"thE oLd SouL" on Soul Train.com: 7 Days Of Funk Review + Ricky Lawson + Black Milk & SuCh Q&As

Over the last month, lots of goodness from my brain for "The Railroad That Don Cornelius Build..."

Q&A: SuCh-Miss Independent 
My 1 on 1 with the multi-talented SuCh. An absolute pleasure to talk to, and personally inspirational for myself, SuCh’s and my conversation covered her upbringing as a preacher’s daughter, her “light bulb” moment, early Grammy/American Idol experiences, and navigating through uncharted territory in this new age of music business independence. My fellow indie artists, you may wanna sit down and read this one.

Q&A: Black Milk- The Art of Storytelling
My sit down with one of my favorite Producer/MCs, Detroit's own, Black Milk. During the west coast tour run for the album, Black talked with me about the creation of his latest LP No Poison, No Paradise, his new creative house under the banner Computer Ugly, and his work with Jack White and Don Cheadle.

Album Review: Snoop Dogg & Dam-Funk- 7 Days Of Funk
My review of the long awaited, much anticipated calibration album from two of the West Coast's finest: Snoop Dogg and Dam-Funk. Off to the mothership... and allow this album to be your passport to come aboard. “May the funk be with you… as we toast to the boogie.”

In Remembrance and Respect: Ricky Lawson
Last but not least, my thoughts and stories on the late, great Mr. Ricky Lawson. I had the honor and pleasure of knowing and rocking with Ricky. This is my utmost "Soul Claps And Salutes" to "The Drummer For The Stars."

Moonwalking On Mountains

That breakbeat, those now famous ad-libs, I don't even think the band Mountain themselves would have guess that their 1969 live rendition of "Long Red" at Woodstock would become a staple in a totally different genre of music. It's up there with James Brown's "Funky Drummer," Skull Snaps' "It's A New Day," and Melvin Bliss' "Synthetic Substitution," as the most used break in Hip-Hop. Everybody... and I mean EVERYBODY has used it at some point. Pete Rock, DJ Premier J. Dilla, Kanye West, Madlib, 9th Wonder, Large Professor... list goes on and on.

Of course what can be said already that hasn't been said about Track 7 on Thriller. Human Nature is hands down one of my favorite records from the King of Pop. I don't know what is about those opening synths, but it gives me this feeling of flying, absolute elevation, like Jordan from the free throw line or NASA from the launch pad. Then, of course during the mid 90s, the song was re-introduced to another generation thanks to SWV ("Right Here") and Nasty Nas ("It Ain't Hard To Tell"). When these two are put together (See "It Ain't Hard To Tell" as mentioned above) it's a perfect marriage like Peanut Butter & Jelly, Burgers & French Fries, Chicken & Waffles... well you get the point. And once again, as I was getting use to use Maschine, I decided to re-flip these two classics.

Then, in the middle of a session about a month ago, I played the beat for the rest of the fellas, 3 hours later, you have what you are hearing now.

Since we didn't want to use it for a full song ("The Sample Police" would jack us for everything short of the clothes off our backs if we release this commercially, lol!), I still didn't want it to remain forever on my hard drive only for my ears to hear. So with the re-release of MJ's Bad today (its 25th anniversary), I thought why not? Captain Eo... we're ready for launch.

- DJ Chuck "thE oLd SouL"

DJ Chuck "thE oLd SouL"- Programming/Keyboards/Percussion
Kerwin Tsang- Bass
Brian "Trumpet Bling" Williams- Trumpet
James "J.D." Daniels- Drums