- Red Bull Music Academy’s United States of Bass - July 19, 2016
- Red Bull Sound Select: Adrian Younge, No ID, Joey Dosik - April 14, 2016
- LA Red Bull Sound Select: Stormzy, Lizzo, and Kauf - March 28, 2016
I’m proud to be a citizen of these United States of Bass. I pledge my allegiance to the 808, 909, LinnDrum and all other low end frequencies, One Nation, Under A Groove.
Red Bull Music Academy produced a series of Live in LA events to promote the return of the Red Bull Music Academy 24/7 online radio station. One of the events was a celebration of all things that go BOOM!
Held at Union in K-Town, the United States of Bass show was phenomenal. We spent the entire time in the Disco Room for amazing DJ sets from two west coast legends, DJ Quik and Egyptian Lover.
As we walked into the Disco Room upstairs, DJ Quik was spinning Michael Jackson’s ever-so-silky jam “Rock With You.” He kept bumping throughout the night with a mix of old school jams and new school cuts, including classics like Tupac’s “California Love,” and “Let’s Get Down,” by Tony! Toni! Tone! It’s always a treat to hear DJ Quik.
Egyptian Lover did something that very few of us younger than 40 have ever seen: He played an entire live DJ set without a laptop, without CD-Js, completely old school with two turntables and a microphone. No waveforms, no playlist. Two copies of every record on vinyl. All wax, All day. It was like was like watching a wizard perform some complex alchemy from a lost civilization.
With a hype man/DJ assistant handing him records in sequence from the crates, Egyptian Lover was cutting, scratching, transforming, and mixing analog in real-time. At one point he mashed-up his hit record “Egypty, Egypt,” with “Planet Rock”.
We were transported back to 1982. Egyptian Lover brought out a real Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer. The most iconic drum machine of all time. I’ve never seen one in real life…let alone heard one played live on stage. It was a deep, heavy, loud transformative experience.
He came out and rapped another one of his hits “I Need a Freak,” and even hit a few funky dance moves. Towards the end of his set, all of the pop-locking bboys and bgirls were invited onstage to rock out. His set ended by playing an instrumental from the 808 and rapping 2 Live Crew’s famous “We Want Some P***Y”.
Egyptian Lover is rhythmic, bass-heavy, freak-loving Pharaoh who completely ruled our world that night.
