Excuse the hyperbole (finally, I get to use that word in a sentence), but in addition to the 8 katrillion videos we have from Remix Hotel (http://www.remixmag.com/video/rh_miami/2008), Red Bull on the Move just launched yet more Miami memories. Check it all out here: http://www.redbullonthemove.com
Red Bull had its own cabana to the left of the Remix Hotel media lab and the Grammy/NARAS VIP room. That meant between interviews, yours truly got drink free Red Bull in one room and tequila in the other. It was pretty decent consolation for the fact that I was chained to a chair in front of a video camera most of the time. But really, I’m not complaining. I get paid to do this.
In addition to capturing video action from the Om Records party, King Street Anniversary party, Canada Loves Miami party (really?) and Co-Op party, Red Bull on the Move also got some one-on-one interviews at Remix Hotel that we somehow missed, including Saeed Younan, George Morel, Kevin Kevin, Todd Terry, Roland Clark, S.O.S., Nic Fanciulli, deadmau5 and Carl Cox. Damn, where was I? Oh yeah, next door interviewing all the other peeps. Keep checking their site as they roll out the video, audio and photos. Up now are interviews with Fred Everything and Johnny Fiasco.
Another beautiful day in Miami, and the Remix Hotel attendees are slowly stirring and beginning their recovery from day 2.
Friday brought out A-Trak to the Apple theater, Hi-Tek to the Stanton cabana, DJ Enferno doing live remixing with Scratch Live and Ableton Live in the Rane & Serato cabana, Richard Devine at Access Music and demos from Akai, Numark, Euphonix, Korg, Native Instruments, Pioneer, Roland and more.
It was a hot one, and while the fire marshall came to shut down the line when Remix Hotel spilled over capacity, hundreds of people splashed around in the pool and danced for hours at the Beatport stage during DJ sets by M.A.N.D.Y., Tiefschwarz, Dubfire & Davide Squillace, Heidi, Anja Schneider, Gui Boratto and Jamie Jones.
After day 2 at the National wrapped up, many walked next door to the Delano to watch Remix March cover artist Erykah Badu sing songs from New Amerykah over a less-than-perfect sound system. Wearing her signature giant fro, Badu entertained with her eccentric charm and salt-and-honey voice and then finally jumped in the pool to cool off at the end of the night.
If you’re seeing this on Saturday, March 29 and preparing to come to Remix Hotel Day 3, better get in line early!
Man, Daddy Kev was off the hook spinning digital vinyl with Torq and Torq Conectiv. The crowd was head-bobbin, totally into it. It was like a miniclub goin’ on in there. The music is thumpin’ hard, and I’m off to go check out some more now.
It’s Lori here. Well, I’m mostly here (mentally, at least). My co-workers and some industry peeps stayed up really late debating/discussing the state of the music industry and the state of hip-hop. It was a great, intense conversation until the wee, wee hours of the morning. But it was worth it. And now we’re juiced for today.
Yesterday was just crazy here. The Beatport stage outside with the Red Bull bar was massively kick-ass. All the panels were packed. I was hanging out in the Ableton Room around 7 p.m. last night and overheard two attendees talking. One guy was all excited. He said, “This is the best day ever. I had a half day at work, and right after I came here [Remix Hotel], and this place is sick! I’m having a fuckin’ blast!” So there you have it. The best day ever. See? Today could be ANOTHER best day ever. So you’ve got to come out, okay?
Hi again. We’re already approaching the last day of Remix Hotel, and I’m a little woozy from all the action yesterday. If you see me and I’m downing Red Bulls, it’s ’cause the four hours of sleep last night didn’t really cut it. But it was worth it. As usual, yesterday was a whirlwind. I helped judge the iStandard Producers battle,which was cool. There were a lot of great tracks. Da Grindaz, who have apparently already worked with T.I., took home the prize for their commercial radio appeal. Their tracks were really hard-hitting and definitely had hit potential. But my personal favorite was a little left of center: Soul Nana & Taka. I believe Soul Nana is from Ghana, Africa, and Taka is from Toyko, Japan, and their tracks were as diverse as their nationalities. They didn’t have the same commercial style as Grindaz, but the tracks were really cool and original. iStandard chose the eight finalists from 60 entries, so everyone who hit the stage was really talented. And man, it takes guts to get up in front of all those people and put yourself out there. The other judges (including A&R from Interscope and Atlantic) and I didn’t always agree on everything, and we made various songwriting and technical suggestions, but hopefully our comments were helpful to the producers.
So after the battle, I ran over to watch DJ Babu scratch it up in the Rane room and DJ Rap talk about making tracks in Logic in the Apple room. And finally, the “Producers, Bring Your Beats” panel was really cool. Aloe Blacc, DJ Rhettmatic, DJ Babu, MED, Charles Goodan and a couple other producers picked numbers out of a bucket and gave feedback to people on their tracks. We’ll have a ton of video to show you of everything soon. Day 1 video will hopefully roll out here in a few hours.
Today we have T-Pain, Carmen Rizzo, FreQ Nasty and a ton of other producers, musicians, DJs, etc. in the house. Come on down! –Kylee
Okay, remember when I said this Beatport stage is gonna be crazy? Yeah, well, the cops just showed up because we’re a little too loud. Pssshhhht. Is there any other way to be when you have the hottest DJs around? Nope. But we still got the beats flowin’ for ya, baby. The Beatport stage is still goin’ off.
