Last month, I had the pleasure of attending one of the most remarkable sound system events I have ever seen: the legendary King Stur Gav Sound live and direct at Club Amazura in Jamaica, Queens.

My friend (and fellow SLF member) Q Mastah managed to get a press pass for the event and did a little write-up/photo essay on how the night went down that I wanted to share with y’all. Here’s an excerpt:

Irish and Chin have been notorious for staging mega productions worldwide, the most legendary being their prestigious World Clash series held in New York, London, Jamaica and Antigua. With “Reewind: past meets the present”, their concept was to combine a vintage rub a dub show headlined by the legendary King Sturgav Hifi with the star power of popular contemporary artists such as Capleton, Luciano and Beenie Man. The bill also advertised U-Roy, Brigadier Jerry, Charlie Chaplin, General Trees (all of whom were affiliated with the sound in its heyday) and Mighty Crown Sound who was entrusted with the task of warming up the audience. With such a stellar lineup, this was undoubtedly the most anticipated dancehall event of the year and it was clear that it was going to be a memorable night. …

To read the rest, you can check out the full recap on the Sound Liberation blog, including some of Q‘s dope photos from the night, and healthy bit of historical context.

For reference, here’s the flier for the event:

source: [ Sound Liberation Front ]

… and believe me, when it comes to rhyme, it doesn’t happen to often. Now where is my Mysterme tape …

The homie DJ Starsign has been active on the mix-uploading recently, which is always a good thing.

Here’s a dope mix he put up a few days ago, and I’m totally digging the vibe. Dude has a crazy good ear for music, and knows no boundaries:

Fall 2009 (a mix for antelopes and beavers) by djstarsign

¬ DOWNLOAD IT HERE (or click on the down-arrow at the right of the preview above)

In his own words:

This mix was another one of those happy accidents for me. It was just another practice routine that I happened to be recording. When I listened to the playback, I was very surprised at how good everything flowed since it was an improvised mix that wrote itself as I went along.

I miss spinning with this cat, for real. We might have to start talking about another Sound Academy reunion in the near future. It’s been too long.

While you’re here, check out some more mixes we’ve featured from Starsign in the past:
¬ buhbOmp episode 10 featuring DJ Starsign
¬ You Are All Beautiful
¬ Four Million Points of Light

He’s also got a couple of other new mixes up on his bassbombsugar blog that y’all should peep.

source: [ bassbombsugar ]

Since I still got a little Halloween spirit left in the tank, here’s a special little treat from the dudes DJ Day and Exile:

We love Rakim. Rakim has provided us with many hours of entertainment and prolly paid a few bills for the dj’s amongst us. Nothing but love for the cat who said suburbanites can rap aka It ain’t where you from (Long Island) but where ya at!

So when Nas did his “Unauthorized Biography,” we were feeling it:

*Shout to Shaun Boothe, who has a nice little series … hope he don’t get Mad Skillz‘d though*

But it don’t seem like the R is too happy with it:

BBB…BBBBUT wait it gets worse.

*hits rewind on tape*

What did Rakim say about it back in 2006?

MTV: Rakim, Nas paid you the ultimate compliment in 2004 by recording “U.B.R. (Unauthorized Biography of Rakim)” [on Street’s Disciple]. What was it like when you heard that song breaking down your whole life?

Rakim: That kind of puts things in perspective. You got this far and somebody that you respect, somebody that’s on a high plateau, took time and showed you love. And to hear a lot of it, I was like, “Where did he get that from? How did he know that?” He does put things in perspective, man. He kind of opened my eyes, like, “OK, people’s watching. People really know about Rakim.” It kind of let me know where I was in the world.

Nas: Thanks, man. I always wanted to know how you felt about that, ’cause if somebody made a song talking about me and stuff like that, I wouldn’t know how to react. I just had to make a song about Ra ’cause if we in there making songs in the studio, let’s make songs about things that are important. The dude is important right now, so I made a song about how he inspired [people] a great deal. I used to look at Ra like, “This dude’s an alien. He’s an alien. He’s not from here.”

*pours out some more decaf for another fallen hero*
**shout out to them boys @ The Lesson**

Here’s a dope little documentary video from our friends over at Subatomic Sound System, promoting their latest release, a collaboration with Lee Scratch Perry: The Blackboard Jungle remixes:

Respect the foundation! 1973, Jamaica. 2009, to the world! The story of the seminal dub album Blackboard Jungle from Lee Scratch Perry and King Tubby that was the cornerstone of the dub music craze that would extend around the world.

