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Narrative Based Music


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Narrative Based Music


Paxico Records Limited Edition Cassette Tapes

“Very refreshing, well thought out soulful production.”
–Karriem Riggins

“Exotic cuisines from distant lands. Raw foods for the soul.”
–Mndsgn

“Paxico has been doing great things for awhile now. Malik’s album is another example.”
–House Shoes

“This is the project I hoped he would bless us with.”
–Count Bass D

Kendrick Lamar - "Love + Me + You" [Malik flip]

time to wrap this up. selection ten from my top ten albums list. pete rock. ‘soul survivor’. wow. it’s hard to believe that in november this project will be 20 years old. this final slot in my personal top ten was a difficult selection. given that pete’s my favorite producer, i knew it would be him. but it was a toss up between this, ‘petestrumentals’ and INI’s ‘center of attention’. though i’ve recently immersed myself in streaming services, i still use my iPhone like an iPod. i constantly delete all the music on my phone and fill it up with what i call ‘study material’. deep listening. beat lessons. all these years later, i still return to those greats who first inspired me to try my hand at production. pete sits at the top of that pantheon for me. he just SOUNDS new york to me. his music sounds like how i envisioned this city to be long, long before i ever set foot in it. big. busy. horns blaring. sometimes subtle. other times abrasive. little bits of atmospheric ambience floating in the background. with a real, recognizable tension cutting through it all. frank. in your face. pulling no punches. that’s real new york for me. rock you to sleep if you ain’t careful. how i always dreamed it was. how i dream it’ll be again some day. i revisited pete’s work a while back and bumped everything of his i had for damn near a year. exclusive tapes like ‘more petestrumentals’ that i ripped off of youtube. classic albums of his and those that he produced. it was a deeper study than i ever had before. timeless. the influence he had on dilla and so many others is unmistakable. i miss SP-1200 pete but am just as happy that he’s still creating, whatever the machine. it encourages me that he’s still at it. still digging. still cooking up that raw. salute @realpeterock. still hope to make it to the basement one day. enjoy this if you haven’t heard it. cop that vinyl if you haven’t yet. it’s a true classic. up next is my top ten producers list. hope you enjoyed this one. bless. #peterock #chocolateboywonder #soulsurvivor #toptenalbums
playing with some incredibly talented folks this weekend at @nublunyc. i’m especially honored because this will mark the launch of a new DJ & production school that some dear friends of mine have been working so hard on. pull up. special thanks to @pushing_buttons_collective. 👊🏾✊🏾✌🏾❤️ #Repost @makemusicemc ・・・ We are pleased to partner with Nublu to present a music production and live performance workshop featuring keyboardist and producer, @markdeclivelowe followed by an after party with special guests from @pushing_buttons_collective and DJ @chrisannibell on July 21st! Details in flyer, link in bio. Workshop and party are FREE with workshop RSVP and attendance at 8pm.
finally playing @thelessongk and doing so alongside some dear friends. pull up. set starts at 11:30. #Repost @rabbidarkside ・・・ This week @thelessongk is simultaneously bi-coastal! While the band is crushing in L.A. at @thesatellitela (swipe left for details) we’re flipping the script in NYC for a very special night featuring DJs, Producers & Beatbox at @arlenesgrocery (and bonus: I’ll be celebrating my bornday!) Extremely hype to be joined on the decks/mic by the inimitable @raydarles. We’ll be featuring neck-snapping showcases from music magicians @malikabdulrahmaan @atellerwho @amitbeats. Emcees/singers/vocalists: there’ll be cyphers with the beats/beatbox and DJ’d instrumentals. This is gonna be a fluid night of flow, freestyle, dancing and high vibrations. Come thru, tune in, turn up. #thelessonnyc #nycevents #nychiphop #thelessongk #thankhiphop #hiphopelements #producers #beatmakers #beatbox #thebeatboxhouse #emceelife #djlife #les #lowereastside #spreadlove
boost + barbara. #hellogorgeous #greenroom
selection nine from my top ten albums list. sun ra and his arkestra. ‘greatest hits: easy listening for intergalactic travel’. i’m a sucker for a good compilation. especially when it is apparent that someone else has done the scholarly research needed to adequately inform listeners who are immersing themselves in a catalog as immense as sun ra’s. it took me nearly eight years to even begin to understand his compositions. back in 2001 i copped ‘space is the place’ off of a recommendation. it was a hard listen, to say the least. really, i hated it. it was....noise. no form. no groove. little rhythm. or so i thought. i was 21 and because my ears were deeper than my peers’, i thought i knew good music. i eventually traded it for a donald byrd record, as i was just learning about the greatness of the mizell brothers. sun ra was a whole other ship. i did keep a handful of CDs of his that i bought at the same time, though. this was one of them. i heard SOMEthing in his music. but i realize now that i needed an entry point into his catalog. some kind of anchor. being an aspiring beatmaker, i was a student of swing. loved swing. and, man, could sun ra SWING! dilla had insane swing too. his own signature. sonic DNA i dubbed it. his sense of timing was....off. always a stutter-step or two off of where you would expect the downbeat to land. late, almost. pre-ableton hi-hats that would drift off time and get itself together prior to the loop coming back around. or sometimes not. kicks that would eff your whole head nod up. i recognized that in sun ra’s work.....but with an added ten different dimensions to it that i couldn’t comprehend. after dilla passed, @common referred to him as the john coltrane of our time. it wasn’t until i heard madlib’s ‘movie scenes’ volumes 1 & 2 that i realized that he was the sun ra of our time. and that’s when i [thankfully] reached back to that stack of CDs to begin connecting the dots and began the work of recognizing sun ra’s influence on his work and approach. and so, madlib was my gateway into understanding + respecting sun ra’s work. [cont. below] @nublunyc @nublui #toptenalbums #sunra #arkestra #easylisteningforintergalactictravel
