Nickodemus about himself:
In 1990, my brother gave me my first Turntables :) With lots of practice & tolerance from my parents, came my first DJ gigs. Me & a crew of friends made lots of noise. We organized warehouse/ garage parties every month. I played Hip Hop with a mix of my Dad's old Soul, Funk records plus the House Music my sister picked up from Downtown Records in the city. Tito Roc came out from Uptown every month & rocked new & old House music and Hip Hop. Bucky & Jeff spun the best Dancehall and Reggae at the time. Russ Starke would occasionally jam along on guitar or with his band called Silas Lang. This was the crew- It all started very locally.
Soon to follow, a club called Caffeine opened up which brought together 1,000's of kids from all over the Island. DJ's Tom La Roc, Nick Pepe, DNA, Jim Felli, Micro, Onionz, Derek Sessions, Omar, Samir and many more were representing to the fullest out there! I'm proud to say that I came out of that same movement of music lovers who were always trying to make something happen in the burbs.
In '93 I moved to the Lower East Side. I heard about this party called Giant Step that incorporated DJ's spinning Hip Hop, Funk & Jazz with live Musicians. Since I was too young to get in, I went to one of the daytime outdoor festivals & handed my mix tape to this a guy named Marc Labelle. Thanks to him, Jonathan Rudnick & Maurice Bernstein, Giant Step turned into a regular gig that gave me a real chance to test and explore new & old music to an amazing group of party people. Respect to DJ's Smash, Jazzy Nice, Swingsett, Chillfreeze, Urban Tap, Nappy G & all the Groove Collective musicians for making it all happen.
Shortly after, I started spinning records with the Organic Grooves crew in the basement of Bar XVI. It was a great place where we explored more of the World, funk, electronic & dub sounds out there. Again, I found myself jamming with musicians, creating a thick dubby percussive sound that lived up to it's name. DJ Sasha dug up some really rare grooves while Zeb (guitar/ effects), Mariano (congas) & Mike T (bongos) kept the dancefloor alive. Respect to Alex Gloor for his guidance in keeping it Cosmic!
At the same time, a friend named Jon Lin & I were busy creating underground events at the Antique Cafe, The Frying Pan & any parking garage or loft that we could use for a night. We were incorporating various styles of music into one night in very unconventional spaces. In a night, you may have heard dj DB or Dara spinning Drum & Bass, Johnny Sender spinning Funk & Rare Grooves, Derek Sessions spinning deep soulful House, Tomas (Mammal) spinning all of the above;) Respect to Carol C (spinning Drum & Bass), Tessa & Karla, three of the best promoters that helped make those events happen.
In the Fall of 1998, Mariano found a very unique space, separate from all NYC inhabitants. The space was simply a concrete deck on the edge of a Pier, behind an indoor Ice Skating rink. We convinced the Chelsae Piers to let us throw parties on the Deck. We decided to finally have a space & a party that we called our own. We asked old school Giant Step alumni, Nappy G to join us on percussion & we started NYC's first outdoor party on the Hudson!
http://www.turntablesonthehudson.com/ The sound was everything we loved from Hip Hop to Funk, House to Latin, Big Beat to Reggae. Basically, we wanted to be free of the boundaries that confined most dj events to one style of music. From the party came our first compilation in 1999 on our newly created record label called Rhythm Love Records.
Brooklyn's DJ DRM (aka Aaron Schultz) has traveled the world over DJing his own brand of eclectic party rockers, jazzy beats, classic dancehall, midtempo breaks, downtempo and dubbed out broken sounds. As co-founder and label manager of Brooklyn's Bastard Jazz Recordings, Aaron has been the driving force behind an a label that’s become known for it's tasteful, dancefloor style that consistently straddles the line between down and up-tempo beats, but yet remains eclectic, drawing heavily from the tide pools of dub, jazz, hip-hop, and latin music.Aaron is also the man behind two highly regarded NYC parties, Digging Deeper – Bastard Jazz's monthly Thursday event focused on the entire spectrum of organic, dancefloor music, and the Dubwise Sessions, a monthly exploration of all music Jamaican that's at the very forefront of the new Brooklyn underground dub & reggae scene.
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