siik.org

you don’t know my name (and i swear)

siik — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 23:26:06 +0000

July’s tbtotm, biiig tune, produced by the big neptizzle. (actual video here cuz I can’t embed) If you do comparisons between Timbo and The Neptunes for late 99/00, you can see between them they both put out a lot of bangers. I’d have to go with Neptunes in 00 though.. I have a soft spot for that Ray-J beat. ANND Southern Hospitality. Anyway, I remember hearing this song on the radio for the first time and being completely entranced by Mya’s voice. (Likely not the first or last time that happens regarding Mya’s voice.) I didn’t even know there was a video to it, and she looks gorgeous in it. This song was on the charts for 11 weeks, and topped out at a modest #24. Good job Beenie Man! (If Beenie Man’s accomplishments were great enough to warrant a biopic, I would hope that Don Cheadle shows up to get cast. so serious.)

+ Lately I’ve been kinda into the idea of the girl roll call in rap/r&b. Anytime actual names get used in lyrics or songnames, it makes it more memorable, probably 100x moreso if it actually is your name. What I thought was a more common occurrence turned out to be.. a rarity? Maybe I’m just not thinking hard enough/remembering enough songs. The ones that pop into mind with the quickness are:

LL Cool J – Around The Way Girl (Lisa, Angela, Pamela, Renee)
The Dream – Shawty Is A Ten (Keisha, Sonya, Tanya, Monique, Nece, Keke, etc)
Petey Pablo – Freek-A-Leek (Shameka, Keisha, Tara, Shonda, Sabrina, Crysta, Daronda, etc)
Slum Village – Selfish (The whole 3rd verse: Whatup Pam, how yo little man doin in New Jersey)

additions:

Boyz II Men – All Around The World (Keisha, Kelly, Tanya, Stacy, Mica, and LaShaun)
Blackstreet – No Diggity (Jackie, Lisa, Nicky, Tameka in full effect)

And that’s all I could come up with. As with my other compendium, I’ve got to set some rules, but this one’s pretty easy: Has to have the girl roll call. Meaning, it can’t be focused on a single girl. So no Sheilas or Sallys. Please help me find the diamonds in the rough, or if I’m just overlooking obvious choices, the diamonds in a stack of diamonds. (sidenote: of the four songs I chose to use as examples, Keisha shows up in two of them. Girllll you get around.)

+ Some older mixes I did (and probably posted about) earlier this year, the mini WFMU mix and the Midnight Snacks mix. One is chill, one is booty bass/bmore. Figure it out.

+ I’ve moved my whole design site to Cargo, which is honestly one of the easiest and friendliest CMS’s out there. I used to think that sticking with WordPress would be fine, but I just got bored of hacking wp so much – plus all that knowledge is slowly getting depreciated, and I’m much (MUCH) too lazy to learn a new piece of software just to show off work. This is one advent of web 2.0 (shouldn’t this be like web 3.0? web 4 beta? web 2010 for workgroups) that I will gladly embrace.

michael jackson – rock with you

siik — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 17:07:18 +0000

August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009. MJ on Dela.

michael jackson – rock with you (siik remix)

head over heels

siik — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 07:15:27 +0000

If you’re new around here, I’ve been doing ‘Ten years ago’ throwback tracks since January, and this is the one for June. However I can’t really effuse any more on it since I posted about it previously. I do want to say that I was talking to one of my younger cousins and I told her ‘Lucy Pearl’ she said ‘oh she sounds familiar, how come I remember her name?’ I was about to slap some sense into this girl. The other tracks that were popular in June are all either unknown to me or I didn’t like them.. so boo. Dance Tonight was on the charts for 26 weeks and peaked at #5. Awesome Song Great Job! (sidenote: I TOTALLY FORGOT TO PUT DANCE TONIGHT in the calendar. What a horrible and obvious oversight. Apologies.)

+ Apologies (again) if it’s been quiet around here, I’ve been busy working on my design portfolio and photography site too, so the mixes and mashup game have been on the backburner. However this is exactly why when I finish up blends, I sit on them for a hot minute until I know I’ve got some downtime and I’ll post it up. I’ll be done with both sites soon enough so I’ll get cracking on some other music related stuff.

+ Oh yeah, I came back from Australia. I really liked it out there. Weather in the fall is nippy like SF, everyone dresses so sharply, and everything is expensive. (hint: one of these was not enjoyable.) It wasn’t so much of a backpacking/exploration trip like my previous DR trip, but still seeing the world nonetheless. See some of my shots of my trip over on my flickr.

