This week I’m out on the road with Thunderheist (playing with drummer Jahmal Tonge of The Carps for 5 dates on the Canadian East Coast. Last night kicked things off proper with a boat cruise in the Halifax Harbour (pics below). Going to be a great week, I’ll fill you in as we go! Currently watching ‘Dreams To Remember: The Legacy of Otis Redding’ in the van. Essential viewing.

Oh snap, it’s September!

That arrived quickly. September’s a big month for a lot of people. Specifically you scholastic types. In accordance with this busy time of year, I usually hit the road to come and help you start the fall months off with a hangover.
Here are my September dates:

Sept 9 – Charlottetown – Globe
Sept 10 – Regina – Distrikt
Sept 11 – Winnipeg – University of Winnipeg – Roll Call party with DJs Hunnicutt & Co-Op
Sept 13 – Toronto – Cobra (**TIFF party, 4AM liquor licence, AMAZING sound system)
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Skratch Bastid x Thundrheist x Scientists of Sound East Coast Collegiate Tour

Sept 15 – Halifax – Harbour Queen
Sept 16 – Fredericton – Blue Olive
Sept 17 – St John – UNB – The Cellar
Sept 18 – Charlottetown – UPEI – The Wave
Sept 19 – Halifax – Paragon Theatre

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Sept 20 – Toronto – The Mod Club – Manifesto Afterparty w/ DJ HI-TEK (REFLECTION ETERNAL)
Sept 25 – Ottawa – Ritual (with Kid SL, Dylan D & Frame)
Sept 27 – Montreal – Blue Dog Motel

Make sure to become a fan on Facebook and join the mailing list (on the left of this page) for all the latest in Bastid’s world, and most importantly, so you don’t miss out on any of the awesome content we’ll be dropping over the next little while!

One thing I love about Toronto is that there are a lot of hip-hop nerds and record freaks like myself. It definitely feels at home to be making jokes/puns about forgotten album cuts and analyzing Diamond Shell. Sunday night, I sat in with Toronto mainstays Arcee and DJ Kaewonder for the 8th installment of their CRATERY series. Basically, we just hung out, played records we’ve been feeling lately and/or just found, recorded them, and bounced the mix off for your chill out pleasure. Nothin’ fancy, just songs we want to share with y’all. Check out the mix and what Arcee has to say about it over at THE REAL FREQUENCY, a very dope Canadian hip-hop (and dare I say LIFESTYLE) blog based out of the T-dot.

Enjoy!

DIRECT LINK: CRATERY 8

If you didn’t know, today is the 8th anniversary of Aaliyah’s death. Aaliyah was an amazingly talented R&B singer with a golden voice and stunning looks. You can’t really front. I first heard Aaliyah when she put out “Back & Forth” and it got a lot of love on MuchMusic in Canada. I had a major crush. She went on to make some great music with Timbaland & Missy Elliott, perfecting a singing-bounce flow I had never heard before and was captivated by. She unfortunately passed at the height of her accomplished yet young career. She was 22. Coming back from the video shoot for her single “Rock The Boat”, an overloaded plane took a nose dive into a swamp and took the lives of everyone on board. Absolute tragedy.

Here’s a remix that DJ Benzi and I made earlier this year for his “Get Right: Summer 2009″ mix. Blended with DJ Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince’s “Summertime” instrumental, it provides a late-summer groove to Aaliyah’s classic final single. Though no mix would top the original, we think this one would be a great thing to play this week in honor of another one taken too soon. Rest In Peace!

Download it here: Aaliyah “Rock The Boat (Skratch Bastid & DJ Benzi Remix)”

Here’s some more live footage of material from my 110% MIX. The Runners produced DJ Khaled’s Out Here Grindin’ and it’s a beat that I always like scratching over. It’s a good tempo to do some funky double-time cuts without slowing it down too much. For you CD-number types, this is Track 15. Shouts out to everyone who has purchased and/or downloaded the mix so far! Thanks for the support. Enjoy.