I like it when good rappers rap. I miss stuff like this. Sure, its all a bit staged and produced, but its still good.

I feel bad that we never did wrote anything about Mr. Magic, the legendary radio host of “Rap Attack” who passed away recently from a fatal heart attack.

Here’s a tribute track that the Juice Crew(Biz Markie, Roxanne Shante, Craig G….) did in memory of him. Biz Markie’s verse at the end  is so childlike and simple, it touched me the most.

Juice Crew – Mr. Magic Tribute

Boy, are we proud of this: Crookers have provided the soundtrack for the “Electro Choc” radio station on the brand new Grand Theft Auto 4 Episode 2 ! But that´s not all: Crookers chose my track “Kid Conga” feat. MC Miltinho for their radio selection amongst others. So now you can play the dopest videogame on Earth and bounce to my beat simultanouesly. I havent played the new version yet, but I´m so excited to finally get my hands on that episode. See the trailer above, at the end of the sequence (when the couple is shagging in the bathroom, you hear the “Kid Conga” beats), whoaaa!!

More infos here: http://www.rockstargames.com/theballadofgaytony/

This is going to be the best party of the whole Womex week, promised: If you happen to be in Copenhagen, Denmark this Friday, come down to the Funk Mundial session at Kødborne 18. On the bill is our friend Sinden from London, Ku Bo live feat. Joyce Muniz, Copyflex and myself on the decks.  Yeahh bwoayyyeee!!

above is a clip I snatched from the brega s/a documentary I posted about earlier this week. I chose this adrenaline filled clip for the excellent track that accompanys it, which I’m guessing must an example of the eletromelody genre, a faster and heavier version of normal tecnobrega. Interesting the images of the guys waving wads of cash around, is this a northern brazillian thing or specifically related to the tecnobrega parties. More tracks like this can be found on their myspace page. Brega s/a is an amazing documentary, with some real characters involved, from the recording artists to the street vendors selling the pirate CDs and DVDs on the streets. A subtitled version will be available soon.

here’s some more info about the film from the directors:

In the soundtrack of the movie, we used the songs that are played live by Principe Negro and Superpop, the biggest tecnobrega soundsystems of Amazonia. The tecnobrega soundsystems are huge and massive walls of loudspeakers complemented with state of the art lightining sets. Most of the tecnobrega parties occur in the poorest areas of Belem, the biggest city of Brazil’s northern region, in soccer fields, neighborhood associations, clubs and abandoned sheds at the docks of the city. The ticket costs around US$ 4,00 and the beer no more than US$ 2,00. The soundtrack of these parties is tecnobrega, a cross between Kraftwerk, jungle, reggaeton, rap and amazonian folk music. Most of the songs are made in home made studios built in the amazonian favelas, with cheap computers and pirate software. The music is rough and the lyrics, in general, are about love or the street gangs and dance crews of the city, known as the “equipes”, the equivalent of the L.A. and NY hip-hop “posses”. In the tecnobrega scene there’s no record labels or copyright laws. All the songs made by de DJs and the MCs are distributed straight to pirate record makers and street vendors. If a song is sold in the streets of Belem and becomes a success, the artist starts being booked for shows in the favela’s clubs and is payed by the “equipes” to make songs for them. A very desregulated market where the artist’s only goal is to make a successfull song, hit the jackpot and eventualy became rich. The trailer of the movie, in portuguese, can be viewed in high resolution at http://www.vimeo.com/1993239 . A subtitled version will be available soon.

We just got the okay from Diplo to post Ku Bo´s remix for Spanish Mad Decent artist El Guincho. This remix has been a steady part of my DJ sets for a while now, it´s about time it gets played by more peeps. File it under tropical tec.

Grab it from here:

EL GUINCHO – KU BO REMIX

Jackmaster Oliver $, known for his fidgety, big bassed house tracks just gave us his rework / blend of Ying Yang Twins “Wait” that melts with some beats from Shlomi Aber and Kenny Larkin. Well tested on various dancefloors, this banger will get yo mama grindin´

Ying Yang Twins – Whisper Song (Oliver $ Edit)

There are certain individuals who just encompass the vibe of their city in everything they do wherever they go, and Bobbito Garcia is definitely one of those souls. When Bobbito came and did a mix  live for my radio show, a couple of weeks back, it was like New York City walked into the studio.

