Yes, this was another busy weekend – I did the usual Friday, Saturday, Sunday.  However, the real work was put in at my place on my computer.  All four of the major remix sites are currently having big sales, which lead to JD and I performing a nice, quality raping.  After dropping a little loot, (yes we support our friends!), we came away with close to 100 new tracks.  No, we don’t have plans on playing 100 remixes in a row, BUT, now we do have plenty of new ammo to keep from going stale.   I’m not gonna go in depth about this experience now, instead I will save it for tomorrow’s editorial, so make sure to check back manana.  I will say this now though:  All the DJs who are constantly asking how to switch up your sets, head to the sites now while you can get double for your money!!

www.YourRemix.com
www.CrooklynClan.net
www.Crack4Djs.net
www.StrictlyHits.com

Trust me, this isn’t an advertisement — this is advice.  Between all four sites, there is definitely plenty of useful stuff that we all are better off having in our crates!  Stock up now while you can get the most bang for your buck.  Again, more on this tomorrow.  (Don’t wait for our editorial before you buy, because the sales may be over!)

Speaking of the remix sites, I hope by now that everyone has copped DJ AM’s “It Takes Rock” from CrooklynClan.  It’s a track I draw for each and everytime I play at Scorpion Bar. Of course, with this weekend being the one year anniversary of AM’s passing, it made me think a little as I loaded it onto my serato deck.  I wish the crowd knew that this was an AM remix and if I had a mic there, I would have definitely mentioned it.  This track was really mind blowing to me the first time I heard it.  It was done about five or six years ago, and that was before doing something like this was more commonplace.  My crowd hears it every week and it never fails.  AM still lives for sure.

Finally, big shout out to Clinton Sparks!!  He’s been busier lately (busy is normal for him) knocking out tons and tons of custom edits of “Favorite DJ”.
When someone goes out of their way to take care of us, we NEED to support them.  This is a dope record to begin with, so that shouldn’t be asking too much.  Check out www.facebook.com/DjClintonSparks for info on how to get yours!  I can’t say it enough:  Support Clinton, support Lil Jon, support Honorebel, and anyone else who is going out of their way to service DJs with free drops.  Artists are like athletes who’ve been trained to say all the right things.  Of course they all say how much they appreciate the DJ, but few have actually put in the time and effort to show it.  That’s why it’s important to support the ones that do!!!

Spring
www.facebook.com/JaySpringFans

———————————————————————————

Yes, another weekend has come to an end, and like Spring said, a good couple hours of it went to sifting through the remix sites for a few quality remixes/mashups.  You really have to dig sometimes, but you’ll find some gems.  And at $.99, even if you get a flop or 2, it’s not the end of the world.

If you like sales, you should also check out Guitar Center’s sale through tomorrow where you can Buy 1, Get 1 Free on select items.  I picked up 2 50ft. XLR cords for $50 and plan on getting 2 more by tomorrow.  We always need more wires!!

I have to say, this weekend was great.  The energy Friday night at Shrine was off the hook and I felt really good about my set.  Saturday I played a local bar, for the first time in a long time, for a friends birthday party.  It was an interesting night.  It was one of those, do I play what the person who hired me wants to hear, or what the girls dancing want to hear, kind of nights.  Everyone said they had a great time, so I guess I bridged that gap alright.  Until next weekend…

JD
www.facebook.com/therealdjjd

     Very busy week for JD and myself, and we both wanna apologize for the lack of updates this week!   We will be back on Monday 4Sho!!

A couple notes:

1)  Big shoutout to DJs Donk, C-Flo, and Chi Duly!!  Their remix and video collage of some of the most popular YouTube clips cleverly put together has been gaining quite a buzz lately — even earning them a retweet from Ashton Kutcher.  Pretty big deal!  It’s called “Happiest Wedding Cry In The World.”
Watch Here

2) Also, make sure to check out “Born To Be Wild 2010″ by The Anthem Kingz which is moving up Crooklyn Clan’s monthly Top 20 real quick.  They took a bare bones rough draft that I had, and seriously took it to another level.  Really amazing what they did – and it works very well in the club!!

——- Dj Jay Spring
www.Facebook.com/JaySpringFans

Those of you who regularly tune into our site know that on Mondays (sometimes very, very late Monday) we either discuss a really dope mix, or we will run down the hottest mixes of a particular song. Well this week, we did the latter, and it was actually quite an experience.

Here’s how the process usually works: 1) JD and I decide which mix we will talk about. Usually, it’s whatever the hottest song of the moment is. This week was “California Gurls” by Katy Perry ft. Snoop. 2) We head over to each record pool and remix site one by one, and search for the song to see what mixes pop up. Sometimes this can be difficult if the title doesn’t contain a unique word. For instance, going to a site and searching for Luda “How Low” mixes will probably be a hassle, because both words in the title are common and you will get a ton of results. Searching the words “California” or “Gurls” wasn’t as bad. (Just for the record, big props to DjCity.com because their site is the easiest to search on. If you want to see what other mixes there are of the song you are looking at, you just need to scroll down a little bit because they always list them under the song you are at!!)
3) We listen to all the remixes that come up, and write them down. 4) We choose the best of what we find and put them on our site for you guys to check out. Needless to say, this week was quite an adventure.

