Yes, Dutty Artz is a recording label with actual (and digital) records in stores, tremendously talented musicians, one extremely dedicated operative, and supporters.
Here’s a tune from DUTTY REMIX ZERO which is still fresh in the stores. This remix is great, but you should really hear SHADETEk’s “Can’t Breathe” remix.
Rupture and JahDan are in the middle of their UK trek. If you are in the area, go and see them! Something wonderful happens when these two are together. Check DATV001 for proof.
Jahdan Blakkamoore: We Are Raiders, presented by Matt Shadetek and DJ /Rupture will be in your shops on July 7th. We’ve been labbed up and working hard to get this first taste into the world as quickly as possible while finishing the full length that these songs are taken from, and now: it’s here! Well, in a few days anyway. But trust me, unlike some of our past infinitely receding release dates, this one actually exists (camphone evidence by Geko Jones):
It will be available in CD, digital and 12″, with instrumentals and a bonus tune on the CD and digital, vinyl is the four vocals only (CD cover pictured).
First, here’s an all Steve Gurley mix I’ve been listening to quite a lot lately. I am flagrantly ripping this from the dubstepforum, where it was ripped from Uptown Music Forum, where it was posted about a year ago. The mix was done by someone named AverageJoe, an ordinary DJ with a funny Homer Simpson gif as his MySpace default.
The first is of Mr Eliel Lucero skankin’ (to some really good Roots music Matt was playing earlier in the night) in his brand new Dutty Artz tee! Get yours!
And here I am, standing around (yeah, i’m mad bcuz i’m only) in my plain old regular tee— waiting for that lite tropical pink.
And here’s Yellowman, AKA Geko Jones. This man spins and dances behind the decks like a mutha, (but then again, he falls into a state of deep concentration at times.) I’m not sure who’s the better dancer behind the decks, Matt or Gex? I don’t think Rupture dances behind his decks. Maga Bo doesn’t either. Well, I’ve never seen them dance behind their turntables anyway. Have you? If you have, I need photo-or videographic evidence of these two men getting down.
77Klash is back with a bang. Check out his code for the streets EP (buyable on iTunes) with tunes produced by him, me and more. I’m partial to my tune Madagain with Johnny Osbourne on vocals but the whole thing is fiyaaaah. Check the title track especially. Released on his own label Klash City Records and blogged and hyped by the fader, diplo and the rest of the hipsterati Klash is one of the only people I know equally comfortable in whatever downtown scene is about to be the next big thing or chilling in Kingston with local warlords and drug smugglers. It gives him a real unique perspective which he brings to bear on his own blend of rocky, hiphop, dancehall, electro-punk madness. Watch out for some new collabo tunes from he and I coming soon as well.
Check his myspace and RCRD LBL pages for more infos, contacts, bookings, etc.
Yep, that sounds like a good enough description. DJ Chief Boima and Sogui So Good’s latest mixtape/release, Baobab Connection Vol. 2 was dropped in my inbox a while ago by Sir Boima himself (and I criminally slept hard on this one!) This is an African Union party mix set in Abidjan by my Sierra Leonean brother who’s based out in the left coast. I’m down by law to give props, yes… I’m a little biased, but really this is a very strong and elegant mix. I know this might sound like a love letter, but seriously, (I almost caught myself dancing on the subway platform the other day) the music is that good!
Chief Boima’s mix starts with our entertaining host, DJ Elembe kicking good vibes over a mellow, unspecified Congolese groove which quickly builds up and gave way to the Magic System hit “Premier Gaou”. By the time we get to Boima’s Coup Decale remixes of Kid Cudi “Day ‘N’ Nite” or D4L “Like Me Baby”, it’s a wrap! Boima continue with his versions and refixes, and Sogui So Good picks up right where Boima left and proceeding to drop straight dance floor pleasing jams that will make the staunchest African two-stepper actually shake his bones, rather than just sway from side to side. Alright, enough talk, check out some cuts from Boima’s set below & peep this Ghetto Bassquake conversation.
Matt Shadetek sez: Everyone welcome Mode Raw to the DA blog, he’s gonna be popping his head up and dropping some jewels on us, like this one below. Background: Besides doing almost all the graphic design for all the previous Shadetek records, mixtapes, etc, teaching me how to DJ, use photoshop and always, always telling me to my face he didn’t like a tune I’d made when he felt it was necessary D and I have been homies for literally about 20 years. We went to nursery school together! (this is not hyperbole, exaggeration or lying, but instead the literal gospel truth.) He continues to open my ears to the new lava with this crazy hot mixtape, don’t let his understated description fool you: this shit is nuts. For those with fragile psyche’s, be forewarned, this is un-remitting satanic gun-man darkness with Kartel, Aidonia and crew engaged in the never ending struggle to find new and more EVIL ways to sing about fucking and killing (”Rise di rifle like my penis”). Worth downloading in it’s entirety if only for the vicious Munga disses from Aidonia and Deva Bratt. Donia linked individually in the flash player below Deva’s “Pon The Nazzle” in the zip file disses Munga’s heavy use of vocal pitch correction software auto-tune saying “Dem rising to the top but fall so soon/… Cuz stage show no carry no auto-tune”. Mad.
