Just me and my dumb luck landing me in the company of DJ greats. Last night’s gig with my homie Sex Factory earned me the opportunity to cover for the world renowned Greg Poole. Next up, this Saturday I’ll be sharing the stage with DJ Getlive! and DJ Goldfinger. Me and Getlive! go back to his party at Bob bar a few years back. But Goldfinger, if you don’t know, was one of the resident deejays that worked at Beat Street (RIP) in Brooklyn. Talk about OG status. He and fellow employee DJ June had the duty of spinning in the store, giving customers a live, free performance. By day, my man DJ Dreamer and I could catch Goldfinger’s unique signature style of cutting and scratching with one finger. By night, Goldfinger manned the upstairs room of Club NV (RIP), while DJ Self was fine-tuning his skills downstairs, before he became the Prince of New York on Power 105.1 FM.

This Saturday, Goldfinger will be on the set, showcasing his skills at a family-friendly fundraiser at Free Candy, a new gallery space in Brooklyn. Hit the jump below for details from Alice in Wonderland, the event’s organizer. See you Saturday!

On February 12th – Getlive! myself and a few other NYC creatives are heading down to Haiti with former Soccer player, Tony Sanneh for a week of cultural youth programming. We will be hosting soccer and dj clinics – teaching kids how to use turntables and play ‘selector’, and also art classes with an orphanage in and around Port-Au-Prince. I will be working with The Haitian Initiative long term, orchestrating cultural missions to Haiti this year as well as programming. During this trip, Tony will announce his plans to build a soccer training facility as well as a Boys and Girls club in Port-Au-Prince. This is exciting for me on a multitude of levels.

Btw, #WORKINPROGRESS is a fundraising event series that I will be producing this year, in various cities exhibiting content we will shoot in Haiti so stay tuned!

I could be wrong here, but Hype Williams might have filmed Nicki Minaj atop one of Robert Therrien’s sculptures. It’s kinda hard to tell from this wide shot of Nicki from her “Stupid Hoe” video. But I’d make a Super Bowl sized bet that it is in fact one of Therrien’s. I really don’t want to believe that it is computer generated either. Hype has done his fair share of special effects like in N.E.R.D.’s “Everyone Nose” (Remix), shot entirely on green screen. But having seen Therrien’s “Smoke Signals” exhibit at the Tate Modern in 2009, this scene instantly brought back my goosebumps from walking underneath the monstrous chair and table. I dunno, it would be hard to convince me otherwise.

Hype put the pieces together, connecting Nicki’s childlike demeanor and Strawberry Shortcake styling with the innocence Therrien is known to tap into. “Smoke Signals” is about the perspective of size. You’re reminded of how small you are when you are confronted by a thing you normally take for granted because it weighs less or appears smaller. Respect the architect here for turning the tables. It even looks like Nicki humbles herself too. She took off her pointy heels in the closeup shots. Why would she pose in her frilly socks if the chair was a fake? Therrien’s delicate art could probably buy 888 pairs of those shoes. You know he’s got room for them.

On Monday January 30th, DJ Greg Poole, my homie Danny Miller and I are spinning at VON. This gig will be fun, promise! It’s kind of a big deal because I’m sharing the flyer’s marquee with an O-Gee of deejaying. Basically, if I didn’t bump the Suite903 mixtape he did with DJ Qool Marv, I wouldn’t have repped the Suite903 brand in 2010. Monday, it’s on!

You could’ve had a V8. But you don’t really want V8. You want V&A, better known as Vodka and Ayahuasca. Hey Jackie Chan, this-shit-right-here?! Sha-boom!

Tuesday V&A hit the streets and you were welcome to break the seal on the audio/visual manifestation of the potent elixir. Vodka & Ayahuasca is the latest project from Gangrene, who is the triumvirate of The Alchemist, Oh No and Jason Goldwatch. Their sophomore album on Decon Records is 15 tracks (on iTunes) of a mind trip into a realm more twisted than The Twilight Zone. Read more about V&A on Okayplayer.com. Through talking to director Jason Goldwatch about the concept of the album, there were some valid points that were left on the cutting room floor. MESSAGE!

“Goldwach is a force of nature. He is an anomaly. Seldom seen. More of an urbanian legend than an actual human. He is the Sasquatch of visual entertainment. They edited it out of the current published versions of holy scripture but if you examine the original parchments with a examining glass, on that fateful 7th day just after God proclaimed “let there be light” he said, and I quote” y’all are gonna love this shit….and now, for my final miracle let there be….GOLDWACH!”. But everybody was still tripping off the invention of light.”