What JD and I found this week bordered on insanity. If you watched Mondays vid, then you know the problem. Wayyyyy too many mixes. Absolutely nuts. No, really.

Maybe, this song was just the perfect storm. Maybe since it’s really the only big upbeat pop song to come out in the last couple months, and because it has the name of an older hit song, there was destined to be lots of mixes for this. But I’m scared to think this is just the direction that the remix game has turned. “OMG” had a lot of mixes, but this was three times as much. Lots of DJs did remixes incorporating the Beach Boys or Mamas and Papas. Some DJs did either House or BMore redrums. Other DJs blended the acapella over an electro beat. Quite a few DJs made transitions. And most scary — a decent number of DJs seem to do all those!! Alot of the big names on all sites did three or four Cali Gurl mixes. It was a nightmare going through all these.

I remember the early days of Crooklyn Clan when you could still be the first to remix or redrum a certain song. All the rock acapellas that are out now, we’re slowly being released, and not everyone had access to them. Plus, It seemed as though DJs at this point, didn’t even want to do something another DJ had already done. “DAMN!! DJ _____ just did a redrum to the song I was going to do. No biggie, I’ll just find another one to do.” Obviously, those days are long gone. There’s alot more sites, and alot more DJs. And more importantly, there’s money to be made. Everyone knows peeps are looking for remixes of Cali Gurls to play, so who’s to say only DJ _____ should be able to remix it. When JD and I did our search, there were sooooo many electro blends, and many done by newer DJs we hadn’t heard of. It made me think, “How in the world is this DJ gonna get noticed by doing this? 1000 other guys did the same thing.” But then again, it’s the same answer as before. “Why should only Deville, BeatBreaker, Clubheadliners, etc be able to remix this song?” So you have to consider that. I mean, if you’re a DJ on the site, there is pressure to sell. And if you wanna keep your sales up, then you pretty much have to remix a song like this, and maybe even put up three or four mixes, like many DJs did.

Perhaps some would look at this as a good thing. More remixes = more choices. But not me. With all the choices, I think many people will skip the daunting task of going through each one, and just settle for one of the first few they happen to hear. That’s the first problem. The second problem is that even more likely, they will just look to see what the big names have done with the song. That’s cool because those DJs have earned that respect. But the problem is that its gonna be nearly impossible for up and coming DJs to get noticed.

While it hasn’t been a secret that the remix game has been changing, this is the first time that I’ve been a little worried about it. If this trend continues for every big song that comes out, I’m not sure exactly how it will play it. I just know I’m not very excited to see.

Spring
http://facebook.com/jayspringfans

As I continued to make what may have been the longest/slowest move in history (I don’t even have that much stuff, and it’s taken almost a month already), it was a little tough to fully keep up with the site.  Our Thursday Edit Editions may have been the biggest victim of my move, but now I’m pretty much settled in and here we go — Four treats for you guys today.  Thanks to Joe Maz, Serafin, Audio 1, and Brian Armand for contributing to our site and we promise alot more great material to come.  Watch for our interview tomorrow, as we catch up with CrooklynClan.net’s DJ Deville, and don’t forget to check our weekend recap, where we will have a link for the new Miami Ski Team CD, “Our Big Night Out”!

—Spring—

If you spin at an “Open Format” club, then you should definitely be familiar with the work of Joe Maz and DiscoTech.  With their countless quality remixes on CrooklynClan.net, they definitely raised the bar for every other remixer/masher in the game.  I don’t know what I would do at the club if my DiscoTech tracks disappeared, and I’m sure many of you feel the same.  Anyway, enough of that, cause Joe really needs no intro.  His new cd entitled “Fashionably Late” features 11 unreleased DiscoTech remixes/re-edits which will be released very soon!

Joe Maz – “Fashionably Late”  Download Here

If you frequent this site and check the comment section, then you likely have seen Brian’s name before.  He is always contributing with great commentary on our posts.  As it turns out, he can also remix/produce very well.  In out last playlist episode, we discussed Beyonce’s “Crazy In Love” and mentioned that it could use an edit.  Well today, we checked out email and this is what Brian sent us:

And here are the Edits:

Beyonce ft. Jay-Z “Crazy In Love” Brian Armand – Quick Hitter Remix  Download Here

Beyonce ft. Jay-Z & Amerie – “Crazy In Love” Brian Armand – Quick Hitter Blend Download Here

Brian Armand
www.facebook.com/BrianArmand
http://www.djbentertainment.media.officelive.com

     On Tuesday, we were fortunate to get an interview with one of the greatest and most consistent remix/mash-up DJs in the game – Victor Menegaux!!  As always, the interview is gonna air on Friday, but for now, here is a special unreleased mash from Victor entitled ”Ace Cream Paint Job”.

