Last week (7/6) I attended Peter Rosenberg’s “Noisemakers” series at 92y Tribeca in NYC. His interview subject for the evening was none other than the veritable Quincy Jones of our generation, Puff Daddy.

I think Diddy’s an amazing business man and has an undeniable passion for music. That much was evident from just hearing him talk about his experiences working for Andre Harrell, babysitting Jodeci, spitshining Mary J. Blige into the voice of the ghetto everywoman, recording with Biggie and so on. People tend to forget Puff, much like Jermaine Dupri, started his career as a dancer. Just goes to show you what type of linearity you can have in this business if you know what you want.

On the other hand, I think the Diddy effect created lots of the current problems in hip-hop. It takes years for a culture to be affected on a macro level by micro events, but all that shiny suit shit from the late 90s, the million dollar videos, the big first week sales, the Source Power 30 jockeying… all that stuff was great for the business of rap, terrible for the music itself.

And still, looking back, Bad Boy was an incredible label. Even in its lean years (mostly post-2000, G-Dep era), it was a better label than whatever flavor of the month powerhouses exist now (Young Money and…. Young Money?).

Ten years ago I never thought I’d be rationalizing the value of Puffy. But whatever, times change, and my view may be obscured (watching him stand around for hours in blazing heat on the set of “Making His Band” last summer increased my respect for the guy). He’s an elder statesman now, and I can only tip my hat. The following are my notes from Noisemakers. Things I just jotted down while he was talking.

1. Was a corner back/running back in high school (Mt Saint Michaels Academy in the Bronx) Thought he’d win Heisman and Super Bowl, but broke his leg on last day of camp. “If you were out for the season, the coach just stopped talking to you.”
2. Worked as a doorman at the Marriot during Howard college years. “I didn’t have no ego. Doormen had to wear crazy hats. I looked like Troy, Roman times. I looked like two weeks after slavery ended. Made good money.”  Made 1000 dollars a week, mostly from tips. Also says his parties were bringing in 5000 a week. Moved into a duplex.
3. When he was trying to get a music industry internship, he interviewed with Lyor Cohen. Lyor doesn’t even remember him. Heavy D introduced him to Andre Harrell, who he knew from Mt. Vernon.
4. Locked himself in bathroom on Amtrak to go back and forth from Howard to his internship at Uptown Records.
5. Father MC’s “I’ll Do For You” is hist first credit on record
6. First complete LP he worked on was Mary J. Blige’s What’s the 411?
7. Big break was making sure Jodeci got back and forth to studio. A producer was supposed to show up to remix “Come and Talk To Me” and didn’t show up. Puff put EPMD’s “You’re A Customer” under it. Sold 2 million records.
8. Method Man/Mary J. Blige remix for “All I Need” is his favorite collaboration ever. The song was credited to Rza (who produced the original version), so Diddy never got sent the Grammy they won for the track. “I need to call Def Jam.”
9. Why Craig Mack? His style, his flow. Always attracted to melody. So unorthodox. His tone too. Big fan of EPMD, and Craig was down with them.
10. First saw Biggie in The Source’s unsigned hype. It was the era of pretty boy type rappers. Matty C told him about Big. “He didn’t have no six pack. I was like, what am I gonna do? But I just heard the tape and I knew he was gonna be a supertar. I also knew he’d be a sex symbol.”
11. He had to teach Biggie how to count bars and write a chorus.
12. Puffy and Big butted heads on “Juicy” and “Big Poppa.” Big wanted “Machine Gun Funk” to be a single. “[We] was studying what Dre and them was doing, with Niggaz4Life and The Chronic. I wanted to come with the sound of the soul of New York.”
13. The unknown edit on “Gimme The Loot” was made because of Puff’s religious beliefs. “I don’t care if your pregnant, gimme baby ring and the number 1 mom pendant.”
14. Was strongly against the record “Suicidal Thoughts.”
15. “My eye was never on competing with other hip-hop artists. My eye was on competing with rock artists, [because there's] no point in being in the game if you’re not being heard.”
16. Got idea for Bad Boy being a real business when he saw Mahogany. Modeled himself after Berry Gordy. He had a film division. “If he would have came out with a Diana Ross clothing line it’d be crazy.”
17. Artist he passed on- Ludacris
18. On Rick Ross: “I never compared Ross to Biggie. Biggie is a one of one. I liked Ross separately as an artist. I saw him going into a certain zone. I felt I had some information to give him. He has a great sense of music and musicality. He has a unique flow, unique style. On “Angels,” I explained it to him like it was inspired by Big. I told him when he did his part I felt the spirit of Big.”
19. On Jay Electronica: “We work together in an unofficial capacity. He’s just a friend of mine. I think there’s a way for me to work with jay from the sidelines and be a part of his success.”

