MALUCA | MySpace Music Videos

Maluca’s meringue tinged track El Tigeraso has been making the rounds in certain circles since before this summer, however the cats at Mad Decent have only now dropped a video for it. The Dominican starlet is poised to be next in the line of attractive hipster club girls (think M.I.A., Kid Sister, Rye Rye etc), but the Dominican flair of “El Tigeraso,” sets her apart from every other club track I’ve heard in a while, and its has been on my iPod for a hot minute.

Last week, Converse got both hipsters and hoods together on a non-discript basketball court for the Band of Ballers tournament. The exclusive tournament pitted such artists as Jim Jones, Mad Decent, Asher Roth, Pac Div, Matt and Kim and more, and was hosted by Miss Info and Peter Rosenberg. Ultimately, Jim Jone’s “Family” team was “Ballin’,” as they took home the ultimate prize. Couch Sessions homegirl Senari (as well as DJ Jerome Baker) was in the building and provided these pics. Read more about the Band of Ballers at Senari’s Village Voice column.

To say that the Mad Decent Block Party was simply insane is like saying that driving a Ferrari down The Beltway is just your average ordinary commute. No, this Block Party was most likely one of the wildest things to take place on the Eastern Seaboard, drawing hipsters from all over to a neighborhood street in North Philly with the lure of free food, copious alcohol, and non-stop entertainment.

To the hipsters, this is their Mecca, and to Diplo and his Mad Decent crew, it was a way to celebrate and showcase the achievements of his brand of cutting edge music and culture, with a bill ranging from rock acts (POPO), to electro (Nadastrom), to straight up hood club (Brick Bandits and DJ Sega).

Lady Glock (of Lady Glock Photography) was there (along with me, Sonya from The Glass House, DJ Cam Jus, and half of DC) and took these amazing shots. Video coming soon.

More pics  on Lady Glock’s Flickr Photostream.

So yeah, I was ready for the Kanye/Badu/Common lovefest at the Red Bull Moon Tower to begin. I had prime real estate AND my SLR. It was about to go down. Then Red Bull got shut down by the cops. 

No worries. Me and Marcus were kidnapped by a girl from the “Austin hood” who goes by redyellow and transported to what they were calling the Texas Niteclub, an abandoned Salvaiton Army in a nondescrept shopping center somewhere in Austin, for the IHeartComix/Mad Decent Party, with Diplo, Kid Cudi, Farnsworth Bentley and a host of others on stage.

The ish was crazy. Cudi was so damn hype. I went to give a dude some dap and he was so excited he almost pulled me across the stage and embraced me as a brother. Granted, he could’ve been hype off that duet with Little Boots 3 hours earlier but I think having Diplo behind you and hundreds of screaming hipsters had something to do with it. The pictures only convey 1/4th of the crazyness of this night.

FULL FLICKR PHOTOSET HERE

DJ SEGA – Pinky and the Brain Theme

DJ SEGA – Philly Action News Theme (go here for reference)

Baltimore Club is a love it or hate it type genre. Most people outside of I-695 and your blogger/hipster scenes can’t stand it. Even though I’ve been following the sound for the past few years, I’ve been diving in head first into the scene recently. Going to B-More reminds me of going to those underground house parties in London during the 2-step/pre-grime era, where a DJ would take the hottest US pop track and put their own spin on it. The B-More culture is the cousin to that UK House scene (most early Baltimore releases were on UK labels) and a whole Black subculture exists 45 minutes up the road that people either hate on or don’t know about. The Baltimore sound has spread worldwide, and now there are dudes in other towns putting their own spin on the genre–like Philadelphia’s DJ SEGA.

DJ Sega’s set at Feedback last week was phenomenal. SEGA is a modern day Andy Warhol, taking bits and pieces of our pop culture and slicing them up into new, and sometimes unrecognizable tracks. SEGA’S set included a bevy of songs from my childhood–”Pinky and The Brain,” “Bill Nye The Science Guy,” and “Power Rangers,”–in addition to a Quagmire montage from Family Guy, all set to 130 bpm. It’s almost like SEGA–who was barely legal enough to be in the club–used the turntables as his canvas during his non stop set of almost all original material.

Clearly DC wasn’t ready for the Mad Decent protege, which was a shame. The crowd thinned out considerably during his set, with only the craziest and drunkest people left in the building towards the end. Those who stuck around were treated to one of the future pioneers of the club music genre. Check out DJ SEGA at his MySpace.

myspace.com/djsegatheblackknight

DJ SEGA Video Podcast

DJ SEGA – Quagmire’s Theme (Philly Remix)

*Okay, not really, but it’s definitely a track I want to watch on my phone while I’m sitting in traffic tonight.

Check Mad Decent for more pictures.