Christmas is here again?! What's fresh from Santa's grotto?

Christmas shopping for B-Boy can all be done online if you know what's hot. Here's my list of what's happening in hip hop gear. I'll be updating it when I add more to my Wants List. (This post is for Christian in Munich who complained that I don't post often enough. Ja! I know!)

MHI x UNDFTD x adidas original
These sweet kicks will have you burning up the pavement no matter how cold it gets outside. My favorite urban camo outfitter, Maharishi, has teamed up with west coast California sneaker purveyor Undefeated to release this limited version of the ZX5000 running shoe and (Kareem Abdul-) Jabbar basketball sneaker. Expect to pay US$160-170 if you can find them. Being re-stocked this month at MHI.

Adidas ZX5000 · DPM: Disruptive Court Print (source: MHI)

ADIDAS JABBAR MID. Adidas Jabbar Mid DPM: Disruptive Court Pattern (source: MHI)

See these shoes in action in this adidas Consortium video.



Tupacsquiat hip hop pop art
I discovered Naturel, a Washington D.C. native and hip hop fan, a bit late. But, thanks to 1xRun I was able to check out Naturel's whole Tupacsquiat series. 1xRun has been upping the game for limited edition prints from lesser known artists to others who have earned their collectible status. Read more about Naturel here with a great interview published by Hypetrak.

Tupacsquiat series, Naturel (source: 1xRun)

"When I started this project a few weeks ago, I thought the whole Tupac and Basquait idea would be a cool little mash up, but then I started to realize that these two had very similar lives and careers. I realized that both Tupac and Basquiat were very crude in their craft. Tupac wasn’t necessarily the best lyricist, he didn’t construct the best songs, but they were straight to the point. The crudeness, honesty and the instinct within those songs struck a chord. It was the same thing with Basquait, he wasn’t the most painterly of painters, but he was so instinctual that it embodied what it was to be an artist. Straight from the gut, straight from the heart. 

This piece is a visual rendition of what you feel when you hear Pac’s music. It has more song titles, various quotes and a few lyrics throughout. Basquiat had a few paintings with boxers and he would create these boxers flyers where he would refer back to old infamous black boxers. It was the same thing with Tupac, he was close with a lot of boxers and fighters. The night that he was shot he was at the MGM wanting Mike Tyson fight, that’s the figure in the middle there. There’s a few lyrical references, the car with the rose in front of it, that’s the car that he was in, which kind of goes back to Hail Mail with “do you wanna ride or die?” There’s a reference to Thug Passion with Alize + Cristal. There’s a bunch of different tattoos in there, “Only God Can Judge Me” and “My only fear of death is coming back reincarnated” " Naturel 

"Zulu Rainin' Hell" mix by Jimmy, mixtape on vinyl
You can get this limited vinyl pressing from Cut Chemist here. Cut Chemist and DJ Shadow have been touring this year in the US and now Europe with Afrika Bambaataa's crate of sureshot beats and drumboxes to show you how the origins of hip hop got formed. That show in LA was high energy.

Zulu Rainin' Hell mix by Jimmy, Afrika Bambaataa (source: Cut Chemist)

"Parallel to the Renegades of Rhythm Tour where Cut Chemist and DJ Shadow pay tribute to Afrika Bambaataa by playing directly from his legendary record collection, Cut Chemist dropped the timely "Mix By Jimmy," available now for the first time and on VINYL ONLY by Boo-Hooray. 

"Take a peak into the exclusive material from hip hop pioneer DJ Afrika Bambaataa. 'Mix By Jimmy' features recordings Bambaataa had pressed to acetate for spinning live at shows in the late 70's and early 80's. This mix includes entirely unreleased material along with demo versions of hits like "Looking For The Perfect Beat," "Renegades of Funk" and "Planet Rock."

Listen and take a trip through the deepest part of the most important music collection of our time." Cut Chemist

Afrika Bambaataa, Cornell University and DJs Shadow and Cut Chemist

WOW! This is epic! DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist are hitting Southern California next week with Afrika Bambaataa's vinyl record collection! Imagine hearing Bambaataa's sureshot beats (aka his killer jams) played on turntables just like the block party jams Bambaataa rocked in the '70s and '80s!? We're gonna witness the foundation of hip hop, California Style!

