The End of Summer Wrap-Up: On the Road With Rich Medina (Aug 30-Sep 5)

This summer ran away faster than a radio rapper's advance money. Bong! Gone, like that $5,000 love seat! Now we get ready for the season formerly known as "fall", now called "Kinda like August and January if they were Siamese twins…". The parents of the world buy clothes and supplies for the coming school year, we debate politics, though most of us know more about mountain oysters than running the country. We put away the bulk of our summer wares, bust out the sweaters and hoods, and we prepare for all the green we've been staring at to brown up and disappear from the branches. The difference today is that the globe is no longer warming… It's damn near lava hot. Review the last few months' worth of bananas eater reports, then cop your rations and hunker down cause this winter is gonna be a fucking doozy.

It's interesting that despite annual seasonal changes and recently purchasing duct tape and saran wrap by the palette, we who have the freedom to, for the most part, just carry on with our lives seemingly unaffected by the perpetual change occurring around us. Themes, fashion, and entertainment change not only with but often in the face of those seasons. Beyond that, the one constant we can all rely on is time passing, and musical themes to be written to all that we have and shall experience. I am thankful to be a part of that consistency for the people for whom I write, produce, and play music, and I thank you all for giving me something to do with my own restless desires. Here's this past week's thoughts. Enjoy, and see you on the dance floor soon enough.

WHERE: Silk City Diner, Philly
WHEN: August 30, 2011

King Britt and Rucyl Mills are Saturn Never Sleeps, an electronic and experimental soul band, in perpetual collaboration with like-minded artists. On this night, they were accompanied by Mr. Eric Rico and the white dude giving Rucyl a church hug in the back there. Sorry, brother; we weren't introduced.

At any rate, it was a really inspired show, with these guys going batshit crazy on each and every contraption you see here in their set-up over the course of the night. Eric Rico beat the breaks off his bass and the mic too. King has always been an innovative dude, and there are a great deal of us in Philadelphia who have benefitted and continue to benefit from the paths he has set forth from his home base. Personally, that night was great because it took me back to the fact that King gave me my very first 21+ club break in this very same room back in 1992. Salute Saturn Never Sleeps, and check them out at on their website.

WHERE: Le Poisson Rouge, NYC
WHEN: August 31, 2011

These dudes are two of my favorite NYC personalities. Both quintessentially New York, in completely different ways. Some young bucks may know Jeru primarily through his affiliation with Gang Starr, or his seminal classics like "Come Clean" on Payday Records or "Ya Playin' Yourself" on Payday Records.

Mr. Voodoo Ray has danced for Madonna, and done choreography for a Who's Who of artists and directors over the years. He remains one of NYC's premier party promoters. Each of their accomplishments in their respective games is far too long to illustrate here, so you should check them on their respective turfs at myspace.com/jeru and myspace.com/boogieray.

WHERE: Harlem Stage Gatehouse, NYC
WHEN: September 1, 2011

Power meeting about Jump N Funk doing its 10 Year Anniversary Party in Harlem Stage's Gatehouse on November 19, 2011. We will host Zozo Afrobeat Orchestra and provide patrons with an experience in Fela Kuti and Afrobeat music like Harlem has never experienced before—we promise. Love Afro Life!

As has always been our mission, we want to raise awareness about the depth and significance of Afrobeat music, Fela Kuti's legacy as the first Black President, and one of the most important musical bridges between Africa and "African America." It's truly amazing to consider that our event is now turning 10 years old! Thank you to my original partners Debbie Sealy and Trevor Schoonmaker for helping me bring this idea to life back in 2000. Who would've known that through Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (New Museum, NYC, 2003), we could add to the influences that have prompted the creation of a Broadway play, numerous websites and bands, and introducing the world on a larger scale to the man my dear friends and I have been loving and respecting for so many years.

WHERE: 125th St. Subway Platform, NYC
WHEN: September 1, 2011

Beautiful shot of a vital New York City MTA corridor. Thousands of native New Yorkers depend on 125th and Broadway Station for their well-being.

WHERE: Bardot
WHEN: September 2, 2011

This place is APT on steroids, but not the-Barry-Bonds-act-like-an-asshole-to-people-while-your-dick-shrinks steroids. I mean healthy, medically injected steroids that give you strength and vitality like you've never attained on your own before. Okay, well maybe not that…but I LOVE this fucking party! There is nothing like learning a new landscape for a DJ. Looking to really gain the trust of an event that is brand new, with clientele you only personally know .09% of is the paramount opportunity to make new fans. I think it's working.

