Regarding the Usher track taking off…. I highly doubt it on this one. OMG was hugely successful because it was played on both commercial radio and urban stations alike. Urban radio will never drop this. I realize that it’s Usher, but I feel the reason it’s getting so many remixes is because it pays homage to djs, and most djs maintain some level of self importance, especially whilst djing. The cheesy synths and pedestrian lyrics lead me to believe that this song will go nowhere fast. I honestly think you’ll get better results playing Taio Cruz, which is also cheese, with better production. That being said, I thought Feel It was a fairly good attempt.. I really wanted that song to work, and it still may several months down the road when commercial dance continues to climb the charts.

Another thing, about the whole Dirty Dutch scene… it’s a gimmick, like bmore was a number of years ago. Bmore was cool, but noone in a commercial club is going to request a 40 minute set of it. I think very few of you work on the lower east side of Manhattan, or certain pockets of Brooklyn where that stuff will fly for extended sets. The trick here, with dirty dutch, bmore, and other trends that surface is to play new versions of a song that sound good, not climb on a new dj trend and start humping away. A great example of a remix that utilizes some of the dirty dutch sound without going overboard is the Anthem Kings remix of Crazy Train discussed on here several weeks ago.

I think a lot of dj’s are working really hard on trying to find that “next big thing” right now, and doing so rather recklessly (i.e. via trial and error) because they’re growing impatient with the music industry and what’s surfaced over the past few years. I’m excited to see that house seems to be all the rage these days, but I implore the younger guys to do their research. One great place to start is to listen to old Radio 1 Essential Mixes. House music was huge the whole time everyone else was getting their fill of 50 Cent and the other early 2000 hip hop. It (the house scene) really only started getting lame in ’06 or so and has quieted down a bit since. Again, I realize everyone is very excited about house right now, but I cannot emphasize enough that this stuff is NOT NEW. Pitbull has made a living off rapping over house classics. The song “The Anthem” was just a sample from a dance song released in 2003 by Rune. Just an example to explain how far behind the curb that the guys that were playing top 40 hip hop are. Check out old Armand van Helden, Danny Tenaglia, Junior Jack, etc just to get started… then start digging for the real classics. Good luck guys, and keep banging out that 4 to the floor..