Bring Me the Remix of Zilla Rocca - DJ Apt One of the Philadelphyinz :
When Zilla first mentioned the plan for his Bring Me the Remix of Zilla Rocca promotion - which you're all no doubt familiar with by now as the weekly series of remixed songs from Zilla's solo debut, Bring Me the Head of Zilla Rocca, put together by some of his favorite producers - he laid out the general concept to me, but kept the names of the producers that were involved to himself. The first three weeks (part one, part two and part 3) featured producers that I knew Zilla had a connection with, so I wasn't surprised to see Nex, Small Pro or Douglas Martin get involved. This week's producer, DJ Apt One of the Philadelphyinz, however, was a bit of a shock to me, as I wasn't aware that Zilla knew him. Given the fact that Apt One's approach to music is more Hollertronix than traditional Hip Hop, I knew the result would be something that the hipsters and club kids would like, but the vibe on this one is so funky it will be hard for even the Jansport lifers (myself included) not to nod their heads along to it.
Zilla originally sent this remix of Nada, built around a beat with so much bounce to it that it literally had me smiling when I heard the first note kick in, attached with the statement that it was "Studio 54 cocaine sweater shit." That's about as accurate a description as I could have come up with for this melding of hip hop and disco, and I suspect this song will generate enough discussion without me saying much more about it anyway, so I'll just state that it's dope and leave you with Zilla's thoughts on Apt One:
"I wanted to work with Apt One of the Philadelphyinz ever since he and his partner Skinny rocked our monthly party, Money Folders, back in December of '07. They can throw a party with the best of them, in Philly and across the globe, but both guys would be right at home playing old Shabaam Sahdeeq b-sides next to the latest M.I.A. or Lil' Wayne club banger.
Since Money Folders, the Philadelphyinz have blown the fuck up -- shows from Cleveland to Australia, freelance pieces in various publications (they can blog, yo!), and groupies galore who can't get enough of the Pittsburgh kids who still call Pepsi "pop" and rubber bands "gum bands." Word.
'Nada' was one of the first songs I recorded as a solo artist going back to late summer '07. I've performed it a bunch of times but was salty at the renaissance of 'horn rap' since Jay's 'Roc Boys' came out and raised the bar. So I shot out the acapella to Apt One who promised to do something completely different. I think 'different' in this case is incredibly understated -- Apt managed to get me in my disco chamber without feeling all Pointer Sister in the meanwhile! I'm loving this one, and so are the older black women at the job!"
To hear more from DJ Apt One, hit up his MySpace page and then check out the Philadelphyinz page. If you like what you hear, I recommend copping this mix that they put together for Discobelle. Apt and his sidekick Skinny also have a blog/website/homoerotic feline photo gallery, philadelphyinz.com, that you all should add to your rss feed.
You can see a list of the Philadelphyinz upcoming appearances over here. For those of you in the NY area, they'll be performing at Piano's tomorrow and next Wednesday.
I wanted to hate this one when you first told me about it, but I can't front I'm feeling this. Zilla's verse fits perfectly with this disco beat.
12/9/2008 8:47:02 PM posted by Will
"I'm loving this one, and so are the older black women at the job!"
^ lolz.
Is there a place I can get a .wav of the apt one? I'd like to see what kind of a reaction this would get if I played it out. The 320 you put up will do ok if a wav is not available.
12/9/2008 10:12:39 PM posted by pandemonium
Not sure if you were joking but that alex wood beat still knocks regardless of what jay put out.
But this remix I'm 50/50 about. Its not what I normally would be into but i could def see this getting love in the club or on the radio.
12/10/2008 6:48:23 AM posted by SP!
We should press this up on vinyl and use that Studio 54 graphic as the cover, yo! I'm loving it, Fresh!
Ha, I'm glad you liked that because I was starting to question my photoshop skills after the last two I put up resulted in a couple of emails asking me what they were.
For anyone who needs clarification: week two was a blurred out picture of drone bees ("Blurry Drones") and week three was a picture of Earl Boykins, who is a small pro basketball player ("Small Pro"). For this week I actually wanted to use a photo of Mike Myers playing Steve Rubell from the movie 54 but couldn't find a quality pic of it.
