Reverend Brown intro
DâM-FunK – Monster Jam (DâM-FunK Re-Freak 4 Kool Herc)
Gladys Knight & The Pips – Save The Overtime (For Me)
Bobby Nunn – Do You Look That Good In The Morning
Sherrick – Just Call
Vesta Williams – Don’t Blow A Good Thing
Tyrone Brunson – Fresh (Scratch Mix)
Bugz In The Attic – Consequences
RJD2 – A Rollerskating Jam Called Fridays
Aurra – Baby Love (Touchsoul Boogiedub Edit)
Kon & The Gang – Sunlight
Bennson – Let The Love (Yam Who Remix)
Material – Over & Over
Logg – Lay It On the Line (JM After-Session M&M Mix)
Finis Henderson – Skip To My Lou
Janet Jackson – Say You Do
Aretha Franklin – Jump To It
Michael Jackson – Just Good Friends feat. Stevie Wonder
Ollie and Jerry – Breakin’… There’s No Stopping Us (Club Mix)
New Edition – My Secret (Didja Gitit Yet?)
Jamie Foxx – Slow Jam (live)
Midnight Star – Slow Jam
DeBarge – Love Me in a Special Way
Sheila E. – Hold Me
Isley Jasper Isley – Insatiable Woman
Herb Alpert – Making Love in the Rain feat. Lisa Keith and Janet Jackson
Status IV – You Ain’t Really Down (acapella)
Azari & III – Reckless With Your Love
EPMD – It’s Time 2 Party
Raze – Jack The Groove
Aretha Faltermeyer – Who’s Zoomin’ Axel F
The Time – Grace
Prince – Irresistible Bitch (propsEdit)
Michael Jackson – Billie Jean (Ahmed’s Get It Remix)
Shalamar – Dancing In The Sheets
Dance Avenue – Doing Lines
Check out this sneak peek into the preparations for the Sexual Chocolate Band & Show’s triumphant unveiling at the Axel F anniversary.
I’ve done this before and no, sir, it’s not a little thing. It’s the type of thing that keeps your soul from dying.
It wasn’t even a smartphone.
*fist pump*
BONUS TRACK:
They missed most of the classics that will never die, but presented some of the others that I’m less familiar with because of the younger/druggier/bro-steppier demographic. I have gotten the “play something more ghetto” one many times.
A collection of local DJ crews that focus on global music announces the DC debut of Boogat — a Mexi-Paraguayan (via Montréal) MC & producer whose style spans electronic
pan-Latin sounds, global hip-hop, and beyond. In addition to Boogat’s performance, “Tropical Punch” will feature sets by:
EMPRESARIOS
DJ set w/ Javier Miranda on Congas
Fort Knox Recordings – DC
In 2011, a concept was born to take a wondrous period of dance music out of the dark and into the light.
This magical time from 1977 – 1987 bore the imprint of the disco age and the promise of the hip-hop era to come. It was the music we partied to when Reaganomics was going hard. A time when your video was not touching hearts and minds without synchronized body rolls and laser light effects.
It’s all the music that no one else ever plays at ’80s parties.
Throughout 2011 we celebrated this music, and you showered it with the love it deserves. We called it Axel F, after Eddie Murphy’s character in Beverly Hills Cop.
This month we celebrate one year of The Illest In Jheri Curl Funk, Champagne Soul & Lazer Boogie.
Saturday Jan. 28, 2012
Liv Nightclub DC
2001 11th St. NW, Washington, DC 20001
$10 in advance
$15 at the door
Coming out of semi-retirement to dust off the old turntables and mics. Getting back in the saddle again has been like a heist film, except no one is going to die.
I’m playing two gigs for new year’s eve. One early, one late. Both quite different.
Skip the shit show this New Years Eve. Carnaval de Trahison (Carnival of Treachery) is a limited attendance celebration at The Dunes to bid farewell to 2011 and say ‘sup to 2012.
Saturday, December 31st
8:30 pm – 4:00 am
$20 The Dunes
1402 Meridian Place NW, WDC 20010 150 tickets only
Cash/Credit Bar & Food
DJ SETS BY:
- Sam “The Man” Burns
- Soul Call Paul
- DJ Stylus
LIVE MUSIC BY:
- Jonny Grave & The Tombstones
- Alex Vans Band (Ben Tufts killing the drums)
FEATURING:
- Craft cocktails
- Indoor food truck by Tarsier Post-Modern Filipino & American cuisine.
- Huge, projected arcade games on the awful vacant building across the street.
And then later on, ’round 12:30 I’ll be spinning at this joint. Just found out tix are sold out. D’oh! This is just an FYI then…
OPEN BAR (beer and liquor), a best of FotoWeek DC exhibit, giant hamster balls, lasers, and more.
