Anyhow, here’s a nice hour long mix to start to make up to everyone. Enjoy!

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Musiq Soulchild - Buddy

Mario Winans - Don’t Want To Know

Nick Cannon - My Wife

Beyonce - Crazy In Love

Pras - Ghetto Superstar (X-Mix)

T Pain - I’m Sprung

Too $hort - Blow The Whistle

Jay-Z - I Just Wanna Love U (Remix Mafia Party Break)

Daddy Yankee - Impacto

DMX - Party Up

Cypress Hill - I Could Just Kill A Man

2Pac - All About You

DJ Felli Fell - Buck In Here

Tony Sunshine - Oh My God

Far-East Movement - Satisfaction

Down - Lean Like A Cholo

Ne-Yo - Because of You

Dexy’s Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen (2nd Nature Remix)

T Pain vs Hall & Oats - 80’s Bartender (Victor Menegaux)

Indeep vs Earth Wind and Fire - A Brazillian DJ Saved Me (DJ 2nd Nature)

DJ Khaled - We Takin’ Over

Ying Yang Twins ft Wyclef Jean - Dangerous (Blackline Mix)

Modjo vs Justin Timberlake - I Love A Sexy Lady’s Back (Architect Davey B)

Justin Timberlake - Sexy Back

Rihanna - Please Don’t Stop the Music

Afro-Rican - Give It All You Got

2 Live Crew - Hoochie Mama

Ann Lee - Two Times

Human League - Fascination

New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle

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Post my thoughts later…

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This mix is pretty damn overdue, my apologies for that.  I’d been ridiculously busy at work for awhile, and when my project finally got out the door, I thought I’d be jumping immediately on the decks.  Instead I found myself just needing a week or two of doing absolutely nothing (it was everything I imagined it could be….) to decompress.

Had my chance to relax and now I’m back on the decks and hopefully back on schedule again to drop a mix a week again.

Hope you enjoy this… listening back through it again, it’s one of my favorite mixes I think I’ve *ever* recorded.  Like all my mixes, it’s all just impromptu and a live set (i.e. press record and cross fingers), but for whatever reason I think it all just comes across pretty clean–and it’s pretty representative of me as a DJ now.  The musical choices are all fairly upbeat, represent a decently broad range of genres and provide a nice spectrum of beats and melodies.  Can’t quite place it fully, but to me the mix is just very…. me.  Been at this now for 3 years approximately, and looking at this mix and comparing to stuff I have from way back when, I think I’ve come quite a long way..

Anyhow, enough self back patting.  Enjoy, hope you like it as much as I enjoyed the time on the decks recording it.

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I’ve been a big fan of the Bmore sound (aka Baltimore Club, Doo Doo beats) ever since I was first exposed to it maybe 3, 4 years ago by the fairly influential series of LPs put out by a DJ duo named Hollertronix. Anyhow, I got a bit curious and apparently the BMore sound is mostly attributed and traced back as an offshoot of the Miami Bass sound and quite heavily influenced by Luke Skyywalker (and hence why some call the genre “Doo Doo”, i.e. after the track “Doo Doo Brown” by said 2 Live Crew producer).

The sound has been gaining a lot of traction across the country lately, so I’ve started fiddling around w/ the idea of doing a longer set of just B’more tracks. Was just practicing around last night and threw together a few tracks completely off the cuff just to see what I might come up with. Going to go ahead and post this up for now as a bit of a teaser/preview of a longer mix when I have more time to sift through all my B’more records more carefully.

Enjoy..

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When I hop on the decks, I generally have one of two types of sessions.  Sets when I know I’m recording I’ll tend to be more even keeled about my mixes.  I focus on the cleanliness of my mixing techniques.  I play mostly songs that I’m at least passively familiar with if not intimately with.  Sets when I’m just practicing, my technique gets rougher, my range of material gets broader, and I generally just sort of meander wherever I feel like at that moment in time.

Sometimes the output is dreadful.  Sometimes it’s pretty cool and I find myself really getting caught up in the moment and just keep spinning, sometimes for hours on end.

