“creativity was the ability to bring to life an image or idea regardless of resources”

- Chief Boima, Interviewed by Eddie Stats

Eddie Stats has a great interview with Dutty Artz familia Chief Boima and Vamanos from Ghetto Bassquake over at his blog Ghetto Palms for the Fader (linked below).  In it came the above quote which Boima mentions in the context of film theory.

I love this idea and it brings me back to a concept that I try to bash my friends and students over the head with all the time.

Creativity is what happens IN SPITE of things like equipment, time and resources.  A lot of people I know cling to the idea that as soon as they get this next plug-in, keyboard, piece of software, money, time or whatever it is that they don’t currently have that they’ll be able to accomplish their creative goals.

I am sorry to report that this is absolutely not the case.

Finish reading this post over at mattshadetek.com

Within days of my arrival I found myself in the midst of some of the top dawgs of the reggaeton and electronic music scenes and I wanna take a few to hip ya’ll to whats gwarnin out there. Its way too much for one post so I’ve broken it up into three that will air this week.

First off, shouts out to Toy Selectah who was also in town to work on some tracks for Calle 13 and Argentine reggae artist Fidel Nadal. At Toy’s invitation, I found myself at Visitante’s home recording studio where C13 have been working on their new album.  Hand’s down, what the boys have built is the most beautifully decorated and acoustically engineered studio I’ve ever stepped foot in. Cherry oak walls engraved with logos from their various releases, persian rugs, top notch gear, blah blah blah. I got to hear what Toy was contributing and what is coming down the pipe is explosive. Visitante their producer, Ismael their drummer and Mark, the dread in the video who doubles his duty as guitarist in the video and the carpenter who’s been building the studio, are all hella cool peoples and you should definitely peep this new single Calma Pueblo which has been riling up the religious censors.

Yo soy el que quiere que coman, aunque no tengan hambre – Residente-Calle 13

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’m the one that wants you all to eat, even if you’re not hungry

I feel like with that line alone Rene’, better known as Residente, summarizes one of the most disenfranchising aspects about life on the island and the reason that his band is so popular. It’s what my friend Yari calls The 100×35 Mentality. There is a serious apathy plaguing the island when it comes to embracing change. New is completely disregarded until its cool and there are very few artists (or members of the general populace) that break norms there. C13 has consistently pushed the envelope. As do we..

Toy Selectah and I played together to a capacity crowd of 550 party people, on a monday night. The resident DJ has been building the night for 4 years and leans toward hip-hop and dancehall. I played about 45 minutes of dancehall cumbia mashups, crunk cumbia refixes, panamanian plena and hip hop in spanish. I’m happy to announce that it was received fairly well received by most of the audience, the bartenders and even by the resident DJ (*you’ll never kill a top 40 hip hop crowd with all new underground sounds, but do dare yourself to try).

The part of the audience that comes to dance liked it more than the guys that were there to drink and pose off but I’d definitely say it was the first time for almost anyone in the room to hear this stuff and something went right because I had alot of hits on FB the following day as a result.

At the end of the night, we had an honest conversation with the DJ about having built something that could change island. He could be the one to introduce a world of new latin sounds to the island, to which he replied… that’s really not my thing. And therein lies the problem on the island. They need more leaders like c13 to set trends and propel them forward. The people are getting tired of la misma mierda. The strike at the University of Puerto Rico en April was a perfect example that the people want things to be done differently. They are willing to stand up for change.  What they need is a movement, and in my next post I’ll tell you more about how I’m getting that ball rolling.

That said, enjoy rare, behind-the-scenes footage from the very 1st week of Dutty Artz “radio“! Later in the episode Kayne West came in (mistaking us for an antique furniture dealership) but by then my flipcam had run out of space.

I’ve been making music in various underground music scenes for the past ten years now. I’ve enjoyed it a lot. Generally you find great people in underground music scenes, people with a lot of passion and dedication who truly love music. When people are able to strike a balance between their underground aesthetic and being organized, special stuff can happen. But there are many times when people can’t strike that balance. One of the ideas that I’ve run into again and again in this world is the idea of ‘doing it for the scene’. On one level this is a very respectable idea: doing something not out of self interest, but to benefit the larger musical community. The problem I’ve encountered with this is that taken too far this can seriously undermine one’s ability to continue to function.

