WitnessThinks…It’s Time To Move.

When I first moved into my apartment here in Minneapolis, I was overwhelmed with the task of where to store the abundance of miscellany I’ve acquired over the years. My apartment is by no means a hole in the wall, but the building is one hundred years old and the archaic floor plan of my place isn’t exactly tailored to the excess of modern living.

I made the decision at one point to stuff some pretty unwieldy vocal booth foam in this awkward little cabinet inside the walk-in closet in my room. It was a poor choice, mostly because of how difficult it was when I attempted to retrieve it a few months later. I had to plant my feet firmly on the floor and use my entire body to try to extract this thing like I was trying to pull Excalibur out of god damn stone.

In probably one of the more cinematic moments of my life, I pulled hard enough to dislodge it, sending me falling backward. But when I stood up, I noticed there was a cassette tape on the floor, which I imagine was hiding inside the cupboard and somehow managed to avoid detection. It was a Never Ending Story moment.

My car has a cassette player (I keeps it vintage, yall) and I quickly ran down to the parking lot to pop this thing in and find out what was on it. It was far, far better than I could have expected.

The contents turned out to be a girl’s dream diary–presumably by the woman who lived here prior to me–and documented about a half a year’s worth of dreams she had. Listening to her felt strangely voyeuristic and at times uncomfortable. The dreams ranged from silly things like teaching kids how to swim and avoid sharks to creepy fragments of her past that slipped into her head in the middle of the night and made her wake up in tears. As far as I can tell, she recorded these every day only moments after waking up.

It was weird to try to stitch together information about her from the pieces she let slip from time to time. It seems she was in her twenties when she recorded this, wore dreadlocks, was in love with a straight female friend of hers and was plagued occasionally with sexual thoughts about her male dentist that made her question her status as a lesbian. Also, it seems that she was keeping this diary on the request of a fringe religion based out of Minnesota called Eckism, who believe that light, sound and dreams are communication with God.

Naturally, I’ll be including little bits and pieces of this recording on my upcoming record “The Everafter LP”.
Maybe I’ll upload some clips from time to time on here as well. I just wanted to provide a little background.

Alright, so it’s not dead.

I’m not arrogant or ignorant enough to make a claim as broad as that. But the word “remix”, like “freestyle”, has long since lost the definition it carried in the golden days. Not to turn this into a backpacker rant, but I think it’s worth mentioning when the indie pop scene is putting together far more memorable remixes than the Hip Hop scene. Too many emcees not enough DJs syndrome, perhaps?

I’m not saying that good remixes don’t exist anymore; I just find myself hearing more and more “remixes” which consist of little more than an acapella haphazardly strewn across a lazily looped sample. They don’t add anything to the original song, nor do they provide a different interpretation of it. It’s just simply the same shit over a different beat. Maybe I’m bitter because I grew up on a bunch of remixes that were either new songs onto themselves or versions that were vastly superior to the originals. Or maybe it’s because I’m lucky to know a few producers who consistently pour their hearts into their remixes.

While it’s by no means a comprehensive list, here’s a list of some notable remixes:

Eric B. & Rakim - Paid in Full (Coldcut Remix)

Coldcut took an already classic track, flipped it up, laced it with a dope vocal sample from Israeli singer Ofra Haza and made lightning strike twice. I was exposed to this one through a local skate video which I would love to dig up, if only because it features someone riding a washing machine attached to a skateboard down a staircase.

The Pharcyde - She Said (Amsterdam Remix)

The original track was way too clean and never really sat well with me. Enter Dilla. He gives the Pharcyde the gritty jazz backdrop that they work best over and suddenly the chorus is enjoyable and one of Fatlip’s smoothest verses gets the proper shine. You know a remix is dope when it warrants another music video for a song that already has one.

(Notable Mention: “Soul Flower (Remix)” from Bizzare Ride II actually DOES have an original. Weird case where the remix is the most well known version because the original is on an obscure record. It was featured on British acid-jazz band the Brand New Heavies album and if you can find it, I highly suggest it.)

A Tribe Called Quest - Scenario (LONS remix)

Good luck going to a battle without hearing this beat come on once. This is a great example of a remix that has shares almost nothing in common with the original, aside from being another collaboration between Leaders of the New School and Tribe. Both tracks are classic, both are different. It’s tough to even call this one a remix, but I’ll be damned if it’s not making this short list.

Black Sheep - The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)

A week ago, I scored about twenty classic hip hop cassette tapes at the local thrift store. “A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing” was in that mother lode and while trying to teach myself how to fast forward and rewind through tapes with the same precision that I had in the 90s, I stumbled across the original version of this song. I forgot that it even existed. It’s a much clunkier version of the song above, and doesn’t include have the “Engine, Engine Number 9…” verse. So, this is a prime example of a remix that became the definitive version.

Public Enemy - Shut Em Down (Pete Rock Remix)

No clue why I can’t find anything other than the instrumental version on Youtube, but this is essential.

Not sure what to think about Universal Mind Control.
Lots of good ideas, lots of poor execution.
Lots of experiment and almost no polish.
Lots of keyboards. Lots of me not liking keyboard focused hip hop.

Common doesn’t seem to happy with it himself and seems to feel his upcoming follow up to Finding Forever will be the one to look forward to. Makes me feel much better. Hopefully, the follow up will have better artwork than it’s predecessor did.

Moving sucks.

This move in particular, riddled with painting complications, huge boxes of heavy vinyl and 4 days of apartment repairs has been insane. Bob Villa would be proud. It isn’t a home yet, but the change of scenery is already having an effect on my mood and writing, which is the reason I did it in the first place. Although, we’re dumping a hell of a lot of effort into this place considering we only have a six month lease.

In addition to the craziness of changing habitat, I’ve got two shows this weekend in Albany, NY. But, I’m playing with some pretty stellar acts (Jared Paul, Oddy Gato, MC Graffiti etc.), so I’m pretty damn excited about these gigs. While this blog isn’t specifically for the promotion of my music, I thought it might be interesting to post the flyers for all the gigs I play as they come. After all, this thing is supposed to serve as a log.