This mix is more the latter.  I try to always record myself these days, even if I’m “just” practicing.  This is what I ended up with last night while trying to burn off a bit of stress.

hello people, its been a while.  a friend of bakasan and i made a little mix himself and wanted me to post it up for him.  give it a listen.  it consists of some old school joints.

dj retrospekt

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I should make it a policy to stop mixing when I’m dead tired. This mix was nearly 4 hours of sheer comedy gold. Feeling bad for cutting my mix short last time, I decided to throw down an hour long mix for ya’ll. Too bad I didn’t find out until the very end that I’d plugged my recording gear into the headphone jack of my laptop and not the microphone input. Strike 1. Correct the wire and determined, I decided to try again. An hour later, guess what, I’d managed to hit the wrong button on my recording software and I have a nice hour long file of dead silence. Strike 2. At this point it’s 1:30 AM and I debate whether to give it another try. Figured what the hell… and the result is this mix… not quite an hour… was exhausted. Sue me.

So this mix is all about style and defining a signature sound as a DJ.  I’m all over the map musically as a bit of an experiment.  The mix runs from breakbeats to old school hip hop to mainstream R&B to rock to adult contemporary to funky jazz.

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I’d gotten into a conversation with someone recently about what defined a DJ’s “style”. We went back and forth a bit on what constitutes style and what distinguishes one DJ from another (beside just sheer technical ability which is difficult for the laymen to measure anyhow). It basically boiled down to what they played, the way they mix from song to song, and the overall energy they have behind the decks.

At the very end of the conversation, my friend (lives and DJs in Washington DC) said I had a very “West Coast” sound. Probing what that meant, by his count the crux of the West Coast DJ sound was a set that pulls deep from the crates–nothing is really off limits. The mix goes from track to track very quickly, any given song is only playing for a bit more than a minute, probably not more than two. The technical skills are demonstrated throughout in each individual mix. And there’s a healthy, healthy love for the use of old school hip hop side by side with newer material.

After hearing this, I guess it fits my overall “sound”. As somewhat of a joke though, this mix is me trying to be as West Coast as possible. Whatever that means. It’s got its rough patches since I was purposely trying to go all over the place genre wise , but ah well. (Jeremy, tell me if I slipped and got a little too East Coast).

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By request I’m going to start making my posts in a slightly better bitrate than I’d been posting as.

Oh well, maybe next time. Enjoy!

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Swizz Beats - It’s Me Snitches Baby - What Happened To That Boy 2Pac - Pac’s Life Far*East Movement - Boomshake NORE vs Punjabi MC - Punjabi Mi Canto (DJ Starski) Busta Rhymes - I Love My Bitch Diddy ft Nicole Scherzinger - Come To Me Bubba Sparxxx vs Paperboy - The Ditty Butt (DJ Spryte) Paper Boy - Ditty Diddy - Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down Black Sheep - The Choice Is Yours Yo Yo ft Ice Cube - Bonnie & Clyde Theme Next vs Color Me Badd - Color Me Too Close (Kevin Scott) Souls of Mischief - 93 til Infinity Biggie vs Amy Winehouse - Biggie Winehouse (DJ Riz) Too $hort - Keep Bouncing John Farruggio - Iko Iko Reggae Beenie Man - King of the Dancehall

Got on the decks pretty damn late last night, so I ended up cutting this mix a bit short out of fatigue and due to my home studio being outrageously hot last night. Apologies on a late and relatively rushed mix. Exhaustion can be a bitch. –

2Pac - Old School Warren G - This DJ Lighter Shade of Brown - Sunday Afternoon Pharcyde - Runnin’ Nas - If I ruled the world Notorious BIG - Hypnotize 50 Cent vs DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince - Candy Shop vs Girls Ain’t Nothing But Trouble Public Enemy - Give It Up NWA - Express Yourself Mack 10 - Nothing But the Cavi’ Hit Mista Grimm - Indo Smoke Ice Cube - You Can Do It LL Cool J - Pink Cookies In A Plastic Bag

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EDIT Podbean seems to be screwing up my file somehow as part of the upload and my file is playing at double speed. Have an open ticket w/ them to fix this.

EDIT 2: Podbean hasn’t gotten back to me.. so screw it, I just uploaded another copy at a higher quality bitrate than I normally post at.  Sorry for all the delays and that the mix itself was a bit rushed.  Will try to get back on my regular schedule of posts ASAP.