Theo Martins’ “Channel Surfin” mixtape was a success last month. Tons of linkage online, plenty of people aware of its release, folks sharing it. I couldn’t be happier (unless a big pile of money fell out of the sky, but that’s a whole nother story). It was the perfect lead-in to SXSW, where Theo rocked shows solo and with UNI, Pac Div and a bunch of others. Timing really is everything, and hey, that was pretty strategic!

Theo recently partnered with DJBooth.net, and the site will release his long-awaited EP “You Can’t Do That On Television” this month. The project is a collaboration with upcoming Ohio-based producer $port, and the name takes its cue from the Canadian sketch comedy television program, which eventually became a Nickelodeon staple in the early 90s. The sound is futuristic, but inspired by that era. The first leak song from the EP is “Kirby’s Airwalk.”

Spotted over at my former colleague and good friend Bfred’s blog, the definitive Gorgio Moroder collection. The fact that he compiled and uploaded this right now is rather convenient, considering I’m in the middle of reading And Party Every Day, a new book about Casablanca Records, who Moroder recorded and produced artists for.

Says Brendan,

It’s hard to imagine a time when synthesizers didn’t dominate popular music, but in the early 1970s, anything beyond acoustic was a pretty avant-garde act. Producer/singer/songwriter Giorgio Moroder was at the forefront of making electro go pop, through his innovative work in disco, pop, and film scores.

Raised in a German-speaking part of Northern Italy, Giorgio made his career in Germany’s music scene in the late ’60s when krautrock artists had started sprinkling synths into their traditional rock formulas. In 1976, he hit it big with Donna Summer’s “Love To Love You Baby,” a funky, orgasmic club anthem that turned the unknown singer into the definitive artist of the disco era. A year later, Summer, Giorgio and longtime partner Pete Bellotte released “I Feel Love,” a hard-hitting electronic disco record that is often credited as the missing link between acoustic disco and modern house music. Other German electro artists like Kraftwerk might have been more musically radical, but Giorgio brought the synthetic revolution to the dance clubs and pop radio before anyone else. He would go on to compose a string of hugely successful soundtracks, from 1978’s Midnight Express to 1983’s Scarface, phasing out classical-style scores in favor of futuristic sounds that would dominate the ’80s. I collected over 25 of my favorite Giorgio songs for the latest Uggh…Nice Watch compilation…
THE GIORGIO MORODER COLLECTION:
1. Giorgio “Tears” (1972)
2. Donna Summer “Working The Midnight Shift” (1977)
3. Giorgio Moroder “Chase” (1978)
4. Janet Jackson “If It Takes All Night” (1984)
5. Giorgio Moroder “Tony’s Theme” (1983)
6. Blondie “Call Me” (1980)
7. Donna Summer “I Feel Love” (1977)
8. Giorgio Moroder “E=MC²” (1979)
9. Freddie Mercury “Love Kills” (1984)
10. Munich Machine “It’s For You” (1978)
11. Donna Summer “On The Radio” (1979)
12. Giorgio Moroder “Theme From Midnight Express” (1978)
13. Roberta Kelly “Trouble Maker” (1976)
14. Donna Summer “Hot Stuff” (1979)
15. Giorgio Moroder “Evolution” (1978)
16. Donna Summer “Dim All The Lights” (1979)
17. Berlin “Take My Breath Away” (1986)
18. Donna Summer “Love’s Unkind” (1977)
19. Philip Oakey & Giorgio Moroder “Together in Electric Dreams” (1985)
20. Limahl “The NeverEnding Story” (1984)
21. Giorgio Moroder “From Here To Eternity” (1977)
22. Paul Engemann “Scarface (Push It to the Limit)” (1983)
23. Donna Summer “Love to Love You Baby” (1975)
24. Irene Cara “Flashdance…What A Feeling” (1983)
25. Pat Benatar “Here’s My Heart (Classical Reprise)” (1984)
26. Giorgio “Son Of My Father” (1972)
DOWNLOAD: [ usershare | mediafire ]

Shalom! Just in time for Purim, the first ever twitter trending topic-inspired mixtape is finally here- “The #Jewishrapnames Mixtape- Kings of Schlock”

Presented by hip-hop journalist Paul Cantor, urban culture photo blog UpNorthTrips.com and mixed by The Smoking Section’s own Trackstar The DJ, Kings of Schlock is a humorous tongue in cheek take on Judaism’s role in hip-hop music.

“Once you get past the glitz and glamor, everybody in hip-hop wishes they were a little bit Jewish,” says Paul Cantor. “It behooves you to be a stand-up guy in rap, a mensch. Still, times are tough in the record business, and it pays to be tight with your money, a miser. So there’s a bunch of different Jewish characteristics or stereotypes, which we’re actually poking fun at, that lend themselves to thriving in the rap game.”

Guest starring HOT97 morning show radio personality Peter Rosenberg, hip-hop sketch comedy duo It’s The Real, and the OR (original Rabbi) Mike Moskoff, the project was inspired by a random twitter hashtag phenomenon that occurred last weekend (2/19-2/21), which saw the 140 character micro-blogging service turn into a #jewishrapnames free-for-all. Everyone from Eminem’s manager Paul Rosenberg to tastemaking DJ A-Trak to Samantha Ronson was in on the act. www.Jewishrapnames.com was launched instantly. A top #jewishrapname list was compiled by Paul Rosenberg and can be accessed at his site www.PaulRosenblog.com

“What we did was basically curate the top #jewishrapnames, the ones that tweeters kept repeating, and compiled them on one long-playing mix,” says Cantor. “The mixtape name and artwork is a play on Run DMC’s classic ‘King Of Rock’ LP cover, and then we added some skits to sort of create this Jewish rap narrative. The thing to keep in mind is that it’s all in good fun. Definitely for comedic purposes first and foremost.”

Kings of Schlock is the first of many proposed Jewish hip-hop-inspired projects. A second volume, featuring more original content, is already in the works.

Tracklisting
Dr Demento- Hebrew Rap
Meshugah Hill Gang- Rabbi’s Delight
Sephardic-Cyde- Passover Me By
Beastie Boys- Passover the Mic
Yiddish Ebonics Interlude
Brand Jewbian- Schlep to the Rear
Jew Tang Clan- Shame on a Meshugganah
Souls of Mitzvah- 93 til Yontifinity
Main Schwartz/Nasty Nashkenazi- Live at the Bar Mitzvah
Biggie Schmaltz- Jewcy
Dr Dreidel- Nothin but a Jew Thing
Old Dirty Mamzer- Shimmy Shimmy Yahweh
Craig Maccabbe- Flava In Yahrzeit
Jerusalem The Damaja- Brooklyn Tuchus
Method Manischevitz/Mary Jew Blige- I’ll Be There for Jew
Queen Haifa- JEW.N.I.T.Y
The Lox feat Lil Yom Kimpur- Gelt Power & Respect
2 Live Jews- Oy It’s So Humid
Hasheminem aka Slim Zadie- I Just Don’t Give a Schmuck Lauryn Hillel- To Zion

DOWNLOAD LINK

Artwork by Mark Malazarte
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Theo Martins “Veni Vidi Vici”  has been officially tapped to appear in the Jerry Bruckheimer-helmed show The Forgotten, which airs on ABC Tuesday nights at 10pm, after everyone’s favorite show in the entire universe, Lost. “Veni Vidi Vici” will appear in next week’s episode. Please tune in!

Additionally, Theo will be performing on a bill at Haverford college in Pennsylvania with Guilty Simpson next week, February 12th. If you’re in the area, stop by and give us a shout.

“Veni Vidi Vici”

Alternate download link: http://www.mediafire.com/?yozztbxwnal

About Theo- The 23-year old hails from Providence, Rhode Island and in 2008 dropped a highly acclaimed mixtape project called The Birth ( download HERE). In the fall of 2009 he toured the nation as a DJ/performer with U-N-I and Kidz in The Hall on the Warren G tour. He also finalized a deal with Hall of Justus to release You Can’t Do That On Television, a collaborative project with upcoming Ohio-bred producer $port, due out in March of this year. “Channel Surfin” with DJ Wreckonize drops this month. Additionally, Theo has upcoming fashion collaborations with Street Etiquette, J. Elquist, The Madbury Club (Award Tour), AnmlHse Clothing, and Minoru Blvd, among others.