All rise for Bambaataa, the Master of Records, founder of the Universal Zulu Nation and legendary hip hop recording artist!

And Bambaataa's still making history by doing what no other hip hop DJ has done...EVER! Before letting Messrs. Shadow and Chemist touch his prized record collection, Bambaataa opened up his humongous and pioneering record collection to the public.

Imagine the DJ behind 1983's Death Mix sharing all his musical dope with you?! YES, Bambaataa gave 638 boxes of vinyl records to the archives at Cornell University (big up Ivy League $$!) This is the same archive that Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation document is stored!

Cornell University Library Annex (source: Fuse TV) 

"My mother bought that first 200 [records] and I came with all the other 1000s. I used to buy the different funk groups like the great Sly and Family Stone, the god James Brown...I was crazy about Curtis Mayfield...on the rock side it was Credance Clearwater Revival and Grand Funk Railroad and the Rolling Stones.  

It was more about picking out different sounds than I was hearing on the radio and what I wanted to play for my audience...taking them on a musical journey. My audience used to always look for something wild to be played at the party. I might play Bo Diddly... Pink Panther...

I didn't get too competitive with myself as I already had more grooves than everybody out there and other DJs were trying to find out what songs Bambaataa was playing. If I seen a certain [album] cover I knew if it looked like a Polydor Records or if looked like Columbia Records...I could hear a certain sound or the way a person was singing...that's what made the fun out of digging in the crates and researching the records you want." Afrika Bambaataa, Universal Zulu Nation.

"This is the record collection that invented hip hop. This is the place that people will want to go to get the clearest understanding of how this culture began. We are preserving this stuff...but for future generations. 

You can see the diversity of Bambaataa's record collection. That's one of the biggest hallmarks of Afrika Bambaata who was originally known as the 'Master of Records.' We like it when the [record] jacket is all beat up. You can tell he played this record alot. 

When you look at the span of music [and] the knowledge Afrika Bambaataa has as a DJ that influencing the music he produced himself but influencing others to produce is here. He's the one that taught us how to rock a crowd. He's the one who taught us that we should play a variety of music. 

Some of Bam's records are still in these travel cases, never unpacked from particular trips. So records inside of these cases...will never separated from these boxes because these are actual sets that he created for particular point for a particular purpose. 

We got 638 boxes in the Bam archives...we have separated out some of the heavily annotated records from Bam's archived. This box was labelled "Zulu Sure Shots" so these would be records that Bambaataa himself would've annotated with "Zulu Nation," "Funky," a lot of them say, "Sure Shot" on them! You can see his rating system here and these are the songs he likes. Obviously, he's blocked out the label as everybody know [as] back in the days DJs would obscure what they were playing so other that other DJs could not gather the intell...." Ben Ortiz, assistant curator, Cornell Hip Hop Collection.

Afrika Bambaataa's ZULU SURE SHOTs




Diggin' in the crates

You have to get the DJ Dusk Root Down Sound Clash DVD

Since I'm late discovering Mochilla's work, I know there are others who don't know about this duo so I thought it was only right to mention the ill "DJ Dusk's Root Down Soundclash" DVD.

You've probably heard of The Rootdown club in Los Angeles which was founded by Music Man Miles of Breakestra fame which regularly hosted funky parties. Back in 2001, a few years before I moved to the city, The Rootdown put on the first of a three-series DJ battle: Madlib vs. Cut Chemist. The second battle had Will.I.Am vs. Thes One, with Oh No vs. Exile in the finale. Luckily Mochilla were there to put these historic hip hop moments to video and now the DVD is available to buy here.

Read a great interview about the Soundclash here at the awesome LA Record magazine as well as the idea of documentation and how the Smithonian Museum should acquire the archives of certain hip hop DJs!

"In 2001 Los Angeles club, The Root Down put on their first of a three part series called “Sound Clash”. It featured Madlib and Cut Chemist going head to head, beat for beat for respect in front of a packed club. Each of the tracks had never been released. Each of the three rounds saw the excitement rise. The last round unleashed a partisan celebration from the captivated crowd. It was a beautiful underground hip hop moment.