+ FIFA IS BIG. I was never really that big into football until the last Copa Mundial when I met up with some real (read: foreign) folks who knew the deal. Since they introduced me to it, and they were Dutch, I’m rooting for HOLLAnd. Plus orange jerseys are hella sick. But to be honest It’s just really fun to watch a game anyway, whether or not I have a team in favor. Kinda wanted to see NK do something crazy after holding Brazil down in their first game, but it looks like their defense just collapsed that last game. Ouch. Also I make it a point to watch the matches on Univision because the announcers are way more hype. GOL GOL GOL GOL GOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLL (etc etc)

the part deux

siik — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:18:37 +0000

Whenever I’m making blends I usually try the acapella on a ton of different things. Some work, some don’t work, and I’ll end up picking one to put on the site. Usually though I’ll have one or two extra of the same song that I’ve put on a different beat that I feel might not be as strong as the other one, but still worth making, or I’ll just try the acapella out on something else much later on and find that it sounds great as well. Here are a bunch of them that have had good reception by yall. To be honest I enjoy some of these more than the pt i.. haw. I have some other part ii’s that i’ll save for a ‘the part deux.. part deux’ post. (ho ho get it.) originals: m-flo, nujabes, blackstar, foreign exchange, dilla, dj jazzy jeff.

crocodile dundee

siik — Sat, 15 May 2010 17:51:20 +0000

May‘s throwback track. This track is straight happy times, it would always be a party up in the headphones when it got radio play. (bonus memory: 00 was also when 92.3 became 100.3) I really miss a lot of that old g-funk from Quik/Suga Free, when repping coasts was so important you had to throw up westside in like every picture that got taken. Pitch In On A Party was on the charts for 14 weeks, and peaked at .. 68!? Boo. There were other great tracks that were on the charts this month, though – next episode, ruff endz no more (!!?), best of me remix. We’re inchin in to summer and a lot more heaters came out during then.

+ Since I’ve put that mini site up with my sticker offer, I’ve probably sent out atleast 200. Ya’ll are awesome! And I’m definitely still sittin on more, so if you don’t have em already, ask and ye shall receive. (send me cool pics of where you put it tooo!)

+ I forgot how but I was reminded of an old old mix i did, I’m thinking some time circa 2004 or 05.. I still enjoy it. It’s kinda different though.. kinda fast like 160/80bpm kinda shit. Old heads might have seen it around a long long time ago. I don’t have a tracklisting either, but it’s a full length mix and it’s the first mix I ever made! (well it’s an updated version of the first mix I made, hence the v2 – but you get the idea) download here: melotic v2

+ I leave you with that, because for two weeks I’ll be in Australia! Be back in June with (I hope) something special for my ★FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARAYAYAY★

i just wanna

siik — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 01:33:43 +0000

you like what you see
I sort my music mainly by BPM first then everything else later, mostly for the sake of mixing, and I’ve noticed that whenever I’m djing, I’m usually not in the 110 bpm hood – I’ll stick to 88-97 and 120s. Most stuff in the 100-110 hood that I have is new jack; I don’t think I have much other 110ish stuff, and I’m wondering if it’s just me? I tried to fix that with this quick mix. Mostly, it was just a reason to put that Ryan Leslie track in a mix. I’m obsessin over it.

download

zo! – nights over egypt
kelis – living proof
bobby brown – that’s the way love is
keith sweat – i want her
dj spinna – back 2 u
hawthorne headhunters – manifest station
tweet – make ur move
ryan leslie – you’re not my girl
mariah carey – say somethin’
kidz in the hall – love hangover

snap plus clap

siik — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 07:42:42 +0000

Throwback track of the month. Big Pimpin is such a happy song. I remember when this video came out, I was kinda blown away because of the white letterbox instead of black – such a sick idea. (what other videos have white letterbox? should I start another mini compendium?) I also remember being perpetually complexed to what a B L A D was. Only recently (five minutes ago lol) did I figure out what it was. My best guess would have been a ‘blad, but somehow I don’t think that’s correct. Ten years ago Big Pimpin was on the charts for 22 weeks and peaked at 6. Super! Also of note: the past few throwbacks have been very heavy on the Timbaland tip. He kicked so much ass in the late 90s. What happened dude..