So I’ve not had a chance to hop on the decks for a few days–apologies for that, I swear I’ll have something over the weekend for you all though.  I’m thinking a new wave or all Depeche Mode mix..

Till then, keep listening!

Hello people. DJ Retrospekt bringing you a short little mashup mix of my own. I’m venturing away from the typical cheese I usually post on here to give you this one. Retrofit consists of a bunch of 80’s songs mashed up with recent hits. A little bit of my cheesiness can still be found in some of the goofy mashes such as Kool And The Yang and Superman’s Humps Don’t Impress Me Much. The last track isn’t really 80s (although a sample of Tone Loc’s Wild Thing can be slightly heard), but I thought I’d add it since I thought it was funny. Anyway, hope you like it. I apologize for any slight stutters or skips you may hear…I really need a new laptop =(.

Watch out for when Kool And The Yang pops in though, my hand spazzed out on the gain just as I was mixing it in so it comes in sort of loud.  I try to lower it as quickly as I can.

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Thoughts Saturday night at home after a some what crazy Friday night out w/ co-workers. Got bored so I hopped on the decks to throw down a quick set. The sound quality is a little bit iffy at times, I think I might need to replace a cable in my set up. Before you even ask, the mix title is after a couple shows that were on the TV in the background–couldn’t think of anything else..

Mix ranges from an opening, more laid back vibe and eventually shifts over to prime time and dance hall beats.

Once again if you want a higher quality version of any mix on the site, hit me up and I’ll get ya hooked up–assuming I don’t think you’re the spawn of satan or similar.

Alrighty fans, I have decided to post up this mix I made when I was buzzed off Vouvray wine a few months ago. The beginning is a little rough around the edges, but hey, I was partially drunk. The middle however, I think I managed to pull off some nice mixes (although the levels could have been better as pointed out by bakasan). My favorite block is from Take Me In Your Arms through Fat Boy. Also, please excuse the occasional skipping from my crappy laptop.

I love this mix for the song selection, and it was fun to make. I just randomly picked songs as I was mixing. Ann Lee was one of my favorite songs back in the day, and Fat Boy is just one of those funny goofy songs that I liked doing stupid dances to. A lot of these tracks were from my youth (late elementary through early high school). They put me in a happy, dancy mood and bring back lots of memories. I hope you enjoy groovin to it as much as I do.

What’s up ya’ll. DJ retrospekt here bringin you a mix from a friend of ours by the name of dj e-rik. He’s servin up some of that durteh souf style with this mix and ending with a few mashes. Check it out.

Thoughts I originally wasn’t going to do a mix last night but I ended up having a ridiculously stressful end to my workday, so after a nap and a bite to eat I decided to hop onto the decks to release some stress. If I’m on the decks I might as well turn on the recorder and see if something post-able came out of my session. The mix is solidly executed in general but my song selection was a bit more haphazard than I would normally like. I started off just grabbing records and tracks and seeing where I ended up–by mid way I figured out the next topic I could bring up for an accompanying blog post.

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If DJing were a sport, in many ways it’d be like running. Depending on the individual or the venue, a DJ may be the only “competitor”, the soul source of music to keep a crowd dancing for an entire night–maybe even 5, 6 hours straight. Other times however, the DJ is but one of several that will be performing that night. The DJs will each take their turn to throw down a set and add their own touch on the night. Excluding situations where multiple DJs are djing simultaneously, you’re generally talking about one dj at a time for a single dance floor–the DJ is no longer running as an individual but he or she is now in a relay race and control of the turntables and mixer is effectively the baton.

I used to do a little bit of track back in high school, including trying my hand at the 4×100. I never excelled at the event and eventually decided I was a cross country runner anyhow. Even in my short stint as a relayer though, I quickly learned that the passing of the baton between runners was critical in the success of the team. Handling a dance floor amongst several DJs isn’t much different–there’s actually a lot that goes on during a DJ switch.

Do the DJs play the same kind of music? Do the two types of music that they play mesh at all? If I’m playing 1970s Swedish disco hits and the guy after me wants to throw down his collection of rare 1990s German death metal we might have a slight problem as cultures collide. Do the DJs intend to share needles (turntable needles, not hypodermic )? Assuming we sort out gear issues and we sort out that we have musical tastes that can work somehow… we still now have to actually reach our hand out and pass that baton over to the next dj.

