I met Unknown at the 90.3 studio one day when Sage Francis was doing his show. He told me he lived near Skippy White’s, which for you non-New Englanders was the best place to go to see all the new vinyl releases, and most of the local DJ legends worked there at some point or another. So one day i was at Skippy’s, called up Unknown, and we got up to scratch and build and all that rap-type nerdery. We got along real well and are actually still good friends to this day, and soon started talking about joining forces and collaborating on a mixtape.
He had this vision to get exclusive verses from the dudes whose records we were buying at the time, which i didn’t think was possible. So Unknown started getting in touch with artists, and pretty soon we were meeting up with these dudes. I remember me, him, and DJ Next drove to Philly one Sunday to meet up with Louis Logic and almost died on the way home when the car hydroplaned, did a 360, and almost smacked right into the jersey barrier. No offense to Louis but i’m not sure it would’ve been worth it. I also remember Apathy’s girl making a pop-screen out of dryer sheets and a coat hanger. Best smelling pop-screen ever.
(Tracklisting)
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After we had gotten all the exclusives we thought we could, we were mixing down each track from the newly named “Platinum Ice” to mini-disc and then somehow arranging the entire mix from there. Listening to it, i’m still not sure how we pulled it off with that equipment. This mix is too damn raw…
GLOWLIKETHIS is proud to announce THE RE ROUTE…
Panacea’s celebrated 2007 album, THE SCENIC ROUTE, has been re-imagined in its entirety by some of indie Hip Hop’s top producers. It will be released on January 20, 2009, DIGITAL ONLY, from iTunes, Napster, Amazon, and all other legit online digital music stores.
Here’s the complete tracklisting (with producers)…
1) The Scenic Route (Doug Life Remix)
2) Flashback to Stardom (DJ Spinna Remix)
3) Pops Said (Nicolay Remix)
4) Epiphany (DJ Nu-Mark Remix)
5) Between Earth and Sky (Joe Beats Remix)
6) Bubble (Stoerok Remix)
7) Square 1 (Cool Calm Pete Remix)
8 ) Blue Ice (Mekalek Remix)
9) Walk in the Park (Damu The Fudgemunk Remix)
10) Aim High (Newman Remix)
11) Katana (Aeon Remix)
12) One Shine (K-Murdock’s Arturian Remix)
iTunes and Amazon will each also have a bonus track for those who buy the whole album. One will have “Starlite (K-Murdock Remix)” and one will have “The Missing (featuring Alona)”.
We will be giving you first listens of the remixes in the coming weeks right here at GlowLikeThis.
Panacea on MySpace
The second installment in this series saw kind of a different approach than the others. I had a gang of a cappellas this time around and decided to take it back to my older tapes when i would remix my way through a tape. This was during the time when I was full-time into a group called Funkbunker Fleet, which was a 3 DJ and 3 MC crew, so all the exclusive verses are by the FBF emcees.
Planning this tape was crazy because of how much remixing i was doing, and so I had pages and pages in a notebook figuring out how to transition from one track to the next. I was still recording on Platinum Ice, which was nothing more than an inexpensive digital 8-track recorder, so if i wanted non-stop music, I had to know ahead of time what was going to happen and keep the improv to a minimum.
I remember killing the D-Tension/Encore song on the radio to the point i had to retire it, and also the feeling i got hearing the “Fall In Love” Remix. Chills. Peep the remix i did with 8-year-old Jinsu over Time Machine’s “Reststop Sweetheart” instrumental. Wahhhhwwww….
(Click here for tracklisting)
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CLICK TO STREAM -or- RIGHT CLICK (AND “SAVE TARGET AS”) TO DOWNLOAD
Time Machine getting bizzy back-n-forth over the instrumental “Movement” from Gwen McCrae’s classic “Funky Sensation” album. Enjoy, share, eat, drink, be merry.
This is the second mixtape that Andrew Unknown and I did together, and in my opinion, it smashed the first one (although some people, mostly in Australia, disagree with that sentiment fully). This was mostly Andrew’s vision, and his idea to use classic early/mid 90’s beats as the theme. I, of course, was sold on that immediately.
Since he had relocated to NYC, it became easier to meet up with and record MC’s for the project and I still can’t believe some of the people he was able to recruit. When I heard the Grafh verses, my mind was blown to bits, and the Smif ‘n Wessun?! Man… I remember recording Akrobatik’s verse in the production room at 90.3 after one of my mix-shows. Crazy.
I basically moved to New York for 2 weeks, and got crackin on the pre-production right away–swapping out beats, adding cuts, etc. Then we set up shop in Eli 173’s studio, transferred the music from the famous Platinum Ice Studios, and went in until the vision became reality. Eli was trying to finish this project so he could move to California, and while it was tough to get him to focus (as it still is), we eventually got it done and he did an incredible job with the mix downs.
(Click here for tracklisting)
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD
In 2003, I was more of a radio mixshow DJ than anything else, so putting together a mix of stuff people weren’t hearing me spin every Friday was difficult. While making Killer Tape 3, i purposely wouldn’t play most of these records on the air, just so this mixtape would be as fresh as possible.
The thing I’m realizing while listening to this again is that all the exclusive verses are from dudes that did songs for my “Live and Learn” album, and these guys bodied both projects. Now, it may seem strange starting off the mix with “Through The Wire” by Kanye West, but I broke that record in Rhode Island long before commercial radio had any idea it existed. I promise you, there are people to this day that can’t hear that song unless it’s on +8, thanks to My Killer Tape Part III.
I recorded this in our old studio, The Bubbla, where the Slow Your Roll album was recorded, and this was my first tape done on Pro Tools. Roc-a-Fella was ruling, indie hip-hop was still breathing, and you could still go to the record store and get dope records. Enjoy…
MY KILLER TAPE PART III (2003)
(click back cover or here for legible track listing)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD MY KILLER TAPE PART III
