I’m going to LA tomorrow. I don’t have any real business there but Kaze is going to be on the wake-up show. I just wanna say whatup to DJ Revolution while I’m there. And then Saturday hang out with the beat junkies.

So tomorrow with absolutely no money in my pocket I will put on a polo shirt and some khaki pants, and fly across the country first class pretending I’m supposed to be up there with the rich folk. Benefits of the job…

Anyway, I’m in the wakeupshow studio right now with dj revolution and king tech:

Update…hung out with some folks from Angeles records

currently at dj revolutions house…kaze is recording a joint for an album rev is working on…platinum and gold records on the wall…the mark of a good dj…nice production setup…records everywhere…this man is one of my idols and now i’m chillin at his house…and we’re talkin about syl johnson and other old soul music. man, i’m moving to LA!

I seem to take forever to do remixes. Not that it takes me forever to make an actual remix (this one took about 3 hours from start to finish), but it just takes me a while to actually gettin’ around to them. I’m thinking the tape is going to evolve into a showcase of sorts. I didn’t want to make this one available for download just yet…if I give out all my remixes none of you will buy the tape! However, if you’re a DJ and you’d like a copy, just shoot me an email via the contact link and I’ll send it out.

So why did I choose this particular song to remix? Simply because I love the original. “Kick, Push” is easily one of my favorite songs of 2006. The content of the song is quite refreshing, and Lupe manages to deliver it in a manner that doesn’t make skateboarding seem boring to outsiders, and actually uses it as a metaphor for finding yourself and being an individual…something I think everyone can relate to. I like the original beat as well (soundtrack, what’s poppin?!?). The original is a loop, so I definitely thought I should chop it up this time around. Plus, Lupe gets extra points for mentioning SB Dunks (he’s quite the sneakerhead, proven by the fact that he’s a blogger for hypebeast)!

Like I said this one took about 3 hours from start to finish. The clock starting on when I dropped the needle on the track I ended up sampling (curtis, what’s poppin?) and finished upon export from Cubase. It took me a bit to find the right sample to use. I like to build my beats around the acapella when I do a remix;I tend to shy away from throwing a ‘pella over an existing beat but it does happen sometimes (ghostface remix, anyone?). Anyway, I chose this one for the strings/flutes as well as the vocals because to me they just seemed to fit the mood I was looking to set. Once I start constructing the beat, I run the acapella over it to make sure I’m going in the right direction, and tend to sequence my chops based on how the vocals are sounding over the drums. Once I’m satisfied with the beat, I break it down and send it tracked out, to cubase. Once the beat is tracked out properly in cubase, I record the acapella onto a new track and line it up properly. From there I do the drop-outs (subtracting elements of the beat in certain parts) and make sure the mix sonds good (to the best of my ability, I suck as an engineer) and when I’m finally satisfied I export it to an mp3.

You’d think after all that I’d be done, right? Wrong, it has to undergo the “car test”!!! I have to ride around and listen to it in my car to know if it’s worth keeping (yes, sometimes songs fail the car test and head to the recycle bin. You may be thinking “wow, that’s an awfully low-tech quality control method” but in reality it makes perfect sense. Your car is where you play your most favorite music, and if you live in a place like Raleigh, NC where there is no real public transportation system, then you drive a lot. My point is this: you can easily judge your music in this manner because it’s quickly apparent if the fresh studio tracks stack up to the music you listen to on a daily basis, and I mean that on more than one level. You’ll get a quick grasp of what levels need to be tweaked and whether the music is really even up to par. I know I can’t be the only musician that does this either. And look at this way: if you can make your music sound decent on shitty factory speakers, it should sound freakin’ sweet on better systems! Stick around, you might learn something…

I’ve done way too much talking and hopefully I haven’t hyped this up too much or ruined the listening mood. Just click play below:

powered by ODEO

P.S. That’s hosted by Odeo.com and I think I’ll use them when I start my online mixshow/podcast. Yeah, you didn’t even know that was coming, did you? Anyway, their site is cool so make sure to check it out

I should sleep now…

With hip-hop all over again.

I drove to Greensboro, NC for the “Money, Power Moves, and Respect” b-boy battle. I wasn’t going just to watch the battle, but moreso because Kaze was performing during the intermission and I was DJing for him.

So I get there and deal with the usual “I’m DJing so I don’t have to pay” scenario with the girl collecting money/checking IDs. You know, the whole “That’ll be $10″ … “I’m DJing, I should be on the list…” “I Don’t see your name on here” … Eventually it all leads to me getting in free..