time to wrap this up. selection eight from my top ten albums list. madlib. ‘beat konducta: movies scenes, vol. 1-2’. i first came to know about madlib back in 2001, when yesterday’s new quintet’s ‘angles without edges’ dropped. shouts to @questlove on the @okayplayer message boards for pluggin’ that. that album, by the way, nearly made this list. it took me this long - since my previous post - to decide between the two. narrowing down any kind of selection out of madlib’s body of work is damn near impossible. it’s that massive. from the lootpack and quasimoto works. to the dj rels project. to madvillain and ‘shades of blue’. to new yesterday’s new quintet and all of it’s various iterations.....the last electro-acoustic space jazz & percussion ensemble is my favorite, btw. to jaylib. to ‘beat konducta in india’ and far, far beyond. if there was one project that i’d have to settle on that best represented madlib’s work for me, it’d have to be this one. though i owned several of his projects, this was the one that helped me to really understand his approach. which was that there wasn’t one. it was a free expression. well, about as free of an expression that a hip hop producer could have. i traveled for a couple of weeks through Singapore with this CD [only] when it first dropped. dilla has just passed a couple of months before. donuts had dropped, and i needed a break from it. honestly, i was having a hard time understanding it. by the time i returned, my thinking around production was completely rearranged. i had a much more complete understanding of ‘donuts’ and where dilla was headed before he passed. and i understood how truly important [and crucial] madlib was in all of that. i’m convinced now that dilla moved to LA for the weather, the trees and to be closer to him. and i’ve been convinced that madlib is the greatest producer alive. easily in my top three. i may just give that list a run next. anyways....about to head into the city, bumping this all the way. hope that you enjoy this one as much as i have. #toptenalbums #mablib #thebeatkonducta
big love out of denmark 🇩🇰. @yathoughtineverdoit fell thru to meet up after my set at @cmoneverybodybk this past Sunday with a bag filled with these goodies. he told me that when he let some of his folks back in copenhagen know that he’d be linking up with me during his trip here, they passed him their projects to give to me. alhamdulillah. i’m really honored to know that my music has the ability to resonate with people so far away. it’s been many years since i’ve been to købehavn and i sincerely hope that through my music i’ll be able to eventually return.
played one of my favorite beat sets, ever, on Sunday in support of #awesomeinouterspace. massive love to my dear friends @_osun @quellechrist @jeanniegrigio and @emersonorr for letting me rock with y’all. and shouts to @theafr0dite for taking some dope shots. y’all give her a shout if you’ve got a gig and need someone to shoot it. catch me this Saturday at @musichallofwb supporting the homie @vacationing.
selection seven from my top ten albums list. flying lotus. ‘los angeles’. music for kids who favored ‘Kid A’ over ‘OK Computer’. revenge of the nerds on an epic scale. 2008 was a massively informative year for me. full of growth. insight. revelation. much of it because of this album and what it represented. i had moved to LA in early 2008. it was a cold move....meaning that i knew no one. having just spent a decade overseas, it was the first time i had lived in the states since i was 18 and the culture shock hit hard. stranger in a strangely familiar land. on may 25th of that year i decided to attend a day party a couple of NY and tokyo-based friends had been recommending to me. the do-over. at crane’s tavern in hollywood. sunday’s from 2pm - 10pm. if you remember that old spot, then you know it got busy early. going off of that advice, i pulled up at around 1. there was no line and some ill music was already blasting from the backyard. on the front patio, i saw @houseshoes, @black_milk, @illajyanceyboy and @guiltysimpson posted up with a bunch of other folks. then i spied @madlib and @jrocc210, off to the side, politicking and putting something in the air. history. especially given how truly fcked up the previous two years had been. post-dilla. i found my place. ID in hand, i approached the bouncer who promptly had me take two steps back before telling me that they were at capacity.....before allowing three women who were walking up behind me in, free of admission. ‘wooooord?!,’ i remember thinking. and just like that, i was introduced to an age old LA institution. the cue. this cat proceeded to build a cue off of me, while A-Lister after A-Lister passed me up without even having to show their ID. now, the do over cue was RIGHT NEXT to this patio that everyone was vibing on. i had two choices. wait and risk looking like a herb or stay, hear some dope music and maybe make a new friend or two. i chose to stay. eventually i was joined in line by this tall, lanky brotha. he had a couple of words with the bouncer and was sent to the line, right behind me. ‘welcome to the cue, my dude,’ i told him. it had already been 30 minutes, at least. purgatory. [cont. below]
playing things that i made + things that i like with friends and family. pull up. 7.8.18. 8pm-11pm. may even have a surprise or two for you. ticket info in bio.
