2 Funky Up In Here
I was working my Canon 5D hustle on the road at Mid Ohio Racetrack with Grammy Award winning record producer Jim Jonsin, and his Rebel Rock Race crew when Jim introduced me to his longtime friend that was DJ/Producer from parts unknown. His name was Smurph Roc and he stood about 5’2. I think I know why they called him that! None the less he handed me a CD and told me; “listen to it, its Ghettofunk” I told him; “yea man fasho!” We chopped it up talking about DJ gear, experiences and the normal bullshit that like minded individuals rap about for a few minutes while I was helping prep Jim’s Porsche for the track. After the race I returned home to Miami and started unpacking my gear bags when I found the the CD that Smurph Roc handed me. I don’t know how the hell it made it back to Miami with me for it was just tossed aside because of the importance of the race. I thought “hell, if it made it back all this way I might as well give it a whirl” I popped it in the head unit of my Alpine deck and was blown away from what I heard. Its like I was having an ear-gasmn in my Tahoe! “What is this new sound I have never heard of before until now” I told myself? There was this bouncy 105-115 BPM electronic funky soul sound erupting from my JL Audio components like no other. Not to mention that low booty bass was like food for my JL Audio W7 Subwoofer! Score! Somebody finally put me onto some new and exciting .wav files. Thanks a bunch Smurph Roc! Soon after that I was digging all over the web researching the scene and finding out who was really crushing it on the production and live shows. Bobby C Sound TV, Featurecast, BadboE, B-Side, Slynk, Kool Hertz, Basement Freaks, Dancefloor Outlawz, Goodgroove, Lewd Behavior, Stickybuds are a handful of artists to follow and look out for.
With sub genres emerging from nearly every popular style of music today, I wonder why I wasn’t put on to Ghettofunk earlier in life. I mean really, WTF! It’s been around for a hot minute. Ghettofunk is a mid-tempo electronic music music genre that blends Breakbeat,Funk, Hip Hop, Soul, and Booty Bass Mashups of classic tunes. A lot of artists in the growing scene are making funky original records as well. It’s popularity has risen tremendously recently and is spreading worldwide. The Ghettofunk movement is best represented by the blog ghettofunk.co.uk, which also releases exclusive promotions for artists of the scene via email subscriptions. If you want to check other sites pertinent to the scene click here: nufunk.net and ramp-shows.blogspot.com
After a few months of familiarizing myself with the genre I realized I wanted to drop a Ghettofunk Mixtape for my website murkem.net and call it 2 Funky Up In Here Mixtape. I began gathering the records I would be adding to the arsenal for the war I was to unleash on the world. The battleground was the internet and the war vehicle carrying me to victory was Ableton Live! After countless hours in the studio, In The Cut Studios literally became home to me! It felt like I didn’t leave the control room for a month until I had a finished product. Being back at In The Cut Studios was a great feeling to me especially when I had this polished 52 minute mix of all the tracks I had dug up on the web.
I immediately got with my boy Doc Strange with The Audio Architeks to get a recommendation on who I should have design the album art. “Without a doubt you should hit up Teflon Sean” Doc Strange said. Before I knew it I was at Teflon Sean’s studio rolling up dank while he sketched up an idea. With a lit joint in hand, Teflon Sean passed me over a drawing of a wolf in pimped out sheep’s clothes laying the mac down on a stripper full of soul. We were both on the same page so Teflon Sean broke out his Wacom Tablet and began digitally drawing in various design programs in the Adobe CS6 Suite. “This guy is a beast” I thought to myself as Teflon Sean had most of the idea laid out on his Macbook Pro in a matter of a couple hours. I gave him a deposit and to the beach I went. I needed a break from the mix and there happened to be great waves in Palm Beach so I grabbed my surf board and walked on water for two days in a row!
A few days later I received a call from Teflon Sean saying the album art was complete. Stoked enough from the good waves, I scurried into my whip and jetted over to his labratory. When I arrived and feasted my eyes on what he drew, I was like “hell fuck yea!” I wanted more! We then came up with an idea to draw a whole funky nasty strip club scene packed with drugs, sex, funk, violence, whoremongers, gangsters, thugs,homies and wanksters. I then wanted to print it all up and stuff it in a standard jewel case to hand out tangible copies to uneducated music goers. Nobody goes hard on their album art these days due to internet distribution of singles rather than record albums. Its a lost era. Enjoy the 2 Funky Up In Here Mixtape