For those who don’t know, Bobbito, together with Stretch Armstrong  ran a hip hop radio show in the early, mid 90’s for on WKCR fm for 8 years in NYC. The show was also syndicated all over the United States as well to other continents. This was definitely THE radio show for hip hop  lovers,

a)they played the best tunes, no commercial pop rap stuff

b) they had the best guests – still unsigned Nas, Jay Z, Biggie, Big Pun, Fugees, Big L  and many more all came on the show for interview and freestyle

c)  with the help of Lord Sear, were responsible for some of the best comedy I have ever heard on any radio show.

Since the end of his radio days, Bobbito has been keeping himself busy as a DJ, writer, streetball player, magazine creator and sneaker consultant. Its been a good few years since he has been on a radio, so it was definitely an honour for me to have him on. We had a good chat, cracked a few jokes, and Bobbito did a wicked latin set.

Find out what Bobbito though his website.  Sneaker fanatics look out for his new Pro Keds basketball shoe coming out end of this month. Music heads look out for Bobbito and Rich Medina’s compilation “Connection- Modern explorations in Afro Beat & Afro Latin”.

Big thanks to Bobbito for letting me blog the mix and interview. Get it here.

This looks great! Recorded between 2006 and 2009, this documentary by directors Vladimir Cunha and Gustavo Godinho looks at the tecnobrega scene in Belém, Pará. Tecnobrega is defined in the film blurb as the digital adaption of romantic music from the 70s and 80s. The focus of the film is the relation of tecnobrega to the new business model of selling and distributing music that this unlikely genre seems to be pioneering.

The documentary features  the tecnobrega MC, Marcos Maderito,  the ”Garoto Alucinado”; DJ Maluquinho, a type of Iggy Pop brega from the periferia of Belém;and the DJs Dinho, Ellysson  and Juninho,  idols of the aparelhagens, enormous sound systems that are the main attractions of tecnobrega.

Even better is the fact you can download the film for free here.

This Brasilian drink maker is certainly down with what´s played on Brasil´s streets. The music is by made by our man João Brasil.

The baile funk viral:

The tecno brega viral:

do bem™ – Açaí Juice 100% fruit (Tic Tic Tac Wafer’s Keyboard) from Hardcuore on Vimeo.

A simple and effective deconstruction of The Prodigy’s Smack My Bitch Up, using pens, paper, household appliances, other peoples records, and a nice bit of editing.

Sacal is a dancehall MC from the state of Paraíba, in the North East of Brazil. More specifically he’s from the city of João Pessoa, a beautiful coastal city that for some reason has a reputation for reggae and is full of reggae lovers. Ask a random young person from João Pessoa what they do at the weekend, and they will probably  reply that they sit around in beach bars listening to reggae. Sacal has been a name that has been around for a while now. He started off as a Drum and bass DJ in 1999, then started an underground rap outfit “Eu e Meus Amigos” where he was DJ and producer and has gradually moved into dancehall, but if you listen it`s dancehall with a particular northeastern Brazil flava. The programming and the production could only have come from the North East of brazil.

he has made his new promo CD available for free download, and you can find it here. If you want more, there’s loads of MP3s available at his blog.

Here’s a taster of the Sacal sound, a jegue by the way is a mule: “Gangsta Jegue”

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If you want to hear more Brazilian dancehall go to this link and you will find a 100% selection put together by Jimmy Luv.

Six year old MC Miltinho, who sang on my track “Kid Conga” and stars in the accompanying video, just released a new song: “Menino Prodigio”. It´s produced by his father, baile funk legend MC Batata. See the video here:

More tracks by MC Miltinho soon on Man Rec….

