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:

Limb by Tung (Cosmo Baker & Skratch Bastid’s Harlem meets Jamaica mix) from SB & CB

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.

Shouts out to Kennymacktruck!

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!

Originally from Philly and now based in New York, Cosmo is a well rounded DJ and connoisseur of the finer things in life. 1/3 of the infamous NYC crew The Rub (with DJ Ayres and DJ Eleven). Mainstay at The Do-Over party in LA. Co-founder of Sabbath in the Park (he went to court for that shit). You can read all about him at his website, and while you’re over there you should check out his great blog where he talks about music, art, gigs and ’stuff’. Some nice nuggets to download, too. For the record heads, here’s a nice interview with Cosmo at Dust and Grooves.

We’ll be rehearsing and hitting you in the head with 4 deck madness. We will play a bit of everything. You will have fun. You will hear new music. You will hear songs you haven’t heard in a while. You will see tricks done with turntables that your brother’s-friend-that-DJs-on-Wednesday-at-the-pub cannot perform. You will tell everyone how much fun you had at The Drake Underground on Friday, July 9th, 2010 and you will be a better person. Do it.

For all you Facebook people, check the event invite and get your attend on. Read further for a free mix from Cosmo and some video.
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Here’s a mix he did recently for The Rub’s History of Hip-Hop series:
The Rub “History of Hip-Hop 2000″ – Mixed By Cosmo Baker (direct link)

Cosmo & Thee Mike B @ The Do-Over in LA

A random clip of Redman drumming to Cosmo playing breaks

More Cosmo @ The Do-Over

See you there!

In order to draw new audiences and stay alive, jazz festivals all over the world have been embracing non-jazz sounds for a while now. So-called jazz festivals in the Caribbean that I’ve attended feature more American R&B than straight-ahead jazz and even festivals here have begun programming more ‘world’ and soul acts. Skratch says this festival is a perfect forum for the group. “The jazz music approach of ‘improvisations on a theme’ is essentially what we do, but in a very non-traditional way. We’re going to give the crowd a show they will not forget.”

Download the .pdf below.

When Skratch Bastid proudly says that he, beat-boxer Scratch, and DJ Starting From Scratch provide listeners with “a totally unique take on music,” it’s not mere hype. Visit his site and listen to Skewed Empathy, a jam he recently composed. In his words, it features “classic Outkast and Raekwon verses over Crystal Castles’ latest single’s infectious rhythm.”

Listening to the track reminded me of something that Public Enemy’s longtime producer Hank Shocklee told Keyboard Magazine many years back.
“We believe that music is nothing but organized noise. You can take anything — street sounds, us talking, whatever you want — and make it music by organizing it. That’s still our philosophy. To show people that this thing you call music is a lot broader than you think it is.”

Shocklee’s comments and the fact that a back-to-basics hip-hop show is part of the jazz festival will irk a lot of jazz purists, but later for them, I say.
The trio brings its hot show, Scratch, Skratch, Scratch, to the Mod Club on College St. Thursday and chances are the joint’s going to be packed.

“It was inspired by the desire to take the live DJ experience one step further,” Skratch tells me. “As a DJ with two turntables, you can be limited by the amount of ideas you can execute at once. But, by combining two DJs and a ‘human beatbox’ with similar backgrounds in music, we don’t have that restriction,” he adds. “We give the listener a totally unique take on music, beats and songs that they’ve most likely only heard in their original form their whole lives.”

So, what can you expect to hear Thursday other than a whole lotta scratchin’? “With two veteran DJs and one of the best beatboxers in the world (Scratch from the massively popular hip-hop band The Roots), our library of music is unlimited,” he says. “One of the greatest things about our show is that the energy is spontaneous. We really read the crowd and see what they’re feeling and where they want to go musically.

“Our show combines old school hip-hop, funk, soul, rock, house, new hip-hop and R&B and more, so we can really take the show wherever we feel that it wants to go on a given night. And you better believe we’ll be throwing in some nods to the jazz greats this time around as well!”

In order to draw new audiences and stay alive, jazz festivals all over the world have been embracing non-jazz sounds for a while now. So-called jazz festivals in the Caribbean that I’ve attended feature more American R&B than straight-ahead jazz and even festivals here have begun programming more ‘world’ and soul acts. Skratch says this festival is a perfect forum for the group. “The jazz music approach of ‘improvisations on a theme’ is essentially what we do, but in a very non-traditional way. We’re going to give the crowd a show they will not forget.”

As James Brown famously shouted on one of his classic songs, Skratch wants folks to come ready to get up, get into it, and get involved. “Come ready to hear some great music and listen to us take you on a trip using bits and pieces of your favourite music and forgotten classics,” he says. “We hope people walk away knowing that they experienced something that was ‘in the moment’, original, and above all exciting.”

Scratch, Skratch, Scratch – Toronto Sun – June 18 – PDF

Skewed Emapthy – Crystal Castles & Outkast & Raekwon (Skratch Bastid Mix) by me

If you’re a Hype Machine user, show some love by adding it to your ‘Love Songs’ by clicking here. Thanks to Pigeons and Planes for the post! EDIT: WE REACHED #1! THANKS FOR THE LOVE! 16/06/10

Artwork by Rhek for Sharks + Hammers

(LOOSELY) BASED ON A TRUE STORY – THE LOST TAPES is a one hour film that hinges on the true-life theft of videotapes that were shamelessly stolen from a church during a BUCK 65 show in April of 2008. The film, which features performances, interviews, and skits by BUCK 65, PAUL “SKRATCH BASTID” MURPHY, CADENCE WEAPON, DJ WEEZL and others has been meticulously stitched together by director / editor / animator – Christopher Mills, illustrator – Nicole Aline Legault and editor – Winston Hacking and friends. It’s a Frankenstein monster of an edit that brings together live musical performances from the Situation cross-Canada tour of Spring 2008, BUCK 65’s tangent-filled rants, drawings, romantic adventures, surreal skits, abstract cartoon moments, actual news footage, interpretive dances, moving collages, and a special, previously unreleased extended video for “SHUTTERBUGGIN” – (a tribute / theoretical sequel to the cult movie phenomenon known as “The Beaver Trilogy”)

I haven’t actually seen this yet, but I am excited to check it out. A portion of it was filmed while I was DJing for Buck on the Situation album promo tour across Canada. I have nothing but fond memories of that tour and can’t wait to see what turns up in the film. The whole story is actually quite amazing: on our 2nd last date of the tour, some hooligan stole a shitload of the video crew’s gear (along with the accompanying footage) from our show in Victoria, BC. We had been filming the whole entire tour, so this was obviously a good kick in the pants. Months later, the tapes were found on the side of the road outside of town by a woman who reported it to police and they were returned to the camp. And as a result, the footage has surfaced here.

One thing is for certain: if DJ Weez-Il is involved, there’s going to be some action. You can pick up the DVD and EP over at Buck65.com or grab the 20 Odd Years (Vol 1) EP on iTunes. Here’s the trailer for it: