Paul Sullivan - Mixtape #3: Flava (The Warm Up)

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Mixtape #3: Flava (The Warm Up)

Monday, 06 July 2009 21:00

Here's an interesting musical fact: I used to like hip hop a lot.

Not that interesting, granted. But anyway it was the first music that really got me into playing around with a pair of turntables and inadvertently led to me trying my hand at becoming a DJ.

This was the early 90s - the idea was still fairly novel.

The first - well, the only - club night I was fully involved in running and promoting was a hip hop event, a monthly jam called Flava (a highly original name at the time) in that most cutting edge of British cities: Plymouth.

There were four of us. Tall Paul (he had the name before me but anyway at 6' 4" he was actually taller than me - probably still is); DJ Bloodshot (famed for getting so stoned he would occasionally nod off ON the decks); DJ Kookie; and me (I can't tell you my DJ name. You'll laugh.)

Flava was a modest enterprise but it grew fast. Within a couple of years we had booked most of the UK's best DJs (Shortee Blitz, Pogo, Cutmaster Swift) as well as top MC's like Blade and international DMC champs like DJ Noize.

Men moshed. Women grooved. Someone probably did a windmill.

Myself and DJ Kookie moved to Brighton at some point but Tall(er) Paul and Bloodshot carried the flame forward. They claimed they were sad to see us go, but I'm pretty sure Paul was secretly excited about the longer sets he could now play and Pete (Bloodshot) was looking forward to some extended snooze time. Despite being fairly low key - 300-400 b-people at its peak - it somehow became the longest running hip hop night in Britain.

And now? Well, now I still like hip hop, just not as much. For one, my music tastes have deliquesced in a zillion different directions since then. But also the Flava era was a particularly fertile and loveable time for the genre. The music often had groove, grace and creativity.

It was still siphoning popular black music styles - jazz, funk, soul, disco - but in increasingly interesting ways. There was a surfeit of killer albums and the local record shops (yep, even in Da Muff) yielded inspiring tunes on a weekly basis. Best of all a lot of the music back then just sounded PHAT (another b-boy buzzword at the time). Pro tools had yet to be invented so producers weren't compressing the shit out of the top and low-end, and weren't yet accomplished at polishing the soul out of a song. It was an all-vinyl affair too of course.

Analogue.

Warm.

Orotund.

So the mixtape. It's a tribute to the Flava days. Since there are so many classics from those times, I'm gonna divide them into three mixes. This one's The Warm Up. The tunes are on a laid back / blunted tip, built from classic soul, funk, Latin and jazz. In fact, putting it together reminded me of how hip hop has acted, for me and millions of others, as such an incredible portal to so much older music.

Even this humble little mix serves as a major history trip. Deconstruct the breaks and you'll find music from Barry White, Cal Tjader, Detroit Emeralds, Mary Jane Girls, James Brown, Wes Montgomery, Bob James, Donald Byrd, Bootsy's Rubber Band, Isley Brothers, D Train, Isaac Hayes, T La Rock, Ahmad Jamal (twice), Nancy Wilson, Cannonball Adderley and David Axelrod. Even The Beastie Boys (on "Drop").

PHAT, huh?

If you're really interested the mix is available to download here.

Fades Em All - Jamal

Masta I.C - Mic Geronimo

I Got Cha Opin (Remix) - Black Moon

Sky's the Limit [Inf Mix] - No I.D.

The Most Beautifullest Thing In This World - Keith Murray

Tonight's da Night - Redman

Props Over Here - The Beatnuts

Next Level - Showbiz & A.G.

Grand Groove (Bonus Mix) - Tragedy

What I represent - OC & Buckwild