Boomshots’ Rob Kenner interviewed Mixpak artist Popcaan for Complex Magazine, delving into his relationship with Kartel, the Gaza/Gully war, Clarks, raving and more.
Head here to read the full interview and watch out for more Popcaan/Mixpak coming soon.
Dubbel Dutch talks to Canadian online magazine Beatroute about ‘girls, drugs and dancehall’:
My style of music is hard to put into a box. It doesn’t have a specific genre, and that’s kinda my thing; from bass to Jersey club to world beat, I’ve tried to make a name for myself and not be pinpointed
It’s hard to believe that French producer Douster only bounced onto the scene around two years ago with his fresh take on tropical rhythms from all over the world. His influences and taste for the globalized beat run as wide as the labels he’s released on, from Akwaaba to ZZK. After a small hiatus, he has now reappeared on the scene only to announce the launch of his new label, Bebup, with good friend Benjamin Collet and the release of a brand new (free) EP, Boom Shaka Laka, on Mad Decent’s new Jeffree’s imprint. Before he flew off to South America for a two-month long tour, we spoke on the phone about his new label, his upcoming tracks for Mixpak and his love of Hip Hop.
So you’ve been away for a while, what have you been doing?
I wasn’t doing nothing, I’ve been making a lot of music! I had a big break with the Lion King thing so I got a lot of bookings for that tropical kind of stuff and the truth is I wasn’t really producing much tropical stuff so it didn’t really make sense and I didn’t really want to stay in that vein, so I did a lot of personal projects, like with rapper friends from Chile, friends from Seattle and here in Lyon, so I’ve doing music but not releasing it. Now I have a lot of tracks that I don’t know what to do with!
Head of Prodigal Entertainment, Dylan Powe is a stalwart of the Jamaican music scene – from working on legendary Kingston street party, Passa Passa, to managing one of the island’s brightest talents, Natalie Storm. Last year he produced and released the innovative Showa Eski, the first in a trilogy of riddims designed to (re-)unite West Kingston with London – featuring 6 vocals from Jamaica and the UK – namely Wiley, Lady Chann and Ward 21. A year later, the second installment, Global Gangsta, is just about ready to go and is undoubtedly set to build on the solid foundation of Showa Eski, tying together the threads of Jamaican influence worldwide.
Over G-chat, I asked Dylan a few questions about the thinking behind the trilogy and his vision for Prodigal:
Mixpak: So how are things looking for Global Gangsta – do you have a date for release yet?
Dre Skull talks to Turntable Lab about Vybz, his favourite JA producers, what he was like at school, his top tunes and even places to eat. Go check out the full interview over at their site.
MTV Iggy’s Jesse Serwer caught up with Dre to ask him “how a quiet, shy, white guy with no connections ended up working with dancehall’s most notorious star?” Good question, right?
Andy Petr is an incredibly prolific, nineteen-year-old, up-and-coming electronic producer from the Midwest, who released his first EP on Mixpak, ‘Rapper Turned Singer’, in May and is set for two brand new, free EPs in the next few weeks.
His sound is defined by dense, overdubbed samples, complex synth lines and a surprisingly sweet and eccentrically disjointed pop sensibility. I talked to Andy on the day before his relocation to NYC about what it’s like being one of the youngest producers in the game, Kanye West, Black Flag and how he sees himself fitting into the future of electronic music.
Tifa is one of Jamaica’s top young deejays, and singjays for that matter. When an artist gets full support from legendary production crew Ward 21, you know they’re gold. After her first tunes, ‘Crawny Gal’ and ‘Bottom of the Barrel’ blew up in Jamaica, she continued on climbing, joining forces with Timberlee and Natalie Storm to form JA girl group TNT, making singles with top producers like TJ, Stephen McGregor and Equiknoxx, not to mention supporting Ward 21 on tour.
Tifa has just joined the Mixpak family, voicing on a Dre Skull-produced Moombahton track set for release later this year, so we thought we’d get the 411 on her background, making it in Jamaica, working with Ward 21 and being a tomboy.
Mixpak: Tell us a bit about your background – did you grow up in a reggae household?
Well my growing up was in a mixture of down town (or what people would refer to as the ghetto), uptown (suburbia) and a lil’ North America. I did grow up in a reggae dancehall household. My grandmother had a local bar and restaurant and music was always apart of the happenings. I was always surrounded by music. When I went overseas to see my mom, she was an avid party goer, she would always be playing tapes and we would always be listening to music. Seeing her dress up and go out, also developed my fashion sense. My uncle also owned a popular record store in Toronto and I would always travel with him to Dynamic Sounds to purchase goods. Later on my mom met my stepfather, who was a producer. So let’s just say I couldn’t escape the music.