harassment guaranteed. always. eight years ago today this little girl decided that i was cool enough to build with. one year ago today she agreed to marry me. B and i met on FaceBook, during its heyday. in that little pocket of time when MySpace was a distant memory and Instagram had yet to launch. we had both occupied the same space at a SXSW event but never met. a month later we connected as FB “friends” via my brother @blvckspvdemusic’s page. within a month we were chatting. then emailing each other. then calling. and then visiting one another. yeah....i actually sold the Fender Rhodes that i owned at the time to pay for a ticket, boarded a plane and flew up here to NYC to see this woman who i had never actually met in person. we were mad brave for that. saying yes to this relationship has been one the biggest challenges of my life. it is a choice made daily. we both believe and live in that distinction. and it’s just as rewarding as it is confronting. the breakdowns. breakups. breakthroughs. the ego outbursts. the laughs. the cries. we’ve been here for all of it and are still growing. it’s not all pretty and idyllic. but standing here, in partnership with @byggie, has proven itself to be one of the best decisions that i’ve ever made and one that i know i will never regret. again....relationship is a creation & a choice that must be revisited daily. so, in the spirit of that, i thank you for waking up and choosing me this morning, Shoops. i loves me some you.
as of late, i’ve been far more inspired [and in much better head space] being “out there” with people in the world and less “in here” on social media. and i have some exciting things in the works that require my attention. stay tuned, as i’ll share those developments soon. still, i wanted to wrap up my top ten albums before continuing my instagram hiatus. these next five posts will focus on albums that were important ‘gateways’ to entirely new musical universes for me. without further ado, i present selection six from that list. common. ‘like water for chocolate’. you can refer to my post about jay dilla’s ‘welcome 2 detroit’ to get a deeper understanding as to why this album is so important for me. all that i’ll write on it today is that this project has informed my listening for the past two decades. i seriously have not heard many albums that sound this good from beginning to end. and it solidified, for me, dilla’s greatness as an “album” producer. meaning that he was just as skilled (if not more so) at making album cuts as he was singles/bangers. not an easy thing to master. especially at a time when singles were in heavy, heavy demand. ‘nag champa’ also STILL ranks as one of my all time favorite songs and you were buggin’ if you didn’t realize how raw he was on the mic when you heard ‘thelonius’. essential listening. criterion level. the standard for anyone trying to build an album. classic. ps.....this is also the last time i seriously listened to common. no dis. this just couldn’t be topped in my humble opinion. #toptenalbums #common #likewaterforchocolate #fieldresearch
selection number five from my top ten albums list. missy elliot. ‘supa dupa fly’. released 7.15.97. that was a golden time. electronic music was going through an amazing renaissance [a ‘golden era’ if you will] and commercial hip hop was becoming a dominant force. i was living in Monroe, Louisiana and while all my peers were listening to ‘no limit’ - who seemed to be dropping an album damn near every week - i was fixated on jungle and drum & bass. specifically metalheadz, roni size/reprazent and anything from Bristol and South London. there simply was nothing like it. all these years later, the music coming from those scenes [roughly between ‘96-‘98] is still unparalleled and far ahead of most music being made now. my older brother was living in NYC and had already turned me on to timbaland’s production. aaliyah’s ‘one in a million’ had already dropped, but it was ginuwine’s ‘the bachelor’ that really caught my ear. specifically his single ‘i’ll do anything/i’m sorry’. there was something in timbaland’s drum patterns that captivated me in the same way that the UK drum & bass i was listening to had. like the tempo of a drum & bass track was chopped in half and the drum tracks were stripped down only for him to insert percussive elements around the drums, subtly making it feel like the track was moving faster than it really was. ‘supa dupa fly’ took all that to warp speed. the turnarounds every four to eight bars, the tripped up drum fills, placing the kick where the snare should hit & vice versa. and the drums. the druuuuuuummms. fatter than a marching band’s drum line. i bought this on CD and this was one of the first projects that i read the liner notes thru from beginning to end. two things were immediately clear to me. firstly, the music on this album was really a very intimate creative dialogue between timbaland + missy. secondly, i got that she was just as much of a genius [if not moreso] as timbaland was. read those credits. she flexed all over every single track. this album really wouldn’t come anywhere close to being what it is if it wasn’t for her involvement. i still go back and study this one. absolutely essential. #toptenalbums #supadupafly
selection number four from my top ten albums list. gil scott-heron & brian jackson. ‘winter in america’. as i’ve grown, i’ve found that the records that i own do, as well. much like wine, they take on new shape, form and meaning for me in my life. at 38 this album has never been more important to me than it is now. prophetic in nature, i am equal parts inspired, equal parts saddened listening to it. my heart bursts at the raw tenderness in Gil’s voice [he was at his apex] while a very real mix of gratitude, love, hope, fear and dread starts to surface for me when i begin to focus in on the messages contained within. tho ‘winter in america’ was released in May 1974 [the same year nixon resigned] i’m beyond certain that the album, in its entirety, is a perfect reflection of the time that we are living in now. a commentary on the Black condition within a land not our own, at a time when our utility - for many - has run its course. this album represents Black Love, Black Power, Black Courage, Black Strength + Black Determination for me. simple and stripped down in form, gil successfully navigates the entire spectrum of Black existence and emotion in just under forty five minutes. the peace, solidarity and kinship felt between Black men. the beauty and wonder that is Black youth. the acknowledgment of the pain that young Black women feel when their father leaves the family. the innocence and preciousness that is new love. the cunning, baffling insidious nature of addiction. and the absurdity of the politricks of the day. forty five minutes of sheer genius. the fact that a song about alcoholism, ‘the bottle’, is still a dance floor staple is indicative of how great and expansive this project is to me. even the title is an accurate description of the season that this country is in RIGHT now. and two of my favorite songs of all time - ‘a song for bobby smith’ & ‘your daddy loves you’ - are on this album. it’s not available for streaming, but the album is on YouTube in its entirety. i highly encourage you all to take a listen. prophetic, indeed. on so many levels. #toptenalbums #fieldresearch #gilscottheronandbrianjackson #winterinamerica
