Assorted Donuts Nominated For Mixtape Of The Year At The Vibe Awards

Southside...

No, this isn't a post about 50 or Kanye repping their hood. Neither is it about them dropping albums on a day which should remember the victims who perished in the World Trade Center disaster. Could it be about how corperate America strives on promoting violence for capitalism... Maybe...

Before cats were rapping about The Supreme Team and kids from the burbs had grown fascinated with the reality of gangsta rap, two mc's from South Jamacia (circa 1991) dropped this track... Could this post be about how raw New York City was back in the 80's? Possibly...

Organized Konfusion

"The Rough Side Of Town"

(Recorded in 1991)

Sneakers...

Came across this track earlier by Raekwon. When it was released the only sneakers I remember being retro'd were the Jordan's and Stan Smith's. Shout to Bobbito's Footwork. Outside of Fulton Mall, that was one of the only spots in New York City where u could find oversea releases.

Raekwon "Sneakers" 

Produced by Pete Rock

(Recorded in 1999)

Monday Morning Madness...

About a year ago, I got down with Oscar and Vashtie to do this monthly party "1992" in the basement of Lotus. Since I had started spinnin in the summer of '92 it was a no brainer. We spoke about some ideas and it was clear that they were about the fashion and wanted to hear EMF and Kwame... I decided that I was only gonna play music from '88 to '92 (which is one of my favorite era's of music as you can see with this blog). For the first few parties I was the resident DJ and thought it would be a great idea to get Stretch Armstrong involved. So I asked him to spin a guest spot and he did and the party continued to grow. After some door problems that nite with people not being able to get into Lotus, we moved the party to Fat Baby and I became a partner. The party was official. We had moved to a bigger venue and slammed it. Jay-Z had also came thru and hung out for most of that nite but after some shadiness with the bar, we decided to move the party to Noca (shouts to Bugsy). It was there where the party would solidify itself as one of the best parties of New York City. One night I played 3 Nirvana tracks in a row and it was pure chaos. At the next party I played a classic house set for most of the night and people were straight wilding. And then.... Noca was bought by some developers who wanted to tear it down and build some condo's (just what Manhattan needs right?). So once again the party was without a home and moved back to Lotus. This time around, we were on the main floor and Grand Puba hosted. The night was good but for some reason it didn't feel the same. Politics had became a factor and it seemed that the people weren't into the music as much. The haters started to come out and all of a sudden, it had become the cool thing to do (clubs and promoters around the city had started retro parties). For me, I had already lost interest. My heart wasn't into it anymore so I fell back. That was about 5 months ago. Yesterday I was asked to spin the one year anniversary and because of my part in it's success, I couldn't say no... How could I? It's sort of like if I had a baby and then broke up with the baby's moms and then the kid's b-day party rolled around. Am I not suppose to show up?

3rd Bass 

"Gasface" (DJ SOUL's Edit)

Stop The Violence Movement 

"Self Destruction" (DJ SOUL's Edit)

King Tee & The Liks 

"Got It Bad" (DJ SOUL's Edit)

Are You That Somebody?

Before Timbaland was working with Justin Timberlake & Nelly Furtado... Before there was Ciara... There was Aaliyah... Today marks 6 years since her tragic passing. As I drove around earlier and listened to the radio, I didn't hear anybody pay homage so here I am doin this post.

It was almost 10 years ago when this record dropped... It was one of the first records produced with the drums set at a half time tempo (this has become a staple in the majority of southern rap production) to get major burn on radio and in the clubs across the country... It was also an unoffical remix. You don't see that happen too often!

Talib Kweli

In case u didn't know, he dropped a new album yesterday. I didn't get a chance to listen but I know he did a track or two with Pete Rock. I think this is their second time working together cuz back in '99 they did a Remix of "Respiration" with Mos Def & Black Thought... Can u believe I was the A&R of that project? Neither can I...

Alife Sessions (August 2007)

Yesterday, the good folks at Alife let me rock out while two hip-hop legends (Q-Tip & Craig G) kicked a few rhymes... Moby was there also and got down on the one & two's. Big shouts to Matt Goias for reaching out and to Rob & Arnaud for letting me do the damn thing! Photo's jacked from freshnessmag.com (more coverage over there).

Pump Up The Bass!

Having insomnia sucks so now it's time for another post... No, this isn't a post on that Erick Sermon album. I'm done with the 90's. I'm in the 80's now (insert Funk Flex bomb sound). Here's another edit I did a while back of Stetsasonic's "Talkin All That Jazz".

Which Doobie You Be?

Since I'm in an early 90's hip-hop mood (this has nothing to do with Funk Flex's 4th of July mix), I figured I'd do a quick post about Funkdoobiest. I mean... why not! How many other rappers out there put their rap career on hold to do porn...

"Shittin On Em"
Produced by T-Ray (Beat Down Productions)

I Beat That Bitch With a Bat!

I don't think I've ever seen a hitter attack a pitcher with a bat. So who was it that said baseball is a friendly game? Oh yeah, it was these guys... Main Source

This Saturday Prince Paul, The Extra P and yours truly will be spinnin at Studio B in Brooklyn... Doors open @ 9pm. Hope to see u there!

What You Know About Caron Wheeler?

Homegirl might not be the must attractive female on the mic but there is no denying how nice she is with the vocals! "Livin' In The Light" is one of my favorite tracks and I just did an edit of it.. This mix was originally produced by Afrika Baby Bam of The Jungle Brothers and was released in 1990. Enjoy!

