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).
Last week I checked out Big Brother Ruptcha and Mr Two Sevens Klash (with his two-man dance group) at the New Museum. Needless to say, both men did their thing. While Rupture’s set was sort of weird (fitting for the name of the event was/is Get Weird) with nearly everyone (including yours truly) sitting down, listening, and watching on the big screen as Rupture’s magnified hands trash needles, thumps, and twists vinyls. There was applause and cheers, and a woman sitting in front of me gasped and shook her head in protest, expressing disagreement when Rupture threw an explicit SpankRock track in the mix. 77Klash has bangers, and beats like coconuts, but his set was too short. The title track to his new release you must hear (heavy, unrelenting bass pressure with equally weighty lyrics.)
If you never heard the song below, I don’t know what to say you… R.I.P. Joseph Hill. I think this is my favorite song ever.
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.
I heard Alice Russell’s “Hurry On Now” at a party at Howard University earlier this year. The Boub instrumental sounds modest, generic even, but it’s also captivating and flawless under Ms. Russell’s voice which is really engrossing and powerful. This song was stuck in my head for several months. A friend who was at the same Howard party identified it for me.
it’s the Top 10 artistes who walk with a “District of Man” (DOM). What is a DOM? DOM just means an entourage comprised of many men. Here’s Chat’s top 10:
Capleton - they say the Fyah Man carries a whole parish full of Bobo Shantis wherever he performs. Some wave flags, some stand around, presumably as bodyguards
Bounty Killer - the Poor People’s Governor probably has the most homophobic lyrics, but he’s always surrounded by a “sea of man” wherever he goes
Sizzla - wherever he is, it seems the entire Judgment Yard - his soldiers - are there with him. Just ask Norris Man who felt their wrath last year at Capleton’s show after he said something about Sizzla’s mother.
Vybz Kartel - “Addi the Daddy” is always surrounded by many “sons” from the Portmore Empire and outside
Mavado - The Gully God’s army of “Cubans” from Cassava Piece ensure that he’s protected wherever he goes
Turbulance - as with Capleton, always surrounded by many Bobos
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.
A few days ago I came across the Grime encyclopedia, an excellent resource for anyone interested in the music. You are free to look around and find what you like, but they offer links to the most popular pages, to the leaders in the field. Topnotch Grime DJ Logan Sama, who has a legal grime radio show on Kiss 100, offers free rips of tracks from his show. Hmm.. there’s also a wider array of free downloads here.
Martin Clark wrote about Doctor and his yard roots in his montly Grime/Dubstep column for Pitchfork in 2005;
“Take Doctor. for example. Save Skepta, he’s probably the hottest MC on road right now. Accepted by the East MC camp, he’s a talented South London lyricist with a distinctive enough voice to put him in Trim or Kano’s league. The difference between Doctor and those others, however, is that he makes a feature of his yard roots[Flowing like you’re from “yard” usually means you’re black with Jamaican heritage]. He regularly switches from London chat to Jamaican slang and back, most prominently “Gotta Man?”.”
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.”
With a more quiet, acoustic, sensitive bang, DATV#002 lands.
Dutty Artz family member Jahdan Blakkamoore and Fuego Campo are 2/3 of Noble Society along with Delie. Catch them here doing a special live acoustic set at Salon Lucero at the Bowery Poetry Club. Salon Lucero is a poetry and music event put on by Funkworthy crew member and DA family friend Elliel Lucero.
Jahdan and Fuego performed some new and old Noble Society material including tracks from their mixtape with DJ Child of Project Groundation Massive “Live From The Front Line” and tracks from “Take Charge” the debut Noble Society album which is in its final stages and soon to be unleashed on the world. I opened the video with a clip of one of my favorite tracks of theirs “She Told Me” a heartfelt and emotional song about Jahdan’s divorce from his wife of seven years over Fuego’s excellent not quite grime or dubstep riddim. They performed the song acoustic, which is in the video, along with their beautiful “Mama So Divine” a track which actually is acoustic on the record, inspired by Jahdan’s trip to Africa last year.
We’re speeding up, so watch out for our coverage of Trouble and Bass at love with Dexplicit and an exclusive interview we did the day after with Rupture asking the questions.
And yes, I know we promised cooking and street fashion, trust me, they’re coming.
Somehow despite our “organic” (chaotic) promotional style, people are buzzing about Dutty Artz and the pre-orders for the Dutty Remix Zero 12″ are coming in hot and heavy. It’s getting fattened up and groomed for cutting at Transition in London right now, so I swear it will actually come out, very very soon.
UK low-end bredren Sinden started off his (highly influential & generally awesome) Kiss FM radio show last night with the Cauto stormer from Dutty Remix Zero, Bona Vida! Tracklist. Seems like you can stream it back here for a week, although are my computer & I am not smart enough to make it work for us.
[Cauto]
Across the Atlantic, on my radio show last nite we aired an exclusive set by another Londoner, bassline/grime producer Dexplicit. Listen back. This will be available as a podcast soon.