6.22.2018. 9-2am. no cover. pull up. get comfortable. strictly selections from the shelf. no requests. thank you to @ask4dave for the plug. thank you to @byggie for the flyer 🎨🔌 #odetobabel #fieldresearch #selector #vinyl #33rpm #45rpm
selection three from my top ten albums list. jay dee aka j dilla. ‘welcome 2 detroit’. never have i heard an album that was so easy to listen to from front to back. it’s just that good. magnum opus. all these years later, i’m still gleaning gems from it. i learned how to use silence + space from this album. how anything over five or six sounds [including the drums] was overkill. i learned to never use a drum kit + to make my own drums from this album. i learned about timing & swing from this album. and so much more. i mean....this was the album that made me really want to make beats. what’s wild, tho, is that as much of a gift that this album has been for me, with all of its discoveries + lessons, i came very close to never getting any of that. i’m not ashamed to admit that when i first heard W2D, i threw it away. well....what actually happened was i skimmed through it, ejected it and tossed it on the floor in the back of my car. i just couldn’t ‘get it’. i grew up almost exclusively on NY hip hop, m.o.p.’s ‘warriorz’ was on repeat and the Roc was six months away from executing a global takeover via jay’s ‘blueprint’. neatly packaged, commercial rap was winning and this was NOT that. it was......sloppy. almost like he didn’t know how to make beats. in hindsight, i simply didn’t know HOW to listen to his beats. while i was used to beats that made my head go up and down, dilla was making music that made your head go left to right....and a step or two off beat at that. i got ‘fantastic, vol. 2’ a couple of months later while in Japan. still couldn’t ‘get it’. and then i stumbled on ‘like water for chocolate’. i tolerated it, not knowing dilla was behind the boards and not really paying attention to it. and then one night, on the way home from masjid, it hit. like lightning. ‘nag champa’. goodness. i’d heard it at least ten times before. but this time i HEARD it. when i got home i checked the credits. ‘?uestlove....cool. preemo....word. oh yeah....thought i heard mos’ voice on that.’ my eyes kept skimming down to track 11. ‘nag champa....hmmm. jay dee. wait. jaydeejaydeejaydee. ohhhhh SHIIIIIIIIIIT. that jay dee?!!!’ [cont. below]
an interruption in my train of thought is responsible for this addition to today’s #toptenalbums contribution. well, that an @instagram‘s character count. c’mon....y’all know that this is the new FB. many of you don’t know that pharoah sanders’ ‘thembi’ was the catalyst to @byggie and i being together. back when FB was king and MySpace was an afterthought, i would post music that really meant something to me. this served two purposes. firstly, i was fresh out of the military and desperately searching for direction & connection. i had left the continental US a boy and returned a full grown, 6’0”, 230 lb. Black man who was also a military veteran trying my best to be a ‘civilian’. and i was grappling with the fact that i was in just as much [if not more] danger as i had been in Iraq because of those characteristics + experiences. secondly, my experiences in a combat zone were still very, very fresh. i was firmly in the grips of post traumatic stress disorder and had been using food & alcohol to cope with the fact that i had seen/experienced things that no human being should ever have to. music was the one healthy coping mechanism that i had in those early days of social media. it provided me with the connection that i so desperately needed. nothing is coincidence. B and i had become FB ‘friends’ only a month earlier via Black Spade. i had a particularly down day and posted a track from ‘thembi’ the following morning. now, if you know me, you know that once i’m given an opening, i’ll talk forever. i’m from the Deep South. it’s what we do. B commented that ‘thembi’ was her favorite album. comments turned into DM’s. DM’s transitioned to emails. 2,000+ word emails became texts and then eventually phone calls. and phone calls resulted in my flying to NYC to meet her in person for the first time ever. the rest is history. within a year i had moved in with her and my brother @oddisee and had enrolled in @thenewschool. again, nothing is coincidence. and the power of music is very real. forever indebted to pharoah for facilitating my greatest cosmic connection. now that’s real astral traveling, y’all. stay tuned for my third selection tomorrow. #toptenalbums #fieldresearch
selection number two of my top ten albums. pharoah sanders. ‘thembi’. essential listening. i would assert that no ‘collection’ is a collection without it on your shelves. i have two copies. one framed and the one that you see here....which i use for listening and playing out. make not mistake about it. this is probably pharoah’s finest offering. like qawwali’s and ghazal’s, i view the music on this record - like much of pharoah’s work - as devotional. it transcend jazz. cosmic communication. modern Islamic spirituals. certain cuts are almost like raga’s in their form, color and purpose. wait until late night, light some incense + candles, open a window, play ‘astral traveling’ and tell me it doesn’t put you into a state. similarly, listening to ‘morning prayer’ has an almost eerie way of awakening the senses if played while the sun is making its climb into the sky. i should know. it was the alarm that i woke up to for nearly a year straight. this entry marks pharoah’s departure from my top ten list, but i have nearly every other release of his, as well. i implore you all to study and immerse yourselves in his work as i have. also, special thanks to my brother @sinkane who made my dream of meeting and sitting with pharoah happen a few years ago. i was first in line to see him at baby’s alright in williamsburg and had to use the restroom. as i was preparing to relieve myself someone hit my shoulder. it was sinkane and he just said ‘follow me’. instead of going to the restroom, i zipped my pants up and went with him. hahaha. we went down a hall, through a curtain and he sat me down. i looked to my left and damn near burst in tears when i realized i was sitting next to pharoah. we exchanged salaams, i got to thank him for his contribution to my life and talked music a little. one of the gentlest giants that i have ever encountered. that really brought this circle complete for me and i will forever cherish that memory. thank you, Ahmed. you are a good brother for that. salaams. also, if you have never seen him perform and are in a position to do so....GO!!! pharoah truly is a living treasure. #toptenalbums #fieldresearch