I found this comp while listening to tunes on Kartel’s myspace. I had never heard of Junior Snypa but he is doing it with this tape, which is more reminiscent of a canal st mixtape or street album than a straight-forward juggling session. Rather than lining up large blocks of big riddims, voiced by everyone in the scene, the selection is built around a handful of vocalists over mostly B-side productions. Kartel, Aidonia, Black Rhino and Deva Brat do the business over a gang of lo-fi, grimey riddims on the slower end of the spectrum, turning out the kind of auto-tune gun ballads that have been raining down on the world from stephen big ship’s lab for the last year or so. Recommended.
It’s early and I’m still groggy but the internet is awake and buzzing. Go Round Payola, the ’single’ from the EP, produced by me, (do EPs have singles? our’s does) is up on the DA Myspace, The Fader’s blog and JD’s myspace. Listen, skank out in your yard in your underwear, add it to your profile, tell your girl, whatever. Already I’m getting requests for the instro from people to do more versions so there’ll probably be another vocal or two before this is all done. However, remember when I said ” We’re calling it New York Tropical, before someone comes up with an even stupider name.”? Well, whoever’s blogging over at the Fader is trying to call it Trancehall. Yikes! Ouch! My dignity! They’re lumping us in with Ricky Blaze, which is great, I love Cut Dem Off but Trancehall? No. TROPICAL. Still, big up to them for the promo love. Also I stole their blog pic. I think it’s from when Jah D went to Africa with DJ Child last year.
The Dutty Artz family is VERY pleased to announce that we’ve just finished the first artist release for DA, Jahdan Blakkamoore’s EP entitled “We Are Raiders”. Jahdan is a Brooklyn local hero and has been doing his thing for years. From providing the ragga verse on Smif & Wessun’s hip-hop classic Sound Bwoy Buriel to singing the chorus on my tune Brooklyn Anthem (known in the hood as the Craziest Riddim) Jahdan has done a lot. Now, the next phase. Me, Rupture, Geko and Jah D have been labbed up for the past 6 months in the depths of Brooklyn recording his album for Dutty Artz under the working title Buzzrock Warrior. The album is crazy, it’s JD continuing the grimey direction he and I started in with Brooklyn Anthem and branching out in others as well. Dubstep is present, Cumbia is in the building, mad digital Dancehall is there and a lot of stuff that I don’t even know what to call it. Reggae? Sort of. Hip-hop? mmm, yeah. R+B? Kinda.
We’re calling it New York Tropical, before someone comes up with an even stupider name. When we put some audio online you’ll be the first to know and you can stick your own labels to it. In the mean-time, here’s the 12″ art. The four track 12″ will be out first followed shortly by the CD which adds the instrumentals.
me: can you send me the mix? whats going on? i heard u got bodyslammed at seabreeze, (T & i left b4 u showed up) zuperb.
Kingdom: urg yes. i was nearly bedridden for 2 days. the big girl in the glowing tee (pictured below) singled me out danced with me, threw me on the ground, and then jumped off the railing with full weight landing on my pelvis.
honestly it was worth it. the whole scene was so fuckin dancehallrave it was crazy, also love that sexy dancing goes to the level of WWF
Big chune! My man Mode Raw put me up on this a few days ago and I’ve been clicking that youtube link again and again to listen to it. Auto-tune, space, real-life lyrics. All private-caller-ignorers, your time now.
And big-up to Island Superia and all Team SeaBreeze, Brooklyn’s Biggest Teen Party EVER was live. Big up to Max Glazer from the big Federation Sound for playing Brooklyn Anthem (Craziest Riddim) and big up all dancing crew going maddd.
You thought I was joking when I said Brooklyn Anthem will not die. Well, after getting rinsed on the underground throughout the world and going mainstream through placement on Madden ‘08 it’s now crossed over to the Brooklyn teen bashment dance scene, which is popping off on Youtube. To be totally honest, I had no idea this was happening. Klash just sent me a mail with about 40 youtube links of kids dancing to my tune. Big up to Island Superia sound for playing it and promoting their edit of the riddim. If you want to hear a clip of it with Cypha Soundz talking over it about their big teen dance on Mar 1st go to their myspace and play “March 1st Sea Breeze Manor” or check DJ Mountain Doo’s myspace.
My original name for it was the “718 Riddim” but everybody always just called it the “Brooklyn Instro”. Now these kids are calling it the “Craziest” and I like that. I figure it’s a good name for a riddim that just will not stop.
Now, the dancers:
{check the Dutty Artz Youtube Channel for many more of these, this is just four of them}
SELL OFF FAMILY:
“When voicing a riddim, artists are usually paid a flat fee by producers, not royalties, regardless of how well their song sells. Instead they make their fortunes from live performances and the recording of dubplates - custom versions of big hits calling out the name of a specific selector or sound system that are then played at dances or competitive sound clashes. The more in demand the artist or song, the more these dubplates cost, and with professional DJ teams around the world hungry for exclusive tracks, it’s a lucrative trade for top-tier performers. It is, in fact, the producers who are finding themselves cut out of reggae’s economic loop.”