Last week I was on twitter when someone with the handle Sweatshirt replied to something I’d tweeted about bitter people fucking the music industry up. I kinda just glanced at the twitter page and thought the name Shirt sounded familiar. I asked him if he was the kid who made a mixtape with all these rock samples and he replied that he was. The mixtape was called Unsigned In New York (DOWNLOAD). I remember the mixtape because it had to be something like 2005, and he was rapping over all these Nirvana samples and whatnot, and at the time, nobody was doing that (or at least nobody on my radar). They weren’t complete flips of the samples, more like reworkings of the songs so that he could rap over them. I thought back then that he had a good flow, solid voice and was doing something forward thinking. It was rap rock, but over classic shit.

So I sent him this beat that I’d originally made a year ago with The Knux in mind for, and I actually told Krispy Kream that I was going to send it to him when I saw him at the Knux Redbull secret show in January, but  just never got around to it. T-Shirt jumped right on it and sent it back to me the next day. He didn’t flip it into a song, more just like a two minute verse, a freestyle. I came away rather impressed by it. His voice and flow just sounds right on these types of tracks. He took it upon himself to send it to some blogs, with the following message attached

Famed writer, Hip-Hop journalist and producer Paul Cantor and I had an ill conversation last night. Turns out my man Ayes gave him my first mixtape 6 years ago in Staten Island and he went crazy. He told me it was “wayyyy ahead of it’s time”, and was “one of his favorite mixtapes in years”, you know, back when mixtapes meant something. This was so ill to me. Paul Cantor is like the real deal as far as industry guys go. He sent me over some music reminiscent of these big rock remixes I used to do. I’d rap on anything man, it’s so fucking fun to me. Anyway, the joint he sent over was from that era of music I was doing and at first I was a little taken back haha. It’s not what I do anymore ! I slept for about an hour, woke up this morning, and wrote and recorded this just to show ole Paulie what the fuck I’m still doing over here haha.

Flattering to say the least. So without further ado, here’s the Paul Cantor freestyle.

DOWNLOAD- T-Shirt “Paul Cantor Freestyle”

Last night Just Blaze held the final goodbye for his legendary Baseline recording studio. Naturally, I found out about the evening’s festivities, which reportedly were a walk-through and tour sort of thing, super late. I wound up making my way over around 10pm, after leaving the ego trip film screening. Timmhotep came with. I entered the studio to see what looked like actual organized confusion in the lounge. Boxes everywhere, records packed up, gear laying around, sneakers, pool balls and assorted memorabilia. I’d once been involved with the closing of a major studio (Mystic Studios, in Staten Island, where a lot of classic material was recorded), and remember the disaster which became of the studio space when the equipment was broken down and storage spaces were cleaned out. It’s really a trip down memory lane.

I wish I could say I had a really close relationship with Baseline, but I didn’t. That’s not to say I don’t have my memories of it like anyone else. Here are a few that come to mind.

- My first time playing beats in the A room. This was around December of 2002. The Blueprint 2 had just come out, and somehow someway a friend of mine met Geda K at a party or something, and asked him for music for these DJ Storm mixtapes we were recording out of the Staten Island studio I had at the time. We wound up at Baseline that night, and playing beats for Geda K and the rest of the Get Low Records artists. That was the first time I met Just Blaze. I recall being ushered out of the studio super late that night- Mariah Carey had arrived and to the best of my knowledge they cut “Oh Boy” in that session.

- I would occasionally go back to check the Get Low Records rappers, and they cut a few songs to beats of mine, but nothing ever came of it. I didn’t get back into Baseline really until the Spring of 2004, when Matt Fingaz brought myself and my  then manager, Gello Jones, up there during a session with Ayatollah in the B room. During that session I met the rapper Smitty, who at the time was signed to J Records, and gave him a beat CD, but didn’t really get his contacts or anything. The results of me handing him that beat CD wound up being the song “It’s Alright” which somehow got miscredited to 9th Wonder when it was released on an independent Smitty album in 2006. Till this day I’ve probably had five conversations with 9th Wonder and have never once broached this subject. I don’t even think he knows about it.

- A few months later I wound up interviewing Just Blaze for a XXL article on Beat Society that never made it into the magazine. That was my first front of the book piece for XXL. At the end of our interview I asked if I could play him some beats. He obliged. He picked two that he liked. One he wanted for Saigon, the other he asked me to bring back so he could re-produce it. I remember dropping the files off at Baseline a few days later and exchanging some emails with Just about it, saying that I don’t give files out for anything unless money is exchanging hands, but that I trusted him. A few days later I was at the XXL office and Bonsu Thompson told me Just was talking to him about me. I think he embellished a bit and said Just might want to sign me or something as a producer. That was a nice pipe dream while it lasted. Ha!

