Okay, so do you see the above picture? This was taken at an undisclosed swap meet about 45 minutes outside of Philly. It’s a picture of me (with the “Cosmo” hat on, duh) and super-dude RJD2 after going to said swap meet at like 5 in the morning. But something happened between the taking of the photo and the way it came out. Apparently some really frightening doll heads had been superimposed onto our faces. This deviant work was done by the man behind the camera, Wes Pentz aka Diplo. He also convincingly added an image representing himself – the manatee – in the picture frame top right.
And that’s says a lot about the homie – he really has been on some other shit for life. And even though he’s killing shit right now as a super top-dog dance DJ and producer, Diplo has always been running in his own lane. And that’s just one of the things you got to love about him. So this week’s edition of Cosmo’s Crates on the Fool’s Gold blog speaks about him and his crate-digging past.
In lieu of today’s Breakbeat Tuesday jumpoff, I am heading out into the cold cold cold hard black earth that is Manhattan so a brother can get his head cut. Got to prep for this weekend, where I will be hitting up some shows in Canada (Thursday at Hi Fi in Calgary & Friday at Fortune Sound in Vancouver) and Seattle (Saturday at HG Lodge.) Peep the events page for more details. Anyway, you know how we do – got to stay fresh to death, No Delilah.
However to satisfy my loyal reader’s never ending thirst for useless knowledge and WMDs, and my never ending hunger to keep on talking, a brand new Cosmo’s Crates went up today over at the Fool’s Gold site. Big shout out to Carl Bean.
Understand that this is a family thing, but when my good friends over at Fool’s Gold Records asked me to do a reoccurring column for their brand new (and fresh to death) site I couldn’t say no. You all should know I love running my mouth by now… But for real, today is the jumpoff for the new jawn, “Cosmos’s Crates” which is gonna be a weekly thing over there. I’ll be doing the knowledge on joints that you SHOULD know, but may have slipped through the cracks. Probably be a healthy amount of oldies cause, as my homie and Fool’s Gold family member P-Thugg has said to me, “I’m a true funkateer.” Apparently a raconteur as well… But it will definitely be a lot of other cool shit too. Big shout to Nick Catchdini, A-Trak and the rest of my brothers over there.
Good morning everyone, and what a glorious morning it is. Welcome back to Philadelphia, Mr. Lee! Seriously, that completely blindsided me, but I’m damn happy for it. So anyway, today is Tuesday and so obviously it’s time to do the damn thing with Breakbeat Tuesday.
One of the best things about this column is that I’ve been able to bring friends in to share with the world some hot jams, and bring in their unique perspective. So with that being the case, I’m happy to bring to the world my main man Nick Catchdubs! I met Nick back in the early 2000s back when I first moved up to New York and he’s one of the funniest, smartest, most on point dudes that I know. Plus when it comes to musical tastes we definitely share many commonalities (he’s the only dude I know who would be psyched when I send him a photo of a Soul Coughing song loaded into my Serato.) Plus, he’s got this little record label called Fool’s Gold which is pretty okay, I guess. Of course I had to mention that, but at least I didn’t refer to him as a “honcho.” Okay, with that said, let’s get to this week’s Breakbeat Tuesday as Catchdubs brings it to you 90s style!
“Imani Coppola’s “Legend Of A Cowgirl” is pure Catchdini catnip, a dwarf star in the alternapop galaxy but a personal favorite and go-to DJ record. For a minute it was much more – a 1997 MTV staple I can vividly remember watching at my friend Mabel’s house in the post-Kennedy, pre-Carson Daly era.
Producer Michael Mangini (whose resume is an incredible Google rabbit hole teaching me not only what mics and compressors to use when recording David Byrne’s vocals, but also that dude produced Digables “Cool Like Dat” AND “Who Let The Dogs Out”!??!?!?) hooked up a tasty loop of Donovan’s “Sunshine Superman” with Prince Paul-worthy aplomb – not surprisingly, the Dew Dew Man has a remix of his own on the 12-inch. Yet as much as his hippy go-go drums make the tune, the secret ingredient is sass.
Imani swags the fuck out on this, turning what could have been a Lilith Fair coffeehouse ramble into an honest to goodness torch song. “Pecos Bill couldn’t hang for long with a female legend with a song” – that’s some shit right there! Unfortunately, the rest of her debut Chupacabra LP didn’t live up to the promise of the single (or it’s own awesome album title) and she’s remained relatively quiet for the decade plus since, popping up occassionally on Mike Patton albums and VH1 reality shows – her group Little Jackie wrote the theme song to one of Flavor Flav’s dating show contestant spinoffs. While we’re getting random, this is as good a time as any to mention that “Cowgirl” was in Bowfinger. CHUBBY RAIN.
As far as one-hit-wonders go, “Legend Of A Cowgirl” still has real character. Newer pop-leaning grrrl power artists like Janelle Monae still struggle to come up with anything half as catchy (in my humble opinion). I regularly catch myself rescuing “Cowgirl” from dollar bins – in both Columbia white label and cut-out pic sleeve form – for no particular reason. To this day it still plays nice in a mini set with other ladybreaks from the late 90s / early 00s like Cut Chemist’s mix of Jem’s “They,” the Santigold-penned “Golden Boys” by Res, and Fiona Apple’s “Fast As You Can” (pitched down some). Ooh, then throw in Beck “Devil’s Haircut” and that Chemical Brothers jawn that sounds like “Tomorrow Never Knows”… exit mindgarden, Catchcrest OUT!”
Wednesday December 18 – High & Rising Book Release – Philadelphia, PA 
One of the best things about this column is that I’ve been able to bring friends in to share with the world some hot jams, and bring in their unique perspective. So with that being the case, I’m happy to bring to the world my main man 
