Saturday October 26 – Harbor Haunt – Philadelphia, PA Breakbeat Tuesday – Can You Understand it
Mega-props to everyone that came out to Deity in Brooklyn on Friday night to see me and Rich tear it down. The word “epic” is really overused these days so I’m not going to even go there. But when you have an absolutely rammed dancefloor all night, and a dancefloor that is packed at 4:15 when the lights are up and people are refusing to leave, that says something for sure. Stay tuned here for an announcement about this in the coming days. Also tonight at 9PM EST I will be spinning a live set from my very own crib, broadcast live via Ustream on the Memory Lane show. Definitely tune in and check me out, all vinyl raps and breaks, and pictures of me wearing my house shoes.
I took last week off cause I mad all sorts of stuff to handle so I’m gonna make this week’s entry extra thick and extra quick. You know, the thing with the internet and music consumption is that information and material is so widely and quickly disseminated that it (in my opinion) lessens the significance of actually discovering something yourself. Chris Weingarten spoke about that in the video that I featured last month. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing because it’s wonderful that people have that access to things that they might not have had 5, 10, 20 years ago. But the context I think gets a little skewed, along the lines of what I’ve always held to be the canon or hierarchy in this whole funk thing. Because of the internet you got kids running around talking about the Salt 45 but can’t tell you a damn thing about James Brown. And that’s a shame to me because if you don’t have a solid foundation you won’t stand for long. So where there’s a lot of people who won’t want to deal with anything that isn’t rare, I say I would rather have the great than the rare. And the fact of the matter is that if something what that popular it probably means it was that much better. So with this mind set I want to get cracking on talking about one of my all-time favorite bands, The New Birth.
I discovered The New Birth when I bought the “Birth Day” album at Funk-O-Mart back in 1991 or 1992. The above Bobby Womack cover song, “I Can Understand It” was the first song of the album. That was all I needed to hear to fall in love with this group, and it was very soon that I started to incorporate a lot of the funk that I had been amassing, including New Birth, into my DJ sets. The group was the originally known as The Nite-Liters, an instrumental outfit from Kentucky, consisting of several members – most notable which is Harvey Fuqua.
Fuqua was first a member of the Doo-Wop group The Moonlighters and went on to become one of the main songwriters and producers within the Motown machine, including being responsible for the pairing of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. Fuqua eventually went on to discover the legendary Sylvester, producing for him his seminal “Over And Over” among others. But he always had his side project, Nite-Liters, which after some absorption and restructuring became The New-Birth.
The New Birth had a pretty successful career as a band and for my money they were one of the tightest ensembles of that day and age – standing up alongside giants like Kool & The Gang and Earth, Wind & Fire. Lots of people dismiss them as being a “tepid funk” outfit but honestly I think the people who think that are soulless monsters. I fully suggest going out and buying some New Birth music, starting with “Birth Day,” “Blind Baby” or “It’s Been A Long Time.” 70s funk and soul music at it’s finest. Here are a few examples of the New Birth sound, complete with the obligatory break beats. Enjoy!
The New Birth “Got To Get A Knutt” (RCA, 1972)
The New Birth “I Wash My Hands Of The Whole Damn Deal” (RCA, 1974)
We started the mix with the East Of Underground version of “I Love You For All Seasons” which was actually the song that we had our first dance to. Most people probably know the original version by DC soul trio The Fuzz. But my wife fell head over heels by the rare EOU version and so that’s the one we used. Truth be told, I didn’t have the original vinyl when we made the mix, but I ponied up a couple months later for a copy – which cost me a cold $1000+. But you got to pay to play, man hahah… At first she wasn’t very happy over the fact that I had spent so much money on a record – not to mention a record that I already had on CD and on reissue. Thankfully she understood the sentimental significance of me owning the OG. I think all the bosses out there understand the deal. Nevertheless, here’s the mix. I hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it!
Stevie Wonder turns 60 today. What can be said about this man that hasn’t been said before. Maybe I actually mean what can be said about what this man means to me as an artist, a visionary, or a human being? I can’t think of any living artist that embodies the term “legendary” more than him. It’s beyond effort to try and classify him. He’s a true national treasure. He is The Grand Canyon, and Mount Rushmore. He is the Statue Of Liberty and our “amber waves of grain.” There should be a Stevie Wonder holiday. For those of you that live in New York, it’s safe to say 
I remember seeing both of these episodes when I was a kid – and in doing the math I know they must have been repeats because I wasn’t even born when these shows were aired in 1972. But they definitely are worth repeating, PBS to me, and now me to you. I used to scoff at the “Cult Of Stevie” that would be running around. “How dare you lay claim to him. He’s all mine and my connection to him is deeper yada yada yada…” But Stevie belongs to no one person, he’s a once-in-a-lifetime gift to humanity, and his very being here in our universe helps hold it together in a sense. Stevie is the living embodiment that music makes the world a better place to live in, even though Stevie is so much larger than just his music. He belongs to none of us, and to all of us. “Happy birthday Stevie, happy birthday to you, HAPPY BIRTH-DAYYYY…
The summer of 1999 was a hot one in Philly. It was the first summer that I had spent after being in a pretty horrific car accident, one where I almost didn’t live, and had to learn to walk again, and basically put the pieces of my life together after having it shattered in a thousand tiny bits. It also was the first time ever in my life that I owned a car. It was sold to me by the boyfriend of a friend of my mother. He was moving out of the country and had no use for it so the offer was made to me. Growing up in Philly, one never really needed a car. It was walk, skate, bike or SEPTA anywhere and everywhere. But, because my legs were still weak, and I also thought that it was that time in my life where I stepped up my game, I bought the little gold 1987 Jetta from the guy. Unfortunately, I gave him half the money and he gave me the car, but before I could give him the remainder of the balance he moved to Eastern Europe. The unfortunate thing for me was that he left without giving me the papers, registration, all of that stuff. So here I was with this car that was technically mine but was actually illegal as all hell. Of course with no registration or pink slip I couldn’t get the car insured. Oh, did I mention that I didn’t have a drivers license yet either? That’s just a minor detail that’s in there too.
So here I was driving this little Gold Bug around the city riding so dirty that it’s incredible, but I loved that little car and I didn’t really care. It didn’t have air conditioning, and it sometimes wouldn’t start when it rained. Also, there wasn’t any tape deck so I was forced to listen to Philly radio. Around this time I had really started to have my fill of commercial rap music, which was probably more a change in me as much as it was within the music itself, so I found myself tuned into 
Billy was kind of a wunderkind, starting his singing career at the age of 12 with his brothers singing gospel tunes on local Washington DC radio. During his teenage years he sung with another musical legend and DC native, Marvin Gaye, and like so many artists of his time, Billy gained great popularity when he made the transition from spirituals to singing secular music. He signed to Chess records and that’s where he put out most of the records in his tragically short career. All his records have a distinct sound to it which may be attributed to being on the Chess imprint but I really think that the key ingredient to the magic of his music is the way that he attacked the song vocally with such a radical and unique approach. His version of “Summertime” is such a departure from any rendition of it before and is so hardbody, he owns that song from now until forever. I said yesterday that his version is more punk rock than most punk rock songs.