In 2009, Vienna’s dub masters Dubblestandart called on Perry to revisit the vibes. This collaboration stretched around the globe to involve New York City’s dub scientists Subatomic Sound System & rising reggae vocal talent Jahdan Blakkamoore (of Major Lazer “Cash Flow” fame), and resulted in the first ever original dubstep tunes from Lee Scratch Perry plus a journey back into the Blackboard Jungle!

Bonus: Lee Scratch Perry – Blackboard Jungle:

I went see one of my favorite producers, Domu, at the Raw Fusion Loft Party this past weekend, and had the good fortune of running into Ernesto Vigo and Probe dms, the Harlemite bruk gurus who hosted the brilliant Elevations Harlem broken beat radio show on WHCR in Harlem when I first got to New York.

That show went off the air a while back, and it has been sorely missed. The last time I saw Ernesto, he assured me that they had something special and new in the works, and that, despite taking a hiatus to attend to life, love and happiness, he and Probe were definitely still putting in work for New York’s broken beat scene.

So, when I saw them at the Domu party, I was ecstatic to get my paws on handbills promoting a party to celebrate the rebirth of Elevations.

If you didn’t get the chance to check out the original Elevations when it was on FM radio, you missed out on some serious heat. Ernesto and Probe, both deep and focused with their music knowledge, always had the latest and greatest bruk tunes on rotation. With their deep connections to artists across the pond and in the boroughs, they carried the torch in New York for the forward-focused, progressive, and soulful sounds of the broken beat scene.

And now, they’re back. I’m geeked. They’ve teamed up with Brett from Boundless to raise Elevations from the dead, launching a new website, elevationsradio.com, and a weekly podcast. They unleashed the first episode last week. You can check it here:

[audio:http://www.dmscountry.com/elevationspodcasts/elepodcast1.mp3|titles=Elevations Radio Excursion 001]

¬ DOWNLOAD IT FROM ELEVATIONSRADIO.COM

As usual, it’s a mix of classic and new bruk tunes with a bunch of exclusive and unreleased gems, including a dope new cut called “Ghost” from Probe’s upcoming album Life is a Movie.

Here’s the playlist:

1. These Things Will Pass – Kaidi Tatham (Freedom School)
2. Believe In Something feat. Heidi Vogel – Grey Matter (Unique Uncut)
3. **M.J. Tribute: Do You Remember The Time (Aroop Roy’s Brukup) – Harry Coade vs. Michael Jackson (CDR)
4. Jump Up feat. Lindah E and Koder- Jason Eli (Groovadelica)
5. More Ways Than One – Altered Natives (Eye 4 Eye)
6. Lose It – 2000Black (Third Ear)
7. Calling Out (Maddslinky Remix) – Mr. J (Askew Recordings)
8. Ghost – Probe dms (DMS CDR)
9. Untitled – Arch Typ (CDR)
10. Hope – Fujimoto Tetsuro (Unique Uncut)
11. Spoiled Edit- Daz-I-Kue feat. Bembe Segue and Colonel Red (Ben E. King) – Ubiquity
12. Fire – Jonny Miller (Jus Listen)
13. The Galactica Suite (Domu Remix) – Simon Grey/Domu vs Papa (Papa)
14. Bamboo – Yellowtail (CDR)

If you’re in the New York area, you should stop by and support their pre-launch party in Brooklyn tomorrow. Ernesto and Probe will be on the decks alongside Yellowtail and DJ Zhill of Bagpak, one of my favorite online music stores. Here’s the info:

ELEVATIONS RADIO pre-LAUNCH PARTY
Thursday, October 15, 2009
8pm-1am
NO COVER
Moe’s
80 Lafayette Ave
Brooklyn, NY

¬ facebook event page

source: [ Elevations Radio ]

It’s officially fall, and we’re falling behind schedule as usual. But, we’ve got some great selections from Empanadamn and DJ Lil Tiger to atone for the delays. Got some big projects in the works from now through the end of the year, so stay tuned. For now, Happy Belated Welfare.

(Click the song names to take you to the off-site sharing pages where you can download the tunes. For detailed instructions on how to navigate the sharing sites where we host our files, we’ve got instructions at the end of this post)

empanadamn | Awwwdamn, it’s autumn / Fawk, it’s fall.