Victor says, “Mashups are considered uncool now due to recent trends. However, this blend is a perfect example to contradict such concepts. An equal balance of Hood and Chick.”

Download Here

Victor’s Links:

www.victormenegaux.com
www.strictlyhits.com
www.directmusicservice.com
www.twitter.com/victormenegaux
www.facebook.com/victormenegaux
www.myspace.com/victorfm

     Thanks to our good friend DJ Serafin, we present a special bonus for you!!  Serafin recently produced a sick B-More Club track for Hip-Hop legend Greg Nice, and was nice enough to share it with everyone   The is perfect for the summer, so please DL and give it love wherever you spin!

Download Here

(Special intro versions and edits are available at www.djcity.com/digital and www.directmusicservice.com )

Greg Nice Bio:

     As he enters his 3rd decade into music, Greg Nice finds himself translating his mixture of uproarious rhymes and call-n-response routines unto a whole new generation of music lovers with his forthcoming solo debut, “Popcycle”, due August 31st on One Haven / Industry Rule 4080.
Joining Greg on “Popcycle” are Tony Yayo of 50 Cent’s G-Unit crew as well as Public Enemy’s legendary Flavor Flav (from VH1’s Flavor of Love) and DJ Webstar. Production credits include the legendary Todd Terry, DJ Say Wut, DJ Mighty Mi & DJ Serafin.
For More Information:

http://gregnice.net/

http://twitter.com/darealgregnice

http://facebook.com/darealgregnice

http://myspacew.com/gregnillz

http://www.youtube.com/darealgregnice

Online / Publicity Contact:
Lee Resnick /SouthEast Music, Inc
thedeejaynetwork@gmail.com
Online Contact:
Tonia Samman / The Orchard
tonia.samman@theorchard.com

     A few weeks ago, in a game against the Yankees, the pitcher for the A’s was extremely upset as he was walking toward his dugout.  He was throwing a fit because between innings, A-Rod has chosen to walk over “his” mound, in order to get back to the Yankee dugout.  The pitcher, Dallas Braden, was screaming at A-Rod because he had broken an “unwritten” baseball rule. 

     Like most guys, I played a bit of baseball when I was younger.  Little League, Babe Ruth, and some High School.  Yet, this was a rule I’d never heard of.  However, it did make a little sense.  I don’t ever remember walking over the pitchers mound to get back to my dugout.  Thinking about it, it just didnt seem like a natural thing to do.  At the same time though, I wouldn’t think of it as a big deal.  And apparently, A-Rod felt the same way.  He’d never heard of it either, and didn’t understand what the fuss was. 

     Ever since JD and I talked about the whole “Opening DJ” thing, we’ve gotten quite a few emails from younger DJs who are worried that they may end up in the same predicament as A-Rod — getting yelled at by their peers for breaking an unwritten rule they didn’t even know existed.  First off, I’d say it’s a good thing to be concerned.  It just shows that as a DJ, you care about the culture and etiquette, and would like to be respected within the DJ community.  Really though, many DJs worry way too much about this.

     As you start thinking of the Do-Nots that exist in the DJ World, you’ll start to see that there’s a theme.  They are all common sense.  Do NOT play all the hot songs early as you open up for a headliner.  In reality, you wouldn’t play the hot songs at that hour even if you weren’t just opening.  Having a headliner shouldn’t make anything different.  DO NOT start the night off blasting heavy Hip Hop at 10 P.M. when the club just opened and it’s only the workers there.  It’s gonna be a long night, and no one wants to be blown away by the music before they have to be.  DO NOT go to clubs trying to undercut other DJs and steal their nights.  You wouldn’t want other DJs to do this to you, so it makes perfect sense. 

     There’s a good reason that these rules are “unwritten”.  They are logical enough that no one really has to write them down.  As long as you’re a good person in other aspects of life, you shouldn’t have to stress about breaking the unwritten rules of DJing.  Treat other DJs the same way you would wish to be treated and you shouldn’t have any problems. 

—-Spring—

www.facebook.com/JaySpringFans

     On Monday, we highlighted some dope remixes of Usher’s “OMG”.  One of them was Digital Dave’s “Ludafix”.  As Dave explains, “I was listening to the track one day and literally expecting Luda to start rappin.  He did not, so I said hold up, wait a minute, let me put some Luda in it!!! And I did, and it sounded dope.  So, here it is, OMG featuring a Luda rap from How Low.    This is a version I did with the full chorus that is not available anywhere for sale.”

Usher ft. Will I Am – “OMG – (DJ Digital Dave Ludafix)” Download Here

Digital Dave
www.myspace.com/djdigitaldave1
www.facebook.com/djdigitaldave

Mixtapes Available At Beezo
www.beezo.net/djs/djdigitald

Featured Artist,
Crack4DJ’s | www.crack4djs.net
Your Remix | www.yourremix.com
The Remix Club | www.theremixclub.com