Cookie-Dough Guest Mix 3 with Weedyman

Welcome to the Cookie-Dough Guest mix & blog where we invite some of favourite DJ / Producers to answer a few questions and dig deep into their collections and put together a mix of records that have influenced them over the years.

For this episode we are lucky enough to have Record Collector, DJ, Edit-man and producer and all round good guy Weedyman.

His recent beatdown slo-mo party starter ‘My Super Lover’ on Midnight Riot Records really floated our boat at Cookie-Dough HQ and we are made up that Weedyman has taken time out to dig deep into his collection and put together this belter of a mix for us.

Nice one Brother Weedyman!

Ste & Terser

What was the first record you bought that made you realise that you wanted to be a DJ / Producer?

The first pair of decks I bought were to scratch with rather than mix DJ. So I’d say hearing tapes of DJ Cheese’s 1986 DMC winning set got me wanting to buy decks.

The first records I bought that allowed me to realize I could try making music myself were things like Baby Ford “Oochy Koochy” or A Guy Called Gerald “Voodoo Ray”. Seeing young British guys make the music I loved and having an idea of what equipment they used opened up the idea that you could do it yourself.

What record makes you most nostalgic?

My Summer of 89 started in Ibiza in May and ended in a field somewhere round the M25 in September – great days. Hearing “APT 2B” from Rheji Burrell’s NY House’n Authority EP (see below) still takes me back to late night/early mornings somewhere in the home counties as the sun comes up.

What is your favourite end of night record?

This changes all the time, it’s always one that as soon as you hear it you want to go and hug everyone you see. I love to play “Our lives are shaped by what we love” by Odyssey – a beautiful record.

Do you have a guilty pleasure record?

I’d say I don’t believe in Guilty Pleasures, there are just Pleasures. But then again I do like a bit of George Michael – the chorus to Outside gets me every time, if i am at a wedding and this comes on, make room!

What is your most treasured piece of vinyl?

I’ve never been a big one for hunting rare or expensive records, but some things I bought when they came out years back now seem to be going for a few quid. The most treasured records I have would be “The Grunt” by the JBs on KIng 7″ a filthy dirty funky record and sampled in some really important Hip Hop tracks. The Apartments EP by NY House’n Authority is an amazing EP every track is brilliant and reminds me of warehouses. fields, and clubs in 1989. Fingers Inc “A love of my own” from 87 – a deep, deep, yet driving house track with lovely vocals. Perfection.

Guest Mix Tracklisting

1. The Specials – Man at C&A

2. The Beat – Mirror in the Bathroom

3. D Train – You’re the one for me  (tugboat edit)

4. David Joseph – You can’t your love 1983

5. Freeez – I.O.U.

6. Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force – Planet Rock

7. Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five – The Message

8. Pumpkin and the Profile allstars – Here comes that beat

9. LL Cool J – Rock the Bells

10. The Junkyard Band – The Word

11. Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers – Bustin’ Loose (J Kriv edit and Original)

12. Eric B and Rakim – I know you got soul

13. Bobby Byrd – I know you got soul

14. Ripple – I don’t know what it is

15. Clarence Wheeler and the Enforcers – Right on

16. Run DMC – Here we go (Live at the Funhouse)

17. Public Enemy – Public Enemy No.1

18. Lakim Shabazz – Pure Righteousness

19. Public Enemy – Louder than a bomb

20. Hijack – Doomsday of Rap

21. Big Daddy Kane – The Wrath of Kane

22. Serous Intention – You don’t know

23. Nitro Deluxe – Let’s get brutal

24. Phuture – Acid Tracks

A few words from Weedyman… 

When asked to put together a mix of tracks that have stood out over the years, I realized that distilling 35 years of listening and playing into an hour and half mix would never do the music justice. So I’ve concentrated on 80-88, i guess “my formative years”. From the stuff that i first got into as a 10 year old kid through to the first years of partying and playing. I have picked the tracks as a punter from back then, rather than look back now as a DJ. These are the ones that stood out at the time, have memories, and in some ways, moved things forward.

The “dance” music of the 80s covered so many styles and genres that it was the norm to see Disco, Soul, Funk, Electro, Hip Hop, Go Go and House not only one flyer but all in one set. What i have here I hope is an honest playlist rather than a cherry picked mix.

You’re 10 and have a quid to buy a 7 inch, what do you buy? The first record I bought with my own money was The Specials “Do Nothing”. The Two Tone/Ska era was short lived, but was the first thing i got into as a kid – we didn’t know much about the original Jamaican tracks covered, it just sounded right and was good to dance to. By 1980 The Specials were already moving on from Ska covers to incorporate different styles in the album More Specials, “Man at C&A” shows a more mature style with a big booming dub bass. “Mirror in the Bathroom” trades a deep bass against skittering syncopated guitars and a driving drum track that makes you want to get up – both sound relevant, and still do the business today.