- The Alchemist

“I grew up, not for nothing, banging my head to some 2 Live Crew based on the fly music they were making; sort of like middle fingers to the world too. Like “Me So Horny,” that shit is from a movie I love. Full Metal Jacket was a serious drive to change our consciousness as a film. And here comes this black dude from Florida with like big butts and I’m some white kid from California, but he’s sampling a movie. It was real, official, conscious changing shit. That shit fucked me up. It fucked up a lot of people’s mind about what that whole war was, or what war is. It’s just crazy! For them to take that and flip that into a hip-hop beat that was enjoyable. It was amazing for me. I was like damn, they took the most horrific thing that I’ve ever seen as a conscious person and turn it into hip-hop music. It was laughable! The worst situation you could imagine becomes laughable.”

- Jason Goldwatch

“This might be a good look for me.”

Someone posted this in my Facebook timeline. Heath Ledger’s Joker was well played, but even in the afterlife, his character has spawned some great photoshopped portrayals. RIP.

What’s funny is that Michael Keaton started his career as a stand-up comic. He had great timing and could do impressions with the best of ‘em, as he did in ’89 when he hosted Saturday Night Live. Keaton could have probably gotten into character as Joker if Tim Burton called for it. There’s no doubt that Jack Nicholson set the bar for Joker at the time, and to out do him seemed like a feat until Ledger peeled away an unseen layer to this great villain. So over 20 years later, to think Michael Keaton could have filled Joker’s clown shoes is very much a possibility, at least if you let Photoshop do the magic.

Drake and Common need to play a few matches of tennis. After that, they can put their issues behind them. Through their mission to out do each other, both MC’s have shown the type of lyrical sparring that feeds the public’s appetite for confrontation like boxing. As we’ve learned through hip-hop history, a full contact sport like boxing parallels rap the most because rhymes can hurt one’s pride the same way someone with nice hand skills can pack a punch. Take Jay-Z and Nas for example, back when they were in the midst of trading diss records, Jay proposed the idea of a televised boxing match on Pay-Per-View. The idea never went past his comments in a Hot 97 interview with Angie Martinez (whew!). Cooler heads prevailed, giving way to future collaborations between the two legends.

But as far as back and forth games go, Common and Drake’s war of words has closer ties to tennis and even basketball than fisticuffs. Start with their mutual affection for Grand Slam champ Serena Williams, who Common dated in 2008 and Drake claimed to love and care for in his in 2011 interview with Complex. Besides their obvious connection to the tennis world, their similarities have set Drizzy and Com on a speeding path towards each other, way before Serena came into the picture. Reading into the true nature of their competition might be making a mountain out of a molehill. I couldn’t help it though. I opened up a tennis glossary and the listed terms snowballed into this weird point-counterpoint look at their situation.

Ricky Powell‘s photography is constantly writing history and passing it down at the same damn time. Don’t let tweeting events in real time usurp hearing it from the horse’s mouth. Nay-ver that, doggie. Outside of that one tweet that might ripple into a micro wave of retweets, talking about the memories people have of each other is just natural behavior, unfettered from the use of technology. I imagine the guests, young and old at Ricky Powell’s Milk Studios exhibit opened up the floodgates of tales about the figures shot by like-minded photographers Angela Boatwright, Mel D. Cole and Joe Conzo. If you were in the house (I wasn’t…boo!), all you had to do was just listen. It’s commonplace to have the elders school the youth at these events. They know whatever it is that’s poppin’ for you right now is cool, but they made it popular, ya dig?! I imagine someone set the scene of the train zipping past subway writer legend, GHOST—a story more gripping than one about drawing on dirty car windows (“wash me”). My good friend Ingrid is one of those keen listeners who managed to soak up a gang of knowledge and flicks from the Rickster’s All-Star Classic. Peep Customfad for her recap.

Stream or download The Funky Uncle’s Park Bench Mixtape by DJ Smoke L.E.S. The folks at lifestyle agency TheGoodLife! helped put together the one-track sizzler of jazz and funk to celebrate the 50 years of Ricky Powell aka The Doloist putting it down… it meaning iconic visuals that will be here forever (KRS-ONE voice).

In 2011 2012, Timeless Truth is on my personal list of favorite emcees. I’ve been bumping their work since last year, when I first met Superbad Solace, one-half of the group. The rap game needs Timeless Truth because of what they represent: Dominican, blood brothers, repping Flushing and Corona Queens. Bong! Part of what also makes them special is their honor to a lineage of New York rap that traverses the Beatnuts (Latinos from Corona and Jackson Heights) to Brooklyn legend, Thirstin Howl III. Really, the honor is all mine knowing rappers as skilled as they are, keeping it thorough as other Q-borough acts like Action Bronson, Rekstizzy and Das Racist.