@Pand: I get nervous if I try to play anything other than vinyl, but the 320kbps at the divshare link should be high enough quality to play out at a club. I can't speak for Apt, but I suspect he'd be willing to hook you up with a .wav if you sent him a request on his myspace page.
12/10/2008 10:10:59 AM posted by fresh
Fich did the damn thing on this!
12/10/2008 10:40:46 AM posted by yinz
I thought this was dope. Just curious but what did Nico think of it? Comparing this remix and last week's to what he was doing with Feed The Beast, it seems like you two are heading towards some sort of Speakerboxx/Love Below type split.
Thanks for listening. Speaking for me, I'm not fully sure what you mean by the "Speakerboxx/Love Below" comment so I'll do my best to answer your question.
Just like any group, certain sounds may appeal to one guy more than it does to the other. There's beats Nico likes/picks out I wouldn't know what to do with as solo artist, and vice versa. On Feed the Beast, Nico was at the mercy of the people's choices, so he did "Canon" as well as "Passin Me By" and killed them both.
Bottomline is we're versatile and open enough to try anything once--I can do a gully joint, he can do a smooth joint if inspiration calls. The new Clean Guns stuff we just started recording is going to shock alot of people in a GOOD way--it's a new direction while being true to who we are. And there won't be any autotune or bad Prince impersonations either haha!
What I was getting at with the Speakerboxx comment was basically just that like Outkast you're two mcs who end up doing stuff that's really different musically when you're doing your own things solo. Nico from what I've heard doesn't stray too far from straight up rap...which is not a criticism at all, nico is a dope mc... and on the other hand you tend to do more expiremental stuff when you're on your own. So that's part of what I was getting at there with the speakerboxx reference.
But also the Philadelphyinz play stuff that you might say is hipster-friendly...again not a criticism by any means but if I had to put a label on it that's what it would be... which I got the feeling from a few of those feed the beast tracks is the kind of music that Nico does not support.
So that's why I was curious about Nico's reaction to this. I guess I was asking less about whether the beat appealed to him and more about the idea of 'crossing over' with someone like apt one. I dunno, does that make sense?
I got you--you pretty much nailed it on the head. Here's the thing though--during Feed THe Beast, if someone would've shot Nico this Apt One beat, he'd have killed it by doing him on the track in his own way.
For this remix series, I didn't say anything to the producers before or after tracks were exchanged. I wanted to open up my shit via Apt One 'cause we've been cool with each other for a while, I like the music he plays, and "Nada" was getting stale to me. Nex Millen could've done something similar cause he too is a music encyclopedia/DJ/producer from the gate like Apt.
We're all about "crossing over" like you said as long as it makes sense to us either as solo artists or as a group. Why do one thing or stay relatively annonymous you know?
Alright, I'm off to pick up my shiny suit now haha!
I hope you two hook up again on something in the future cause this shit bangs. The beat on the original version was great but your a capella somehow fits in more with the apt one.
12/11/2008 6:51:32 AM posted by Deuce
JB, I actually like this joint. But to answer the question on hipsters, I don't do the whole tight jeans, "I'm part of something bigger motif." The quote/unquote hipster music isn't bad music it's actually pretty good. I'm just not a fan of liking something because others do. Dig?
As per musical preference, I'm wit whatever as long as the song is gonna be dope. I got a couple joints on deck that aren't the typical "dark joints" you've heard me on.
The new Clean Guns shit we are working on is gonna make cats step back and reevaluate their places in music. For real.
12/11/2008 11:23:27 AM posted by nicothebeast
Shouts to Zilla, 33jones and everybody who's enjoying the track.
Big thing on this is that Philly is a place where anything can happen musically because people are open to pushing the envelope and getting uncomfortable, musically speaking. There's a big diversity of artists coming out of here the last decade and change and what people on the outside don't really see is that this diverse collection works together, chills together, parties together.
To reduce Spam on this site, I'm testing out Disqus.
You'll need JavaScript turned on to see comments (if you're using NoScript, add 33jones.com to your list of trusted sites).
Let me know if you like it/dislike it.
