Mixtape Mondays: DJ Crown Prince, Calli B, Damon Alexander, Safari Sound

October 10, 2011

Words by Jesse Serwer

Notice anything different? LargeUp has a brand-new look today. After over a year in beta format, we’re re-launching the site with a new layout that better reflects the diversity of our content, and makes site navigation a whole lot easier. Mixtape Mondays isn’t changing, though: as always, we’re starting out the week proper with the best new mixes from across the Caribbean and the diaspora.

DJ Crown Prince, Supa Soca 16: Welcome To Miami: Miami Carnival went down this past weekend (Watch our own FLA correspondent Walshy Fire break down the itinerary with the Miami Herald here) and, naturally, South Florida selector extraordinaire DJ Crown Prince dropped a soca mix just in time to set things off. The latest in Crown Prince’s Super Soca series features tunes from all of the usual suspects—Machel Montano, Farmer Nappy, Alison Hinds, Skinny Fabulous, Kes the Band, Iwer George—plus Busy Signal’s “Touch Road” and hosting from Barrie Hype of Top Gunners. Stream here, download here.

DJ Calli B, Talk Nah Soca Mix 2011: NYC’s DJ Calli B was in Miami for Carnival too, and he made sure to prepare the city for his arrival with a marathon soca mix of his own. Calli, who also dropped a hip-hop and reggae mix Act Your Age last week as a warm-up for his birthday party at Mangoville in NYC on Nov. 5, sets off Talk Nah Soca with an intro from Youtube puppet sensation Santana, before jumping right into Wildfire’s “Miami Body,” and wining time commences from there. Stream and download here.

Damon Alexander, Live Mix Session 2 and 3: Our UK readers might recognize the name Damon Alexander as the producer half of London’s De Tropix, along with MIA dancer/hype gal turned vocalist Cherry B, though he actually went by the name Instinct then. Writing in his Fader column Ghetto Palms, our own Eddie STATS aptly described De Tropix’ sound as reggae “[made] out of what sounds like weird tin pan alley type samples, which makes me picture bowler-hatted Passa Passa dancers unfolding synchronized routines in some kind of crazy Willy Wonka set-piece.” Judging by the content of two new mixes uploaded to Soundcloud, Alexander has moved away from dancehall and into tweaked Afro-house. Although most of the material is from other artists, Session 2 includes snippets of some tracks Alexander is releasing on his own A2B label. It’s not the sort of ting we usually promote on LargeUp, but interesting stuff nonetheless. Stream Session 2 here and Session 3 here.

Safari Sound, The Safari Dancehall Show Part #Few: Our Scandinavian family Safari Sound—DJs Shirkhan and Sammy K—are back with another edition of their monthly web mix version of their Swedish National Radio program the Safari Dancehall Show. The always reliable Safari keep things in a mostly mellow direction, keeping the hyperactive tunes to a minimum in favor of tunes like Collie Buddz’s Jacob Miller-inspired “Too Much Watchy,” Laza Morgan’s “One by One” and the Vybz Kartel-in-sensitive-mode tracks “Dedication,” and “Testify.” Stream and download here.