Good form amongst djs is to discuss how the handoff is going to work. “Hey, I’m going to play 4, 5 more songs.” “What kind of music and tempos are you going to play in your set?” “My last song of my set is going to be X, it’s a super long song w/ a long instrumental portion toward the end to work with” Communication about the hand off is critical to make it seamless to the audience out dancing and having a good time. Just putting on a random record that lasts 45 seconds and going to the next guy “yo, here, go, I’m done now” would be the equivalent of a relay racer getting 30 feet away from the next racer and just throwing the baton as hard as he can at the guy’s head.

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In my set, around the time I played the Jay-Z and Beyonce track the set up to that point had been a straight mainstream hip hop and R&B set. To illustrate how a handoff between djs might work, I decided to put myself into a hypothetical that the next DJ just came up into the booth and told me he or she wanted to do a house set and asks me if I could set them up for their set. I then use the next several songs to accomplish a couple things. I need to transition the overall tempo of the music I’m playing to match the tempo that house music carries. Secondly, I need to start playing some songs that can start to bridge between the two genres of music. The set basically goes hip hop -> r&b -> mainstream pop -> disco-y remixes of mainstream songs -> straight up house. In my hypothetical hand off, the next DJ has officially taken over once the Diddy DFA track ends.

So the next time you’re in a club and there’s just some crazy shift in music that you’re hearing there’s a real possibility you just witnessed a dj transition that just didn’t go too well or you’re seeing a DJ starting to prep the baton so they can make an orderly transition.

I’ve prattled on long enough. Hope you enjoy the mix and are digging these little sneak beaks into the mystery of the dj booth.

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Since I’ve been asked several times now, if you know me (or even if you don’t), if you’d like to get a high bit rate version of these mixes (i.e. to burn to listen in the car, etc), please leave a comment or contact me and I’ll hook ya up. To save bandwidth and disk space though, I simply can’t leave all my mixes in high bitrate versions on the podbean servers.

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Thoughts One of the biggest fads lately, particularly on the west coast, has been the usage of mashups in the mix. A mashup is basically taking two unlike tracks and mixing them together–using the vocals of one over the instrumentals of another. The concept isn’t new, in fact it’s been around for pretty much for as long as DJs have been around. The latest iteration of the fad however is very embracing of taking the concept cross genre–dirty south hip hop over an 80s beat, mainstream pop over punk rock, etc etc.

I originally was going to just do a set of only mashups but realized quickly as I started the mix that it would sound like shit. So I added some filler songs here and there to carry the melody and vibe better–as I’m wont to do though, I got a little distracted and ended up on a tangent I wholly did not set out to go on. It started innocently enough w/ blend using Nelly Furtado (produced by and featuring Timbaland) over a Pet Shop Boys beat. Then a Justin Timberlake track (produced by Timbaland). Then it was a Timbaland track featuring Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado. And quickly followed by a Timbaland and Fatman Scoop party break. I had to break the cycle before it spiraled out of control.. And that’s how I ended back to straight mashup after mashup to end it out…

For the programming curious (programming being the song selection a DJ may make through the course of an event or evening), this set would *probably* be best suited in a Hollywood or similar type night club toward the very end of the evening. By this point, most of the very very popular songs (i.e. “the heat”) has been spent, and you just want to keep the crowd dancing and ending their night on a high note and enjoyably dancing away.

Britney Spears - Toxic vs. Gwen Stefani - What You Waiting For

dj retrospekt

First and foremost, this is probably more of a set to listen to in the car or something. It starts off with some break remixes of some classic trance songs and has a really mellow feel to it. Near the end are just some remixes of couple other classic non-trance songs. No planning went into this session so the mood seems to kinda jump randomly with some mellower songs in the middle of heavier beat songs. Also, I jacked the volume up slightly too high near the beginning so theres one point where you can hear me crank it back down near 13 min mark. This was a 100% vinyl set. The beat drifted from me slightly on some of the mixes, but I think I managed to fix them pretty quickly. One major flaw is that I started mixing in Faithless slightly early at a bad transition point so if you listen closely, you can tell I started the mix over. Anyway, the tracks are break remixes of the following:

1. ATB - 9pm Til I Come) 2. Delerium - Silence vs. Paul van Dyke - For An Angel 3. Faithless - Insomnia 4. Three Drives - Greece 2000 5. Nalin & Kane - Beachball 6. Summer Junkies - I’m Gonna Luv U 7. Bucketheads - The Bomb 8. Armand van Helden - You Don’t Know Me 9. Daft Punk - Around The World

All in all, I thought the mixes could have been somewhat better but was a decent mix considering a couple first time runs on some of the songs.

dj retrospekt

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Thoughts

This mix starts off with some jazzy beats and neo-soul and eventually transitions over to mainstream R&B. There’s some volume issues though since I was recording fairly late and couldn’t have my studio monitors turned on for fear of pissing off the guy in the apartment below mine. Doing a mix purely in your headphones isn’t any more or less difficult than mixing w/ monitors, but it does present some challenges–with me personally, it leads to ear fatigue as after a sustained session at the decks, your ears start to lose the ability to hear nuanced differences in volume–talk to a DJ who is mid-set and I guarantee you that they’ll only be able to hear in one volume decibel–LOUD.

Weakest point in the mix is the mix in and out to the Berris Smith track. I dig the song and I think it conceptually fits where it is, but it’s the first time I’d ever tried using it in a set. Fairly standard issue when working with a song you don’t know inside and out, you’re flying blind as to how the song is structured, how it sounds, when the vocals come in, the kind of build up is in the song. I’m going to have to try to get my hands on an instrumental for it to make it a bit easier to work with.

One of the most common questions I get, particularly when I give lessons on basic DJ skills, is how a DJ should pick what songs go with what. While there’s a whole technical backdrop that can answer the question (i.e. bpms, key matching, song structures), I’ll focus on the more creative aspects of song selection–at least in how I decide what to play and when.

For me personally, it boils down to a question of venue, demographics, and mood. Any time I walk into a spot to spin, be it a house party, a record store, a bar/lounge, club, I assess what the venue is like. What’s the surroundings communicating to those there? Is it a dark and moody backdrop? Sexy, lounge-y beats subtly playing to add another component to the environment. Energetic, bright, lively bar? Lively, upbeat hip hop, R&B, maybe some indy or old school depending on the demographics of the joint. Demographics–am I looking at an older crowd? Younger? A room full of other DJs and therefore music snobs? Kids around? Maybe I should watch the language and lyrical overtones of the music I’m putting out. And finally, for me at least, the most important of how I build my sets is the mood that I’m trying to establish at any given point in time.

Early in the night, get em vibing, acclimating to the bar, club, party, whatever. Not the appropriate time to bust out the “heat”. Who really wants to walk into a bar at 10PM and the first thing they’re greeted is “FROM THE WINDOWS! TO THE WALLS! TILL THE SWEAT DRIPS DOWN MY BALLS!” Doesn’t exactly exude the sexy, classy vibe that I’d want to go for usually. I want to build out from that warm, welcoming vibe to draw em out onto the floor and then build upon that energy gradually. The dj has to think like an orchestra conductor, knowing what instruments to bring in when, when to highlight one over another to maximize the impact.

With this mix I wanted something on the more soulful but sexy side. I sometimes create an arbitrary scenario or “scene” in my head when I’m formulating what I want to put down in a mix. Once the image of what that scene looks like and the actors in that scene, I go about creating the musical score for it. The scene for this mix? Late teens couple in a nice car (probably the parents’) going for a nice scenic drive, the guy wanting to front and show how suave and sophisticated he is, so he pops in this CD….basically cuz’ he wants him some. (for the SR folks, let’s call him “Barry”)

Pinay - Everything (Rhythmic Soul Remix) Jocelyn Enriquez - Do You Miss Me (Dreamhouse Mix) Lil Suzy - Can’t Get You Out Of My Mind MG - Sweet Honesty (Planet Hype Mix) Kai - Something Inside Me (Jazzy Jim’s Smokin’ Rhythm Mix) Angelina - I Don’t Need Your Love Jocelyn Enriquez - When I Get Close To You (Cubanito’s Breakbeat Remix) Ghost Town DJs - My Boo (Hitman’s Club Mix)