>When he played for a crew I was working with in Detroit in '98 he wasn't
all
>that. It was cool to get to see a living legend in the flesh, especially
>'cause i got to pick him up from the airport and talk w/him a little (and
>bring him KFC, which WAS IN HIS CONTRACT). But his set wasn't all that,
he
>played the latest commercial Hip-Hop (Busta Rhymes, Lil Kim) and he
didn't
>even mix, just played tracks back to back and intro-faded sometimes.
Then,
>I'm not sure if it was a dig at all the white kids in attendance (the
crowd
>was mainly vanilla) he played Areosmith and Guns and Roses. WTF? On the
>other hand, there has been numerous occasions where Helll has ripped me a
>new arsehole.
I very much doubt if that was the intention - if you've followed
Bambaataa's
career really closely or read interviews you'll understand that he doesn't
see music in terms of segregation and he probably believes that what
Aerosmith and Guns And Roses do arises from the blues, which was Black
culture, so he is probably trying to show people the source of much of our
popular culture. He promotes diversity and open-mindedness. That's his
platform. The same dialectic was at work when he took Kraftwerk - inspired
by James Brown - and turned it into Planet Rock. That said, I can't stand
those 80s rock bands and I wouldn't want to listen to them. DJ Hell is one
of my absolute favourite DJs and has his own unique 'gigolo' style - a mix
of Germanic and US influences with the almost camp aesthetic/humour of
Kraftwerk. He plays lots of electro and the occasional disco through to
Mills. He is just fabulous. If you haven't seen him before, I would
recommend him. There isn't anything wrong with Busta Rhymes either,
commercial or not. :) He is an innovator - and Hell is a fan of his,
actually. Play track 6 on Busta's last LP and tell me that intro doesn't
sound like Millsian techno. You could cut that up that intro into a quick
mix very easily. But, alas, I digress.
Hey, slow down there, guy. Who said there was anything wrong with Busta? I
just said his shit was commercial. Deny that.
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