One of my personal favorite Ghetto Palms is definitely Jace Clayton/ DJ Rupture’s cumbia episode which ran as a sort of audiobook version of his Buenos Aires feature last summer. Since Jace and his partners in the Dutty Artz collective are themselves under the FADER microscope in the current issue it seemed only right to enlist Dutty co-founder Matt Shadetek to provide the soundtrack this time. Shadetek did the damned thing but as with other recent guest selectors (Turbo!) he extracted his pound of palmflesh—only instead of more podcasting, this time I get to play at Dutty Artz’ NY Tropical party this Friday, which promises to be a baddy (more details on that below).
First the blend. It is nuyorcentric, psychotropical and heavily dosed with the voice and production of Gize "77Klash" Burrowes, who has often had his name invoked in Ghetto Palms but has been underrepresented sonically. It arrived in my inbox with this note: File under BK bashment, sub-soca, dutty house, roots and future, waking up the neighbors. Go crazy. (Matt’s comments follow the track-listing).
Matt Shadetek’s Dutty Artz Blend:
1. Dotstar, "Stick Up" (Dutty Artz Dub)
2. Father Bookie, "Mi Name" (Matt Shadetek Tropical Rmx)
3. Kingdom, "Fogs"
4. Noble Society, "The Swarm"
5. 77Klash feat. Matt Shadetek, "Pressure"
6. Jahdan Blakkamoore, "Go Round Payola" (Matt Shadetek Bye Haters Rmx)
7. Marcus Visionary, "Big and Bashy"
8. Matt Shadetek, "Battery Charge"
9. Matt Shadetek, "Pure Riddim"
10. Jahdan Blakkamoore, "The General"
11. Beniton The Menace, "Recession"
"Stick Up Dub": This kid is busting up the LDN Funky scene right now with this tune. Geko (Jones) reached out and he cut this dub for us, love it.
"Mi Name" (Tropical Rmx): This one is brand new and exclusive to this mix. I took the acapella from Father Bookie's tune on 77Klash's Swarm Riddim and laid it over this new dutty house riddim of mine. Add autotune and: boom!
“Fogs”: Brand new instrumental from Kingdom, exclusive and unreleased. This guy is one of my favorite new producers in NYC.
"The Swarm": Big bad BK bashment from Jahdan and the Noble fam over 77Klash's Swarm Riddim. Love this one.
“Pressure”: New tune produced by me with Klash on vox in shouting mode. Moshpit dancehall.
“Go Round Payola” (Shadetek Remix): This is a quick remix I did of a tune that I produced for Jahdan's We Are Raiders
“Big and Bashy”: MADNESS from Toronto's Visionary, also unreleased as far as I know. He's been doing these really crazy 4x4 140 bpm tunes with a heavy rave vibe, we've been calling it sub-soca over here.
“Battery Charge”: New dutty/grime house from me, made this one while teaching logic at dubspot.
“Pure Riddim”: This one is on Jahdan's We Are Raiders EP as an instrumental and a vocal version on his forthcoming album Buzzrock Warrior.
“The General”: Produced by me and Liondub this is from Buzzrock Warrior as well, out on 12-inch now.
“Recession”: Found out about this guy through Skerrit Bwoy playing his specials. Killer new New York artist.
I don’t know what’s left to say after that. The phrases “Big and Bashy” and “full out 4x4 rave ammo” pretty much sum it up. Look for the full feature to post later this week and If you like it and/or the music usually reviewed in this column (and you live in NY environs) come to Glasslands this Friday for NY Tropical 6. Gen F killer 77Klash will be performing live, the whole place will be filled with actual palm trees and there will be baby white tiger cubs to play with. Not really but you can see where we are trying to take it.
On the other hand, if you live in SF/Bay Area pick up your baby white tigers from Boima and Geko Jones at Descendants United.