I’ve always rode pretty hard for the Beastie Boys. I remember going to this South Jersey Mall as a teenager and picking up the Cookie Puss 12″ (which I still have today) and then going absolutely nuts when License to Ill came out. In fact, I wore the cassette out in my first car stereo. […]
Author: DJ Prestige
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Dance the Night Away
I discovered Van Halen when I was about 10 years old. I heard them covering the Kinks (“You Really Got Me”) and I was hooked. I made my mother play the local Classic Rock Radio station on eleven whenever they came on. At 13, by chance, I was watching a news program that highlighted a […]
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J.Dilla Was One of a Kind
Jay Dee. Dilla Dawg. J.Dilla. Government name James Yancey. Perhaps you’ve heard of him? If you’ve been a fan in the Hip Hop world over the past 10 + years and you say you haven’t, you really have. If you have heard tracks by Common, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, the Pharcyde, The […]
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Donald Byrd Word!
My introduction to Jazz was through Hip Hop. When I searched for the samples that bands like the Pharcyde, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, and DJ Krush among others used, it would come back to one man: Donald Byrd. Donaldson Toussaint L’Ouverture Byrd II (what a name!) is an artist I encourage everyone […]
James and I have said it before, and I will say it again. We like to keep things Funky here at the freethinking movement. I’ve always been about the Funk and about the drum break, whether it be Thin Lizzy, The Jackson 5, or a band like the Dave Pike Set. You see, that’s how […]
My love of early Hip Hop came from radio stations like WBLS in NYC (when I could get reception in my South Jersey bedroom) and Power 99 in Philadelphia, both playing mid and late 80’s 12″ from their respective regions. From Philly I heard Three Times Dope and Cool C, from New York I heard […]
I remember hearing Nina Simone on a friend’s stereo back in the early 90’s. This particular stereo had graphic equalizing settings that made her version of “Black Is the Color” sound so eerie that I knew I was on to something with her music. Since that time as a record digger I’ve bought everything I […]
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Root Down
I saw Jimmy Smith in 1995 at the San Francisco Jazz festival. I was on the Left Coast for vacation when I saw the festival, coincidentally right around the time I started to buy Jazz records heavy. I had to go see him, as a few years earlier an industry BBQ had me come home […]
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Around My Way
While listening to 100% Homegrown on BBC1 Xtra, I stumbled upon this artist. I was blown away. In the past I’ve listened to UK Hip Hop: Rodney P, Black Twangers, Scratch Perverts, and the like. This track/ video is just brilliant. Everyone has the characters from around their way: be it the paper man, the […]
I am a Reggae music fan. I just got back from Jamaica, so I am on more of a Reggae kick than usual (not that that is a bad thing). I’ve been collecting Reggae records for as long as I can remember. One of my DJ buddies/ roommates used to have a huge crate of […]
This past volume of freethinking, volume 3, I dropped in a little nugget I have had in my bag since the early 90’s, Fela Kuti and Roy Ayers “2000 Blacks Got To Be Free”. This collaboration between Africa’s King of the Afrobeat and the Soul/Funk/Jazz stylings of vibraphonist Roy Ayers has always been a favorite […]
It’s no secret that my moving from the suburbs in NJ to the Eastern Shore of Virgina during my 8th and 9th grade years at school shaped my music taste, as well as opened me up to everything Funky. From Funk to Soul to Reggae to early Hip Hop, the record store off of Market […]