MMM good

Today is Music Monday Madness in the world of Twitter. Some people get THIRSTY, posting on there every 5 minutes (there should be a 'only 3 tweets an hour rule' I think) so instead of doing that, here are some links I think you would enjoy:



I blogged about Maluca before, she's a Dominicana down with Diplo's Mad Decent (who produces M.I.A.). I like her stuff a lot. This is a remix by Sticky K (yeah, i dont know who that is either) but seems that dance music producers are steady cultivating Afro-Dominican rhythms and understand how great they sound mixed with dance beats (you can download the remix of 'Tigeraso' for FREE)

What Juanes did in Cuba is ______. Words can't describe it, it was incredible. There is not a place in the world where music flows through the streets like Havana. En la Havana, after the concert, the audience dispersed back to their homes singing a little ditty to los Cubanos en Miami that tried (and failed) to stop this momentous concert:



Dubstep. what the 'ell is it? Take the best parts of Jungle (drum n bass, whatever you want to call it), Dance, Trance (very little parts of Trance thankfully) and Dub and then crank up the bass to let's say 23. It can't just wobble, the bass has to throttle you so hard you have to hold on to something. I exaggerate of course, but check out Caspa and the first lady of Bass Star Eyes (don't look at me like that girl haha) on the decks here

WWBT? (What would Basquiat think?)

I saw a tweet from this cool designer/DJ named Kesh where she stated that Basquiat is basically rolling over in his grave because Reebok has a deal with the Basquiat estate to produce sneakers inspired by his artwork. These new designs are a lot better than the original incarnation, but that's not what this post is about.

Kesh made me think, would Basquiat be pissed if he knew about Reebok doing this? I am not so sure. First off, back in the 80s these types of deals were VERY rare so I don't think he would have been offered anything like this back then. But for argument's sake, let's say Adidas would have approached him in his heyday. What would Basquiat have done?

I think Jean Michel takes the deal. He would do it because he was a hip hop head as much as he was an art world darling (he produced a hip hop single called "beat bop" and was inspired by graffiti initially). But he would find a way to add his particular nuance to it, and Adidas (Reebok was too small back then to make such an offer) would either be cool with it or walk away (i.e. write adidas somewhere on the sneaker and cross it out. these days, they would maybe be cool with that; back then they would bounce).

What if he would still be alive? Part of me thinks he would not do it. Just because he wouldn't have to. His rightful place in art history would be established and in my opinion he would have already moved on to making movies and more music (this is if he would have been able to kick the heroin.)

But another part of me says he most definitely would, for the same reason I outlined in the previous article. Everyone is making these types of deals. when is the last time something like this was even considered "selling out"? It no longer is, for better or worse.

I consider Basquiat my idol, so when Reebok comes out with sneakers and Uniqlo comes out with t shirts, it would be easy to dismiss it. But his legacy does not belong to me, it should belong to everyone. The more people know about his genius, the merrier in my humble opinion.

Summerstage preview

Summerstage, NYC's premiere outdoor concert series, is back again. Starting June 5th. Yeah, I was a little skeptical too, the past years have not been stellar. I forgot if i even went to ANY concert last year. But when I saw the lineup , I was kinda feeling it.

Friday June 5-TV on the Radio
I really like this Brooklyn band, saw them opening up for Massive Attack at the Hollywood Bowl. I am very picky about my rock music, and TOTR is smart, funky, and they rock out!

Friday June 19-Gabriel Iglesias
Latino comedy usually doesn't get too far past jokes about our upbringing, racism, and machismo. Iglesias is one of my favorite comics cause he mines other subjects (including his weight) to make us laugh. One of his funniest bits is about calling his equally overweight girlfriend in the middle of the night and asking her what she's doing. She replies, "Na-thing.... Baking."

Sunday July 5-Les Nubians
What's the best way to celebrate July 4th? With the best Afro-French R&B duo on the planet lol. I really wish I knew what they were saying, but they sure sound great saying it.

Saturday July 11-Los Fabulosos Cadillacs
I have a confession to make: going out clubbing has made me hate Los Fabulosos (a little). Why? Because these clueless DJs don't know any other Latin rock song other than 'Matador,' so they run that song and run that song every freaking time! Are you kidding me? Los Fabulosos broke up for a while so they have not been around these parts in a while, so I will go check them out. They are a superb group and they have other, better songs (check out Vasos Vacios and Fabulosos Calavera).

Saturday July 18-Q Tip
Do I really need to say more? A legend, y'all. An incredible lyricist part of one of the illest crews of all time (Tribe called quest). Not a HUGE fan of his solo work, so hopefully he will be taking us on an Award Tour and will be leaving the Vivrant thing at home.

Sunday July 19-Lee "Scratch" Perry & Dubblestandart
Speaking of legends, the incomparable Lee Perry will be performing the day after Q Tip.
I am a big fan of dub, I love listening to it on my iPod, not really big on going to a club to hear someone spin it. Maybe if I were a bigger drinker. But I digress, I can't wait to see Lee on stage. It is gonna be a crazy experience.

Saturday August 8-Boys Noize, Drop the Lime
I have heard a lot about Boys Noize, but the peeps that will make me trek to Central Park are Drop the Lime. These guys are insane DJs. They spin wicked, bass HEAVY (notice how I capitalized the heavy) dance music. They usually do a deep house day, kinda cool they are flipping the script by dropping the lime.

nothing Maluca about this...

I am exposed to a lot of music, not a lot of it makes me glad i was sitting down 'cause if i were listening to it i would have fallen back. Maluca's music did this to me. She is off the GANCHO! (here is where I try to be slick with the description, check it): imagine kerubanda stuck in an elevator with diplo (who's label Maluca is on) and said elevator is stuck between floors. everyone gets agitated, but instead of resorting to fighting, they start making tracks. people that know me know i love merengue tipico as much as i love dance music so this was like the Knicks beating the Lakers for the NBA finals to me. really, Maluca had me going WOW, and thats just off one track on her myspace

Crash and Daze exhibit

Two legends in the world of graffiti, Crash and Daze, have an exhibition starting tomorrow at Adhoc Art (49 Bogart Street Buzzer 22, Unit 1G Brooklyn, NY 11206). Although they have collaborated in the past, each one of these artists has kept their distinct styly. Daze harkens back to old school NYC, with images of trains and the city amongst his letters. Crash's artwork exists in an other world entirely, one created by pop art and cartoon imagery. Should be an interesting show.

A short hip house documentary

This is something someone I follow on Twitter posted (I think it was the dude from crookers, see post at bottom). Whether hip house was created in Chicago or NYC is debatable, what isn't up for debate is that it WAS going to be the next big thing. Certain factors lead to its downfall, not unlike freestyle the sound started to become stale, but the biggest thing that killed hip house IMO was the hip hop community's homophobia. To hip hop, anything associated with house music = gay. So incredible collabos never happened and there was no support on the hip hop end of things (most househeads are also hip hop fans, so the problem was not on them). This myopic thinking never let hip house get off the ground, it's a damn shame.

freschezza

ITALIA! ac milan, mario brothers, danilo gallinari and now crookers! dance music and italy don't really have too much of a history (besides some italo-disco that came out a while back) but this DJ twosome from Milan is gonna be historic. download their fader mix here. the track "where's my money"is as sinister as dick cheney waterboarding in guantanamo bay, you HAVE to hear it!