This past Friday, DJ Neil Armstrong of the 5th Platoon, and better known as Jay-Z’s tour DJ, made a stop at LA’s Soul Sessions in Chinatown. I first heard of DJNA back in 2005. Ever since then, I’ve been following him and every one of his mix tape releases. What makes his mix tapes stand above everything else is his eclectic musical taste. Anything from Prince, The Cure, Coldplay, Tears for Fears to Alicia Keys, Gregory Abbot, Common and Jay-Z can all be found on the same CD. He recently finished a worldwide tour with Jay-Z as his tour DJ. This has no doubt catapulted him into the mainstream spotlight and I’m glad that a lot more people will be exposed to his work.

I had a chance to catch Neil right before his set at Soul Sessions and he was nice enough to stop for a quick picture to represent Social Clothing.

A huge crowd gathered at the front stage when he started his set. I made sure I had my spot at the front. Simply put, he killed it. I don’t think there was a head that wasn’t bobbin that night.

With DJ PlannB

Here are some pictures from the end of the night.

Grand Star Jazz Club

The Shrimp Guys were also set up in the parking lot to satisfy those late night munchies.

It’s not Giovanni’s, but it’ll do

Soul Sessions is held at Grand Star Jazz Club in Chinatown every 2nd and 4th Friday. Thank you DJ Neil Armstrong for bringing the West Coast some love.

Twitter:
DJ Neil Armstrong
Soul Sessions
The Shrimp Guys

After everything that happened to dude, I figured Chris Brown would go underground and re-connect with the streets. Apparently its the streets of LA with local Tyga of Young Money (see my previous post with Tyga). The video was released yesterday so this is right out the oven. Chris Brown is rapping this time and homie is actually really good. It’s a damn good party song and sooo LA! I hope I hear this in the clubs, but I doubt it will get airplay. Regardless if the mainstream will ever accept him again, I’m on the look out of more hot sht from C Breezy.

On a final note, that Bed Rock song is still going hard and it’s basically May.

The Hood Internet is a Chicago based DJ duo that specializes in hip hop and indie rock mash ups. I heard about them a little over a year ago via Jason Kottke (bookmark his site, it’s a great read). They released their fourth mixtape (is that term even relevant in 2010?) in November but really didn’t give it a full listen until I was tired of listening to my same “workout” playlist on my iPhone. After giving them a full run through from beginning to end, it’s my current “what should I listen to while I get ready to go out” soundtrack.

I’m sure you’ve heard similar type mixes but the way they choose current hip hop songs and combine them to more obscure “indie” instrumentals and the way they mix them seamlessly makes them sound like that’s the way they were supposed to be made. My favorite mashups on the CD are:

Modest Mouse vs. Kanye West
Clipse vs. Yuksek
Amanda Blank vs. VEGA
Flo Rida (feat. Ke$ha) vs. MSTRKRFT

Their fourth volume is easily my favorite of all their mixes although all of their CDs can stand independently by themselves. Best of all, all four mix tapes are available for download for free on their site. Enjoy.

Most people associate Downtown Santa Ana with local government buildings, homeless people and jury duty. A lot has changed in recent years and it no longer deserves that stigma. In a little unassuming store front on Broadway, you’ll find one of the more unique spots on Orange County. In fact, it was voted best bar in all of Orange County two years in a row. The Crosby is a restaurant, bar, bookstore started by 3 friends who all had the same vision.

The Crosby recently celebrated their 2 year anniversary on April 1st. To celebrate they had DJ Rhettmatic of the World Famous Beat Junkies and PlannB, resident DJ of LA’s Soul Sessions spin some classic, definitive hip hop. Here are some shots from that night.

The Crosby is open Monday through Saturday from 5p-2a. You can catch Rhettmatic and PlannB at the Crosby every 1st Thursday of the month.

The Crosby
400 N. Broadway
Santa Ana CA 92701
www.thisisthecrosby.com

#MusicMondays, er Wednesday. I dont know whats up with the ROC camp as of late, but they have had a string of really dark themed “music” videos. Kanye West just came out with the video for Coldest Winter from his 808’s album. Oh I know everyone loves to trash that album (especially when Jay-Z came out with his Death of Autotune song, it was cool to jump on the 808-hating bandwagon), but I personally really liked it… really liked it. I did find it strange Hova’s first single DOA knocked Kanye’s entire album concept. Imagine how that conversation panned out between the two of them: “Yo Kanye, I have this great idea for a song!”. Anyway, so new video for Kanye, dark, just like his previous video with the same director. Where the ROC videos have been tip toeing around dark themes for awhile, this video fell off a cliff OOPS, I didn’t mean to give away the ending.

When Blue Print 3 came out, everyone was singing “New Yoooork” and loving “that one song with Drake”, but I had “On To The Next One” on repeat. I mean no producer can fuse hard lyrics with a catchy, almost club beat, like Swizz can. Especially with such consistency over the years? DMX, Cassidy and my old favorite “Split These Bars” by Drag-On! So when the video came out I was like WTF did they do to my favorite song?! Visually the video is stunning, I love the black and white concept, but the themes and images that flash are unnecessary. If you search the internet people break down the single frame images that flash, specific times and all. There is already a ton of talk online about Jay’s supposed new found belief system (start to type in Jay-Z and Bing will autopopulate the rest). I’ll take it all at face value though. In doing so, I question why these videos are so dark? I can see one video concept like Micheal Jackson doing Thriller, but what does the villain of Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol have to do with this song? (read the book, it’s good)… I hope they don’t ruin the video for Forever Young, should it ever be produced.

KANYE WEST “Coldest Winter” Directed by: NABIL

Kanye West “Paranoid” directed by NABIL

Jay-Z & Swizz Beatz “On To The Next One”

I’ve been a long time Linkin Park fan. Many a drive up PCH, or from one end of LA to the next, with their music for some quality auditory therapy. About 5 hours ago (fascinating thing, this internet), Mike Shinoda uploaded some of his mixtapes online. Nice interface right? Enjoy.

For the track list visit http://mikeshinoda.com/2010/02/17/shinoda-mixtapes/

No this isnt a new song, but I definitely think it has staying power – it’s going to be well into March or April before this song fades. While Young Money’s “Every Girl” is a single man’s anthem, this is a better all around song. There are lyrics for your headphones, bass for your car, a catchy chorus for the clubs (you know you be singing it to your girl on the dancefloor, lol), but I think it’s Lloyd’s falsetto that makes this song (in the vein of a young Michael Jackson). Gudda looks like Twista’s little brother. Nicki’s “Barbie” diamond chain is cute. Drake is obviously the highlight verse “I race for your love, shake’n'bake, Ricky Bobby” (lol). Tyga brings that Cali swagger to the group (He is also the cousin of Travis McCoy, lead vocalist of the group Gym Class Heroes). Signing to Young Money was a good move for the LA-native; it’s a better direction for his talent than “Coconut Juice”… but who the hell who told him the orange pants were a good look??