Once I got inside I felt instantly refreshed to see such a diverse crowd;I was happy from the jump. This is one of the reasons I love hip-hop, it brings together people from so many different backgrounds. Every imaginable ethnicty was represented and every style of dress was in the place (we hip-hoppers are fashionable people, trendsetters if you will). It was beautiful and I love it (it makes me want to move out of raleigh to somewhere like new york).

DJ SK of Chaos Mathematics was the selector for the night, playing all the classic break music. He’s also a rep for red bull music academy and held an info session recently here in Raleigh with Rich Medina(dope individual right here, folks). If he wouldn’t have reminded me about RBMA I would have forgotten to submit on time, so big ups to him:

I got some good video of the breakdancing competition and I wish I had memory card for my camera with more capacity. Luckily my digital camera isn’t limited to those silly 30 or 60 second clips, but can record until the memory stick is full (good job Sony). Pretty much all of the crews were dope, but this crew AWR from Washington DC took the title (and $1000 in cash). I’m no judge on technical aspects but this crew was the best all around. The one thing that seperated them from the rest was the fact that they used teamwork with choreographed routines (hey, it was a 5 on 5 battle after all). Here’s about three minutes of AWR vs. Mixed Motions that I grabbed (AWR is the crew in black, closest to the camera):

If you’ll notice I had a great view of the battle thanks to SK letting me hang out on stage with him and his crew. There was a professional film crew there filming the event for DVD as well, I’ll update when it’s available for purchase. There was an MC battle in the interim but it wasn’t that great to be honest with you.

I had a great time and the battle made me realize why I love hip-hop. I really wish I could describe how it made me feel but I am neither a good writer or an expresser of emotions. At least I didn’t have to hear any damn snap music all night long…

This morning I finished my application for the 2006 edition of Red Bull Music Academy. I had to complete a 15 page paper application which included some questions that had me thinking hard! For example, one question asks “how do you represent yourself in the musical universe (draw a map)?” Most of the questions on the application I have never asked myself and I’m glad I came across it because I had to question my musical taste quite a bit. I think I did a good job of letting my personality shine through though.

Along with the application you had to include a 30 minute cd of music that you think represents you. Now, they accept musicians, singers, djs, producers, etc. So my options were either 1)make a dope 30 minute mixtape of my favorite music (as a dj) or 2)make a 30 minute showcase of my beats and songs I’ve done (as a producer). Well, I’m DJ Forge and I’m both so I combined the two (hopefully that will help out!). I made a 33 minute mixtape of remixes, music I’ve produced, and raw beats that nobody else has heard before (thank god for Serato). Instead of racking my brain trying to narrow down what to use, I just loaded up a bunch of stuff into a virtual crate in serato, and then basically freestyled my 30 minute mix. I did it all live, no multitracking. I just hit record and mixed what I felt. I think it worked out better that way because I’m used to Djing with no plan at all, basically all off the top of my head. Admittedly, there are a couple of rough spots, but I decided to just roll with it anyway.

Now, let me also say that RBMA is an extremely exclusive affair. They only select 60 people worldwide and for the 2005 edition only 4 of those people came from the United States. Talk about pressure! If I make it in, I can at least say that I made it into a somewhat exclusive school (won’t look too shabby on my references/resume either, hehe).

So what exactly is RBMA? It’s basically a two week seminar where you work with other musicians to create new material. During the day you get to have workshops with some well established producers/djs/rappers/etc.. For example, last year ?uestlove was lecturer, as well as Hank Shocklee from the bomb squad(yeah i met him already, son!). The list goes on…they also had Leon Ware of motown fame speaking (amazing!). I’m anxious to see who they have on the list for this year. Oh yeah, did I mention that for 2006 it’s going down in Melbourne, Australia?!?! All this with all expenses paid!!! Cross your fingers for me, I really want this.

Anyway, I sent the package off early this morning, since today was the deadline (duh, I’m a known procrastinator). This is what my package looked like, pre-envelope sealing:

So I hope when that arrives in Germany in about a week and my CD gets listened to that I make some kind of impression. Either way, at least I got somebody in another country to listen to 30 minutes of my music. Win-win situation…

P.S. I updated the shows section…

I’m working on changing the overall look of my site so just bear with me. If it looks funny, I promise I’m working on it, and hopefully the end result will be pleasing and look a little more official than the last design. And hey, maybe I’ll actually start updating this page as much as I do my myspace page, hahaha.

Just to keep you busy, check out some recent press via hiphopdx.com’s review of the L.e.g.a.c.y./DJ paradime mixtape. Got a couple of shouts in there. oh yeah. oh yeah.