5 Questions with Rags #63 - Qdup

The funky groovemeister Qdup has been startlingly important in my development as a fan of electronic music. The first time I ventured out on my own, without the anchor of a knowledgable friend, at an electronic festival was some years ago at Shambhala, where I stumbled upon his set at the dusty, ol' AMP. His super bouncy and accessible breaksy-funk treats delighted me instantly and I gave way to the overwhelming desire to dance without my friends for the first time. I clutched that Qdup sticker I got that day like a kid with a carnival prize, ran back to camp and told everyone of this rad DJ I just saw, like I'd just discovered something no one ever knew about. (That sticker remains on my friends' camper-van and Qdup, if you're reading this, really needs to be replaced. It's taken quite a beating in six years.) Then, a couple of years later, Qdup got behind the decks in Fractal Forest with Steve of the mighty Fort Knox Five to lay down one of the most powerful sets of funk music I've seen to this day. Dancing with all the friends, as the face of the funk-legend Jon H. adorned the screens around the Forest, I was moved in a way that I never expected from electronic music. It was a turning point in my life as a music fan, as I realized that even amongst the bounce and fun and colours, deep-rooted emotional impact was possible. Qdup is still out in these streets doing the Big Work, keeping the funk vibrant and alive wherever he goes. His latest single “Sonic Drop” featuring San Fransisco MC Awoke, is an old-school breaks/hip-hop delight that's been on repeat since I got my grubby mitts on it. When I got him on the phone from his new homebase in LA for our little chat, he assured me that he's been staying close to home, hard at work building up his funky arsenal with new tracks and sounds, regathering strength for another summer of laying it down hard. But luckily for me, the good homie set aside some of his valuable time to get down with the 5 Questions!

FKX116 - Qdup - Sonic Drop ft. Awoke Qdup returns to Fort Knox Recordings with a new single first imagined on the Playa at Burning Man. During his first trip to Black Rock City Qdup performed a special hip-hop showcase at Funky Town and invited MC’s to rock his set and bring the cypher to the desert. San Francisco b-girl and Hip-Hop aficionado Awoke was one of the MC’s that appeared out of the dust and blessed the mic that afternoon and caught the ears of the crowd, inspiring this collaboration. “Sonic Drop” captures the fun of that impromptu Hip-Hop jam in the desert. This tune pops and locks from start to finish, with an infectious vibe that invites the party to get down on the dancefloor like Awoke and Qdup did that day! The track is all about Awoke’s flow as she says “Feel it deep inside and when the DJ starts to vibe, I’ll be the first one in line, straight Salt-N-Pepa pushin’.” It’s time to push it real good, so get on the dancefloor and push it when the DJ drops this cut! Qdup’s tight beats, 808 boom and bass-laden production set the tone as Awoke’s concise party raps direct the dancefloor to drop it like it’s hot. Put this on as a sure-fire way to get booties moving and create a Sonic Drop on the dance floor.

1. Do you remember the first album that you bought with your own money?

Run-DMC – Raising Hell, I saved up my allowance and got it on tape. My parents were really supportive of me wanting to buy and listen to music.

I'd ask if you still like Run-DMC but everyone still likes Run-DMC, right?

Classic.

2. What's your best memory of an elementary or high school teacher?

Mr. K, my high-school shop teacher. He really had a way of communicating with kids of all kinds, like he was on their level. I know was shop class and it wasn't “intellectual” or anything, but it didn't matter. It wasn't what we were learning but the way he communicated with us that really left an impact on me.

3. What's your favourite household chore?

Picking the music to listen to while I do the chores. <laughs> I know that's not really a chore but as a producer I'm constantly searching for new music and listening to new masters of my own tracks and stuff. Even in the car, I'm listening to stuff for work. So a lot of the time when I'm doing chores is the only time I really get to listen to music for pleasure. I get to just put on music to really enjoy.

4. If you could spend the day with anyone living or dead, who would it be and what would you do?

I'd get my brother Jon H, and we'd go have a night at Shambhala.

5. When's the last time you did something for the first time?

I went to Six Flags for the first time for my birthday. It had been years since I'd be on a roller coaster. After 5 or 6 coasters I thought maybe I had a filling loose or something from all the Gs.

6. Your Guest Question comes from the homie Handsome Tiger, who's currently lighting up Vancouver something fierce... If there's one place in the world you could play a show, where would it be?

Probably somewhere remote, small and tropical that I've never heard of or ever seen. Maybe Brazil or Thailand or something far away like that.

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And while you've probably listened to “Sonic Drop” while you read this (And if you didn't, you blew it. Scroll up and sort it out.) you should probably put this mix on before you continue your day and listen to a master at work for a proper amount of time. It's real good.

