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dj omni \”In The Spirit…Finally\”

Continuing the challenge to make a mix a month, I just pushed play and recorded myself playing around. This “quick-one-before-I-go” mix, is called “In the Spirit (finally!)”. And the spirit in question is the Christmas Spirit.

Listening to Benji B and J Rocc goof around and enjoy the cheesiest of x-mas music on Deviation really started this joyous season for me (as well as getting out of the office for the rest of the year!).

I was also inspired by the magic of DJ Questlove at his newly annual Holiday party at S.O.B.’s. The man was sampling, pitch-shifting, and recreating classics on the fly for the people. Amazing show!

Now back to this mix. We start with a little DIY Dwele magic. An ode to a cheap microphone and the support of friends moves into the first Dwele track I ever heard, “Jimmy stay down” an obvious ode to Stevie Wonder who also closes this mix. There are some Christmas songs mixed in. That chipmunk funk is a pseudo auto-tuned Lou Rawls, who has made some of the funkiest holiday sounds ever in this “Christmas Will Really Be Christmas”. Followed close behind by a rare Christmas cover of “Little Baby” called “Purple Snowflakes” (for some reason) by the always-amazing Marvin Gaye. Other highlights include “Do 4 U” by super-group Hawthorne Headhunters featuring PPP favorite Coultrain. Admittedly, I should’ve let this song go longer. Also included is some J Dilla and James Brown business followed by a project that I am REALLY looking forward to from Mochilla: Miguel Atwood-Ferguson’s orchestral concert for the Dilla-gentleman, “Suite for Ma Dukes”. Mos Def makes a couple appearances in this mix mainly because my song of the moment is his “24-Hour Karate School”! Which I imagine he came up with while walking in SOHO flipping through the Village Voice, seeing an ad and imagining a whole story behind it. Add an erratic beat created by Ski Beatz and the Apple Juice Kid (according to okayplayer) and this song is a bit of mad genius. There’s a Roots song before this that I pray will be on the next album, and a remix of Biggie’s first single by two white boys from Brooklyn that don’t get the credit they deserve for the infectious music they make. And finally we close with a master, not too far from where we began. I hope you enjoy. Happy Holidaze.

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…

Nice performance. Dave kills me…”Wow..a lot going on there!” I could watch that part like five times.

“The Roots are from Philly which is the murder capital of America yet neither Questlove nor Black Thought have ever killed anybody. If they want to rep Philly they have to catch a body.”
~ The Source {taken from the sig of an okayplayer post}

This quote was going through my mind as I was watching the new online Roots video for “75 Bars”

It took me two listens to get into the song, where the best parts are the drumming and the subtle backing music. I’m at an age where I’m not excited by the N-word being every line’s exclamation point. But even worse, the video is just lackluster. It made me {and some of the okayplayers on the boards ask, “What’s the point?!”

And so I started to think about how I would have done the video. This is what I came up with: “75 Bars: Riqonstruction”

On a completely different note, this made me smile. “You crazy for this one Barack!”

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.
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