Livin' In The Light (DJ Soul's Edit)

The Point x Undefeated x Nike

A few weeks ago, the good people over at Undefeated and Nike brought me out to Los Angeles to spin the World Love & 1thology party celebrating the 25th year of the Air Force 1. Here are some pic's from the party and a video of the crowd reacting to "Wipe Me Down" which I had no intention of playing. One of the highlights was playing the remix of "Mr Big Stuff" and then seeing Heavy D there. Big shouts to James, Eddie, Lena, Shoes & Errol for making it happen!

Pop, Lock & Drop It (1985)

This is the definition of a real 80's baby... Before the corperations took over rap, they took over break dancing... I can't front tho, I had one of those fold out breakin boards and was nice at doin the centipede and knee spin.

Barry Bonds

New Track from Kanye West featuring Lil Wayne off of the upcoming album Graduation (In Stores September 11th). Produced by Nottz.

Monkey Business

Last week the homie Eli Escobar wrote a blog on Michael Jackson. Now, in no way am I trying to be a beat biter but earlier today I came across this song that was recorded during the Dangerous sessions and couldn't resist. No, the song is not about monkeys and I'm not posting it to clown MJ. The song is cool and all but what's intriguing to me is that there are monkey sounds in the intro and through out the song. And then I started to think... Did he use Bubbles for the ad-libs? If he did, that's definetely next level. What ever happened to that chimp?

In other Michael Jackson related news, Kanye West sampled P.Y.T. (have u ever heard the demo version?) for a track that features T Pain on his new album. Could this be another "Slow Jamz"?

The New Dance Show (1992)

A few months ago, I came across this clip on youtube. Watching it for the first time I thought somebody either overdubbed the music or edited the dancing. Negative...

Titled "The New Dance Show", this was Detroit's verison of Soul Train where instead of playing the regular mix of r&b and soul music, a dj played a mix of miami bass, ghetto house, hip-hop , electro & techno (this mix would later be refered to as ghetto tech). Can somebody please explain to me why there aren't parties like this in New York?

Stretch Armstrong

Since I'm constantly categorized as a DJ associated with what's left of the New York hip-hop scene, once in a while someone will ask me, "What's up with Stretch?" Well for starters, he drives a Vespa (which was stolen but he found out who stold it and stole it back). He's still spinning but now you're likely to catch him playing house, electro and baltimore. If you're curious about what that sounds like, u can check out these two mixes he recorded live last week in Paris.

Oh yeah, he also has a blog titled Konstant Kontact that focuses on hip-hop from the 80's and 90's (which includes a bunch of shows from him and Bobbito on WKCR as well as other goodies)!

Chappelle Time!

Fuck funny. It's crazy how time flies. It feels like it was yesterday when I was hired to DJ the first season of The Chappelle Show. Little did anyone know during that time how big that show would become. Fast foward to season 2 and everybody from mainstream america to the hood was watching. After beginning to shoot for season 3, Dave supposively lost his mind and quit. Shit... I would've lost my mind also if i wasn't seeing my share of the dvd sales!

Rick James "Give It To Me" (Chapelle Show Edit)

Finding Forever - The Samples

In case u didn't hear, Common has the number #1 album in the country this week. I don't know why everybody is acting so surprised. What's more surprising is that he was able clear all the samples! 

If you don't own the album, be sure to cop it here where you'll receive the Common mixtape that I did.

Update: 

I uploaded the wrong version of "Misunderstood". For the record, it's this version. And for some reason "Windmills Of My Mind" is listed as the sample source in the credits for "Start The Show". That's not it. It's this track which is on that same album. It's a possibility that someone messed up when listing the sample source...

MTV lists Assorted Donuts as one of the 10 essential mixtapes of the year!

Earlier this year, I teamed up with ?uestlove's website
Okayplayer to drop this tribute mix to the late great J Dilla aka Jay Dee. Originally I was remixing tracks off of Donuts but when Kweli gave me his freestyle over an unreleased Dilla track and I mysteriously received a Notorious B.I.G. remix that Dilla had personally done, it turned into a bigger project. It's been about 5 months since we put it online as a free download and in that time the response has been tremendous (almost 50,000 downloads). I didn't personally know Dilla but was a huge fan of his production and music. To get props personally from his family and peers is a feeling that I can't put into words! There is no way I could've done this project without all the peeps who helped me and supported it. On that note I want to say THANK YOU to everybody who was involved! I would name names but I don't wanna forget anybody!

In case u missed it, here are the links once again.

Assorted Donuts (untracked version) 

1. Intro
2. Talib Kweli "Intro"
3. Notorious BIG "Kick In The Door" (J Dilla Remix)
4. Nas "Hope"
5. Ghostface "Whip Me With A Strap"
6. Jay-Z & The Escorts "Song Cry"
7. Smokey Robinson & The Miracles "A Legend In It's Own Time"
8. Jadakiss "Why"
9. Redman "The Saga Continues"
10. Big L "Put It On"
11. M.O.P. "Pounds Up"
12. Black Thought & Peedi Crack "Freestyle"
13. Black Thought Interlude
14. Kanye West Interlude
15. Busta Rhymes, Rah Digga & Young Zee "Freestyle"
16. Mos Def "Miss Fat Booty"
17. Ghostface "Beauty Jackson"
18. Notorious B.I.G. "Things Done Changed"
19. The Roots "Can't Stop This"
20. J Dilla "Won't Do"