KU BO, the brainchild of Vienna´s Stereotyp, is just putting the finishing touches on his debut album. The longplayer, scheduled for a Feb 2010 release, will include ten new tracks, including vocal contributions by Joyce Muniz, Sara Workneh, Daniecell and Anbuley. In the meantime, the Ku Bo heat rises around the globe: Ku Bo tracks “Tsu Bo” and “Lefe” feat. Anbuley are featured on the upcoming “I Love Techno” compilation by Crookers, and the Fabric Live 49 Mix by Buraka Som Sistema, not to forget Untold´s Resident Advisor podcast which opened with “Uepa” feat. Joyce Muniz.

In December, Man Rec will release the Ku Bo remix EP featuring remixes by DJ Manaia, Robot Koch, Batida, Daniel Haaksman, Bert On Beats and a handful other hot remix tickets. Watch out for more Ku Bo on these pages. As a teaser, we give you a re-fix of Ku Bo´s “Turnerment”, whooop!

Ku Bo – Turnerment Refix

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There´s a lot of talk about UK funky at the moment – we at Man Rec HQ absolutely love it and play out the hot London bass sound as much as we can. I however noticed that whenever there´s press or people talking about UK funky what´s always completely left out is that the trademark UK funky beat has been around for more than a decade. Originally it was known as the “Gregory Beat”, cultivated by French house don DJ Gregory. Every heard “Tropical Soundclash”, “Izabelle” (as Soha), “Porno” or his anthemic “Block Party”? If not, think again of the roots of Uk Funky and what is considered the “tropical style”.

When I recently warmed up for Diplo he was asking me after his show “Dude, what Uk Funky tune with some horns were you playing earlier?”. It was DJ Gregory´s “Block Party”, which I´ll give you as 128 kps MP3 as a taster. Buy the original tune in his res plus the other tunes by Gregory on Beatport, they´re sounding like 2009 – although they´re originally from 1999!

DJ Gregory – Block Party (Original Mix)

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I´m in Tel Aviv, hanging with old friends and enjoying the late Israeli summer, with some nice 25 degrees and brillant sun outside. Whenever I return to Tel Aviv, I discover new things and music people dont seem to talk much about in Europe. The latest thing I discovered in Israel is Kutiman and his “Through You” project. I knew Kutiman as a deep funk guy releasing on Germany´s Melting Pot label, but what my mate Tomer showed me by this Israeli producer here in Tel Aviv is pretty mindblowing.. Kutiman is diggin Youtube videos of amateur singers and musicians for samples instead of dusty crates and thus parallely created a row of pretty dope funk tracks.  See the montage´d videos here:

I know its nothing new, but I been going through some old tunes and have been digging out some of the old gems.

I am obsessed by this.  Definitely my fave rediscovered tune of the last two weeks.t. I can listen to the loop all day, in fact I am listening for the third time todayThe claps, the “huh huh”, the funky guitar, the snare rolls and last but not least the nice ladies saying “its magic!!!” Good stuff. And good stuff should be shared, so here u go.

Nightlife Unlimited – Peaches & Prunes (Its magic re edit)

Here’s a mix of Mixhell’s “boom da” (bunda) by  friend of Man recordings DJ Chernobyl. This does exactly what it says on the tin and it’s what both mixhell and chernobyl do best; mixing chainsaw guitars and 808s.

BOOM DA MIXHELL – BAILE BANGER MIX DJ CHERNOBYL

track and pic courtesy of URB blog.

The show above will be playing my town Friday evening and I will be there. It’s a great line-up that could really go off or be a complete flop. São Paulo Underground are key players in the experimental – almost improv scene and Nana Vasconcelos is, of course, the renowned percussionist. The weakest link in this line up are perhaps Mamelo sound system. These rappers started off really promisingly, in the early noughties releasing a debut on the then consistently interesting Y Brasil label. The album was a mixture of left field hip-hop and Brasil funk Jams a la check your head, ill communication Beasties with contributions from Nação Zumbi, DJ marky and Afrika Bambaataa. The album was a classic collective effort, I then bought their second album when it came out and they had become a bog-standard 2 djs and producer team, removing anything that was interesting about them in the first place – which certainly wasn’t their rapping!

a sample from the debut album below, featuring samba hip-hop rapper Rappin’ hood, who was flavour of the month about 5 years ago and seems to have disappeared, though I did see him a while ago on TV advertising broad-band.

Mamelo Sound System : jazzin hood