Author: DJ Boss Player

A lover of music and all people...

Laptops Are Killing DJs Softly

DJing is dying.  And laptops are killing it softly.  I’m a laptop DJ.  But, I respect the art.  I was introduced to the game by a real vinyl DJ from Harlem named DJ G.LO.R.Y.  He literally carried crates of vinyls to his gigs and DJ’d on turntables with no laptop or Serato box, which is unheard of these days.  He schooled me on how to DJ with real vinyl, so I can get down on some turntables without a laptop.  I haven’t mastered them, but I have the basic skills on vinyl, i.e. beat matching, basic scratching, etc, which are much more difficult without a laptop.

The problem is most of these DJs today have never even dropped a needle on a real vinyl record, let alone DJ’d a set with them.  Why does that matter?  It’s about respect.  We say “Respect the DJ” for a reason.  DJing is an art form that is getting lost.  And, parties are suffering for it.  Nowadays, because of technology, DJing is much easier.  People can learn to DJ on laptops and controllers, download a bunch of mp3s and call themselves DJs, when they can’t even beat match, can’t do anything resembling decent scratching and their transitions are horrible. Add to that the fact that a lot of these DJs can’t read crowds or even select songs well and you have a recipe for disaster. A lot of these guys shouldn’t be DJing.

Since DJing is so easy now, the market has been flooded with laptop DJs.  They all want to look cool and get chicks.  And, they think DJing will be easy money.  That’s why they sign up.  And, I don’t blame them for that.  We all want that.  But, when respect for the art of DJing is lost on these newbies we all suffer.

Let me give you a scenario.  Some guy gets it in his mind that he’s going to be a hot club DJ and get all the chicks.  So, he buys a laptop, a controller and downloads a bunch of mp3s.  He spends a week practicing then he thinks he’s ready for the big time.  So, he hits up his cousin, brother or whoever, who happens to be the promoter for a big party and the promoter pays him $50 to DJ or some chicken scratch like that, which is ridiculously low and undercuts professional DJs.  So, he shows up to the gig wearing some fly gear he spent more time picking out then he did practicing and he plays the top 20 hit songs on repeat all night and people claim they had a good time, but here’s the secret: they really didn’t.  People are starting to complain about the quality of DJing at parties.

Since the DJ market is so saturated, the balance of power with promoters is out of whack.  Fewer of promoters desire quality DJing and more of them require that DJs bring clientele who buy bottles and tables or bring a big crowd, in essence, asking the DJ to do their job for them.  What happened to paying a DJ to DJ a party well, set the ambiance and make everyone have a good time?  And, what happened to promoters doing what their name says and promoting parties and bringing out crowds?

I take DJing very seriously.  And, honestly, I’m very good at what I do.  Ain’t no party like a Boss Player party, trust me.  People actually dance at my parties, which seems to be happening less and less at other people’s parties I observe, for the most part, as time goes on.  There are real DJs out there.  You’ll know it when you encounter one.  You won’t be able to stop dancing and you’ll wonder why you can’t stop buying drinks at the party.  But, we are a rare breed.  We are few and far between.  When these new laptop DJs disrespect the game and get booked for these clubs without practicing and when they don’t have good mentors like I did (DJ G.L.O.R.Y., DJ Money and DJ Analyze), it shows.  And, as a result, all of our party lives are suffering.  People aren’t having a good time like they used to when they party and people aren’t going out as much, which equals less fun and less money for all of us.

And, let’s not forget poor laptop DJing is totally destroying the culture.  Hip-Hop DJs don’t be afraid to buy a pair of Technic 1200 turntables, build a vinyl collection and get busy on them.  Don’t be afraid to practice before you take your skills to the clubs.  Do it for yourself.  Do it for the culture.

So, in short, there is one solution to this problem I’ve presented to you so we can all win:

STOP SUPPORTING WACK DJS!

Thanks.

-Management

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One Man Knelt So We All Could Take a Stand

Colin Kaepernick taking a knee to protest police brutality and injustice caused a whole league to take a stand after President Trump called him and others like him “SOBs” and told America not to watch the game.

But what were the NFL owners standing, kneeling and locking arms with players on the sidelines for in reality? Let’s get one thing clear; The owners didn’t protest to support Kaepernick. If they were truly in support of Kaepernick’s protest, he would have a job right now instead of suing the NFL for collusion. The locking of arms was purely a publicity stunt to curry favor from fans and keep them watching. The league can blacklist Kaepernick but God forbid they lose ratings.

Players and owners locking arms to protest Trump’s statements and support “free speech” was purely political. The semblance of the league being unified was just that. It was a carefully orchestrated optical illusion. In fact, the only thing NFL owners were actually unified about is keeping Kaepernick out of the NFL. Even the players were not unified. You may have seen Pittsburgh Steelers player, Alejandro Villanueva, who came out of the tunnel by himself, raised his hand to his chest and stood for the national anthem while the rest of his team stayed in the locker room. Consequently, Villanueva’s was the highest selling jersey in the NFL after the incident.

As you may have seen recently, teams around the NBA, and even in the WNBA, locked arms during the national anthem in protest. The NBA’s commissioner Adam Silver made a statement saying he expected every player to stand during the anthem. And the players didn’t seem to be against that. No one has knelt down so far. The league’s star, Lebron James, said he would rather help the African American community off the court through charity work and civil action than on the court symbolically. As long as he follows through, that would be an admirable response.

Let’s get real, the whole reason these protests started was by Kaepernick taking a knee to protest police brutality after he was shaken by yet another black man being murdered by police with no justice. It’s a scary thought that a police officer could arbitrarily kill me and not see a day in jail. His impulse to speak out is one that I understand. That’s why I do my radio show Pop Culture Revolution and part of why I started this blog. We need to raise awareness of this racist oppressive system in the USA.

After the election of President Barack Obama, some people actually believed we lived in a post racial society, or, at least, stated as such. Anyone with the slightest amount of cultural awareness could see through that. The election of Donald Trump and the subsequent public reaction, including the rise of overt racism across the country, totally disproved that.

To say that Kaepernick disrespected the flag or ruined America’s time honored tradition of football and take his kneeling down out of its cultural context would miss the point entirely. Kaepernick took a knee during a moment of solemnity reserved for celebrating our country to remind the country that it still has some work to do. America has always been racist, literally since its inception. Some say the NFL is modern day slavery, which I believe is a stretch. There are parallels: owners owning players’ bodies, the draft, the practice field as a plantation and the rules limiting freedom of expression, etc. The narrative almost fits, except that NFL players get paid huge salaries and fame and joining the league is a choice.

When referring to modern day slavery in the US, I would point out the Prison Industrial Complex as an example. Through this racist and oppressive system, Black and Brown people are arrested, often on minor offenses, and offered deals with mandatory minimums that have been inflated due to their race. Once in jail, these new slaves are put to work making things like pots, pans, license plates and furniture, etc, for below minimum wage. These prisons are privately owned or sometimes even traded on the stock market. Therefore, “correctional facilities” have an incentive to have more inmates. Prison labor replaced slave labor almost immediately after slavery was abolished. The 13th amendment, ratified in 1789, made slavery legal if it was the punishment for a crime. Further down the line, President Nixon’s “law and order” platform, President Reagan’s “War on Drugs” and President Clinton’s “3 Strikes” law, in addition to other policies, led to the mass incarceration of Black and Brown people working as slaves. Aside from police brutality, the Prison Industrial Complex is another thing we need to bring awareness to.

Add the School to Prison Pipeline, which is related to the deplorable conditions of inner city schools, gentrification, predatory home loans, the fact that it’s harder for Blacks to get business loans, Blacks’ characterization by the media and just the general oppression, unfairness, injustice and mistreatment, etc faced by African Americans in the good old boy US of A and there’s a lot that needs to change.

So, all of you angry people in America, who are upset that Kaepernick ruined your precious minute long national anthem, excuse me if I don’t care because African Americans’ experience in this country has been more than ruined for hundreds of years. Words that come to mind are dehumanized, traumatized, abused, raped, mutilated, murdered, assaulted and robbed when describing the Black experience in America.

We were robbed of the most precious thing of all: the knowledge of who we are, which is kings and queens of the continent with the most natural resources of all, Africa, the Motherland, and as its people we are its greatest resource. Our value could never be quantified on a slave auction block, although they tried. We hail from Africa. Each African is worth more than the most precious Sierra Leone diamond and the purest gold from Ghana. The African soul stretches back to the beginning of time to the depths of the universe. Everything is contained within us and nothing exists without us. The power intrinsic to our being is that of the mighty lion or a deity. The hips, thighs, breasts and womb of our women give life to us all and nurtured civilization. We are the original Hebrews of the Bible, the chosen people, with Bronze skin and hair like wool like the God, Jesus Christ. Perhaps that’s why they hated us. They hated him too. And they hate us still.

So keep kneeling Kaepernick, even if it’s only metaphorically while you’re out of the league. I’m kneeling with you in spirit. I’m boycotting the NFL until you’re back on a roster. And, if anyone catches me at an NBA game, during the national anthem, I’ll be sitting down until America finally stands up for the Africans it stole. They beat us but they did not break us. All will be set right in the end.

And, let us not forget, the reason Kaepernick knelt in the first place: to protest the killing of innocent African Americans in the streets by police.  The victims are gone but not forgotten.  And, neither is the cause.

Take a Stand

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WAS BUILT ON A LIE. “Liberty and justice for all” does not apply to all of us. Even the name “United” States is a fallacy. Quite literally, we are a nation divided and we always have been. Although Civil Rights progress appears to have been made on the surface, in reality, America continues to enslave African Americans through the prison industrial complex. America continues to oppress African Americans in ways that we all allow. It’s still more difficult for Blacks to get jobs, business loans and flat out fair treatment in all areas of American life. Some people are true believers in the American ethos, brainwashed by corporate sponsored media and sold out politicians. America is the land of capitalism and is motivated by the dollar, a mere currency representation that has garnered far too much power. Old rich racist White men, who maintain their power as a legacy of slavery, will resort to anything to keep that power. Lying, cheating and stealing are all fair game. So is killing, as we’ve seen in all the recent police shooting videos. Black lives do not matter to racists and Blacks are not safe. Blacks continue to have the highest poverty rate. The question is “how do we fix this?” The answer is not easy or simple because NO ONE IS GOING TO FIX IT EXCEPT YOU. Unplugging those of us that are lost from the Matrix is going to take a concerted effort by all of us. There is tyranny by the majority in the US and it will take every single good soul to fight back. At this point tacit approval, sitting idly by or apathy is tantamount to tyranny. Upending this unjust American system and exposing it for the lie it truly is will take a revolution, thus my radio show POP CULTURE REVOLUTION, our small contribution to the movement. We aim to at least start discussions and raise awareness. Hopefully, with your help, we can build on this show and help create an America that finally lives up to its ideals, in reality.

POP CULTURE REVOLUTION WEBSITE

Top 10 Favorite Hip-Hop Albums

Rules:

For diversity’s sake, artists can only appear once.

1. Mos Def – Black on Both Sides

2. The Notorious B.I.G. – Ready to Die

3. Jay-Z – Reasonable Doubt

4. Nas – Illmatic

5. A Tribe Called Quest – Midnight Marauders

6. 2Pac – All Eyez On Me

7. Common – Be

8. Mobb Deep – The Infamous

9. The Roots – How I Got Over

10. J. Cole – 2014 Forest Hills Drive

Honorable mention (in no particular order):

Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

Drake – If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late

Kendrick Lamar – DAMN.

Scarface – The Fix

Kanye West – Graduation

AZ – Doe or Die

Dr. Dre – The Chronic

Wu Tang Clan – Enter the Wu Tang (36 Chambers)

Ghostface Killah – Supreme Clientele

Big Pun – Capital Punishment

If you disagree, I DON’T CARE.

Why is something so natural considered rebellious?

Wigs and weaves are all the rage right now in Black women’s hairstyles.  It’s to the point where if a Black woman wears her natural hair it’s considered to be making a statement.  Pause.  Hold up.  How did this happen?  What’s natural is now rebellious?  That doesn’t make any sense.  Why can’t Black women’s natural hair be widely accepted as beautiful?

The answer is simple: We’ve all been brainwashed.  Since birth we’ve been bombarded with images of women on TV and in magazines with straight hair validating their beauty.  Within the Black community straight hair is considered to be “good hair.”  This dates back to slavery times when enslaved Blacks were trying to assimilate and appease master.

It’s time we go back to the future to long before slavery in the USA, back to when we were Kings and Queens on the Motherland, before our minds were polluted with slave master propaganda.  It was a much simpler time back then.  Our daughters went to get water from the well.  Fathers worked the land and reaped what they sowed.  Sons worked with their fathers and played with their brothers and cousins.  Mothers reared beautiful children and cooked in the kitchen.  And, all of our hair were beautifully nappy, curly and free.  We weren’t ashamed of it.  We weren’t judged for it.  Being natural was so natural, there wasn’t a second thought to African natural hair’s intrinsic beauty.

I’m not saying that women need to be relegated to the kitchen.  That’s not the point.  The point is we need to reset and deprogram ourselves.  Look in the mirror my beautiful Black sister.  Know you are an African Queen.  And, love yourself for all your natural beauty.

What Hip-Hop Is: A Manifesto

Hip-Hop is a rebel yell from the soul. It came from the Bronx, which was literally on fire back in the 70’s with slumlords burning their buildings for insurance money after the construction of the Cross Bronx Expressway dropped property values.  People were poor and suffering.  They needed an outlet.  So they raged.

Hip-Hop rages against the machine.  It fights against the system and definitely shouts, “Fuck the police!”  Hip-Hop is a haven for the youth and a way out for those desperately searching for one.  Hip-Hop is the essence of speaking things into existence. We started with a trap house and now we’re living in a mansion.

Hip-Hop is real. It comes from a place of truth. It comes from the heart. Home is where the heart is and, in hip-hop, where you’re from means everything.  Whether you’re from its birthplace in the fiery Bronx, the suburbs of Washington, DC or a trailer park in Alabama, you’ve got to rep your hood.

Hip-Hop is the never ending party and the after party at that. It’s Saturday night at the hottest club with the hottest celebs or a sweat box house party where girls in tight jeans, drinks, smoke and a dope underground DJ are salvation. It’s that moment where the MC drops the music and the whole stadium raps along a capella to his or her hit song.

Hip-Hop is most definitely BARS and dope beats, battles and beef. It’s graffiti on a subway train or breakdancing on cardboard. It’s cutting and scratching on Technics and beat boxing and rapping in the streets.

Hip-Hop is snapbacks and tattoos and fitteds and jerseys. It’s Levi’s and white tees or Yves Saint Lauren and Louis V. It’s sagging your ripped jeans just to show off your Gucci belt or wearing a crisp pair of 501’s around your waist just to keep it thorough. Hip-Hop must be authentically you.

Hip-Hop is all of the above and so much more.  But, above all, it is the voice of the unheard.

One thing hip-hop most definitely is not is Pop. Hip-Hop may be a global phenomenon but, at its core, it will always be DJ Kool Herc yelling over break beats at a house party to pay the rent like that first house party back in the 70’s when the Bronx was on fire.

America, Tear Down Your Monuments


After President Trump attempted to equalize the White supremacist protesters and counter protestors with his words in the now famous vehicular homicide at the protests in Charlottesville, VA, I was perplexed and somewhat amused by different people’s reactions.  

I was disappointed by Trump’s comments that he made from the lobby of Trump Tower but not shocked.  It’s as if some people forgot that America was founded on racism and that racism is still very strong in America institutionally and socially.  

Racism was written into the constitution (Blacks were 3/5 a person) and the brutal chattel slavery of Blacks was legal.  The first President George Washington was a racist and upheld slavery and so did President Thomas Jefferson.  So, Trump was right about one thing; If we took down the Robert E. Lee statue, we would have to take theirs down too.  

As a matter of fact I would argue that all presidents were racist, even up to recent times.  President Reagan was a raging racist who introduced drugs into inner cities to destroy the Black community.  President Clinton locked up more Black men than anyone with his legislation with laws like “3 Strikes.”  We saw how President Bush Jr. handled the Hurricane Katrina situation.  President Obama might be the only exception.  But, after all, he’s Black.  But even he could have done more for the African-American community.  And, yes, I understand he faced considerable resistance, but, I digress.  

People are acting so shocked that there is a White supremacist leading the White House when there has ALWAYS been one there.  Our public leaders and some of our citizens just know how to hide their racism for fear of condemnation due to our hard fought civil rights progress.  

America is a racist country.  There’s no two ways about it.  This country was founded and built on racism.  It’s about time we began dismantling this physical abstraction.  It is long overdue that we build a new America that lives up to its credo of liberty and justice for all.  We should be living up to morals of loving one’s neighbor as we love ourselves.  We should be a land where a man is “not judged by the color of his skin but by the content of his character,” as the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said.  These racist monuments are not just an eyesore, to some.  To many, they are a painful reminder of promises unfulfilled and so much wrong done.  As long as these monuments stand, people will stand for racism in America.  So, when it comes to tearing down statues of racist confederate leaders like Robert E. Lee and racist presidents like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, I say tear them down.  Tear them all down.  And let’s build a new America where there is true equality.

SZA’s In Ctrl

So, apparently, bougie Black chicks love SZA.  Well, so do big bosses because that album is fire.  SZA set the internet ablaze with her new album Ctrl, which debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200 chart.

I had a startling moment with Ctrl while I was getting dressed in my room one day.  I was entranced by her record “Broken Clocks,” I was playing it on repeat, when I noticed it was 12:34 p.m.   I looked up 1234 in numerology and it said that means change is coming, which is ironic because I had been struggling getting over my ex.  I know.  Sad.  But, this omen gave me hope.  So, if not for anything else, thanks SZA.

Otherwise, throughout the album, her raspy and smooth melodic voice is enchanting.  There’s an edginess and a mysterious, sultry tone and a realness to it as if she were a siren beckoning one to either tremendous pleasure or eternal damnation.  Musically, on Ctrl, I’ll go with the former.

This album is intensely personal and, on the first track, “Supermodel,” SZA brings you right into her insecurities right off the gate.  She lamented her ex-boyfriend “left her lonely for prettier women” and took a trip to Vegas without her on Valentine’s Day.  So, she “banged his homeboy” out of spite.  For shame.  I thought you were a good girl SZA.

On “The Weekend” she romanticizes being the side chick.  And, she expresses her urge to revel in love which she finally found on “Love Galore” opposite the rapping of Travis Scott.

Overall the album paints a concise picture of overcoming insecurities to the triumph of self-esteem.  And demonstrates the power of being vulnerable as a woman.

G.O.A.T.

With his thirteenth studio album, once again, Jay-Z changed the game.  As he did with his previous LP, Magna Carta Holy Grail, Hov set new rules.

4:44 is what grown man hip-hop sounds like.  To hell with ignorance and debauchery.  Jay-Z had an intimate conversation with his listeners.

The most amazing accomplishment of the album was on “The Story of O.J.” which is a critique of the hip-hop community’s fiscal responsibility and an instruction manual for accumulating wealth.  My highlight of the record is “You know what’s more important than throwing money away in the strip club?  Credit.”

This preaching is necessary for our hip-hop community which currently tends to value the appearance of having money over actually having money, which is backwards and ludicrous.  My father is a banker and taught me the value of money at an early age.  Yet, I still couldn’t resist the urge to pop bottles in the club during my youth due to the hip-hop narrative.  Somehow, blowing money equates to balling instead of saving it.  It doesn’t make sense.  I’ve been saying this for years and I’m ecstactic that our rap god, almighty Hov, proclaimed it from his mountain top.

Maybe now Blacks in the hip-hop community will think twice about blowing money and more about making their money grow, which will ultimately increase our stake in the marketplace and the power schematics.  That conversation and that narrative switch was so necessary.  And, it had long been overdue.

Aside from Jay-Z’s references to money and wealth, the most glaring content of the album is undoubtedly him admitting to cheating on Beyoncé on the title track “4:44.”  I don’t have much to say about it except that no matter how rich and powerful he is, as we’ve seen time and time again, a man is still a man.

Jay-Z is a mogul, but in his heart he is still a true artist, which is what made him successful in the first place and part of what sustains him.  My guess is, as an artist, he couldn’t resist the urge to bare his soul on the record.  For every true artist their work is their therapy.  It was probably cathartic for him confess his infidelity.  I’m not judging him for cheating or Beyoncé for staying with him.  Those issues are solely between them as a couple.

In terms of the production on the album, No I.D. totally hit the nail on the head.  His jazzy samples were so pleasing to the ear that they made Jay-Z’s baritone voice flow smoothly on the beat in a remarkably unified fashion.  I delighted in Jay-Z’s decision to forego singles in favor of a purely soulful concise presentation like a soundtrack to the educated and successful Black man’s life.  Jay-Z’s choice to use the legendary No I.D. as the only producer for the album proved to be an excellent decision.

A highlight of 4:44 was Jay-Z’s song “Bam,” which sampled the reggae classic, “Bam Bam” by Sister Nancy.  “Bam Bam” is one of the most sampled reggae songs of all time in hip-hop.  Released in 1982, a timeless record, “Bam Bam” still gets played in hip-hop and reggae clubs to this day.  No I.D. and Jay-Z’s use of the sample is my favorite utilization of “Bam Bam” by a hip-hop record thus far.  And, that’s quite a feat because there’s at least 29 other songs that sampled it.  On the track, the looping of the horns jumps out of the speakers with high energy.  It’s as if you can feel the “bam” from creation that Sister Nancy spoke of in her original record.  Jay-Z’s braggadocios baritone let it be known that his and his team’s ambition would not be denied, as it came from within as well as without.

With this album, Jay-Z earned my selection as G.O.A.T., Greatest Rapper Of All Time.  Really, the title should have already been his.  How is it fair to compare his actual body of work to Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G.’s hypothetical albums had they been alive?  They’re not.  And the fact is Jay-Z has done it time and time again.  And, this is, yet again, another number one album.

Jay-Z’s ability to set trends and change the narrative and the conversation is unparalleled.  That’s power.  Guys out here quote Jigga lines like the Bible.  Forget hip-hop, who else do you know in any arena with that type of influence?  Not many.  Aside from all the categories of lyrics, flow, delivery, wordplay, hooks, content, beat selection and authenticity in all of which Jay-Z is ranked near the top, if not at the top, it’s that je ne sais quoi that something you can’t describe that makes Jay-Z the G.O.A.T.  Like Jay-Z said a while back, “It’s just different.”

And, with 4:44, Jay-Z completely switched up his content to something more positive and beneficial to the Black community, as opposed to usual trap drug dealing, shoot ’em up, banged your girl records.  It had a jazzy and mature feel.  Yet, it still appealed to the mainstream, which so desperately needed a popular voice in hip-hop saying the right things.  Content-wise mainstream rap music had become so lopsided in terms of negativity.  Jay-Z’s album 4:44 was food for the soul.

With this album, we saw the evolution of Jay-Z from the smooth hustler getting re-upped on his first album in 1996 called Reasonable Doubt to the grown man talking about his legacy with his children in beyond.  It is Jay-Z’s longevity, versatility and growth that has made him the G.O.A.T.  You can argue whether or not he is a better rapper than the Notorious B.I.G. and 2Pac.  What you can’t debate is that he outlived them to make better music.