dad. you know....the relationship between a father + son is a unique one. especially a black father + son. it is one that is both delicate and heavy. and ours was no different. complex with its dualism. yet strangely familiar as i have grown older. a constant ebb and flow. strength and vulnerability. love and discipline. harmony and chaos. and ever present in the background, the silent weight of the world and all of the expectations it would eventually place on me. as i’ve grown, i’ve come to understand. like a slow unraveling. retracing your footsteps and picking up the breadcrumbs you left for me. as if you imprinted your experience on mine when i was born. a roadmap. thank you for not placing it all at my feet at too young of an age. maybe you knew i wouldn’t be able to handle certain truths then. maybe you were still navigating them yourself. or maybe you knew that i would eventually have to grow and make my own decisions about my own life. whether you agreed with them or not. thank you for that. no matter how divergent our pathways, you’ve always been there. no matter what time of day or night i’ve called, you’ve always answered. and no matter how big my request, you’ve always given. thank you. your example has guided me through some of my roughest moments as i have grown. whether you know it or not. i love you. always.
time to wrap this up. selection ten from my top ten albums list. pete rock. ‘soul survivor’. wow. it’s hard to believe that in november this project will be 20 years old. this final slot in my personal top ten was a difficult selection. given that pete’s my favorite producer, i knew it would be him. but it was a toss up between this, ‘petestrumentals’ and INI’s ‘center of attention’. though i’ve recently immersed myself in streaming services, i still use my iPhone like an iPod. i constantly delete all the music on my phone and fill it up with what i call ‘study material’. deep listening. beat lessons. all these years later, i still return to those greats who first inspired me to try my hand at production. pete sits at the top of that pantheon for me. he just SOUNDS new york to me. his music sounds like how i envisioned this city to be long, long before i ever set foot in it. big. busy. horns blaring. sometimes subtle. other times abrasive. little bits of atmospheric ambience floating in the background. with a real, recognizable tension cutting through it all. frank. in your face. pulling no punches. that’s real new york for me. rock you to sleep if you ain’t careful. how i always dreamed it was. how i dream it’ll be again some day. i revisited pete’s work a while back and bumped everything of his i had for damn near a year. exclusive tapes like ‘more petestrumentals’ that i ripped off of youtube. classic albums of his and those that he produced. it was a deeper study than i ever had before. timeless. the influence he had on dilla and so many others is unmistakable. i miss SP-1200 pete but am just as happy that he’s still creating, whatever the machine. it encourages me that he’s still at it. still digging. still cooking up that raw. salute @realpeterock. still hope to make it to the basement one day. enjoy this if you haven’t heard it. cop that vinyl if you haven’t yet. it’s a true classic. up next is my top ten producers list. hope you enjoyed this one. bless. #peterock #chocolateboywonder #soulsurvivor #toptenalbums
time to wrap this up. selection ten from my top ten albums list. pete rock. ‘soul survivor’. wow. it’s hard to believe that in november this project will be 20 years old. this final slot in my personal top ten was a difficult selection. given that pete’s my favorite producer, i knew it would be him. but it was a toss up between this, ‘petestrumentals’ and INI’s ‘center of attention’. though i’ve recently immersed myself in streaming services, i still use my iPhone like an iPod. i constantly delete all the music on my phone and fill it up with what i call ‘study material’. deep listening. beat lessons. all these years later, i still return to those greats who first inspired me to try my hand at production. pete sits at the top of that pantheon for me. he just SOUNDS new york to me. his music sounds like how i envisioned this city to be long, long before i ever set foot in it. big. busy. horns blaring. sometimes subtle. other times abrasive. little bits of atmospheric ambience floating in the background. with a real, recognizable tension cutting through it all. frank. in your face. pulling no punches. that’s real new york for me. rock you to sleep if you ain’t careful. how i always dreamed it was. how i dream it’ll be again some day. i revisited pete’s work a while back and bumped everything of his i had for damn near a year. exclusive tapes like ‘more petestrumentals’ that i ripped off of youtube. classic albums of his and those that he produced. it was a deeper study than i ever had before. timeless. the influence he had on dilla and so many others is unmistakable. i miss SP-1200 pete but am just as happy that he’s still creating, whatever the machine. it encourages me that he’s still at it. still digging. still cooking up that raw. salute @realpeterock. still hope to make it to the basement one day. enjoy this if you haven’t heard it. cop that vinyl if you haven’t yet. it’s a true classic. up next is my top ten producers list. hope you enjoyed this one. bless. #peterock #chocolateboywonder #soulsurvivor #toptenalbums
playing with some incredibly talented folks this weekend at @nublunyc. i’m especially honored because this will mark the launch of a new DJ & production school that some dear friends of mine have been working so hard on. pull up. special thanks to @pushing_buttons_collective. 👊🏾✊🏾✌🏾❤️ #Repost @makemusicemc ・・・ We are pleased to partner with Nublu to present a music production and live performance workshop featuring keyboardist and producer, @markdeclivelowe followed by an after party with special guests from @pushing_buttons_collective and DJ @chrisannibell on July 21st! Details in flyer, link in bio. Workshop and party are FREE with workshop RSVP and attendance at 8pm.
