Sample Tuesday

November 3, 2020 — Leave a comment

Can’t hate on this guy. You could argue that this is a bit of an empty song but if you want a fun radio-pop hit, it’s hard to find a better way to do it.

• Pérez Prado – Mambo No.5
• Lou Bega – Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit of …)

Too Good Monday

November 2, 2020 — Leave a comment

“Throw away all this technology—throw everything away—because ultimately it is about taste. It’s about picking the right music and playing it in the right order”

Pete Tong

Great example of what a DJ should do: pick two tunes knowing that one goes well with the other, change the tempo on one or both to get the desired mood, play one then drop the next one in the right way, at the right time.

Sound obvious?

It fucking should be. This is what DJs did before “EDM”—i.e. before posing on instagram, doing product placement, and throwing cake at the crowd.

Marc Hughes playing:

• Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes – Bad Luck (Dimitri From Paris Disco Re-Edit)
• Crown Heights Affair – Love Ripoff

Too Good Monday

October 26, 2020 — Leave a comment

I don’t mean to make a political post but, in America, there is a growing group of people that would dismiss this altogether as a “white band appropriating black music” … Let’s just say that if you don’t think this is “real” Funk, there’s not much I can do for you.

• Jamiroquai – Bad Girls (Live in Verona)

Random Wednesday

October 21, 2020 — Leave a comment

A great use of Rap, showing a literary level not usually seen.

The premise of this song is that three famous rich people are at a party and they start Rapping as a party trick— a bit of “look at how silly I can act at the party”, with a strong overtone of racism, making fun of African-American culture.

Their Raps—just like real ones—are about pimping hoes, murder, doing illegal things, etc. At this point, if it was incompetent-sounding mockery, we’d all be appalled, say “this is a caricature of rap, this is racist!”, and stop the track. The genius of it is that it’s actually really good—The Coup are real rappers, after all. So this is fake and real at the same time, satire at its finest.

We listen to these characters talking about abusing others to get their wealth—which is how many great and “respectable” fortunes were made in real life—and eventually we have to ask why the murder and greed being glorified by “these” people, is any less acceptable than the murder and greed being glorified by “those” people. It sounds just as cool.

Don’t let me get my flex on, do some gangster shit
make the army go to war for Exxon
Long as the money flow,
I be making dough.
Welcome to my little pimp school …

Is the wealthy abuser that came “from the streets” any better morally than the wealthy abuser that whispers in the ears of senators and presidents?

• The Coup – Pimps (Free Stylin’ at the Fortune 500 Club)

Sample Tuesday

October 13, 2020 — Leave a comment

Fiend [verb]: to have a need so consuming that it will cause someone to commit fiendish acts in order to satisfy that need—as a “dope fiend” would for drugs

Sample usage:

> I'm fiending for a bass line, man!
>> Calm down, I got some Funk right here"
> It's not enough, I need something stronger
>> Hold on, I got some House

• Teddy Pendergrass – You Can’t Hide From Yourself
• DJ Sneak – U Can’t Hide From Your Bud

Remix Friday

October 9, 2020 — Leave a comment

• Rod Stewart – Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?
• DJ Disco Cat Disco Purrfection version

DJ Disco Cat: I finally got around to doing something with Rod Stewart’s 1978 “sellout” disco song “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy” four years after I first thought about doing it. I got my paws on the instrumental and a capella tracks to come up with this Disco Purrfection version. The original disco remix is a classic in itself and there was nothing new I could have brought to the turntables using that version.