Street Hoops with the DJ in NYC

After spending the past couple of days in Gotham, I found myself reading the hard copy of the NY Times a bit more, actually I only read the hard copy when I am physically there.

This article is pretty cool. DJ JU works Best Buy during the day and in the evenings he spends hip hop cds at the street basketball games.

“On a dance floor, if you’re losing the crowd, you have time to change things up,” he said. “But with players on a court, I have to make split-second decisions. You can definitely change the outcome of a game depending on what you decide to play, because the players feed off the music and the crowd. If the music’s not hitting, everyone loses interest and the game might as well be over.”

cool.

Party in Pilsen 82507

My buddy Sloth, invited me to go to a party with him in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. I have enjoyed what limited exposure that I have had with that neighborhood. so I agreed.

This was a house party with a professional PA, 1200s, the works. Also it was a late night, as the shindig was due to start at 11PM. There were a number of DJs scheduled to perform, including Alexander, Slow Children and Ed DMX from the UK was to headline.

The house had a killer pro PA system, it was loud as hell and very clear. There were also a couple of projectors illuminating the space with various video and images mixed on a macbook. Note the figure shadowed above, bathed in cool blue hues... Here is Ed DMX a banging away on his Roland and other contraptions.

In the background you can see the video/image mixer at the macbook projection deck...

All in all a cool evening. The music itself was pretty far from funky. I couldn't venture to say what sort of stuff they were spinning.

I did enjoy a gent named Chris who was very proficient on the decks, and used some old school rap to do fast cuts from whatever other music was spinning on the other platter.

I think that I would like to spin a set next time and get the kids moving to some music that is more my flavor.

Thanks for the good times.