playing with some incredibly talented folks this weekend at @nublunyc. i’m especially honored because this will mark the launch of a new DJ & production school that some dear friends of mine have been working so hard on. pull up. special thanks to @pushing_buttons_collective. 👊🏾✊🏾✌🏾❤️ #Repost @makemusicemc ・・・ We are pleased to partner with Nublu to present a music production and live performance workshop featuring keyboardist and producer, @markdeclivelowe followed by an after party with special guests from @pushing_buttons_collective and DJ @chrisannibell on July 21st! Details in flyer, link in bio. Workshop and party are FREE with workshop RSVP and attendance at 8pm.
finally playing @thelessongk and doing so alongside some dear friends. pull up. set starts at 11:30. #Repost @rabbidarkside ・・・ This week @thelessongk is simultaneously bi-coastal! While the band is crushing in L.A. at @thesatellitela (swipe left for details) we’re flipping the script in NYC for a very special night featuring DJs, Producers & Beatbox at @arlenesgrocery (and bonus: I’ll be celebrating my bornday!) Extremely hype to be joined on the decks/mic by the inimitable @raydarles. We’ll be featuring neck-snapping showcases from music magicians @malikabdulrahmaan @atellerwho @amitbeats. Emcees/singers/vocalists: there’ll be cyphers with the beats/beatbox and DJ’d instrumentals. This is gonna be a fluid night of flow, freestyle, dancing and high vibrations. Come thru, tune in, turn up. #thelessonnyc #nycevents #nychiphop #thelessongk #thankhiphop #hiphopelements #producers #beatmakers #beatbox #thebeatboxhouse #emceelife #djlife #les #lowereastside #spreadlove
finally playing @thelessongk and doing so alongside some dear friends. pull up. set starts at 11:30. #Repost @rabbidarkside ・・・ This week @thelessongk is simultaneously bi-coastal! While the band is crushing in L.A. at @thesatellitela (swipe left for details) we’re flipping the script in NYC for a very special night featuring DJs, Producers & Beatbox at @arlenesgrocery (and bonus: I’ll be celebrating my bornday!) Extremely hype to be joined on the decks/mic by the inimitable @raydarles. We’ll be featuring neck-snapping showcases from music magicians @malikabdulrahmaan @atellerwho @amitbeats. Emcees/singers/vocalists: there’ll be cyphers with the beats/beatbox and DJ’d instrumentals. This is gonna be a fluid night of flow, freestyle, dancing and high vibrations. Come thru, tune in, turn up. #thelessonnyc #nycevents #nychiphop #thelessongk #thankhiphop #hiphopelements #producers #beatmakers #beatbox #thebeatboxhouse #emceelife #djlife #les #lowereastside #spreadlove
boost + barbara. #hellogorgeous #greenroom
boost + barbara. #hellogorgeous #greenroom
selection nine from my top ten albums list. sun ra and his arkestra. ‘greatest hits: easy listening for intergalactic travel’. i’m a sucker for a good compilation. especially when it is apparent that someone else has done the scholarly research needed to adequately inform listeners who are immersing themselves in a catalog as immense as sun ra’s. it took me nearly eight years to even begin to understand his compositions. back in 2001 i copped ‘space is the place’ off of a recommendation. it was a hard listen, to say the least. really, i hated it. it was....noise. no form. no groove. little rhythm. or so i thought. i was 21 and because my ears were deeper than my peers’, i thought i knew good music. i eventually traded it for a donald byrd record, as i was just learning about the greatness of the mizell brothers. sun ra was a whole other ship. i did keep a handful of CDs of his that i bought at the same time, though. this was one of them. i heard SOMEthing in his music. but i realize now that i needed an entry point into his catalog. some kind of anchor. being an aspiring beatmaker, i was a student of swing. loved swing. and, man, could sun ra SWING! dilla had insane swing too. his own signature. sonic DNA i dubbed it. his sense of timing was....off. always a stutter-step or two off of where you would expect the downbeat to land. late, almost. pre-ableton hi-hats that would drift off time and get itself together prior to the loop coming back around. or sometimes not. kicks that would eff your whole head nod up. i recognized that in sun ra’s work.....but with an added ten different dimensions to it that i couldn’t comprehend. after dilla passed, @common referred to him as the john coltrane of our time. it wasn’t until i heard madlib’s ‘movie scenes’ volumes 1 & 2 that i realized that he was the sun ra of our time. and that’s when i [thankfully] reached back to that stack of CDs to begin connecting the dots and began the work of recognizing sun ra’s influence on his work and approach. and so, madlib was my gateway into understanding + respecting sun ra’s work. [cont. below] @nublunyc @nublui #toptenalbums #sunra #arkestra #easylisteningforintergalactictravel
selection nine from my top ten albums list. sun ra and his arkestra. ‘greatest hits: easy listening for intergalactic travel’. i’m a sucker for a good compilation. especially when it is apparent that someone else has done the scholarly research needed to adequately inform listeners who are immersing themselves in a catalog as immense as sun ra’s. it took me nearly eight years to even begin to understand his compositions. back in 2001 i copped ‘space is the place’ off of a recommendation. it was a hard listen, to say the least. really, i hated it. it was....noise. no form. no groove. little rhythm. or so i thought. i was 21 and because my ears were deeper than my peers’, i thought i knew good music. i eventually traded it for a donald byrd record, as i was just learning about the greatness of the mizell brothers. sun ra was a whole other ship. i did keep a handful of CDs of his that i bought at the same time, though. this was one of them. i heard SOMEthing in his music. but i realize now