Its the beginning of March here in Toronto (actually, its probably the beginning of March in the whole world) and the weather is unseasonably warm. To celebrate, I ate lunch on a patio.
Is this the beginning of summer? I hope so, and to get in the mood I’ve been listening to these smart Beach Boys remixes.
It’s not everyday that a Chicago DJ emails you to tell you that your write-up on Juke was great and that he’s stoked that the music he loves has reached such a global level:
“I think that juke will not end up like a flash in the pan style of music since there is a huge culture that is tied in with it (foot working, Midwest Loyalty, etc)…nothing is more diversifying and mass appealing as Juke music, its all about the rhythm and booty shakin’, and lets face it, fotworkin’ is exciting to watch!”
I don’t really know what he’s on about “midwest loyalty, but his name is STARFOXXX, and he also dropped me some choice Juke cuts. Check ‘em below and file them under Partying All The Time:
I pretty much spent all of last Saturday ballin’ in a nice hotel room drinking champagne and watching BET with my special lady. When the video for Rich Boy’s “Throw Some Ds” came on a few times, I was hooked.
Just listen to it: Nothing says celebrating success by spending obscene amounts of money on novelty rims for your car. He isn’t out to change the world, or rap about how he feels. He just wants people to know how much he has to throw down on car accessories.
The best line of the song is when he says that the reason for not putting tint on the windows is so that those motherfuckers can see its him driving.
Say what you will about his music, you’d at least think a guy spending that much money on car accessories would invest a little green in the design of his MySpace page.
No, actually you know what? A guy ballin’ as hard as Rich Boy probably doesn’t care about his MySpace page. Not when he’s so busy Tweeting as Cartier Benjamin.
(And while you’re peeping his Tweets, check out 199X on Twitter)
Reading DummyMag’s love letter to Chicago Juke didn’t help matters. Pure Juke lives in the bedroom production studios and gymnasium dance-offs of Chicago’s high school kids. It’s constantly changing, and while it might just be a cultural blip it’s one that I can’t get enough of right now. Being a white guy in Canada probably means that I won’t ever even get real juke, either - just the scraps that I can pick up off the interwebs. And nothing says juke scraps like that Die Antwoord track, a Dutch/South African electro jam re-worked by a Prague-based DJ.
Catch these juke tracks, and don’t ever confuse them with jook music: the latter is from Trigga City, the former from the Chi (am I allowed to refer to those cities like that?).
I have no idea what to think about Die Antwoord - they’ve got samurai swords and ninjas (I mean, the front man’s name is Ninja!), breathy female vocals and amazing electro beats. But there’s something about them that just doesn’t seem right, and I think that’s part of the appeal - you just don’t know what is really going on. Even their website makes it hard to find out more.
Ninja reminds me of a skinny white guy I used to work construction with who had tattooed the words “Thug Life” and a dragon ripping through his flesh on his chest all by himself. The style was exactly like Ninja’s - a little shaky, and you’re glad he didn’t go for anything more complicated.
But listening to the Die Antwoord’s music and watching their videos, you should be glad he did go for Yo-Landi Vi$$er. Wikipedia says they’re married, but Wikipedia could say anything and who cares as long as she keeps balancing Ninja’s hard raps.
Rounding out the trio is DJ HI-Tek, his hat is awesome.
I don’t really know what role Leon Botha plays in the band beyond artistic support, but he’s one of the elements of Die Antwoord that you leave you with more questions than answers, and affirms the fact that their style is “UFO.”
Gotta Dance Dirty is one of my favorite blogs these days. That’s partly because they post some great tracks, and partly because they’ve got such a great header image on their site. I mean just look at it: King Tut rockin’ some sweet shades with a disco-ball background. Some over there has some serious design skillz.
Here are a couple of my faves that I’ve picked up from them over the past few months
At first glance, Dr Hollywood and The Girls Can Hear Us come across as pretty similar -they both produce totally danceable, electro-rap and they pretty much look like the same guys in their promo shots.
I guess the major difference is that while Dr. Hollywood is from the sunshine state, The Girls Can Hear Us rep London, Ontario.
Although I’ve been listening to that We Run LA track on my iPod almost non-stop this week, I think The Girls Can Hear Us edge them out for having also done a remix of Wouldn’t It Be Nice
You gotta hand it to Adult Swim. First they brought us the Mouse & The Mask, an album by MF Doom and Dangermouse that was heavily influenced by Aqua Teen Hunger Force and other adult swim shows. And now they’ve dropped ATL RMX on us, a free album featuring southern hip-hop tracks remixed by electro artists. Young Jeezy? Check. Young Dro? Check. Two (count ‘em) Li’l Jon tracks on the mix? Check.
