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 (Benzi and Skratch Bastid Summertime Remix) by Skratch Bastid

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.

Skratch Bastid – “Out Here Grindin” Live – from 110% mix from Skratch Bastid on Vimeo.

Check this out! You may remember that about this time last year, Kanye West’s blog posted my Workout Plan Blend. I was excited this morning to see that Common’s Twitter account posted a blurb about my James Brown video being posted over at his
“Think Common” blog . Who’s next, NO ID? Psycho Drama? EC Illa? Qwel? Thanks!

After completing the first leg of my “110%” Tour, I came back to Montreal to pack my stuff up and get out of town. I’m moving 5 hours southwest to the T-Dot, The Big Smoke, Tranna, yes, TORONTO. So, before I tore my studio and record collection, I thought I’d give you a brief look at what I’m packing up for a chance to see where I work when I’m making the mixes and production you hear from me. I posted the video to Facebook. If you’re not my friend over there already, hop over to http://www.facebook.com/skratchbastid and sign up for all the action. Wish me luck!

Here it is. The mix you’ve all been waiting for! In the vein of my two most recent mixes, “Get Up!” & “Satisfaction Guaranteed”, I’ve put together a 60+ minute mix of hip-hop, disco, dancehall and all things funky: a sure shot from start to finish. “110%” gives you just that; squeezing in more energy than humanly possible into the tightest collection of mixes the Bastid can bring. Fresh for summer ’09.

Contained within are my 3 most recent remixes (Wale f/Lady Gaga, Ciara & Justin Timberlake, Major Lazer f/Santigold and Mr. Lexx) as well as plenty of new routines; 3 of which I have filmed live footage for. The first one I am releasing is posted below: my James Brown “I Got You (I Feel Good)” routine. This is one of the highlights of my mix! Pass it along and tell a friend. And make sure to check out the track list. But above all, make sure you have a listen. The devil is in the details.

For this mix, I have decided to post it up for download at 192 kbps. Since the days of cassette mixtapes, I’ve always been releasing and selling my mixes as a way of funding my record collection and giving me resources to make more mixes. I am still releasing full quality (WAV) mix CDs for all my listeners wanting the best sounding mix to bump in your car or at home. But let’s face it: any music geek with mild google skills (I’m looking at you) can find my releases online at foreign country blogs or on torrents. I’d rather you come to me for my stuff, right? So. I’m giving you the option to donate if you feel you would like to pay for my mix. Any amount you like, via paypal. You don’t have to, but it would be nice! I work really hard on these things, and it goes towards helping me purchase music and find the time to make more mixes. Here are your options:

1) Grab the new 110% CD at the store. All orders will be processed that day and shipped out ASAP. Check the rest of the store for more Bastid goodies.

2) Download the 110% mix. And feel free to donate. Heeeere’s the button:

…And here’s the video:

A BIIIG ‘Thank You’ goes out to everyone who continues to support my CDs, mixes, production and shows. Thanks for checking in and ENJOY THE MIX!!!!

-Skratch Bastid