Trip to New Orleans

Got back from New Orleans on Sunday. Went out there to DJ a small exhibition battle between the New Orleans/Baton Rouge b-boys vs the Lafayette b-boys. That was interesting and the footage is up on youtube but honestly not the most exciting part of the trip.

I'd never been to New Orleans before and really only knew about it through my friends Nick and Patience who moved to Atlanta after Katrina. What I had heard about it left me both intrigued and terrified. From what I understood I could be expected to see breasts, random fights, vomit, horse crap, voodoo, and beignets. And I did. What I didn't count on was how much I'd love it all.

Now besides the horse crap and vomit, the city also oozes culture and music at virtually every turn. On the first night in New Orleans b-boy Jesus (or Justin Kenney for you SYTYCD fans. That's right, I know famous people) took a few of us out to a Dancehall night and on the way there, a trio of a drummer, a tubaist, and a trumpeter was setting up. We stopped for a bit and got to hear some raw ass funk in the middle of the street. Then it was a short walk to hear one of the best dancehall sets I've heard in a long time. Afterwards, a stop at another bar to hear another funk band. And we only paid one cover charge! And then we saw a woman tell a guy "If you touch me like that again, I'll slit your fucking throat!" Good night? Most definitely.

The rest of the weekend pretty much followed suit. Every where you go there's a funk, second line, or zydeco band killing it. Or a street performer. Or a NOLA Bounce DJ playing in a club. Or a woman threatening to kill someone. And all you have to pay for is the ungodly strong drink in your hand!

And the food is good pretty much everywhere you go. I had a Muffaletta, beignets from Cafe du Monde, a "Ferdi Special" from Mothers, some tiny but tasty tacos (not a sexual euphemism), two kinds of bread pudding, pralines, and had a Hand Grenade and a Hurricane for the first time; two drinks that probably shouldn't exist anywhere. For every place I ate at there were at least five others that I also wanted to eat at. I'm pretty sure I gained at least 10 pounds just spending a couple of days around the French Quarter.

Alcohol is everywhere. Coming from a county where they don't serve on Sundays it's a bit of a culture shock. Every gas station is a liquor store, you can go anywhere with a drink in your hand, and you can get daiquiris at drive-thrus. Every time I was drinking something on the street I felt naughty and kept looking over my shoulder for cops. And oddly enough I hardly saw any all weekend. Maybe 7 total and 5 of them were on horses.

Didn't get a chance to do a lot of digging but did stop off at a place called Beckham's Book Shop. You walk in and the first thing you think is that you might find a copy of the Neverending Story somewhere inside. There are three stories to the place and the top floor was a dusty, cavernous room lit only by the sun coming through the windows highlighting a few rows of vinyl. For a DJ or crate digger, this type of place seems like something out of a dream. A forgotten room with endless possibilities for what you might find. I only had a quick glance this time I around but hopefully I'll be able to come back and spend a day digging. Then maybe ride a Luck Dragon!

We also spent a bit of time at club called The Spanish Moon in Baton Rouge. I was pretty impressed. It reminded me a little bit of MJQ here in Atlanta. The bottom floor was a little smaller than MJQ's main room and the second floor had another bar and a few pool tables. Got a chance to meet DJ Otto who DJs there a few nights out of the week and spun a great selection of music...house, hip-hop, B-more, and Bounce. Even heard Spottieottiedopalicious which made me feel right at home.

Speaking of Bounce, you can't go anywhere in New Orleans without hearing it. And the songs on the radio seemed to all be bounce remixes of songs I hear in Atlanta. I love any kind of regional club music so I loved it. I don't think I ever got tired of hearing the Triggerman sample or being told to "Work it like a, shake it like a, twerk it like a..." although I'm still not sure what I should twerk, shake or work it like.

Thanks to all those who showed us hospitality while we were there; Jesus, Lobzter, Chris, D-rick, Alex The Rocket Scientist, Jason, DJ Otto, and the people at Metropolitan. Can't wait to head back.