- The next fond memory I have of Baseline is coming up there to play beats for Freeway. This was either December of 2004, or 2005. Caveman Rosario, who cut my first check ever for a beat (”Through My Rearview” on Freeway’s Ice City: Welcome to the Hood LP) in 2004, wanted me to get on Free at Last. Free had already recorded to one of my beats and I was there to play more. I waited hours for Freeway to arrive. Scram Jones showed up too. I ended up playing the tracks at like 2am or something. The interesting thing about this night was this was the infamous session Freeway claims he didn’t have with Just Blaze, when he said Just was too busy for him. In fact, Just spent hours working on this one beat for him. So that’s the end of that.

- We also did the Scratch Magazine feature (NOT the cover story with Saigon) with Just Blaze and Roland V-Synth GT that was in the last issue of the magazine ever (with 50 Cent and Timbaland on the cover). I remember Scratch’s Editor-in-Chief looking at me kinda crazy when I suggested Just Blaze to do that review. He was like, “Are you just trying to get the biggest producers possible for your section of the magazine?” I replied, “Ummm… yeah.” And sure enough, Just was down for it. And in that interview is where you first heard him talk about doing more electronic-sounding music, a la TI’s “Live Your Life.”

Outside of that, I can remember meeting DJ Green Lantern at Baseline for the first time. I can remember Dan Solomito allowing me to come play beats for Naledge and Double-O of Kidz in the Hall during their 3-marathon recording session of School Was My Hustle. I remember giving Royce the 5′9 some beats outside of the studio one night. I remember playing beats for Young Guru one night when I was there for god knows what reason.

Let me not forgot, there was also that night I waited outside for something like three hours for Just to show up, just so I could play him some new shit. That was the grind back then.

To sum it up, it was a great place, a sort of crossroads for a lot of different types of folks in the music and media business. There used to be many of those types of studios in Manhattan. Now sadly many of them are gone, and we add Baseline to the list.

Just Blaze with the last call for alcohol

Just Blaze freestyling over Exhibit C

Pardon the terrible quality on these videos. I found out about the baseline closing event super late and was armed with only a blackberry camera phone.

Had a little down time one night in 2006, just started messing with some wu-tang acapellas and the melody from “All That I Got Is You,” and came up with this remix. Was going through a hard drive and found it, thought I’d share. Enjoy.

Plus I needed a reason to unearth the Ghostface doll picture.

download HERE.

Beats: XL
Lyrics: L
Originality: L

The success of Playaz Circle’s chart-topping, Lil Wayne–assisted single “Duffle Bag Boy” may have eclipsed that of their 2007 debut album, Supply & Demand, but don’t write them off as one-hit wonders just yet. Even though the DTP, Atlanta-based duo’s debut stalled out at around 96,000 units sold, Tity Boi and Dolla Boy are looking to reach new heights with their sophomore LP, Flight 360: The Takeoff.

The opening track, “Turbulence,” with its wailing guitars and distorted vocals, gives off an airy feel, as Playaz Circle take the album’s theme to task. “Look What I Got” finds PC giving listeners a taste of first class, when they incessantly boast about the finer things in life, alongside rolling bass licks, hypnotic synths and a screwed vocal hook. Material possessions aside, jet-setting has other perks. On “Can’t Remember,” featuring Bobby Valentino, Dolla Boy loses track of his various hoes and their respective area codes, when he spits, “I be travelin’ like a muthafucka/I should have gave that fine bitch there another number.” Then, on the haunting “Big Dawg,” the group reunites with Lil Wayne to plant their feet in the trap.

This ride’s not without some bumps, though. “Weight Droppin’,” with its bright horn stabs, is too saccharine-sounding for these d-boys. And the trite “Hold Up,” whose sparse chorus just repeats the song title, sounds lazy and unfinished. Luckily, the boys get back to piloting their ship right with the raucous “DJ Know Me,” while confronting the elephant in the room (Tity Boi: “I walk in the club, me and my comrade/Nigga talkin’ ‘duffle bag,’ well, we already done that”).

By the time the LP wraps, it’s clear Playaz Circle are deserving of more than just a cursory listen. No longer one-hitter quitters, with Flight 360, Tity Boi and Dolla deliver a pretty fly follow-up. —Paul Cantor

originally published at XXLMag.com