that i needed an entry point into his catalog. some kind of anchor. being an aspiring beatmaker, i was a student of swing. loved swing. and, man, could sun ra SWING! dilla had insane swing too. his own signature. sonic DNA i dubbed it. his sense of timing was....off. always a stutter-step or two off of where you would expect the downbeat to land. late, almost. pre-ableton hi-hats that would drift off time and get itself together prior to the loop coming back around. or sometimes not. kicks that would eff your whole head nod up. i recognized that in sun ra’s work.....but with an added ten different dimensions to it that i couldn’t comprehend. after dilla passed, @common referred to him as the john coltrane of our time. it wasn’t until i heard madlib’s ‘movie scenes’ volumes 1 & 2 that i realized that he was the sun ra of our time. and that’s when i [thankfully] reached back to that stack of CDs to begin connecting the dots and began the work of recognizing sun ra’s influence on his work and approach. and so, madlib was my gateway into understanding + respecting sun ra’s work. [cont. below] @nublunyc @nublui #toptenalbums #sunra #arkestra #easylisteningforintergalactictravel
time to wrap this up. selection eight from my top ten albums list. madlib. ‘beat konducta: movies scenes, vol. 1-2’. i first came to know about madlib back in 2001, when yesterday’s new quintet’s ‘angles without edges’ dropped. shouts to @questlove on the @okayplayer message boards for pluggin’ that. that album, by the way, nearly made this list. it took me this long - since my previous post - to decide between the two. narrowing down any kind of selection out of madlib’s body of work is damn near impossible. it’s that massive. from the lootpack and quasimoto works. to the dj rels project. to madvillain and ‘shades of blue’. to new yesterday’s new quintet and all of it’s various iterations.....the last electro-acoustic space jazz & percussion ensemble is my favorite, btw. to jaylib. to ‘beat konducta in india’ and far, far beyond. if there was one project that i’d have to settle on that best represented madlib’s work for me, it’d have to be this one. though i owned several of his projects, this was the one that helped me to really understand his approach. which was that there wasn’t one. it was a free expression. well, about as free of an expression that a hip hop producer could have. i traveled for a couple of weeks through Singapore with this CD [only] when it first dropped. dilla has just passed a couple of months before. donuts had dropped, and i needed a break from it. honestly, i was having a hard time understanding it. by the time i returned, my thinking around production was completely rearranged. i had a much more complete understanding of ‘donuts’ and where dilla was headed before he passed. and i understood how truly important [and crucial] madlib was in all of that. i’m convinced now that dilla moved to LA for the weather, the trees and to be closer to him. and i’ve been convinced that madlib is the greatest producer alive. easily in my top three. i may just give that list a run next. anyways....about to head into the city, bumping this all the way. hope that you enjoy this one as much as i have. #toptenalbums #mablib #thebeatkonducta
time to wrap this up. selection eight from my top ten albums list. madlib. ‘beat konducta: movies scenes, vol. 1-2’. i first came to know about madlib back in 2001, when yesterday’s new quintet’s ‘angles without edges’ dropped. shouts to @questlove on the @okayplayer message boards for pluggin’ that. that album, by the way, nearly made this list. it took me this long - since my previous post - to decide between the two. narrowing down any kind of selection out of madlib’s body of work is damn near impossible. it’s that massive. from the lootpack and quasimoto works. to the dj rels project. to madvillain and ‘shades of blue’. to new yesterday’s new quintet and all of it’s various iterations.....the last electro-acoustic space jazz & percussion ensemble is my favorite, btw. to jaylib. to ‘beat konducta in india’ and far, far beyond. if there was one project that i’d have to settle on that best represented madlib’s work for me, it’d have to be this one. though i owned several of his projects, this was the one that helped me to really understand his approach. which was that there wasn’t one. it was a free expression. well, about as free of an expression that a hip hop producer could have. i traveled for a couple of weeks through Singapore with this CD [only] when it first dropped. dilla has just passed a couple of months before. donuts had dropped, and i needed a break from it. honestly, i was having a hard time understanding it. by the time i returned, my thinking around production was completely rearranged. i had a much more complete understanding of ‘donuts’ and where dilla was headed before he passed. and i understood how truly important [and crucial] madlib was in all of that. i’m convinced now that dilla moved to LA for the weather, the trees and to be closer to him. and i’ve been convinced that madlib is the greatest producer alive. easily in my top three. i may just give that list a run next. anyways....about to head into the city, bumping this all the way. hope that you enjoy this one as much as i have. #toptenalbums #mablib #thebeatkonducta
big love out of denmark 🇩🇰. @yathoughtineverdoit fell thru to meet up after my set at @cmoneverybodybk this past Sunday with a bag filled with these goodies. he told me that when he let some of his folks back in copenhagen know that he’d be linking up with me during his trip here, they passed him their projects to give to me. alhamdulillah. i’m really honored to know that my music has the ability to resonate with people so far away. it’s been many years since i’ve been to købehavn and i sincerely hope that through my music i’ll be able to eventually return.
