “Mapei” Cummings, and you’ve got an excting mix that makes her quite the artist. Mapei mixes hip-hop/electro/soul dance along with her standing as a world travelling ingenue to make her Cocoa Butter Diaries EP a must buy. Lead single “Leader of the Pack” should be SO much bigger than it is. Advocating that she’s “the leader of the pack, I’m gonna do my own dance” over a well laid and very sparse downbeat, this track is tailor made for club remixes and hipster bohemian mega popularity.

4. Melanie Fiona – Give it to Me Right – Sometimes it’s not how you sing, but what you sing over that pulls eyes towards you, and then talent takes your career from there. The jury’s still out on Melanie Fiona, the Rihanna songwriter and sometime poet who has made the expected turn to R & B chanteuse, but the lushness of her sample of one of my top five 60s one hit wonders, The Zombies’ “Time of the Season” is genius, and if you have a spare four minutes in your life today, totally let this track ride. I’m not predicting superstardom or anything, but, sometimes, you just have to let a track out of the bag for a second and let it breathe in your mind. This one is a winner in that regard.

5. Bang – Rye Rye f/ MIA – So all throughout the blogosphere we’ve heard nothing but remixes of this track. If you want to know why errrbody and their mama is jockin’ this one so hard, do yourself a favor and listen to the original. I am 100% sure that Blaqstarr at this point is attempting to evolve into being a solo artist. That’s just fine. It’s a wonderful endeavor. But, imagine if this man stopped trying to be Smokey Robinson and just stayed being Norman Whitfield. He’s actually improving as a producer if that’s in any way possible, and, anytime a producer works with artists he actually enjoys being in the studio with, magic will occur. The Blaqstarr/Rye Rye combo created the ultramgnetic and superelectric “Shake It to the Ground,” and Blaqstarr and MIA have done a fantastic “Paper Planes” remix, “The Turn,” and “World Town” samples Blaq’s amazing “Hands Up, Thubs Down,” so, putting all that energy in one room is destined to turn out something rather incredible, and, yeah. This is it.

6. DJ Doc Rok – Party Anthem – Doc Rok’s absolutely been featured on the “Mixtape Monday” feature before, and with good reason. He’s a perpetually grinding DJ whose inventiveness and talent are par excellence. I always advocate that with few exceptions, if there’s some sort of underground DJ underground, he’s a better mashup DJ than your favorite mashup DJ, he’s a better remixer than your favorite remixer, and now, his foray into Baltimore club, which started with his Motown Electronica mix, moves forward with his “Party Anthem,” a stone cold killer of a track. I want everybody to listen to it, so I won’t break it down, but, it does everything it’s supposed to, then goes that extra wonderful step ahead. But that’s to be expected from Doc Rok. He’s really good, and only does something if he knows it’s gonna sound as good as he talent supposes he is. It’s a winner.

7. Major Lazer – Diplo, Switch and the Mad Decent fam have hipster DJs in their back pockets. They’re working on moving the mainstream (read big money) crowds, but, if anything, the hype over the Major Lazer album release is one of the more exciting things that the pink t-shirt and purple shoe crowd has seen in quite some time. I advocate everyone to head over to myspace.com/majorlazer immediately, and sit back and enjoy what the world would sound like if somebody mixed and confused the scripts for an episode of Buck Rodgers, and the films Barbarella and The Harder they Come. One of these days, Mad Decent’s going to be the most influential record label in the universe. Putting out releases like the forthcoming Major Lazer release that actively make people think about making brand new sounds, or just going out and actively embracing things that the average person would never suspect that you would enjoy. Ultimately, music is a release, and, the more we can get into the freeing, developing aspects of that concept, the better off we’d be in this era of market depression.

TEN TO BUMP THIS MONTH

So I’ve decided to expand upon the “Shit I’m Digging This Week” format. It’s great, but, I thought it’d be a lot more entertaining to give people an idea of what new or completely uncovered material your favorite madly insane musical maven is listening to every month. So, without further ado:

1. Ninjasonik – Somebody’s Gonna Git Pregnant: Imagine a rougher version of the Jungle Brothers’ “Girl I’ll House You,” as done by a power punk meets grimy Ol’ Dirty Bastard combination. Somehow, it works, and, if I had a crisp $100 bill for the first DJ to create a house remix of that jam, I’d give it to them, because I think that Ninjasonik really gets the mix of keeping things on an even keel where they’re not too punk for hip hop cats, not too hip hop for punk cats, and this track, along with their Death Set collabo “Negative Thinking About Tight Pants” are both winners. Ninjasonik plays DC at DC9 next TUesday night with Japanther. A must see event.