Also? We’ve got some Poppycock in the back room. That’s right, I said Poppycock. It is delicious. Look into it.
Right now we’re gettin’ ready for our final Shocklee panel of the evening, where we asked you, our lovely readers/producers, to bring your beats to have our panels of judges give you feedback. And who does this panel consist of? None other than DJ Rhettmatic and DJ Babu (who spun an awesome set in the Rane room just minutes ago), Aloe Blacc, Medaphoar (MED) and Charles Goodan, that’s who.
Sweeeeet. I’m gonna go check out some stuff now. See ya later.
Remix is stoked to have JBL speakers in our NARAS Producer’s & Engineer’s Wing, where our illustrious VIPs are enjoying awesome food and drink. The vibe in there is totally chill–a nice place to step away from the hustle and bustle of Remix Hotel. Many thanks to Kyle Keene with the Producer’s & Engineer’s Wing and JBL!
Man, it is crazy-ass hot in the panel room for the Ultimate Engineer’s Session. It is so packed with folks absorbing all the tips and tricks on how to get your mix right in the box. Problems are being solved left and right…it’s pretty freakin’ cool.
But I had to step out and let some more folks take my seat (well, my spot on the floor…it’s sitting-on-the-floor-room-only).
The iStandard Producer Showcase is wrapping up soon, and the crowd is totally into it. I saw many heads bobbing in time with the fat beats being dropped outside on the Beatport stage. And at 6 p.m., the Beatport stage is gonna blow up with a slew of DJs, spinning until 11 p.m. tonight. Look, ya gotta get your buns down here. Why? Well, for one, your buns are pretty sweet. And another thing, you’re missing out if you’re missing this event. We’re easy to find: We’re the ones throwing the most kickass party on Sunset tonight.
Hey again. So day one of Remix Hotel L.A. was awesome. The panels were superinformative as usual, and it was great hearing from Josh Gabriel of Gabriel & Dresden about how he works with Apple Logic Pro and his transition from Logic 7 to 8. And while DJ Rhettmatic and DJ Trainwreck were ripping it up in the Rane room, Roland was demoing its VS-8800, Hank Shocklee was moderating a mixtape vs. radio DJs panel and DJ Revolution DJ’d a live set using M-Audio Torq, I was doing a little video interview with 9th Wonder, which you’ll be able to watch here at remixmag.com shortly. I was really inspired by his True School association, which he founded after he realized that his group Little Brother’s album, The Minstrel Show didn’t “do what it was supposed to do.” True School (www.trueschoolcorp.com) caters not to the old or new schools of hip-hop, but that middle era from the 1980-95. But while 9th’s music harks back to the boom-bap era, he brings an updated slant to it in his latest album, Dream Merchant Vol. 2, which features a whopping 33 guest vocalists.
After our one-on-one talk, 9th and I met up with Hank Shocklee in the panel room and talked to a crazy-packed crowd about everything from A&R reps–”What are they there for?!” 9th exclaimed–to 9th’s love for Hank’s work with Public Enemy. 9th teaches a “Hip Hop in Context” class at North Carolina Central University, and last week, the topic of discussion was Public Enemy. Also coincidentally, he was wearing a Public Enemy shirt last night. 9th had a chance to ask Hank two burning questions he had about Public Enemy samples (again, wait for the video clips coming in the next few days). And I asked the guys about how they get the best out of vocalists. It was pretty hilarious watching them shake their heads about the trials and tribulations of working with Jean Grae and Murs (9th Wonder) and Flavor Flav (Hank). Hank said, “Flav is like taking the worst of every vocalist and putting it all together in one.” So if you find yourself in shouting matches with vocalists you work with, you’re not alone.
Today, we’ve got a ton going on: DJ Rap in the downstairs Apple room, DJ Babu in the Rane room, a bunch of top engineers (who’ve worked with Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey, Fleetwood Mac, The Killers and much more) talking about mixing, a beatmaker’s panel, Jay-J in the M-Audio room and so much more. Can you handle it? I think so. Haven’t registered yet? No worries. Just come on down, and we’ll register you right when you walk in.–Kylee
So we’ve got 9th Wonder upstairs givin’ his Keynote Q&A with Hank Shocklee and Remix Editor Kylee Swenson. The room is all hot and sweaty with tons of people…we’re talking standing room only. But it’s a good hot and sweaty, kinda like the last time we met at that bar down the street. That was the best time ever. Mmmhmm. Anyway, the point is this: People are stoked. And so am I. And you should be, too. Why aren’t you here? That makes me sad. But it’s okay because we have tomorrow and Saturday together. Sweeeeet.
You know what else was sweet? DJ Revolution’s live Torq set in the M-Audio/Digidesign Room; that was crazy insane awesome. People were packed inside and outside of the room groovin’ on his set. And hey, yours truly was kinda cuttin’ a rug herself, know what I’m sayin’? Wow, I think I just dated myself using that phrase. Pssshhhht. Whatever.
The bottom line? Day 1 here at Remix Hotel was totally brutal. And by brutal I mean totally frigging kickass, in a Metalocalypse sort of way. (Nathan Explosion would be proud.) Tons of people, good vibes, everyone was stoked. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow and Saturday bring. And of course, I can’t wait to see you.
