Front Row: L to R – E. Jones, DJ Face, Tyler Woods and Vince Clark
Back Row: L to R – 9th Wonder, Dj Cuzzin B, Jay Clipp and T. Reeves

This past weekend True School was set to take over the CIAA’s in Charlotte, NC.  If you are unfamiliar with the CIAA it is the largest HBCU Division II Basketball Tournament.  There are a billion parties and events that take place throughout the week and there was no shortage of True School activities.  The fun started as soon as we landed on Thursday afternoon.  After checking into the hotel we headed to a sneaker boutique called Velocity.  In attendance was artists from 9th Wonder’s IWW, (It’s a Wonderful World), Music Group and sub labels Jamla and The Academy including: Tyler Woods, Rapsody, Big Remo, Actual Proof and Thee Tom Hardy.  9th Wonder mixed several selections from each artist and let me tell you there was some absolute FIRE coming out of the speakers!  Later that night we headed to Kashmir to spin and set off the rest of the weekend’s activities.

The next morning we woke up with just enough time to get dressed, eat and kick off the day party, yes a day party that ran from 12-6pm, at a spot called The Breakfast Club.  The Breakfast Club was dope in the fact that it had a lot of retro items inside and out, from the “pac-man” fonts to video games, album covers, gigantic rubix cubes and a bunch of other cool stuff.  The party quickly filled up and myself, DJ Cuzzin B and Jay Clipp did what we do best.  Running everything from old to new, it was definitely a good time.  9th Wonder and Actual Proof came through to show support and jam with us and the rest of the True School family.  When the day party ended we then had just enough time to run back to the hotel, eat and then head on over to Mez and set-up for the night party.  Let me begin by saying, Mez is absolutely a super plush, super chic club located in the Epicenter, downtown Charlotte.  I also want to shout out DJ Lil Mic, DJ Bee (Skratch Makaniks) and DJ Quicksilva for holding down and from what I heard, smashing the DMV party at Strike City located directly below Mez.  Inside Mez, DJ Jay Clipp took control of the mic along with Kyle Santillian of 102 Jamz Greensboro, NC and DJ Cuzzin B set the party off properly on the tables.  Following that was a heart racing, non-stop hit after hit mix by 9th Wonder and a closing set by yours truly.  It was really an amazing party, there was absolutely no room to move and Mez was effectively shut down! (In a good way!)

Saturday was a day off for the crew except for 9th who was dj-ing another day party.  Let me tell you, day parties were everywhere and it did not stop people from going out at night.  Let’s see if this concept starts to take off in the DMV.  9th did his thing at the party and from there it was dinner and then back to the hotel…I’d like to say the festivities continued for us but after everything that took place from Thursday to Saturday we had nothing left in the tank for Saturday night.  Unfortunately, we could not hang around Sunday night for the Jay-Z BP3 concert after party in Greensboro with Jay, 9th Wonder, Young Guru, Beyonce and Jadakiss but I heard it was bananas, as would be expected.  All in all, it was a really dope weekend for True School, a lot of work, partying and no shortage of laughs, too many comedians in this crew!  Until the next one…

Peace,

DJ FACE

There are some really nice pictures by Kelly Connelly (follow on twitter) on her Flickr page of Illa J from the “Forever Shining” event over the weekend. Here are a few that I particularly liked.  To see the full set click here.

Illa J and E Major backstage. More photos below.

As has been the case with every Dilla tribute event that I’ve been part of since Hip Hop suffered the loss of one of the most talented and prolific producers it’s seen, last night’s “Forever Shining” event was something special.  I think many of the attendees would agree that it was probably the best one that we’ve had in Baltimore.  The band was great and the performers did they’re thing.  From UllNevaNo opening with “The Red” to Illa J ending the performance portion doing songs from his Yancey Boys album as well as choice Dilla/Slum Village tracks, it was an overall really entertaining event as a performer and an audience member.  The numerous DJ’s added to the vibe and it was dope to go to the upstairs bar to get away from the crowd for a minute to get a drink and hear the DJ’s dig a little deeper into the J Dilla legacy with some rare treats and even a “milk crate” session where they played samples that Dilla used back to back with the songs he used them in while Ahk from Morgan State’s 88.9FM hosted.

I want to think everyone who helped make last night another success and the Yancey family for making it special for those of us who’s lives Dilla truly changed with his music.

~E Major

[View with PicLens]

 

The Sean-Toure’ Remix Project will be available on Tuesday, March 2nd! I’m personally really excited to help spread the word about Sean’s work because he’s not only one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, but he’s also one of the most talented.  Sean and I have worked on a number of tracks together over the years.  He was on my 1st mixtape, “The Major General Mixtape” and he had a really great beat on “Majority Rules” for my collab with J Soul, “It Feels Good.”

Since then he’s really honed his skills not only as a beat maker and MC but as an overall musician, playing bass and keys on many of his tracks.  This has given his beats a really organic feel but he still retains that raw Hip Hop sound; something that many producers can’t do, with the exception of the late great J Dilla.

All songs on the remix project are produced by Sean Toure’, featuring The Roots, Mos Def & Talib Kweli, Michael Jackson, 50 Cent, and many others. It even features a DOPE remix of “Nuthin’ Nice” which I’m hoping he lets me leak before the whole project drops. This is a free downloadable project released by Star Seed Music and Rosachi Music Group. If you love real Hip Hop and soul music you’ll really like this album. Visit us here to get the link to his bandcamp page next week and make sure you’re checking back everyday for good music from artists you need to know about.

Click here to follow Sean on twitter and keep up with his releases.

He’s also releasing a full length solo project soon.

~E Major

DJ Booth Premiere: The Black Sunn – Black Serenade ft. 810