D Train’s “Your the one for me” stands out to represent the early 80s cross-over between Disco and Boogie, the tempos were still high, the energy is there, but the sounds are new. David Joseph had already been a major Brit Funk player when he went solo and released “You Can’t Hide Your Love” big in UK and

US.”I.O.U” by Freeez is the first track I’ve picked to show the move from Larry and Francois to Arthur Baker and John Robie  as the scene makers in NYC. Accomplished Brit Funkers Freez gave pop fans a taste of the Electro and Freestyle sounds that were to reign supreme in clubland.

Gamechanger! -  Plenty has been written about “Planet Rock” it just sounded fresh and different to me and showed what you could do with a tape saturated 808 and a bit of Kraftwerk. You’re 13 and there’s a 6 foot, 200 pound, ex Black Spade dressed up like a warrior from Mars, making music like this – what’s not to like! “The Message” showed that rapping wasn’t all about braggadocio, but could bring conscious, hard-hitting, lyrics. That last rhyme from Melle Mel, still gets the hairs standing up on end. “Here comes that beat” – I remember the Summer of 84 for hunting for lino, wood or cardboard to break on while getting down to Street Sounds Electro tapes. Electro 4 always stood out for me and this was the track that did it most – old school rhyming, a big beat, and frequency scratching.  LL Cool J arrived on the scene as a fully formed 17 year old JVC toting Hip Hop Superstar. “Rock The Bells” could be just another 808/rhyming track, but Cut Creator’s cuts, the samples from Trouble Funk, and the Rhyming and attitude said something different.

Getting down at the Go-Go – no other dance music in the 80s caused more difference of opinion than DC Go-Go. I remember our crew splitting into two factions for a little while between those into Hip Hop and those into Go-Go, I’m not sure how well the music traveled out of London and the Southern suburbs? “The Word” by Junkyard band brings to life the problems of living in the murder capitol during the Regan era. An insistent rhythm and drum track with nasty bass lead lines. Chuck Brown and The Soul Searchers had been around for years, but along with Trouble Funk formed the vanguard of Go-Go, “Bustin’ Loose” being a big hit a second time around in 85. Go-Go never got the plaudits at the time and isn’t played now as much as other 80s music – probably a scene built on steamy all-night live shows was never that easy to market?

We jump to Eric B and Rakim’s “I know you got soul” more to show it as a staple of any Rare Groove night than it’s Hip Hop credentials (it famously sent Chuck D and The Bomb Squad back to the drawing board), Hip Hoppers, Jazz Dancers and Funk Heads would all get up and get down to it. Ripple’s “I Don’t Know What it is” was always played and never wore thin, Clarence Wheelers “Right On” could be played in a Jazz or Funk set and was great for driving around the one way system in a VW Beetle.

Back to 85, though recorded in 83, Run DMC’s “Here we go” live from the Funhouse showed that it was skills, not sneakers that paid the bills. Due to hold ups, Chucky D felt that Yo Bum Rush the Show was already behind the game by the time it came out, but the sample based tracks still sound fresh and important to me now, especially “Public Enemy No.1″. Lakim Shabazz and the 45 King married jazz funk and funk samples with a banging kick drum and Lakim’s honey smooth delivery style on “Pure Righteousness”. Gamechanger! – “Rebel Without a Pause” is without doubt one of the most important Hip Hop records ever and “It takes a million” one of the most important albums in music, period. But for me “Louder than a Bomb” is the one that still gets my vote. South London Serves Again! – Hijack stood toe to toe with anything from the States and showed what we could do, I played “Doomsday of Rap” and “Hold No Hostage” back to back about 4 times at a party the weekend it came out! DJs Undercover and Supreme dropped more new scratches in those two sides than any of their contemporaries in the US yet It took years to get the props they deserved. My favourite MC, Big Daddy Kane and Marley Marl perfected the high tempo, dance stepping style of Hip Hop on “The Wrath of Kane” matching a smooth rhyme flow with 123 plus beats.

I have missed out a lot of early house for a reason, though the big hits from Chicago were being played in the South, it wasn’t until the arrival of Acid House that you would get nights of house music right through. What sticks in the mind from the mid 80s is the proto house of New York as in Paul Simpson’s “You Don’t Know” a monster dub house classic, and Nitro Deluxe’s “Let’s Get Brutal” a dubbed, electro, house hybrid, different to the disco to house route Chicago was taking. Gamechanger! -  I had to jump forward a little bit and drop “Acid Tracks”. Again it’s hard to put in words how it (and MDMA) changed the game so much…. just compare it to any of records from the preceding 7 years of this mix and imagine you’ve never heard it before – you’ll get the picture!

Peace out

Weedy xx