DJs:
Animal Collective
Le Tigre / MEN, JD Samson
Lightwaves
DJ Stylus
The Metaphysical (GKYK)
LIVE BANDS: (playing guilty pleasure cover songs)
The Dance Party
The State Department & Friends Supergroup
(featuring members of Ra Ra Rasputin, Imperial China, Vita Ruins, Lightfoot, & Jeremy Teter)
Sunwolf
Silver Liners
Beyond Modern
Shark Week
The Plural Nouns Supergroup
(featuring members of Loose Lips, Last Tide, Mittenfields, and Lightfoot)
Hiding Places
Dance For the Dying
META
It’s not categorized. I only mention albums in passing. It’s not even comprehensive. So much music is released that I can only fully assimilate a trickle of it. These are just ten eleven* joints I liked a lot, played a lot or both. But here’s where my expert concierge service comes in. Every track on this list will touch your soul in some way. Quality always wins over quantity. You can consult your favorite publications and blogs for those massive lists that attempt to be everything to everyone. Some of them are very good. This is just a small slice of 2011 music according to The Vibe Conductor. You can review past years if you’re curious. And now, the joints:
After I posted this, I was reminded that I left off a song I raved about in 2011. That’s because I created this list in hasty, sleep deprived fashion. This correction is a good thing mainly because I noticed that my 2011 list had fewer anthems that made me want to kick strangers in the chest. I’m not always in my subtle, soulful, sexy lane. While Nas isn’t saying anything profound on this track, he’s just saying it profoundly. And the beat is everything that’s good and just in hip-hop. I was never one of the whiners who wished Nasty Nas would return. I just resolved myself to not expecting much from him, but when he wildly exceeded those expectations I was paying attention again. Was a bit let down by the cliché video but it’s still a monster tune.
Still a few years from 30, Steve “Thundercat” Bruner is shaking up the world of modern bass playing, excelling in roles as varied as Erykah Badu and Suicidal Tendencies while anchoring a unit of LA’s most forward thinking soulful music makers. Flying Lotus helped him craft The Golden Age Of Apocalypse, a love letter to jazz fusion and an open canvas of new textures. “Walking” gets the nod from most of the folks who turned me on to the record but this George Duke cover blows my wig back every time.
These three ladies conquered the world this year with only three songs. I was at a loss for words when I first heard “Supernatural”. Fortunately my man John Murph explains it much better.
I probably had the most visceral emotional reaction to this song than any other I’ve heard this year. I’m just so thankful that Pharoahe Monch is still so ridiculously ill. This song is the sonic definition of triumphant.
I remember when this was a quick snippet from a lil’dave beat tape. I played it like it was a released track. Then IllVibe finally dropped the album they’d long promised to make, and the finished version exceeded my expectations. African emcees are not just the future anymore, they’re the right now. Glad that IllVibe had the foresight to grab a few of my favorites for this much played cut.
I was thinking really hard on what a true grown man hip-hop record would sound like and could only think of a handful of albums that have fierce lyricism, musicality and mature themes that address adult concerns. Then Phonte dropped Charity Starts At Home and I felt like that album was created specifically for myself and my peers.
A Sucker For Pumps renewed my faith that hip-hop can exist that appeals to the sensibilities of my generation while formed from the aesthetics of the current one. I hope these cats lead the way. I caned the Yummy Bingham jam at every gig I’ve had since it dropped. Now I can drool over her cameo in the vid.
And thus I begin the black Brit section of this list. Anyone who knows me knows I’ve done some of my finest stannery over the years for cats from this scene, and Dego is a god of it. 4hero, DKD, Silhouette Brown, 2000Black, and finally his own solo project. I struggled with choosing one tune as the album is such a unified whole. You have to experience it that way.
A party demolition bomb. The scenes in the video are what I strive for whenever I get on the decks. Perfection. I can’t imagine what bacchanal madness this inspired at Carnival. It sure did smash Sol Power every time we dropped it.
After assaulting the dance with “Party Hard” for the last couple of years, I was intrigued when the R&B/UK Funky vocalist dropped this soul stirring anthem on the venerable Strictly Rhythm label. It’s a nice spiritual balance to the club persona in his mainstream music. Sean Mccabe’s remix is embedded here but I’m most partial to the original.
A profoundly sexy song. Stuck on repeat for me this year beyond the point that can be defined as obsessive. Mark’s club mix just takes it to another place, as if it were possible to increase the seduction factor. Nia Andrews says yes, it is.
And I’m not writing a long treatise about the hippity-hop. This 2010 Pitchfork piece still has that covered.
These are just the last couple of things I wrote that happen to pertain to rappers, and I hadn’t yet posted them here although it’s almost 2012.
Wait, before you read these, make sure you own this album. It’s one of the best favors you can do for yourself if beats, rhymes and heart still matter. DC stand up..
Oh yeah, my crew dropped an album this year too. I think it’s really good. And that’s not just because I was involved. DC stand up… again always.
Aaaand… these guys too. I’m really proud to say they’re part of the DMV. Good brothers, good music, hard work paying off.
I was pleasantly surprised by this duo and had to do an internal reassessment of my feelings on where southern hip-hop is these days. Wish that happened more often.
