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This week, Ricca Razor Sharp and Rob Reuser drop by the studio to chat about Ricca’s new project, Blades of Steel. Blades of Steel is Ricca and fellow MC Soleo backed by a live band. Their debut show is this Saturday at the Palomino. While I made an idiot of myself messing up names, turning up mics too early and such, we chatted about the genesis of the project, the challenges of the new format and also had the chance to hear a demo of the new work.

The interview is book-ended by a bit more hip hop.

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James ?J Dilla? Yancey: February 7, 1974 – February 10, 2006

I was listening to Benji B this week and he played a few tracks commemorating the passing of J Dilla which in turn inspired me to play a few track in Dilla’s memory as well. I’ve done a few tributes to Dilla over the years to the point where I almost feel bad if his birthday comes around and I don’t play any of his tracks. This year, I figured I’d just do a short set, play a few tracks and then go into something else.

Truth.

Once I started playing however, the spirit of his music took over and I just couldn’t stop playing Dilla tracks. Just one more, I kept thinking, and oh, I gotta play this one — Before I knew it I only had 20 minutes left in the show — Totally unexpected. Anyways, with so little time left, I figured I might as well keep playing Dilla tracks until the end of the show. With a tiny bit more planning, I could easily have kept playing Dilla joints for a few more hours.

If you’re not familiar with J Dilla or his legacy, you could do a lot worse than checking out his section on the Stones Throw website which contains among other things a great biography and a list of his contributions to hip hop.

Enjoy the show.

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I was out of town this week, so the always amazing Raj from Funk Senden was kind enough to step in to the hot seat and lay down a mind altering set of beats ‘n bleeps. No outright playlist, but you can catch the song info by listening to the show.

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This show’s mostly hip hop classics, favourites, and diamonds in the rough from some years ago, although there are some slightly more recent Canadian joints in the middle of the show.

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Paying our respects to a few departed icons this evening as well as hitting you up with some funk, hip hop, breaks, and even managing to sneak in a bit of acid jazz in the middle.

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Tonight, we kick it off in a dancing mood, if only to show off some fine uses for a Chicago tune which most Chicago fans don’t even care for. The Bomb, indeed. The build up to the break is ridiculous. In the club version, it doesn’t happen until the 4:40 mark, which is more than minute longer than the entire official video version. I’m not kidding when I say it felt like an eternity on the dancefloor waiting for the break to happen. Interesting trivia: Chicago’s version of Street Player is actually a cover; the track was originally from Rufus and Chaka Khan.

Then we bring on the hip hop: Some new work from Freddie Gibbs and Madlib you should take note of — This tune has been stuck in my head for the last little while.

Then some more hip hop because – true story – you can never have enough Biggie Smalls. Hearing his early demos is awe inspiring. Then, a little kick inspired mix towards the end of the show.

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Not much to say about this one, other than to say that like mikey, I like it.

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A little bit of funky stuff to start the show, then a couple of guilty hip hop pleasures from Lloyd Banks and Jon Connor. I think in both cases, I like the beats more than the raps themselves with b.cause flipping the beat for the first track, and Jon Connor flipping a nice Funkadelic break for the next one. We ride some nice funk and hip hop rhythms before speeding up the pace towards the end again. Looking forward to hearing more from Julio Bashmore in 2012 – Well Wishers has been on heavy rotation at the crash pad since I first heard it a few months ago.

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Spent a few minutes of this show messing around with some blends, and playing a bit of hip hop. Nothing says Boxing Day quite like LL Cool J’s ‘Mama Said Knock You Out’.

Started winding it up a little bit towards the end of the show with some more uptempo beats.

I also was filling in for Christoph who does the Robotic Uprising at 11pm on Monday nights. That one started out with more leftfield beats, but we ended up back in hop hop by the end.

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The Robotic Uprising, December 26th 2012 (mp3 – 56Mb)
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Happy Holidays. a little late, I know. I’ll get around to sending the Christmas cards out soon too.

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