GHETTO PALMS
Edwin "Stats" Houghton covers the latest in dancehall.
Ghetto Palms 80: DJ Rekha / RajStar / Exclusive Major Lazer Bhangra Refix
- story Eddie "Stats" Houghton
I’m not sure if this is Desihall III or Indocrunk Part Few, but any way you chop it its been a banner week for weird fusions of Bollywood dancehall and Bhangra-more club, aftershocks from the eruption of daku-consciousness into First World brainspace that was Slumdog Millionaire. First, the reigning queen of bhangra DJ Rekha (full disclosure: my partner from Basement Bhangra) hit me with a preview of her bhangrified dub of Major Lazer’s “Pon di Floor.” Then she texted to say she was backing Wyclef and Cyndi Lauper (??) on the Letterman show, as they performed a track called, yes, “Slumdog Millionaire.”
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posted on Nov 18, 2009 in GHETTO PALMS tags bhangra, caribbean, desi, electronic/dance, GHETTO PALMS
Ghetto Palms 75: Flare Riddim / Giants / Ze Bula remix / Baobab
- story Eddie "Stats" Houghton
- photo Debbie Bragg (F38)
A certain operatic feel connects these two new jump up riddims from ZJ Sparks and Ding Dong’s Ravers Clavers crew, respectively. To be specific, Giants is scored to the opening shots of a suspense thriller, the pulsing cello-and-synth foreshadowing the drama that’s about pop off. Flare on the other hand sounds like the climactic point when the violinists in the orchestra pit look they’re trying to saw the necks off their instruments. Maybe someday, when people from this soundsystem generation are old and rich, the New York Philharmonic will be actually be playing these parts while Ding Dong and Chi Ching yell on the mic and make them pull up every five seconds.
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posted on Oct 15, 2009 in GHETTO PALMS tags Beenie Man, caribbean, Chief Boima, Ding Dong, GHETTO PALMS, Mad Decent, Vybz Kartel
Ghetto Palms 73: Broadcasting Live from Uganda / Firebase Crew / Exclusive Bobi Wine Interview
- story Eddie "Stats" Houghton
Like a lot of Ghetto Palms columns, this one actually started back in 2007 when I was putting in legwork for the FADER Africa Issue. I originally got put up on Ugandan singjay Bobi Wine by South Africa promoter/producer/kingpin Nic Regisford when my dude Anaele sat me down with him at some dimly lit LES spot (could have been Spur Tree—it’s all kind of a blur now) to get his input on what at that point was just supposed to be a summer music feature rounding up the biggest emcees in African rap. A little YouTube ethnomusicology later and I was neck-deep in the homegrown version of dancehall reggae that Bobi steady churns out with contemporaries like Zigi Dee—dancehall drum patterns overlaid with conscious lyrics in English and Luganda and injected with so many layers of hypermelodic afropop that it becomes something totally different. Ultimately, getting a FADER correspondent to Uganda wasn’t in the cards for that issue but when I heard that globetrotting FADER intern and gal about town Cassi Amanda Gibson was passing through Kampala I knew it was time for Afrohall Part 2. Cassi’s exclusive video interview is below, along with her notes and impressions on the meeting.
NYC: Ghetto Palms at Santos Party House
- story THE FADER
You read it on our site and probably have an entire playlist in your iTunes dedicated to Ghetto Palms mixes, and now the column/mix series is coming to life this Thursday, September 17 at Santos Party House. Ghetto Palms columnist and regular (like every issue regular) FADER contributor Eddie “Stats” Houghton will be joined by DJ Rekha, Uproot Andy, Geko Jones and a live set from Jahdan Blakkamoore and Matt Shadetek for a night of jams. It’s only 10 bucks, but if the recession has you down, skip dinner and read through all the Ghetto Palms archives here.
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posted on Sep 15, 2009 in EVENTS tags DJ Rekha, Eddie Stats, Gecko Jones, GHETTO PALMS, Jahdan Blakkamoore, Matt Shadetek, Uproot Andy
Ghetto Palms 70: Que Bajo vs Ghetto Palms / Exclusive Remixes
- story Eddie "Stats" Houghton
- photo Jason Nocito (F61)
At my invitation, Que Bajo residents Geko Jones and Uproot Andy (see also Dutty Artz, see also NY Tropical, see also Get Familiar) step into the Ghetto Palms control tower this week. The result is a brilliant Pan-American bashment-tape of exclusives and original remixes touching on bullerengue, Latin house, tribal guarachero, dubstep, kuduro, zouk, chutney soca, regular-ass soca, cumbia and reggaespanol.
Ghetto Palms 66: DJ Sabo / Cumbia Exclusives!
- story Eddie "Stats" Houghton
- photo Gabriele Stabile (F55)
Will Sabatini is a good dude to know. He is what, in marketing speak, is called an “influencer.” As the guy behind the counter at Turntable Lab in the East Village he has been a vital conduit for the dissemination of sounds like baile funk and cumbia to America, and just in case the DJs and vinyl nerds who shop there don’t know exactly what to do with these incommensurable beats, he has been going all over the damn world giving game to lesser selectors with his own DJ sets under the name Sabo.
Serani, “When It’s Cold” MP3
Though “No Games” is a definite banger, Serani’s been riding on it for over a year now, with sparse bits of good new stuff and some “No Games” dance mixes which were decidedly not that popping. But here he jumped on the School Bell riddim (read more about that here in Eddie Stats’ Ghetto Palms column and charms/croons his way across another sampling of lady-crack, as he is wont to do. Shout out to our Assistant Style Editor Ms. Erin Hansen, who interviewed Serani for FADER TV back in March, and who is leaving us for the frondy wilds of Kingston as of today. We will miss her so dearly. Serani take care of our girl!
Download: Serani, “When It’s Cold”
Ghetto Palms: Jahdan Blakkamoore / 77Klash
- story Eddie "Stats" Houghton
- photo Jason Nocito
It’s been a long, long time coming…but y’all knew a Klash was gon’ come. Or more accurately a Klash and Jahdan, because it would be criminal to overlook Klash’s partner in crime, he of the coffee in a thermos-like niceness on the singjay stylings. Friends of the column and spiritual godfathers of 2000Tone, 77Klash and J. Blakkamoore have been podcasted, refixed, Dutty Artzed, Gen F’d up and namechecked, but the two most prolific and influential Ghetto Palmists on my home planet of Brooklyn have yet to get a palm of their own. And that is all going to come to a clashing halt right now.