Polo is an afterthought when listening to Timeless Truth. It’s not because hunting down Ralph Lauren threads isn’t my bag anymore. Timeless doesn’t just let their uniform dominate their lyrics. Especially now, when a rapper’s attire can take dictate their popularity—which is sad really—you eventually have to show and prove.

Timeless is a dynamic pair that compliment each other: Solace is the young, laid back knowledge spitter, while Oprime39 is the elder, more aggressive voice of reason. On “Leave It Alone”, produced by Roc Marciano, Solace flosses more than his wears: Giving my Asian mami spare C-notes for origamis. “True Grit”, another Roc Marciano production is where Oprime39 consistently comes off with darts like, Timeless no room for you to chime in. Blind winds make your mind spin fucking with sciences: Niacin, Leviathan. No heavy traces of Polo references. Their visual to “Memorex Massacre” shows them dipped in RL, so their style speaks for itself.

This week was Timeless Tuesday, the day their new EP, Brugal & Presidentes dropped. Solace and Oprime39 bring another type of flavor to the rap lexicon by naming their album after a powerful rum and pilsner fancied by Dominicans. Sample Brugal & Presidentes, in a glass or on iTunes, or do both at the same time. They might change your life.

T-shirts might fade over time, but a silk-screen print of Nico (Christa Päffgen) is built to last. The Velvet Underground’s singer, immortalized on the above T-shirt was recently worn (in white) by Morrissey’s band this Tuesday on Conan. She looks pensive and subdued in the graphic, which was the best way to describe the feeling of watching Moz take late night TV with a performance of his new song, “People Are The Same Everywhere.”

Morrissey wears his appreciation for The Velvet Underground pretty close to the chest like his V-neck sweaters. Last year, Moz listed his 13 favorite albums, which included two Velvet Underground LPs (White Light/White Heat and The Velvet Underground & Nico) and Nico’s solo record Chelsea Girl. As a model and singer, she could waltz into your lobes whisking you away into bliss, which is akin to the effect of Morrissey’s poetry. Aside from their palatable sound linking them, these two icons are vegetarians. A-alike, B-alike. I imagine there’s a small nation of Nico tattoos out there like the ones sported by Smiths and Morrissey super fans. Lou Reed’s got some mass appeal too. His portrait for Supreme lined cities between New York City, Los Angeles, London and Tokyo carrying on the legacy of The Velvet Underground. Video of Moz on Conan after the jump.

[KROQ]

Do we really know dubstep? Until VP Records distributed Greensleeves Dubstep: Chapter 1, the genre’s identity has been tough to pin down. Ask anyone with some inkling about what dubstep is, and each person will probably define it differently as heavy-aggressive electronica, a hybrid of London 2-step, a dollop of trance, run through a filter of industrial techno, channeling the angst of grime. What?! Being an import to the American nightlife scene by way of the United Kingdom, it’s easy for dubstep’s identity to get lost in translation like playing a game of Telephone, on Molly. You follow?

With VP and Greensleeves in the mix, their interpretation of dubstep makes a lot more sense—you can clearly hear the heavy drum composition influenced by Jamaican dub. But to make the sound more contemporary, it moves to a faster tempo, which makes it more derivative of 2-step. Without getting even more technical, just examine the term “dubstep,” and break it apart into two syllables (phonetics kids), the Greensleeves spin on the genre is right there in your face.

Greensleeves, which is based in the UK has a solid track record of making remix compilations that do their sampled records justice. In 2007, the label released Ragga Jungle Dubs, one of my all-time favorite albums. Every record on the ’07 mix is a staple for anyone (DJs) getting their first exposure to the drum and bass scene. The same goes for Greensleeves Dubstep: Chapter 1. Maybe I’m a little biased to a Jamaican spin on d&b or dubstep. After all, deejaying was originated in Jamaica, so why not take these sounds back to the essence. Peep the Yellowman remix by Horsepower Productions after the jump and a note from VP’s press release.

Greensleeves Dubstep: Chapter 1 has an awe-inspiring list of the genre’s finest producers with the likes of The Bug, Coki & Mala of Digital Mystikz, Goth-Trad, Horsepower Productions and Terror Danjah. They mix up some of dancehall’s most popular anthems from leading contemporaries Vybz Kartel, Mavado, Busy Signal & Gyptian as well as icons Yellowman, Barrington Levy & Admiral Bailey for the ultimate culture clash.

[Ed. Note: First time I heard of Horsepower Productions, they graced Volume 4 of the Suite903 mixtape series with "Pimp Flavors." One of their more dancehall-inspired remixes was a wicked flip of Elephant Man's "Log On." Bump those! They're back again on Greensleeves Dubstep: Chapter 1, and kill it as they always do.]