Keep it movin' like a Uhaul,
-Alpha

Gotta Have Soul Jam this past weekend

Had a pretty dope weekend at the Gotta Soul Jam @ the Atlanta Bench thrown by Ken Fresh from the Funklordz. Ethical held it down on the turntables and my crew (Risen from the Ashes) was in full effect. Been a while since we've all held it down at a jam since a lot of us have been busy with life. Doeboi made a big comeback in his first competition in over a year and won the 1 on 1 battle in a final battle against Marcus (Dark Knight) from Illville crew. Good to see him back on the scene. We also battled in our newest member, Fathom. Hope to see big things from him and the rest of the fam for the year to come.

Check out pics from the jam at Eye of the Cypher

New Mix! T.W.A. (Trackz With Attitude)

Just finished a new mix, first b-boy one in a while. It is a b-boy mix but I tried to make it something fun to just listen to as well. It's in two halves, all hip-hop. I tried to go with tracks that weren't necessarily standards at b-boy jams and most tended to have a bit of an edge to 'em, hence the title of the mix "T.W.A. (Trackz with Attitude). First half is mostly east coast hip-hop (with some Chicago thrown in) and second half is mostly west coast (with some British coast thrown in). The parental warning's real folks...unedited versions are on this mix. So don't listen to it with your mom if she doesn't like Ice-T (New Jack City Ice-T, not Law & Order Ice-T).



Download here: T.W.A. (Trackz With Attitude - AlphaTrion (Sharebee)

EDIT: Some people were having trouble with sharebee so I just added it to divshare as well-



Direct Download: T.W.A. - AlphaTrion

Alternate titles for the mix:
"East Coast Vs West Coast Vs Great Lakes Coast vs British Coast"

"M-po, Stop Asking Me For A Mixtape"

"AlphaTrion still makes B-boy mixes?"

Newer Jack Swing

I want this guy at the All Styles battle at Bashville Stampede 6.

Quincy...make it happen.

Best trailer ever

First, that's the best movie guy ever. He just mumbles everything in what must be the worst English accent I've ever heard. He sounds like Uncle Grandfather from Perfect Hair Forever. On top of that, the whole trailer is just him naming awesome things in the movie in a long list. Every trailer should be like this. The trailer for Star Trek could've just been a drunk guy going "Spaceships. Time Travel. Explosions. Sylar. Swordfighting on a tower. Aliens. Water Tube travel. Shaun of the Dead Guy." show the name of the movie, bam, instant blockbuster.

Diggin in FLA and playing in Augusta

Sorry no posts for a while, been a bit busy. Went to Florida with the family for vacation then been gearing up since I'm booked for the next 3 weekends and I'm trying to get some more mixes out.

Went to a small record shop at the Daytona Flea Market called Rainbow Records and came a way with bag full of records. I've been going there since I first got my first set of turntables every year when we go on vacation in New Smyrna. This was the first year I went down with my new Hand Trax portable table and gave my self a full day to really dig. This is mainly the place to go if you're looking for rock records, their collection is huge and one of the guys that works there once told me he had the sixth largest Pink Floyd collection in the world (Where do you find the rankings for that?). However, over the past couple of years they've been getting a lot of people selling their old Jazz, Funk and Soul Collections. I spent a majority of the time looking through their 45s and came away with some real winners, including copies of Funky Drummer - James Brown, the Hand Clapping song and Cissy Strut by The Meters, and Get Out My Life Woman by Lee Dorsey. I got a ton of other stuff as well but really too much to list it all out. I might try and upload a few of the tracks later on.



And this weekend we did a performance down in Augusta for it's First Friday festival thing. Apparently, they every first Friday a ton of people come out to Broad St. to hang out and check out different performers and vendors. We were originally planning to do a street battle with HBO crew, Mixed Motions (from Augusta) and Quic (MZK/Funklordz) and Boogie Linx (Funklordz) just a little ways a away from the James Brown statue. We drew a crowd within seconds of me playing a couple of tracks but it wasn't long before the cops shut us down for being too loud. We had to move across the street aways and started up again. We drew an even bigger crowd but we constantly got hassled by other vendors who demanded we show permits and threatened to shut us down. Apparently if you you're more popular than everybody else...it's a problem. Well, everything had been arranged ahead of time by the Augusta B-boys so they didn't have any grounds to shut us down. We kept it going till 10 when First Friday was over then it was over to b-boy Kid Sonic's house for food, drinks, and fun by a big ass bonfire. It was good celebration overall but I never thought I'd get hassled for playing James Brown too loud in Augusta, GA of all places.

No Super-Whale or Ultra-Barracuda?