+ As I just sent out my last calendar (bigup Dale!), It’s only fair that I share the project with the masses: Promo Only Urban 2000 was the infographic calendar I made last December outlining all the hot tracks that came out in 2000, broken down by month. I had a lot of fun researching and making it, and I’m dedicating all my throwback posts this year to certain tracks I remember. When I’m not talking about music or photography I just might be designing something, and infographics are really interesting – and I don’t mean those halfassed “info graphic” bastardizations (INFAUXGRAPHICS!!) that have been becoming oh so popular around the interbutts lately.

+ Also on the flickr are some shots I took behind the scenes from the Snoop Dogg & Kid Cudi video for That Tree. You know my steez: film only. Snoop is pretty hilarious irl. The video just got premiered on mtv.com and you can peep here, I take some issue with the color correcting they did.. it’s all washy and shit.

+ Next Monday I’m playing some shit on wfmu, a big thanks to Trent for reaching out. Eastcoasters, check it out 8-11 or just peep the stream online.

+ Things been listening to lately:
Onra – Long Distance
New Boyz – Cricketz
Dilla Joints
Return Of The Ankh – this cd is thoroughly listenable. REALEST.

lucy pearl – dance tonight

siik — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:15:29 +0000

I’m gonna go on the record and say the original Dance Tonight is timeless – as if it needed to be on record in the first place. That extended intro with the violins and harp action was so heavenly. Now that I think about it though, and factoring in my unusual obsession with music-related memories, I’m at a loss when it comes to associating this song with a certain period of time during my life except maybe being super excited when I found the instrumental to it, as well as the remix. Obvsly good memories of the video though, with Dawn and her sexy self – damn. This song popped up again for me last year while I was doing research for the calendar, and has no doubt survived the ten year test of time. The beat on this is from The Foreign Exchange.

lucy pearl – dance tonight (siik remix)

*sidenote: i’d posted this track earlier on my facebook, which has pretty much replaced myspace for prereleasing tracks since myspace banned me from uploading tracks. what a bunch of doofuses.

t-pain – freeze

siik — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:15:19 +0000

By popular request. I made this a while ago just for playing out at a house party and then put it up, but people were feeling it. I do kinda like it. Did you read the recent news about Chris Brown reaching out to his fans, basically pleading them to make him popular again through radio requests? Dude. I mean for sure, you got hella hits(Take You Down?? esp. the Gabe Bondoc cover oh my god), but asking your fans to help ya out? Didn’t you qq about Walmart not carrying your CD? C’mon. You shoulda atleast pulled a Heaven I Need a Hug, or somethin like that. Though I suppose beating a woman is considerably more reprehensible than peeing on a girl (wait a sec – am I trying to rationalize golden showers? does the lesser of two evils really apply to such things? why am I even thinking of this /ugh /sigh /a quandary of moral proportions) Either way, I cannot hate on how aurally enjoyable Freeze is. Also, I’ll have to go back on my word (!) on hating T-Pain. T-Pain is aight in my book.

t-pain – freeze (siik remix)

you’ve got that thinggggg, i liiiiiiiiike

siik — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 15:06:55 +0000

This month’s ‘ten years ago’ throwback track, and yes I’m really late on it. I can’t even properly classify this as a throwback, to be honest, because it’s not like I haven’t heard this in a while – lots of Aaliyah stays in rotation. I do remember mornings at school when people would be bumping this from their rides before first period started though. ‘Try Again’ was on the charts for 27 weeks, and peaked at #4. Nice. My criteria for throwback is that I gotta know this song, which ruled out this Tamar Braxton song I found out while researching – I’ve never heard it before. Hell, I didn’t even know she existed. I like it!

+ Super late on this: my live set at Devils Pie last November. Some old, some new. All chillin. Thanks to Phatty and company.

+ Super early on this: I’ll be doing a mini twenty minute set for my buddy Snacks for the five year anniversary of his weekly radio podcast. Hint 1: it won’t be any r&b. Hint 2: it will be all 2 live crew. This got me thinking: five year anniversary, huh. June 14th would be the anniversary of my first wordpress post, the post with the now classic amerie remix (rest in peace Jun Seba), and that was also five years ago. Should I do anything fancy? Goodness, how time flies. (also a ‘we’re fucking old’ for good measure)

+ I am GIVING AWAY SOME STICKERZZZ so gimme an address and I will send you some.