Girl, Put in Work (Summer 2011)

Time to Go Back to Freak School, Girl!

Some thoughts on the the Summer of 2011:

• By act of Congress, all soundcloud rap songs had to feature an Imogen Heap sample.

• Based on the video for Get High, I told my inner circle that I wanted to invest in A$AP Rocky because I knew he was going to be a star. He's still one of my favorites and it was so exciting to have NYC rap reclaimed.

• Around this time, I co-DJ'd a queer night called SWAG in Williamsburg. Salad days.

• At such nights, I heavily played the sound of the moment, Moombahton, a mix of House music and Reggaeton slowed to 108 BPMs. I was quite smitten and this mix features some great Rap/R&B Moombahton edits.

• I included the following in a byline for Diner Journal,”Club on Lock, by E-40 is currently his favorite song.”

• BUT, in actuality, The Weekend's The Morning was the greatest song ever and I made this mix as a build up to its climactic chorus, equal parts erotic transcendence and existential despair. It's evident from his mark on pop culture since, but it is hard to overstate how transformative The Weekend's bracing mutations of R&B were.

• Lastly, the song Feelin' Love by Paula Cole was the thirstiest, per contemporary parlance, one I ever heard. I think it may still be. If this mix's final sequence, Paula Cole > Kelly Rowland's Motivation > The Weekend, doesn't get you feeling freaky, you may need to go back to freak school. In all seriousness, her vocal performance is amazing even through the bad mp3 quality, but damn Ms. Cole...

  • “You make me feel like a candy apple / All red and horny / You make me feel like I wanna be a dumb blonde / In a centerfold, the girl next door / And I would open the door and I'd be all wet / With my tits soakin' through this tiny little T-shirt / That I'm wearing / And you would open the door and tie me up to the bed”

Artists include: Baby Girl Aaliyah (Rest in Power), Ashanti, Kelly Rowland, Ciara, Amerie, Rihanna, A$AP Rocky, A$AP Ferg, Clams Casino, E-40, Ying-Yang Twins, DJ Quick, John Legend (covering Adele's stunning “Rolling in the Deep”), the aforementioned coup de grace, The Weekend, & more.