Yes, this late night issue is definitely last week’s news, but I can’t help but go back and watch this last bit over and over again. Years from now, when we’ve all been distanced from the controversy and infighting, you’re left with some very good advice from Mr. O’Brien. Try your best to work them into your own routine, and if you’re too lazy to watch 4 minutes of real talk, check out the pic below it for the synopsis.
We had to take a breather for a couple months, but that soul you love is making a comeback in a huge way, as we welcome guest and Stylus Award winner DJ Lissa Monet to lace us with her deep R’n'B crates! The homies Ariel and Surreal Sound hold down the basement something crazy! Whether you’re in full creep mode, or trying to do the rub-a-dub with your main squeeze, it’ll definitely be the perfect set-up to your Valentine Sunday sleep-in. Get with it!
The Academy and Shaman present…
THE MAIN INGREDIENT
An Ode To Bonita Applebum II
Saturday, February 13th marks The Main Ingredient’s return for 2010 with An Ode to Bonita Applebum II. We are joined by special guest DJ LISSA MONET (2009 Stylus Female DJ Of The Year). The soundtrack for the night will be a mixture of soul, R&B, house, hip hop, lovers rock and whatever else feels good. Join us as we celebrate the birthdays of Wan Luv and S. Gee, with their Aquarian & Pisces friends.
featuring
AGILE (MORE)
http://djagile.com
DJ MENSA (Social Experiment / Prizefighter)
http://djmensa.com
and special guest
LISSA MONET (2009 Stylus Female DJ Of The Year / lissamonet.com)
http://lissamonet.com
hosted by WAN LUV (Aquarian)
and in THE STONE LOUNGE…
THE SIDE DISH
hip hop . funk . R&B . reggae
featuring…
DJ ARIEL (VanCity to TDot)
http://deejayariel.wordpress.com
DJ SURREAL SOUND (Real Good / Hip Hop Love)
http://djsurrealsound.podomatic.com
Saturday, February 13
REVIVAL
783 College St.
Cost: $10 cover before 11:30pm | more after | limited guestlist
Aquarian’s FREE before 11:30pm w/ ID
Guestlist RSVP / B-Days or Large Groups: themainingred@gmail.com
Doors open at 10pm | 19+ event
Flyer Design by Chris Thomas for DOINITWELL.com
Video visuals by General Eclectic
SKY’S THE LIMIT
A portion of the evenings profits and raffle proceeds will go to Sky’s The Limit, an organization fundraising to supply laptops to youth in need.
http://www.stlonline.org
The Main Ingredient shows love to one of Toronto newest and brightest talents Miss Melanie Fiona for her Grammy Nod this year, and her opening spot for the global Alicia Keys tour.
Melanie Fiona
GRAMMY Nominated
“The Bridge”
In stores now!
One would wonder why artists like Maxwell, D’Angelo take so long to release albums. It’s such a painful process for the fans, but ultimately you can’t deny that the work that’s put out definitely has that staying power. One such artist is Sade, who’s notorious for putting out albums at a pace of one a decade. Below is a little mini-report about the making of Sade’s latest album. For someone so elusive to media, these ten minutes is like a well in the desert for a die hard fan.
January 18, 2010 @ 4:39 pm
· Filed under Events, Mixes
Hot off the presses! In preparation of the HUGE CONCERT coming to town Thursday, Me and the big homey DJ SURREAL SOUND whipped up this mixtape comprised of the biggest tunes from Masta Ace & Edo G! Expect to see a good cross section of tracks from both of their DEEP discographies, rare joints and, of course, tracks from their duo LP “Arts & Entertainment” & “Extra Entertainment” It’s also hosted by Masta Ace & Edo G. themselves! So if you’re trying to catch up and looking for a crash course of Ace & Edo, it’s only right that you grab this mix!
January 13, 2010 @ 2:30 pm
· Filed under Uncategorized
I get my guido fist pump on! My bi-weekly residency for the past few months. Always been a great time! Shouts to Jason, Mike, Eugene and all the hot bartenders!
As fresh as the bed of snow that just fell on Toronto, I made up this mix to complement the vibe of the season. For those that choose to stay indoors an extra day or seven, this is for you. Break out the hot cocoa, throw another log on, and curl up under some thermal blankets to this.
DJ MENSA presents CABIN FEVER
Bob James – Feel Like Making Love
D’Angelo – Feel Like Making Love
Black Star – Brown Skin Lady
Mista – Lady
Rell ft. Jay-Z – Love For Free
Mary J. Blige – Be Happy (Siik Remix)
Amerie – Different People
Missy Elliott – Pussycat
50 Cent – Ryder Muzik
Mary J. Blige ft DMX – Sincerity
Nicole – I Can’t See (Mensa Blend)
Deborah Cox – Sentimental
Cee-Lo – Let’s Stay Together
Glenn Lewis – Beautiful Eyes
Little Brother – All For You
Common – I Used To Love H.E.R. (Freddie Joachim Remix)
Hi-Tek – Git Ta Steppin’
Bilal – Love It (9th Wonder Remix)
Janet Jackson – Spending Time With You
Snoop Dogg ft. Brandy & Pharrell – Special
Zo! – My Flame
Destiny’s Child – Game Over
Joe ft. Mariah Carey & Nas – Thank God I Found You
Glenn Lewis – The Thing To Do
Anthony Hamilton – Do You Feel Me
Isley Brothers – Don’t Say Goodnight (It’s Time For Love)
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. ”
So in that regard, I’m gonna post some thoughts on some parties/jams/concerts in Toronto that were: instrumental to my development as a DJ, and pretty “epic’ in its own regard. Ride with me!
