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…here’s a jam for everyone who woke up this morning afternoon with a headache. “when the wine is in the wit is out / rasta don’t drink wine”

[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/Mistry Babylon.mp3]

The Heptones – Mistry Babylon

Lee Perry produced Mistry Babylon and this next tune, a classic piece of smoky studio genius, wet with echo and reverb. Debra Keese’s gorgeous vocals and lyrics get me every time.

[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/Brother Noah – Shadows.mp3]

The Shadows – Brother Noah

Although her vocals are present for much of the tune, Brother Noah is a dub version. Here’s the original for comparision/completists:

[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/Debra_Keese-Travelling.mp3]

Debra Keese – Travelling

I guess Lee Perry is one of the most famous crazy old black men around. Maga Bo was riding his bike on the beach in Rio de Janeiro and looked up — Lee Perry stood there in full regalia, talking to some German girls. He wasn’t in town for a concert or anything, he was just hanging out on Copacabana as if it were the most natural thing in the world and it probably was.

Most of the crazy old black men I see are on the subway, with plastic bags and newspaper scraps. Unthinkably alone. Sometimes with no shoes, sometimes with as many accesories and bonkers sartorial flair as Scratch, The Upsetter, himself.

theupsetter

A big thanks to everyone who bought and voted for Jahdan’s group Noble Society’s album Take Charge on iTunes this year earning it the iTunes 2008 Best Reggae Album honors. The record is sick and Jah D, Diego Fuego and Delie have been working hard on it for a good long while, very nice to see some recognition coming back to the family. A big shout to Moon and everyone over at the Lustre Kings label, they’ve got a lot more exciting reggae music out and more coming.

Listen to clips from Take Charge here, and buy it here.

Yes, we’re taking over YouTube.

The video for Reef by Baby Kites and Nokea, two young producers from the DA camp, directed by Panoptic is out. It’s a promo for DJ /Rupture’s new uproot CD (buyable). Thanks to the people at YouTube for putting us on the front page and getting us thousands of views, dozens of inane comments and spam and friend requests from random people in the past two hours of it being up there. The internet is a wild and wonderful place.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWx7s1S23Gk[/youtube]

Next is the official worldwide exclusive premiere of 77Klash’s new video for Mad Again (Whoa!) from his Code for the Streets EP (on iTunes) produced by myself Matt Shadetek. In case you were wondering, yes that’s reggae legend Johnny Osbourne in the video. He came and laid his classic whoa-yea chorus for us in the studio, it’s not a sample as some people have thought. The video shoot was a lot of fun. Watching the dancers from Ground Zero and Dancerz Blvd do their thing was crazy, Skerrit Bwoy brought his usual maddness to the set (that’s him with the ladder and garbage can, nuts as usual), Max Glazer, Gravy, Barrington, Mass Processor and both generations of Crazy Legs all made appearances (the young dancehall dancer and the vet b-boy). Check the video, directed by Jon Fine.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlYQxjOC0ag[/youtube]

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.
[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/Cauto-BonaVida.mp3]
Cauto – Bona Vida

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.


(pic by Sr Atlantico)

We also got teh mixes –

[audio:https://duttyartz.com/mp3/GekoJones_live_on_WFMU.mp3]
Geko Jones New York Tropical; live on WFMU is still up + popping.

[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/Taliesin-BassBinShit.mp3]
Taliesin got some dark dark dark for ya… Well, it ain’t so dark, but it is.

Jahdan Blakkamoore: We Are Raiders 12

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):

jd camphone art

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).

The CD EP tracklist is as follows:

1. Buss It Pon Dem (Produced by Chancha Via Circuito, Buenos Aires, Argentina)

2. Nice Green (Produced by me, Matt Shadetek, New York City, USA)

3. Go Round Payola (Matt Shadetek)

4. Pon Time (Produced by Stereotyp, Vienna, Austria)

5. Pure Riddim (Bonus Instrumental, Matt Shadetek)

6. Payola Riddim (Matt Shadetek)

7. Nice Green Riddim (Matt Shadetek)

8. Varela (Chancha Via Circuito)

Pre-order yours now (and hear samples) from Boomkat or Cargo, distribution by Cargo (UK & Europe) and Traffic (USA).

Jahdan and Rupture will be in the UK this month on tour promoting the release. Get dates and more info from Qujunktions.

Also get a sneak preview of Nice Green off the EP over at my myspace, along with Go Round Payola.

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.
[audio:http://nyc.duttyartz.com/mp3s/Culture-TwoSevensClash.mp3]
Culture – Two Sevens Clash

(reggae pictures)

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.

Steve Gurley Mix

***

And now some pictures from last Friday.

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.

Maga Bo, author of Archipelagoes —a monster I can’t find the words to describe—, here manning the controls at the bottom of a bluest ocean with weird fishes and creatures swimming over his head and around him, while at the same time modeling tee shirts by designer Ghislain Poirier. Oh, Big Poppa Ghis (© Rupture), thanx 4 D Gros Beats. One beer wasn’t enough.

(I don’t have a single picture of Matthew Shadetek for some reason, and the man wasn’t scarce either. I apologize for that.)

And the people, the people, the party people…

Yes, lady on the left can shake it like a salt shaker.

My, my.. dazzling, beautiful brown eyes…

Go ladies.. all you stereotype ladies

Getting hazy and sweaty right about here.

Goodnight.


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.

Alice Russell – Hurry On Now (Boub Remix)

Alice Russell – Hurry On Now

Click here for more pictures of Ms. Russell holding a bunch of bananas.

i found this list on the internet.

Top 10 artistes who walk with a “District of Man”

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:

  1. 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
  2. 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
  3. 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.
  4. Vybz Kartel – “Addi the Daddy” is always surrounded by many “sons” from the Portmore Empire and outside
  5. Mavado – The Gully God’s army of “Cubans” from Cassava Piece ensure that he’s protected wherever he goes
  6. Turbulance – as with Capleton, always surrounded by many Bobos
  7. Sanchez – the only singer on the list
  8. Junior Gong
  9. Fantan Mojah – another bobo DOM
  10. Junior Reid – yet another bobo DOM

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.