Recently, I was listening to Chris Read‘s 1989 mix as well as DJ Food’s 1989 mix. Chris Read, one of my favourite DJs, had recently put out this incredible retrospective of hip hop, spanning 28yrs and 800 tracks from 1979-2007 called The Diary. While “hip hop through the years mixe”s are not necessarily a new concept (heck, I think I played Jaguar Skillz? ?Hip Hop Odyssey‘ mix a few years back and included it as part of some Funding Drive bonus discs), I thought I’d revisit the concept for this year’s Black History month and hit you up with some hip hop through the years.
1989
A great year for hip hop, this was the Golden Era’s twilight years.
Too late! File removed (mp3 – 55Mb)
1992
The West Coast comes into its own with Dr Dre’s The Chronic.
Shit’s getting ridiculous, I’m almost a month behind. Anyways, here’s the show from January 27th. Some nice UK beats (Dubstep, UK Garage, and I don’t know what to call what Ramadanman does…), then some mostly new hip hop.
This week, I happened to be out of town for the launch of Slop Press, a site headed up by a few friends which centers on food and food culture. One of the founders had asked me to put together a mix for the launch since the venue (Walrus in Vancouver) was too small for a DJ. No worries, I said, and proceded to make a mix full of as many food-referencing songs as I could. One the radio, you probably only managed to hear the first 55 minutes, but here it is in its full 75 minute, ahem, glory (glory is far too strong a word to describe this mix, but I hope you enjoy it anyways…)
The launch was a huge success and the place was completely packed for hours. The 2 food trucks catering the party were having trouples getting more than 6′ in the door before their trays were emptied. Definitely a fun time.
Ahead of the free RJD2 show at Olympic Plaza on January 15th, I thought I’d play some RJD2 at the start of the show. One of my favourite producers I’m a big fan of his wistful hip hop beats. I didn’t know how busy the show would be on acount of the positively frigid temperatures going on in Calgary, but thankfully, attendance was amazing — the place was packed. I can just picture the artist’s dread as he’s sitting on the plane and the pilot announces something along the lines of ‘…and current temperature in Calgary is a balmy -24 deg C…’ Calgary represented though, and RJD2 responded in kind. I would’ve liked to have seen more artists, but damned if I was spending more than one hour standing outside…
Anyways, after playing some RJD2 beats for half an hour, I had to hit you with some hip hop and funk.
Super fun show tonight as we start out with some nice downtempo beats (I can’t seem to get Mount Kimbie’s Before I Move Off out of my mind…) then wind it up into some dancefloor stompers, and end off with a few drum’n’bass classics (in age if not stature) . Kele’s The Boxer hasn’t gotten much shine on the show in the past year, but the Bloc Party frontman’s solo outing has some gems on it, even if it isn’t solid throughout the course of its 10 tracks. I’m still looking for the perfect track to mix out of On the Lam with however (I’ll admit this show’s attempts were pretty half-hearted). There’s a slow drum’n’bass or fast breakbeat track out there which is perfect, i’m sure… I just haven’t found it yet — But the search continues…
This week for the Fat Beat Diet, I’ve got a pre-recorded mix which was originally recorded live December 11th at Local 002. I started playing right after the GSP roundly trounced Koscheck for the UFC title, hence starting out with LL Cool J’s Mama Said Knock You Out. Followed it up with some pretty familiar hip hop, funk, breaks, etc…
I only played 1 hour of the mix on my show, but here’s 2 hours of the mix for your enjoyment (Note: the mix doesn’t start until 17 seconds in).
I like it when I play a track and then hear it the next day on the Musiquarium (In this case Night Air by Jamie Woon). I like to imagine that Sid heard the track on my show and then played it on his. It’s unlikely since he’s always working on Thursday nights (in fact, I often run into him taking a break outside the Den on the way in to the studio). More likely, we just have a lot of overlapping tastes in music. Night Air in particular has been a huge hit over in the UK, so it’s hardly like we’re digging very deep for that one. Woon placed in the Top 5 of the Beeb’s Sound of 2011 along side another Fat Beat Diet favourite James Blake. At any rate, it’s always gratifying to find out someone likes the same music as you, no matter who they are.
This week I uncharacteristically felt in a Christmas mood so I had to break out the best Christmas album of all time along with a few other favourites (a little late now, but go download Mayer Hawthorne’s version for free). After a few holiday-themed tracks (admittedly, LL Cool J’s Rock The Bells is a bit of a stretch), we run through some funk, hip hop, breaks and bleeps.
Starting the show out tonight with a nod to the 30th anniversary of John Lennon’s death by playing a few Beatles-inspired tunes – A rarity here on the Fat Beat Diet. Personally, I have little attachment to the band. Regardless, The Budos Band re-interpret the classic Day Tripper, turning it inside out, or rather back to front, for Reppirt Yad. Then the Overton Berry Trio rework Hey Jude into a slow building funk monster. The Overton Berry Trio featured a bit in the music documentary Wheedle’s Groove, which I happened to watch the other night. The doc centers on the relatively obscure Seattle funk and soul scene of the 1970s and I highly recommend it if you’re a music documentary buff like me. It totally made me wish I could travel through time and catch one of those shows back in the day. Since I had that music scene on my mind, I played a few other pieces of music mostly taken from the excellentreleases Light In The Attic records have put together highlighting this forgotten scene.
A bit later in the show, we’ve got a few other blasts from the (not so distant) past in the form of Jamiroquai and Son of Bazerk (which I’ve already briefly touched on). I found the former’s latest album Rock Dust Light Star surprisingly satisfying. The band’s always done a good job of keeping on top of music industry trends (and just a step shy from fads), from the early acid jazz days to their house-tinged millenial output to this album, which plays on both soul revival and electro sounds.
Towards the end of the show, I dropped Rhythm Heritage’s Theme From SWAT via 3rd Bass. This TV show theme song remains one of the funkiest TV theme songs ever.
With the recent death of Leslie Nielson on my mind, I got my 70’s TV cop dramas mixed up, confusing the semi-serious S.W.A.T. for its sendup Police Squad, which is the one which actually starred Leslie Nielson, a precursor to the Naked Gun movies which catapulted him to fame as the goofy Lt. Frank Drebin.
I once spent a childhood spring break watching Police Squad on VHS. Anyways, onetime host of Cocktails with Claire (which aired years ago on Saturday afternoons on CJSW) and current hot dog slinger extraordinaire Jon Truch was kind enough to call in to the show and point out the error, but not in time for me to mention it on air.
Here at the Fat Beat Diet, we’re mostly about metaphorical diets and fats, but the name does have a basis in the real world as well: We’re unabashed foodies and fans of literal, physical fat — like that of a well cured pig. I’ll occasionally be writing about food over at Slop Press, so if you’re also a fan of good food, please do drop by once in a while. Just in time for the Holiday Season, they’ve got some fine De La Soul-inspired aprons for sale for the hip hop foodie in you (sister site Vancouver Slop also has some fine Biggie-themed T-shirts).
So for the sake of cross-promotion, we started out the show with De La’s Stakes is High and kept it in a hip hop mood for the whole show.