big love out of denmark 🇩🇰. @yathoughtineverdoit fell thru to meet up after my set at @cmoneverybodybk this past Sunday with a bag filled with these goodies. he told me that when he let some of his folks back in copenhagen know that he’d be linking up with me during his trip here, they passed him their projects to give to me. alhamdulillah. i’m really honored to know that my music has the ability to resonate with people so far away. it’s been many years since i’ve been to købehavn and i sincerely hope that through my music i’ll be able to eventually return.
played one of my favorite beat sets, ever, on Sunday in support of #awesomeinouterspace. massive love to my dear friends @_osun @quellechrist @jeanniegrigio and @emersonorr for letting me rock with y’all. and shouts to @theafr0dite for taking some dope shots. y’all give her a shout if you’ve got a gig and need someone to shoot it. catch me this Saturday at @musichallofwb supporting the homie @vacationing.
played one of my favorite beat sets, ever, on Sunday in support of #awesomeinouterspace. massive love to my dear friends @_osun @quellechrist @jeanniegrigio and @emersonorr for letting me rock with y’all. and shouts to @theafr0dite for taking some dope shots. y’all give her a shout if you’ve got a gig and need someone to shoot it. catch me this Saturday at @musichallofwb supporting the homie @vacationing.
i have some awesome friends who make awesome music and awesome videos like this....which totally lifted my spirits today! come through to check out @quellechrist @emersonorr @_osun and myself at @cmoneverybodybk tomorrow night. link for tickets are in my bio. #awesomeinouterspace
selection seven from my top ten albums list. flying lotus. ‘los angeles’. music for kids who favored ‘Kid A’ over ‘OK Computer’. revenge of the nerds on an epic scale. 2008 was a massively informative year for me. full of growth. insight. revelation. much of it because of this album and what it represented. i had moved to LA in early 2008. it was a cold move....meaning that i knew no one. having just spent a decade overseas, it was the first time i had lived in the states since i was 18 and the culture shock hit hard. stranger in a strangely familiar land. on may 25th of that year i decided to attend a day party a couple of NY and tokyo-based friends had been recommending to me. the do-over. at crane’s tavern in hollywood. sunday’s from 2pm - 10pm. if you remember that old spot, then you know it got busy early. going off of that advice, i pulled up at around 1. there was no line and some ill music was already blasting from the backyard. on the front patio, i saw @houseshoes, @black_milk, @illajyanceyboy and @guiltysimpson posted up with a bunch of other folks. then i spied @madlib and @jrocc210, off to the side, politicking and putting something in the air. history. especially given how truly fcked up the previous two years had been. post-dilla. i found my place. ID in hand, i approached the bouncer who promptly had me take two steps back before telling me that they were at capacity.....before allowing three women who were walking up behind me in, free of admission. ‘wooooord?!,’ i remember thinking. and just like that, i was introduced to an age old LA institution. the cue. this cat proceeded to build a cue off of me, while A-Lister after A-Lister passed me up without even having to show their ID. now, the do over cue was RIGHT NEXT to this patio that everyone was vibing on. i had two choices. wait and risk looking like a herb or stay, hear some dope music and maybe make a new friend or two. i chose to stay. eventually i was joined in line by this tall, lanky brotha. he had a couple of words with the bouncer and was sent to the line, right behind me. ‘welcome to the cue, my dude,’ i told him. it had already been 30 minutes, at least. purgatory. [cont. below]
selection seven from my top ten albums list. flying lotus. ‘los angeles’. music for kids who favored ‘Kid A’ over ‘OK Computer’. revenge of the nerds on an epic scale. 2008 was a massively informative year for me. full of growth. insight. revelation. much of it because of this album and what it represented. i had moved to LA in early 2008. it was a cold move....meaning that i knew no one. having just spent a decade overseas, it was the first time i had lived in the states since i was 18 and the culture shock hit hard. stranger in a strangely familiar land. on may 25th of that year i decided to attend a day party a couple of NY and tokyo-based friends had been recommending to me. the do-over. at crane’s tavern in hollywood. sunday’s from 2pm - 10pm. if you remember that old spot, then you know it got busy early. going off of that advice, i pulled up at around 1. there was no line and some ill music was already blasting from the backyard. on the front patio, i saw @houseshoes, @black_milk, @illajyanceyboy and @guiltysimpson posted up with a bunch of other folks. then i spied @madlib and @jrocc210, off to the side, politicking and putting something in the air. history. especially given how truly fcked up the previous two years had been. post-dilla. i found my place. ID in hand, i approached the bouncer who promptly had me take two steps back before telling me that they were at capacity.....before allowing three women who were walking up behind me in, free of admission. ‘wooooord?!,’ i remember thinking. and just like that, i was introduced to an age old LA institution. the cue. this cat proceeded to build a cue off of me, while A-Lister after A-Lister passed me up without even having to show their ID. now, the do over cue was RIGHT NEXT to this patio that everyone was vibing on. i had two choices. wait and risk looking like a herb or stay, hear some dope music and maybe make a new friend or two. i chose to stay. eventually i was joined in line by this tall, lanky brotha. he had a couple of words with the bouncer and was sent to the line, right behind me. ‘welcome to the cue, my dude,’ i told him. it had already been 30 minutes, at least. purgatory. [cont. below]

 

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