Mochilla founders, Coleman and B+, went to the first round with their Sony PC100 single chip prosumer cameras with intentions of trying out their, then, new toys. “It wasn’t until afterwards that we put both cameras on the floor, rewound the tapes and played them in sync that we realized we might have something.”

Approximately a year later, the Root Down organized the second battle. Round Two featured Will. I. Am and Thes One. Both Mochilla founders duly attended with the aforementioned cameras and caught the entire nights proceedings again. The drama and controversy of Round Two with huge aesthetic differences on display as well as the theatrics of clothes being taken off and ludicrous names made the night a talking point in Los Angeles to this day in beatmaker circles. And Will I Am wasn’t a multi-platinum artist yet!

The last battle featured Oh No and Exile in 2003. With a relatively dignified display by the youngest pairing of the three, they closed the series with good music and much respect. 

Mochilla never intended to release this DVD. However, since the tragic passing of DJ Dusk they felt it was important to honor his legacy and share his gifts. This is for him, no edits, no overdubs, no interruptions just raw hip hop at its most exciting, vital and real. " Mochilla

Eastcoast, Westcoast: Biz Markie and Cut Chemist

Biz Markie tells DJ Cut Chemist what disco records to play in this cool video from Joseph Armario. It was filmed for the Cinespia Hollywood Cemetary screening of the disco classic "Saturday Night Fever."

Other DJs who have spun at Cinespia include Dublab DJs, Gaslamp Killer, DJ Nobody and Peanut Butter Wolf.


Cinespia Presents: Cut Chemist at the Cemetery from cinespia on Vimeo.

Best quotes of the mini movie:

"Biz: What about GQ..?
Cut: Well, that might be a little late, man..
Biz: No it ain't! GQ Disco Nights?
Cut: Yea, Isn't that '80?!
Biz: Nooooo...Disco was dead by '79
Cut: Disco was dead by '78..."

Rock freak! GQ Disco Nights is an all time favourite of mine. It's got is all...basslines, guitar, keys, strings, vocals...guaranteed to put you in a good mood!

Cut Chemist goes Afrobeat

Cut Chemist has be down with hip hop 'for yonks' as we say in the West Country of England :)  Just check out the "This is The Life" video below.

So in 2010, Cut Chemist is being original again. This time he's unshackled himself from the traditional DJ's two turntables. His latest Afrobeat mixtape was recorded live using only one turntable, a mixer, a loop pedal and 100% vinyl!

Named in tribute to KRS ONE's hip hop classic, Cut Chemist's "Sound Of The Police" delves into his obscure Ethiopian, Colombian, Sudanese and Afro-Brazilian record collection. The two 20-minute live tracks are available on-demand until August 17th at KCRW (or below.) The CD gets released this week.

"Originally, Sound Of The Police was only intended to be a one-time performance for Mochilla's “Timeless” concert series opening up for Ethiopia’s own Mulatu Astatke in 2009. He recorded the practice session and after the success of that performance he thought it deserved to be heard and seen by as many people as possible.

"The live performance attempts to be a reenactment of the CD, but with cameras on the turntable and loop pedal so the audience understands exactly how the records are being manipulated. “You don’t have to be into DJs to enjoy this show. It’s like walking a sonic tight rope and the audience gets to see me fall if something goes wrong," CUT says. "The interesting parts are when I mess up and fix it. The audience goes crazy and appreciates what a difficult balancing act this actually is." Cut Chemist

I couldn't find the video for this performance, but here's something as tantalizing!



This is The Life

Delicious Vinyl old skool D.J.s are now in session!

When I think of Los Angeles's DJ heritage it has to be about Jurassic 5's Cut Chemist as featured in "This Is The Life" documentary about the underground scene in the 90s (hosted by The Good Life health food store!?) But, let's not forget Arabian Prince, an original N.W.A.er and Stones Throw artist.

So, imagine what kind of old skool hip hop session is going to commence when Delicious Vinyl (yes...Tone-Loc, Young M.C., The Pharcyde, Masta Ace & The Inc, Fatlip....) sponsors this monthly Allstar (DJ) workshop?! The two top billers will be joined by LA's legendary K-Day Radio's D.J. M Walk and Tony G.

My photo gallery

"This is the Life"


Thanks to Hip Hop DX for sharing the news.