5 Questions with Rags #8 - Timothy Wisdom

I found Timothy Wisdom's tunes through my (Kinda-sorta brief) obsession with Ghetto Funk that started after my first Shambhala festival. A strict adherent to the Temple of Funk and Groove, Wisdom's tunes are instantly accessible for the non-EDM initiated and the consistently pleasing (From what I'm told by people who know more than me) to those already initiated. A Vancouver homey reppin' our beloved West Coast of BC, he was super cool to talk with and I'm looking forward to some delicious golden potatoes in the future...

-------------------------------

1. What’s the first record you remember going out to buy with your own money?

That would probably be a K-TEL anthonolgy of some sort. “Hit News” I think it was called, maybe. It was a K-TEL record with Michael Jackson, Pat Benatar and Cindi Lauper on it.

Read More

The Shambhala Journals - #1 in which I admit I'm wrong about some key things.

Anyone who’s talked to me for an extended period of time about sports knows that I hate the Seattle Seahawks. I’ll take every opportunity I can to bash them into the ground. But really, I don’t actually hate the Seahawks. I actually just love hating things my good friends claim are great. It’s fun to antagonize people you love. Really, why else do you have friends other than to let out some of the nastiness that gets bent up inside you? There’s nothing malicious about it, just some fun.

My relationship with electronic music has developed in much the same way as one of my best friends in the whole wide world has constantly tried to get me into the genre. It’s fun to resist, fun to push back. It came to the point where my friend was playing me remixes of classics like the Beatles, Marvin Gaye and such just because he knew he’d be able to get a reaction out of me and I was more than willing to oblige with the obligatory, “This is fucking stupid! Why fuck with classics?! Just let me listen to the motherfucking song!” But really, I was wrong. The whole time, I was wrong.

I’m a Hip-Hop guy. It’s been the main staple of my listening diet since I was 9 or 10 years old and got my hands on 36 Chambers and Black Sunday. So, really, just with that information alone my stance on remixes in electronic music is completely stupid. Hip-Hop was, and mostly remains, built on sampling. This is nothing more than a new generation of music obsessives (Something I can wholly identify with) paying tribute to the things that inspired them on their artistic path. It’s really no different than my roommate and I sitting in our living room playing Tom Petty songs on our guitar, except that they’ve created something new that harkens back to something already established as great.

Like executing a good cover song there’s an art to sampling correctly, to breathe your own unique vision into something already in existence and find that delicate balance of paying tribute and not just dick-riding. And the man who helped me see this, once and for all, was Wick-It the Instigator. By far the baddest motherfucker I saw at Shambhala, Wick-It has quickly become my entry into the world of DJs and electronic music. I’m still learning, no doubt, but I think with Wick-It I’ve found the accelerator to the learning process. The curve doesn’t seem as steep as it once did…

This mix has been on nearly verbatim since I arrived back from my journey to the Salmo Ranch where Shambhala takes place each year and if you have the same problems with electronic music that I have had this might help. (Being mangled beyond belief in the forest dancing with old and new friends to it on a giant soundsystem might also help with this as well.)

Full Length Mix: 1. Wick-it the Instigator - Feel Lit 2. LL Cool J - Mama Said Knock You Out (Wick-it 2013 Revamp) (unreleased) 3. DJ Khaled - All I Do Is Win (Wick-it Remix) 4. Lil Jon - Put Your Hood Up (Wick-it Remix) (unreleased) 5. Reservoir Dawgs feat.

My sincere apologies to you, dear electronic music fans. I was wrong. Very, very wrong about the music you’ve been trying to push on me for years now. I’m still always going to be a live instrument guy at heart, but I think there’s more common ground for us to dance on than I previously believed.

Ghana's own, Blitz the Ambassador drops a new track and, obviously, I dig it.

Hey kids. One of my main inspirations these days has been Blitz the Ambassador. Both his albums, Stereotype and Native Sun , have been in the regular rotation for over a year. His rhythms and beats are inventive and, importantly, organic, as Blitz commands an actual band of musicians to give him his grooves. His rhymes are intelligent, important, and endlessly agile. If you haven't listened to Blitz before, you need to.

Blitz's new track "African in New York" more than lives up to the winning formula he's already established. Bold storytelling with Recognize those samples in there? You should. And if you don't, get learned. Seriously. (Your hints: Eddie Murphy and Hova)

Keep an eye out for Blitz's upcoming The Warm Up EP , which is apparently due out next month. Also, props to Okayafrica for keeping me up to date on this one! Respect.

 (Addendum to this post: I've been trying to get an interview with Blitz for over a year now. We've come so close twice, but haven't been able to pull it off. Hopefully I can make it happen one day. I really do love this brother's music.)

 

www.twitter.com/blitzambassador www.facebook.com/blitzambassador 'African In New York' chronicles the colorful immigrant life in NYC from an African perspective. From the Bootleggers on Canal street to the Dollar cab drivers to the Restaurants Uptown, everybody gets a shout out over this banging Blitz production complete with live guitars and signature horns.

Blitz blowing the lid off of the Victoria Ska Fest. Photo by me! 

Blitz blowing the lid off of the Victoria Ska Fest. Photo by me!