For example, let’s say hypothetically you are a small record distributor. You do it because you believe in the music, you want to support emerging artists and labels and you don’t care about money. You set up shop, take product on consignment from any unknown player with a willingness to press their material and start doing business. Consignment is when you take product before paying for it, warehouse it and pay when it sells. You continue to operate on this basis but because you have so many unheard of records released by labels with no business model or capability to promote them, sales are slow. Eventually, basic costs start to add up. The rent on your office is due every month. The bill for your shipping provider is rising. Eventually there comes a time when you have backed yourself into a corner. Nothing is selling and while you were hoping for an improvement you passed the point of no return. The shipping company has cut off your access to shipping because your owed bill is so high. Your landlord is initiating eviction proceedings against your office where you warehouse your product.

Finish reading this post at my new blog at mattshadetek.com

The second episode of Dutty Artz Radio is up! Me (Matt Shadetek), DJ Rupture, Mosholu Park aka Lamin and Taliesin all got together in the basement of Dubspot to all DJ some short 20 minute sets and do the first episode of our new book club!

The book we talked about is Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower.

I chopped the audio into separate parts for your mp3 player pleasure.  We streamed it on UStream although somehow the video got lost. The full chat transcript is after the jump though so you can read back if you want.  We’ll be doing this weekly on Thursday nights at 7PM NYC time (EST) at http://www.ustream.tv/duttyartznyc

This coming Monday we’ll have a special edition after Dubspot Radio which is at 8 (and I also run) with special guests NGUZU NGUZU! YAAAAA!  We’re very excited

Dutty Artz own mr_blakkamoore is ramping up for the release of his new album Babylon Nightmare coming soon on Lustre Kings and brings us this excellent podcast mixtape for a teaser: Global Warning (click here to download). Me and Liondub, who I produced ‘The General’ with contributed a remix of Jahdan’s ‘Songs of Love’ the first single for the new album.  There’s a bunch of great stuff on here including some exclusives from Digital Ancient aka Andrew Moon Bain and a feature from Baja of Dry Eye Crew and Delie from Noble Society.  Check out the post over at Largeup.com for a little bio of Jahdan and enjoy the mix.

Check 1:40 for the real moment(s) of clarity here.

Dutty Artz is a book club. You might have thought we were a record label- given that we’re releasing tracks every month and constantly feeding the internet with audio files- but it goes a lot deeper then that. If you want to be part of the club, you should read Octavia Butler’s Parable of The Sower. If you’re not in the Northern Hemisphere- you might want to wait until Summer, caus this one is dark, and if read before bed, almost guaranteed to induce the vivid nightmares that lodge in your psyche for days before revealing themselves as dreams and not memories.

We’re scrambling just like everyone else right now- trying to figure out what it means to be a record label in an era where recorded digital media has no value- and the only people making money are slicing off pounds of flesh to get branded. You’ll see us move in that direction too. It’s inevitable. Hopefully we can do it without losing too much respect. Until then you can find me steady dreaming of new distribution paradigms as we pass each other printed relics.

Disasster Prone [27:44 - 320Kbps]

A native Dirty Southerner and long-time New Orleans resident, Deejay Karo offers up this mix as a taste of Bounce from the last several years. These tracks were recorded off of burnt cd’s, traded back and forth by local dj’s, producers and performers and  bought out of car trunks beneath the live oaks of uptown or in beauty supply store parking lots. Because of this, making a track listing would be next to impossible, but here are the names of some of the performers and producers in the mix:
Blaq N Mild, Peacachoo, J Rock, Showbiz CJ, Big Freedia, Sissy Nobby,Magnolia Shorty, 10thWard Buck, Gotti Boi Chris, Katey Red, Smitty Out Da City, Monsta wit da Fade… Respect and Love to everyone featured and deepest apologies those we didn’t rep in this list”

And y’all know why it’s called Disaster Prone, y’heard?
Deejay Karo and DJ Beesknees
Stinging Caterpillar Sound System