dj omni – quickMix™: Progression
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tracklist:
“Legions (Reverie)” by Zoe Keating
“Wait Up” by Q-Tip
“1000 Deaths” by D’Angelo

quickMix™: 3-7 songs. download in seconds.

I am a firm believer that music blends make songs sound better.
And sometimes I just want to get to the blend in a mix.

This quickMix™ contains a song and a blend that I have had in my head for a while now. Starting from the unreleased D’Angelo. I heard a connection to something that had come before in this song. After listening to the stories of how the Voodoo album came to be, it is nice to see Questlove and company reaching back to a recent album for inspiration. The underrated Amplified album is filled with gems from the production duo Q-tip and a soon-to-be J Dilla. Working backwards from there, the electronica-accompanied Zoe Keating builds a mood with her layers of cello melodies that seemed a perfect place to start.

o:{I originally planned to start with the sample source for “Wait Up”, seeing as it also inspired “1000 Deaths”. I couldn’t find any information about the original online. If anyone has the Amplified liner notes and can share the sample source, I would greatly appreciate it.}

This is a must have! It’s like a documentary of Q-Tip/Tribe/Native Tongues. J.Period has so many little interviews mixed into this mixtape as music that I can’t wait until Volume 2! I was wondering how they were able to give this away as a free download, but maybe it’s the Scion connection.

But back to the mix. Worth the download time alone for the De La version of “Excursions” and the Kweli, Randy Watson Experience version of “Youthful (Expressions)”, but then you get back stories like Q-Tip explaining the meaning of the name, Dave of De La telling the story of the meeting of the Native Tongues, and Bob Power explaining the spontaneity of the “Bob Power, you there?” line. Classic.

I can remember being in elementary school before there was a holiday to commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. My teacher led us in a debate as to whether there should be a holiday or not. If presidents like Washington, who led rebellions against the unfair practices of the government of their time, should be so honored, why not Dr. King? I couldn’t put that into words then. I just knew he deserved to be remembered.

This year is special because the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama fulfills the promise of Martin Luther King, Jr.

So to commemorate these two great men, a quick mix of inspired and inspirational songs.

Got the heads up about some of the Okayplayer holiday jammy guests, so hustled over to B.B. Kings late enough for a shut door and a lot of cops dealing with the aftermath of Jim Jones being kicked out.  Which was enough distraction for me to slide in.  This is like the inverse of the time years ago in Chicago when I was using a bad fake ID for a Prince aftershow.  Malcom Jamal-Warner was in front of me in line trying to bring about twenty people in with him, causing enough confusion to slide me right through.  Later he got up on stage to rap while Prince played the drums, and the crowd chanted, “Go Theo!  Go Theo!”  Alas, I digress…

New Mos Def single drops November 4 (ask me later what I think about people releasing music on Election Day, I mean, I know it’s a Tuesday, but when Fall Out Boy has the best idea…), but you can stream it now via RCRD LBL.  Myself…I don’t love it.  The whole plodding, anthemic thing is best used for intro’s – didn’t Jay kinda already do this in “The Ruler’s Back” (basically a 4-minute intro, c’mon)?  Just with a lot less synthesizer.  Damn you Daft Punk!  You done fucked hip hop up!  Are you happy now?