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”

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.

What’s in a name?

OJ Da Juiceman’s “Make the Trap Say AYE” and Oran “Juice” Jones’ “The Rain” don’t have much in common musically. Juiceman’s song is pretty slow, Juice’s is pretty fast. Where they’re linked is in their names. So I put the two together, and now they are the new Juice Crew.

I sped up Juiceman’s song quite a bit, so it’s now an up-tempo joint, with an 80s twist, that’ll fit into either a DJ’s mashup or throwback set.

OJ Da Juiceman and Oran “Juice” Jones- “Walking in the AYE!!!” (mashed by Gooch and DJ Bailey)

After the Drake/Karate Kid mashup “Best I Ever Had Around” hit the net last week, an old friend of mine, Ev Boogie (who, on the low, is one of the originators of the Evil Empire mixtape series, and has a pretty deep resume himself) sent me a youtube link for this song, “New York Groove,” from Ace Frehley’s (KISS’s lead guitarist) 1978 self-titled solo LP. The song it just hit me a certain kinda way. I put it on repeat and played it non-stop for three days straight. It was that infectious.

Being the music nerd that I am, I consulted the official paper of record, Google, for some history on the tune. That lead me to the greatest web site ever created, wikipedia, which told me that the song was originally recorded by the glam rock band Hello, in 1975 (listen to Hello’s “New York Groove” here). Ace Frehley’s version, although similar, has a different swing to it. When those power chords drop on the hook, that’s the “hit” right there. The hit record is literally bottled up in those 8 bars.

There are a ton of rap songs about New York. In my opinion, a lot of them are pretty depressing. And that’s ok, New York is pretty depressing, especially for a rapper. I thought the only recent hip-hop track that jibed with the KISS tune was Busta Rhymes “New York Sh*t” ft. Swizz Beatz. Both songs are chest-beating odes to the big apple, so why not combine the two? I dare you to find a more high-energy pairing than KISS with Busta and Swizzy. Busta’s also been known to rock some… ahem… questionable fashion during his career, like KISS. And he’s definitely donned the face paint as well.

“New York Sh*t” (KISS version)- Busta Rhymes, Swizz Beatz and KISS (mixed by Gooch and DJ Bailey)

Download it, post it, play it, share it, love it, hate it, dis it… it’s all good.

I knew someone was gonna do it, just didn’t know it’d be me. The theme song of The Karate Kid’s been begging for a mash-up for god knows how long. And the other night, it just hit me, Drake’s “Best I Ever Had” seemed like the most logical and most relevant fit.

Joe Esposito’s “You’re The Best Around” is kind of a wierd tune. In the context of the movie, the song works almost perfectly. You hear it in the film, and you think man this song is incredible. You get so pumped. I’m the best… around! You’re all ready to crane kick your neighbor.

Then you hear it by itself, and like a lot of cheesy 80s pop rock, it’s not very good. This is the problem I faced when I started working on mashing Drake’s vocals with the track. It’s like, how can I make an artist who sounds so good on his original track sound right on this completely different style of music?

There’s also a big tempo difference between the two songs, as Drake’s track is somewhere around 81bpm, while Esposito’s is roughly 94. So stylically and groove-wise, it’s a big change. To be perfectly honest, I chopped almost every other bar of the Drake acapella just to get him in the pocket. He also rhymes in a sing-songy style that melodically jibes with the original song’s melody. Rather than autotuning the autotune, which just felt almost a little too techno robotic, I opted to make my own little edits on those parts.

And finally, there really is no acapella for the Drake song. I grabbed a DIY acapella that someone with a clever ear for EQ (or a Waves plug-in) uploaded online, but if you listen real closely you can still hear the kicks and snares from the original Drake song. But hey, we work with what we have.

Enjoy

Drake + Joe Esposito (Karate Kid Theme Song)- “Best I Ever Had Around”