Coldcut “Autumn Leaves” (Feat. Janis Alexander)
A joint to reverse jump-start the season to a slowing slumber. This track is by one of London’s most relevant & long-standing producer / DJ duo known as Coldcut.

Goldie “State Of Mind”
The only non-jungle, smoothed out joint on Goldie’s classic release Timeless.

Change “Searching” (Feat. Luther Vandross)
Breakthrough song for Luther’s R&B solo career that for which he’s recognized today.

Raekwon “Broken Safety” (Feat. Jadakiss & Styles P)
My favorite cut off of OB4CLP2. Gruuufffff!!!

X-Ecutioners “Raida’s Theme”
Roc Raida, Rest In Peace. If you’re in NYC, please come through and celebrate the legacy of Grand Master Roc Raida on Thursday, October 22nd at B.B. King’s presented by Tableturns. The line-up features all your turntable greats such as the X-Men / X-Executioners, The World Famous Beat Junkies, The Allies, 5th Platoon and more. Proceeds going to Roc’s family.

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dj lil tiger | fall back, summer

Brigadier Jerry – Jamaica Jamaica
After seeing Briggy himself perform this with the legendary King Stur Gav at this event this past weekend, I haven’t been able to stop listening to this tune. I hope you have the same problem. You’re welcome (and also, your welcmoe). Foundation stays winning. Bonus: Here’s a clip of The General doing his thing back in 1986.

Umi Marcano – In Front of Me
Nice mid-tempo soca number from Trinidad’s Umi Marcano.

Mr. V vs. Elvis Crespo – Suave Drink Down (J-Boogie RMX)
J-Boogie mashes Mr. V’s major “Put Your Drink Down” with the Elvis Crespo merengue classic. This is a floor smasher, for real. From the latest batch of Leftism edits unleashed by J-Boogie and Sake One

Dip-N-Steam – Do The Hustle (Vx)
Dope Hip-Hop from Atlanta’s Dip-N-Steam, with Daz-I-Kue working his percussive magic on the boards.

(This is an AIFF file, which means it’s in full CD quality. You can convert it to mp3 in iTunes or something similar after you download it, if that’s what you prefer. Click on the down arrow on the right, or click on the red-linked song title above to download.)

Clyde & Capitol A – Serve It Up ( Galaxy Group Remix )
A bruk classic: In Capitol A‘s words:

a nice AFRO BRUK version ( for those that know about the ORIGINAL I did with CLYDE on MANTIS RECORDS , IT WAS A BIG TUNE ) ……….. this rerub still gets the dance rockin’ so cop it if you missed out on it DJ’S ………

(This is an AIFF file, which means it’s in full CD quality. You can convert it to mp3 in iTunes or something similar after you download it, if that’s what you prefer. Click on the down arrow on the right, or click on the red-linked song title above to download.)

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Don’t forget to check out our Welfare archives.

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** INSTRUCTIONS FOR DOWNLOADING **
We host all our Welfare downloads off-site, so what you need to do to download them is to click on the song name in the post, and then look for a download link on the page that that takes you to.

We mostly use divShare, so for divShare follow these steps to download the songs:

– Click on the name of the song. That will take you to a divShare page.

– On the divShare page, look for the black circle with an arrow pointing down. Below that arrow is a link that says “Download original”. Click that link and after a few seconds, the download should start automatically.

That should do it.

If the file is hosted on some other site besides divShare (like ZShare or MediaFire or something) then just look for a link on that site’s page that says download. When you click on the download link, it will probably do something similar to divShare and make you wait a handful of seconds before it starts the download (or offers a specific link to the download).

Hit us up in the comments if you need further instruction. We’re here to help. Thanks.

As a former radio dude, this one really gets me. Anybody who has ever done anything radio-related in Hip-Hop owes something to this dude. Actually, anybody who loves Hip-Hop owes something to this dude, period.

Mr. Magic, Disc Jockey for Early Hip-Hop, Dies at 53
{ New York Times obit ]

Rest in peace, Mr. Magic. Rest in peace.

Shouts to DBDR for bringing this to my attention.

The folks at Grand Crew have posted a video of De La Soul‘s entire performance on their 20 Feet High and Rising tour stop at Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris earlier this month. The tour celebrates the 20th anniversary of the release of their debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising. Catch a snippet of the performance here:

Watch the THE FULL 76-MINUTE PERFORMANCE at the Grand Crew site. They got the full track list up and erethang.

source: [ Grandcrew.com ]