DJ Rupture

I'd just like to give the briefest of shout outs to DJ Rupture. I wrote on Cumbia for one of my first ever posts on this blog, and as predicted, it really seems to be exploding. XLR8R in particular can't seem to get enough of it. Fair enough I say, but having grown up with it, and its various offshoots (Vallenato, and even to a certain extent Champeta), I feel particulalrly smug.

DJ Rupture is probably the biggest cumbia head on the scene (apart from maybe Zizek and/or Carlos Tevez - yes that's right), and he works closely with Matt Shadetek's Dutty Artz label. Shadetek and Rupture have just finished producing Jahdan Blakkamoore's new album entitled Buzzrock Warrior, and I for one am very excited about it. Interesting also to see that one of the tracks features on Diplo and Switch's much-fabled dancehall Major Lazer album. Anyone know when that is actually coming out?

Having never seen Rupture play, I can't really get a sense of the man, but I really quite dig his blog. It's pitched quite nicely, and although he gives himself quite a lot of props, he has also included some nice pieces, particularly this one on the weird Hackintosh cult. A giant fuck you to Mac djs around the world, these guys chop up their shiny Macbooks, carefully hybridising the components with older bits of gear and housing them in beaten up old Toshiba notebooks from 2002. It seems like a lot of effort, but I totally respect it. Check it out here.

In other news, Mos Def has a new album out, 'The Ecstatic', and it sounds like it's quite good. I for one could not get 'Black on Both Sides' out of my head for, like, ever, ('Hip Hop' and 'Ms Fat Booty' were too too gully, and how could I forget when he mentions Heathrow airport in 'Mr Nigga': 'They stay on Nigga patrol on american roads/And when you travel abroad they got world Nigga laws/Some folks get on a plane go as they please/But I go over seas and I get over seized/London-Heathrow, me and my people/They think that illegal's a synonym for Negro'!) and I still have time for the odd Blackstar tune. Pitchfork are feeling it, and I'm looking forward to giving it a listen, especially if all the tracks are as good as this Madlib produced monster. Lovely beat.