LIVE MIXTAPE – DILLA TRIBUTE (September 2006)
Prior to Hip-Hop Karaoke’s arrival in Toronto (what up Never Forgive Action), my man Rod Skimmins had this concept of getting Toronto’s dopest underground MC’s and have them do covers of their favorite hip-hop tunes while I spun the instrumentals live. It was like a conveyor belt: no breaks, just MC after MC taking to the stage and rocking it. We did two installments ranging from good to great success. Eternia, Mindbender, Zaki Ibrahim, Masia One, Arowbe, and a bunch others took part. It was a dope musical experiment and a great time. After the second one, Rod said he had had enough of the headaches of wrangling all these acts together, and wanted to leave the legacy for what it was.
February 2006 rolls around, and the world is stunned at Jay Dee’s sudden passing. Skimmins takes it upon himself to do the party one last time and assembles an amazing crew of emcee’s to do Dilla justice. Highlights include Frank’N'Dank doing “Pause” live, and Adam Bomb & Scandalis ending the night off with “Fuck The Police” with everyone in the house going apeshit. A fitting send off to of the greatest. Anyone with any kind of photos or footage from this event, I would love to see it.
PEACHFUZZ – THE PHOTO SHOOT (June 2006)
In early ’06, I had a vision of a night where I could throw down classic tunes no matter how old or new. That night turned into what became Peachfuzz at a spot in little Italy named Chinadoll with my good friends Arowbe and Rod Skimmins. We had an amazing time and the memories and friends we made helped define an amazing time in my life. When we first started off we had our core friends come through and show love, but we knew we needed something big to get to the audience at large. After some brainstorming we ended up reaching out to our boy Che Kothari, who was on his way to becoming THE photographer in the city, and asked him if he wanted to come together and have a photoshoot while we had our party. Arowbe was still a student at York, and was able to pull his female friends wanting a headshot (no pun intended) to doll themselves up and jam with us. We also invited all of our crazy b-boys, drunken promoter friends, and everyone else into the frame.
Che snapped away, while me and Rod ran big tunes. It was a ridiculous love-in that paid off big time. When we released the photos, everyone used them on their myspace and facebook because of the now famous velvet wall. Imitators and people who caught the vapors would come in for the next year and a half for a pic and found out that we had a pretty good party going on at the same time. We never made big money on the night (and often took a hit splitting money three ways), but that party will definitely go down as some of the best fun I’ve had ever.
For more pictures from the night, check out http://www.myspace.com/peachfuzz416
REDBULL 3STYLE – TORONTO ELIMS (Feb 2009)
This was the closest thing to a DJ battle that I would ever get involved in. I got mad inspiration from the big homey Hedspin and his winning set in ’08. I vowed that if this battle came to Toronto I would get in on ground level. Turns out it worked out for me in the long run. Props to all the competitors going in this year and Redbull for throwing it nationwide. This concept definitely has legs.
Part of one of the biggest weekends in Toronto hip-hop history. I got the heads-up from my man Jesse after some late night talks at Sneaky Dee’s one night but had to keep it a secret for a long minute. One of those secrets that would make you explode while keeping it in. Truth be told, I only got to rock on stage for 15 minutes because both acts used up mad stage space for their bands and . But I can honestly say that I squeezed every last second out of that set and had the crowd RIGHT for both legends. Witnessing Tip doing solos on everyone’s instrument, and even went back and forth on DJ Scratch’s set up was crazy. He even dapped me up while sprinting across stage. Common gave me said pic than tended to the stable of groupies waiting outside. Legendary night to say the least.
MICHAEL JACKSON TRIBUTE @ YONGE/DUNDAS SQUARE – Canada Day 2009
When Michael Jackson passed, it was safe to say that the world was in shock and in a collective daze as to how to conduct themselves to the news. I mean, his relevance in 2009 wasn’t in the forefront but in the grand scheme of things his impact spanned decades and generations of people. Me, Ohtake, and Jill were driving up to Montreal to see a free Stevie Wonder concert at Jazz Fest when we got the news that the Manifesto crew would be throwing an impromptu tribute on Canada Day. The DJ line up was assembled, ads were made and the word got out in literally two day’s notice. We literally drove back into town, freshened up, and got to Dundas Square, just in time to catch a sea of 5000 people jamming to tunes that Starting From Scratch was running. Canadian flags were everywhere and everyone was basking in the sun. On paper, one wouldn’t think that Canada Day and mourning the passing of Michael Jackson would be two occasions that would blend well, but the results were amazing. News crews were on hand and said the crowds had gotten to 20000+ (yeah right), but the vibe was definitely something you couldn’t deny. All the DJ’s ripped it. I played on a busted laptop and came with a bunk set, but I still rolled with the punches.
In certain times, acting on first impulse is the only way to go. We think of ourselves as reasoning people but some moments require you act on emotion to question your motives later. That night served to be a great way to get out our sorrows on such a tragic loss and really celebrate the way Michael had us celebrating for a while.
Well it’s about time! The big homey Wristpect draws the big guns and collabs with the brothers Thornton on massive cross border mixtape. Fresh off the presses. Shouts to BE. OF THE LEGENDS LEAGUE for the artwork!
And my man DJ Royale of GRAND GROOVE DJ’S just put out this retrospective in honour of Curtis Jackson, aka 50 Cent. This one is a certified banger in the whip. Grab it!