Jump N Funk's 10 Year Miami Anniversary hits Bardot on October 7, 2011, all night long. Love Afro Life!

WHERE: Bardot, Miami (And Every Event I Play)
WHEN: September 2, 2011

Cats ask me all the time, "Why do you still bring records when you got all that stuff in your iTunes and Serato?"

I usually answer, "I love carrying records. It's good for my back" to be a smart ass. But sometimes, when it doesn't sound like a dumb question to me, I clarify that not everything I love is in digital form on my laptop, and furthermore, the mixing of the analog and digital disciplines is theoretically equivalent to mixed martial arts…and everyone knows that MMA trumps all specialty fighting. Combine that with the fact that a crashed computer can cost you 10 minutes of dead air, and a record that's there when your machine craps out on you may very well be the best song you've ever heard as you watch your reserve battery light fizz out, and you've got my point. Don't forsake your fundamentals for convenience. It'll make you lazy, and leave you in the dark when it's time to get back to the basics. Carry on.

WHERE: Miami to NYC, American Airlines
WHEN: September 3, 2011

Great sunset shot on the way back up north for 24 hours to do What The Funk with DJ Spinna. Played Miami Friday, flew back to NYC for What The Funk!? Saturday, then back to Orlando for Lazy Evening at SUbstance on Sunday. Woke up out of a flight nap and caught this one on the humble. Sometimes it feels like I see this view more than I see the pavement. And my family...

WHERE: Santos Party House, NYC
WHEN: September 3, 2011

I don't even know how to begin this entry aside from saying that this was most definitely one of my most validating nights as a DJ in 2011. Fela, James Brown, DJ Spinna, and I held court in Santos for 5+ hours worth of uncompromisingly black funk and Afrobeat music from two of the zen masters of the game. A swift kick in the nuts to anyone who believes that you gotta play current radio hits to control a room of more that 750 people in Manhattan. What The Funk!? 2011 was phenomenal, and well worth flying home from Miami to be a part of, before flying back to Orlando the next morning.

WHERE: SUbstance, Orlando
WHEN: September 4, 2011

I love these dudes Jonathan and Danny. Such nice people. They're running a tight ship branding their "Lazy" events, both the afternoon and night versions. This month we rocked at a great new venue called SUbstance. Rocking there made being with them even nicer, 'cause we were rocking on the owner's very own EAW system. For those of you who do not know, EAW is one of the most incredible sounds you could play on in the club. There are, of course, many others, but not very many sound better honestly. We could debate that for hours, but not here, okay? Regardless, the party was apeshit, the room got literally as physically hot as the devil's boxers at one point, and we got to rock about 15 minutes past closing before tearing up some rice bowls and tacos from Kalbi Haus food truck, which was parked ever so intelligently right outside the door to help the drunks saturate their stomachs with something a pinch more healthy than the poison they were guzzling minutes before. Perfect...

WHERE: Orlando, Fla.
WHEN: Septermber 5, 2011

Incredible healthy food to follow up your poison intake after the party. Blessed ya man with the ill spicy chicken rice bowl and some brown bean tacos for the late night before the flight home in the morning. Very, very, very good food, and even better folks. And they got a damn 60" screen outside the truck in case your drunk ass needs to see what they have for sale. Very big and digital. I don't even have a fucking 60" screen in my house! Fuck! Bangin' food too. Check for these cats when you find yourself in Orlando.

September 9 (11:30 p.m. — 3:30 a.m.)
Brooklyn Bowl w/ The Marksmen
61 Wythe Ave.
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
21+
$5

Brooklyn Bowl is one of the most unique and ambitious venues in New York. To be brought in there as a DJ to rock such a big room on a monthly basis is an honor and a challenge that I welcome with open arms. As much as I trend toward smaller rooms, I really enjoy this party because I get to rock alongside my partner in crime, Mark Hines, who will rip your video guy's head off. Trust me. If you doubt it, come check us and see for yourself. I'm beyond positive you will agree. BK let's go!

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September 10 (9 p.m.—2 a.m.)
Funkin Right w/Nappy DJ Needles
Lola
500 North 14th St.
St. Louis
21+
$10