2. He Needs Me – Miz Metro: Miz Metro, a rising Manhattan based artist with FAME chops (she graduated from the NYC high school) blends a neo soul sensibility with a certain hipster sentimentality (read bitter but cute) on her poppier tracks, and this track which samples “Olive Oyl” from the “Popeye” movie soundtrack is a saccharine sweet delight with a rock solid core. More on Miz Metro in this space in the coming weeks.

3. Phantom – T-Pain: My favorite R & B track of the moment, T-Pain’s production on this track, a story rap in the tradition of Slick Rick of humorously and creepily stalking an ex fling is amazing as the marriage between Timbaland circa 1999 style production and T-Pain’s autotuned magic is quite incredible. If, as he promises, T-Pain’s going to bury the autotune once and for all on his next record, this bonus track on Thr33 Ringz is an absolute winner and the highest note that the instrument could ever ask to go out on.

4. Lark on My Go Cart – Asher Roth: The introductory track on his April 20th release Asleep in the Bread Aisle puts the entire industry on blast that Asher Roth is not another Eminem clone, but rather something we’ve never really seen on the mainstream hip hop stage. He’s everyone’s favorite lazy stoner roommate who kicks A Tribe Called Quest’s Midnight Marauders on his iPOD all day and all night, then goes to a kegger, rocks the mic with your favorite local student band, climbs a few trees, then steals your girlfriend. It’s a level of swagger that’s not going to play very well in Harlem, NY, but at Haverford College, he’s a winner.

5. Sweet About Me – Gabriella Cilmi: If you don’t know the name Gabriella Cilmi, get on her level. The recipient of six Australian Grammys last year, the seventeen year old pop songstress with a voice so broad and so sonorous that it fills every crevice of the room had a blowaway performance at SXSW during an Australian themed barbecue, performing hits from her soon to be released in America, International hit album Lessons to be Learned, along with the twin showstoppers, a cover of Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me a River,” and her heroes Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love,” Cilmi performed “Sweet About Me,” the lead single last night on Jimmy Fallon, and is certainly a pop star on the rise.

6. 22 – Lily Allen: OK. So the youthful and bratty Miss Allen brings the worst of thoughts out of people. She’s wealthy, she’s confrontational, and she’s the least bit shy. However, Lily Allen’s strongest suit so far in her two album career has been stellar songwriting, writing plainly and consciously about intense personal issues, and on It’s Not Me, It’s You‘s “22,” a thoughtful pop ballad of the woe of living each and every single day as a media darling, cuts to the core as a tale of woe in the face of fleeting celebrity.

7. Dreamworld – Robin Thicke: MTV’s song of the moment on bumpers between shows as of last few weeks, the sparse sonic background and Thicke’s assured handling of his lyrics of love make this, and not “Lost Without You,” or whatever you’d likely suspect as his tour de force performance. It harkens back to all of the great soul singers, and even a bit of Lennon and McCartney late era Beatles sounds, and is so startling and excitingly romantic that it’s a guaranteed hit.

8. Whole Wheat Bread – 206: So you’re wondering where the power pop punk of Blink 182 went? Miss seeing Travis Barker rocking away on drums and the days when Mark Hoppus was a singer songwriter idol to skate punks everywhere? Wish your little brother could share in the excitement of hearing what politely punk guitars with a definite pop influence sound like? Well, look no further than Jacksonville, FL’s Whole Wheat Bread. Punk hoodlums with hearts of gold, the African American quartet have one of the mour ambitious international tour schedules, which leads to them having a tight and dynamite sound that, when the right ears hear it, may make MTV want to play videos again. They tour Washington, DC in May, a definite must see event.

9. Paul Devro’s Invasion of the Loop Zombies Mix: Mad Decent supported, Devro, like so many others in the Mad Decent family, explores unusual and not often heard international sounds, and releases them upon the atmosphere with no seeming outright care as to whether the public will hear and appreciate them, but more for the aspect of having these sounds so well produced and preserved so as to advance music when the time is right. Mad Decent, upon a closer look at the label’s artists, all take a very motivating and forward thinking approach to sound, and how to best modify it for maximum impact. Mexican party anthems with a thumping and hip displacing bassline? It was the best present I received at SXSW. And now I share it with you. Music will be here one day. And you’ll know where you heard it first.

10. Nouveau Riche Mix: Are you in DC and have not heard about what Gavin Holland, Steve Starks and Nacey have been up to? Well, Nouveau Riche has evolved from hipster enclave esoteric party event to full scale booze, adrenaline, testosterone and estrogen filled riot. Between Gavin Holland’s adventurous treks through his personal musical catalogue and unusual and perpetual party tinged traits, to Steve and Nacey’s love affair with funk, bass and creating massive club hysteria. The mix, housed at their supporter, rising DC fashion trendsetter DURKL’s website, DURKL Mind Control Mix #3 is a killer for sure, and an audio primer for those wanting to check the party.