This weeks RIPEcast features a very special guest mix from Fort Knox Recording Artist Qdup. A Space Cowboy favorite, he has been making dance floors groove and butts move worldwide for a decade. Over the years, Qdup has released top selling tunes and remixes on many well received labels including Bombstrikes, Fort Knox Recordings, Bombastic Jam, Goodgroove, Air, ESL Music, Royal Soul, Boxon Records, MustBeat and his own Qdup Records imprint. Don't miss Qdub headlining at the upcoming LOVEBOAT HALLOWEEN event on Friday October 27th at Pier 70 in San Francisco. Event info and tickets are here: bit.ly/LBH17sc

Forged in Fire - Fresh Memories of Shambhala's 20th Birthday

Hard to believe it's only been a few months since Shambhala's 20th Birthday. Like every year, it went by too quickly and like every year, it left far more than four days worth of memories. After the festival I wrote about how impressed I was with how everyone around me handled the nearby, threatening forest fires. And of all the stories I've been told since leaving the Farm, my favourites continue to be the stories of how people dealt with the entirely bizarre situation they found themselves in while simultaneously sucking every bit of joy and glory out of it. Over the last month a couple of acts who graced the Shambhala stages have been kind enough to share their time and stories of how they dealt with fire in their own way. Shambhala veteran and world-famous party rocker Z-TRIP used every trick he could think of on Saturday to get through to his second set on Sunday. While exploding-like-a-super-nova-right-now 'lean bass' duo CHUURCH had their Sunday set cancelled and rescheduled at the last minute to Saturday – a set that will go down as legendary for all those that were there to commune. As the cold begins to creep back in, it seems like a perfect time to take a look back at a couple magical summer moments from the Salmo River Ranch. 

Z-Trip

Photo courtesy Sound Flash Photography.

Shambhala was fucking amazing. I did two sets. I did the Forest and the Village. It was fucked up because of all the fires there. The night I was playing in Forest they were like, “Yeah, it doesn't look like tomorrow is gonna happen.” Fuck. I had sort of crafted sets there that were based around spirit animals. My spirit animal was the Elephant in Fractal and in the Village was the Wolf – wolfpack, bass. As I was doing my Elephant set in the Forest, we got to the end of the set and I said, “We're gonna have a rain dance. We need rain, so tonight's the rain dance.” Basically we did the set and I had this song that I played, I had everyone sit down – which was maybe the first time anyone had done that – not have everyone jump up but just sit down and listen to a song. That was heavy. That was really incredible. We were bummed because I really wanted to that next set. We woke up the next morning and they said, “It rained last night! You brought the rain!” So we went and set up to do the next day. Maybe a quarter of the people had left. It kind of felt like the way-back Shambhala vibe, when there weren't as many people and you had room to dance, from maybe 10 years ago. It had that vibe – the diehards were there. I played my set and did my thing. At the end of my set I played a song called “Feel the Love.” I said, “Can you feel the love out there? We almost didn't have today! Where are my wolves at?” “Ooowwwwwooooo!” Everyone's fucking howling and the rain starts coming down! Right at the very end of the set. It rained so quickly and it was done. It was one of the best sets of all time for me. That place is so fucking magical. That was heavy. I love those guys, I love that place, I love PK Sound. The whole organization, I back it 100%.

Watching you up during the Fractal Jam reminds me of why I like music so much. I go into media areas and backstage areas sometimes as I writer and I get bummed because I see so many people in work mode forgetting how amazing it is to be so close to the music. I see DJs like that sometimes, all serious and shit, and you just look like you're having the most fun ever.

Oh man, thank you so much. That was the best. That was my first Fractal Jam. I've wanted to do it every single time but every time I've had to go somewhere and do some shit. It took me this long. I was so fucking excited, are you kidding me? I finally get to hang with the cool kids! <laugh>

It was awesome, it made me so happy. And the year before when you found your spirit animal, the elephant, I was there alone. I had lost my friends and I was just by myself rocking to your set.

The whole spirit animal thing came from the time before I was there. I played the Forest and somebody handed me this big crafted leather owl mask. I was with Gaff and he said, “Yo, that's your spirit animal, the owl.” I thought, “Uhhhhhh okay? I don't really connect with it at all.” The mask is amazing! It's incredible and I'm super grateful to have it. It sits in my house. That got me thinking about what would my spirit animal would be. That's how that whole thing started. My idea now is to play every stage and do a different animal on every stage.

Chuurch (As told by Makemdef)

Photo courtesy BEEDEE.

I was sitting in a hammock somewhere when I got the news that our set [On Sunday] was cancelled. I immediately shot up out of the hammock, “Well, I'm going to reschedule this thing, right now.” It was really awesome because a lot of the artists...Lazy Syrup Orchestra, that's Dunks from the Funk Hunters and Soren, they cut their time in half on their set to give 45 minutes to someone else. There was a real vibe there. I shouldn't have freaked out so much because everyone there is the most professional in the industry and I should have known they were going to make it work in the face of crisis. It was our second year, this was a big year for us and I wanted to make sure we did it right, twice as good. I got the news about an hour before we actually performed, it was a long day.

So, our show is cancelled and I just wanted to try to make it happen with all my heart. I took all my food vouchers, like $45 worth of vouchers, and bought mini-donuts. And me and my girlfriend walked around handing out mini-donuts trying to raise the spirits. I handed out three buckets of donuts and got my set back. It was magic. People really like donuts. They make people super happy. When it was finally game-time, I went kind of cuckoo. There had been a lot riding on that whole Monday set. We were supposed to debut this new song we'd done with Rezz, right after her set. That would have been cool. But it was such a meant-to-be kind of thing. It was an amazing learning experience. It changed people. I learned a lot about myself through that performance.

The best part of that whole thing, is after that was all said and done, my girlfriend and I walked through Fractal Forest and the first song I hear after my set was Jazzy Jeff playing “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” It was a surreal moment. It was amazing. Definitely, looking back, Shambhala handled that situation pretty good. We brought the rain that night.