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dj omni “Late Love”
o:{there is explicit content in this mix. apologies in advance.}

I’m a little late for the lovey-dovey vibe, but I can see that the love bug has had a hand in this mix. Some of that love is directed at my city. I spent a night in the Akwaaba Mansion, a black-owned Bed & Breakfast in the heart of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. It’s around the corner from the Lewis Avenue that Big Daddy Kane rapped about on his albums. It is also the setting for the video of “History” by Mos Def featuring Talib Kweli.

Tracklist:
1 Ammoncontact f. Prince Po, Yusef Lateef, & Dwight Tribble – Beautiful Flowers
2 Courtney Pine f. Cassandra Wilson – “Don’t ‘Xplain”
3 D’Angelo w/ Pino & ?uesto – “Ex To The Next”
4 Donovan – “Get Thy Bearings”
5 Fink – “Q & A”
6 Jazzanova f. Phonte – “So Far From Home”
7 Ty & Kory – “Flyin Away”
8 Tony Toni Toné – “That’s All I Ask Of You”
9 The Roots f. JazzyFatNastees – “You Got Me (Me Tienes Remix)
10 Tin Hat Trio – “The Longest Night”
11 Vampire Weekend – “Diplomat’s Son”
12 Ta’Raach – “Baaaby”
13 Skillz f. Freeway – “Don’t Act Like You Don’t Know”
14 RJD2 – “Work It Out”
15 Prefuse 73 f. Aesop Rock – “Sabbatical With Options”
16 Pete Rock f. CL Smooth – “Back On the Block”
17 Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and his 40-piece orchestra – “Hoc ‘n Pucky”
18 Jay Electronica – “Retro Electro”

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.

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…