"The Dig Up" - Hosted by DJ Evil Dee

I have to be completely honest, I hate the neo concept of what a "mixtape" is.  It's evolved into fully formed albums with concepts, art and high profile artists. Now they're used as albums to promote albums and blah, blah, blah.  (old man rant... get off my lawn... it's my football now!) 

That being said, I realized I was at point where I needed to either adapt to the current biz model or just get left behind.  (like the major labels not understanding the digital age and treating their consumer base as an enemy)  So, here I am at a point realizing I had a collection of work, but none of my current projects were close to being finished.  I had tracks that I did with other artists and joints that didn't necessarily fit on any of my current projects and instead of letting these them collect digital dust, I decided to put them together.  Oddly, I discovered that when putting these tracks together, they may not have fit into what I was current working on, but together they all worked as a nice comp/mixtape.  And being that I'm from a different era of "mixtape," I decided to take it to the decks.

If I was going to make a mixtape, I wanted it to be a mixtape that I would want to hear and be a nod to the era I came up from.  As I was in the early stages of compiling this I was listening to "Soundbombing," my old B-Mello and Beatjunkie tapes and studying the vibe/tone to wrap my head around the whole concept.  What made Soundbombing so dope?  Well... you had a DJ like Evil Dee on the decks and hosting the mixtape laying in the cuts building the mix like a how a DJ would kill a live set. (C'mon KICK IT!)  I then decided, why not shoot for the stars and see if I could get someone I've looked up to for SO long on the project. I contacted his manager and...

(see iphone convo) 

The moment my jaw dropped.

This was a moment where I honestly tried to be as cool as possible, but found myself on the verge of screaming like a little girl watching a "One Direction" music video.  I was sitting at my desk at work with my boss behind me trying to keep composure as my 13 year old Bootcamp fanboy was bubbling up. 

Once that was locked... it was on.  So, I started digging into old session files, demos and completed tracks to start compiling the mix and connect all of the dots.  What came together was not only a collection of b-sides and collab tracks, but some new music made just for this and previews of upcoming releases.  In many ways "The Dig Up" is like a audio resume highlighting my emceeing, DJing and production.  I hope you dig it, no pun.

Thanks to: Ryan Fresh, Corey Ball, Evil Dee, Luvva-J, Smoke, Dee Supreme, DL Orion, Josh G, Domingo, Wizdom, Ace-One, Just Another DJ, RA Scion, Heretic & SOS, Big Fletch, Po'Safe and everyone that helped compile this. 

There will be a limited edition release of this on cassette that will be following shortly.  (preorders available on the bandcamp site)  Till then...