Nothing like going back home. I had a great few days this weekend playing Friday @ Baba’s Lounge in Charlottetown, PEI, and Saturday twice: 7-8:30 at the 11th Evolve Festival in Antigonish, NS, and then later that evening @ Toothy Moose in Halifax. The newremixes worked well and let’s face it: there’s nothing like playing outside on a nice day. Here are some pictures from Saturday’s shows. Thanks to Ryan @ Baba’s for the sweet jersey donation, thanks to my brother Dave for the tour management and rally driving skills, and thanks to DJ Konflikt and Jay McNeil for the photos, respectively.
During rehearsal for July 9th’s Skratch Bastid Presents: LET’S BUILD w/ Cosmo Baker, Cosmo and I were playing the new Cam’Ron & Vado heatrock “Speakin’ In Tongues” and Cos started chopping up different parts of the beat, flipping it inna dancehall stylee. We threw Cutty Ranks’ immortal “Limb By Limb” acapella over top of it and it and instantly smoke filled the room and an airhorn sounded from the distance. Magical. We performed it live at the show to a great response. Here is a studio remix of the cut, so that you can mash up the party wherever you play it, be it desktop, poolside or club. Check it:
For those who don’t know, Cutty is Jamaican legend. You’ve definitely heard his voice on a tune or too. Hit the Google. Or check out this amazing video of him live over the Sleng Teng riddim. Check out the microphone, mixer, turntables and technique. ILL.
I want to send a big shout out to the good folks at WeSC who sponsored LET’S BUILD and helped make the event pop off as it did. It was an amazing night and it’s not every gig that you get to rock on stage with an artist from another country. And also thanks for keeping us dapper. Fix up, look sharp! Thanks as well to the Drake Hotel for consistently having great events in a comfortable room in a big city. That’s how it’s done.
Someone tweeted me this link today. I don’t who they are, but it’s official. I will be heading to Tokyo, August 15th for the Red Bull Thre3 Style Japanese Championship at Club Asia. My first time in Asia; I’ve always been looking forward to this. 6 years ago I was fortunate enough to meet a nice young Japanese exchange student by the name of Yosuke, studying abroad in Halifax. We were recording the Taking Care of Business album and late one night he kicked a verse on it, in Japanese. He later put the album out over in Japan. Check this version of the album out:
Here’s an interview I did with the Red Bull Thre3 Style International site. Best believe I’ll be grabbing some footage while I’m over there. More dates in Japan coming soon…
As I mentioned earlier, this upcoming Friday’s guest at Skratch Bastid Presents “Let’s Build” @ The Drake Hotel Underground (July 9th) is my man Cosmo Baker. Philly native and Brooklyn resident, his sets exude a natural ’soul’ for DJing, something I can’t say about many DJs these days. Neither can Big Boi (whose album came out today and you should go buy).
Cosmo’s website is full of cool stuff. I check it pretty regularly, and some of my favorite sections of it are his ‘Breakbeat Tuesday’ posts where he talks about different songs with dope breaks. I did a guest post for the theme today, GO AND CHECK IT OUT! It’s the July 6th post.
Here’s some footage of Cosmo setting it off 2 weekends ago in LA to kick off this summer’s now legendary Do-Over series of parties, which happen every Sunday out there. Looks great. See you this Friday @ The Drake!
