Will most likely never get any cooler for white dude's in rap than these guy's right?

Btw-that's a Bad Brains "Big Takeover" sample for all you beat diggers out there...

-NN

my favorite video clip of 2010 so far.
dood is like a funny puppy.

SKATEBOARDING IN JAMAICA!!! LAAAAAWADAMERCY YA'LL!!! BIG UP TO LARGEUP.COM !!!

BTW-ROBERT "NESTA" MARLEY 65th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION THIS SATURDAY IN THE LES!!!

-NN

New Bad Brains Documentary coming soon...

-NN

today we catch up with friend of the Lab, Aziz Ansari, for this revealing interview about life, hustlin, death, and R. Kelly.

what could of been... lucky for Aziz

I think I remember you telling me that you worked at a DJ equipment store in Fulton Mall, BK back in the day...

No, but I do think we should let the readers know the long, over a decade long Aziz-Lab history. In late '99, I was on a quest to find a hobby that would make sure girls didn't talk to me, so I got real into turntablism and started buying mad stuff from the Lab, which conveniently had just started up. I even tried to intern with you guys when I moved to NY to go to NYU, but y'all were fully staffed. 

My favorite break records from those days: Toasted Marshmellow Breaks, Gag Ball Breaks, Super Seal Breaks, Super Duck Breaks. I guess those were kind of everyone's favorites, but whatever.

Favorite turntablism records:
Cut Chemist and Shortkut - Live at Future Primitive Volume 1
Z-Trip and Radar - Live at Future Primitive 2
Return of the DJ 1 and 2
DJ Q-Bert - Wave Twisters
DJ Q-Bert - Demolition Pumpkin Squeeze Muzak
Mix Master Mike - Anti-Theft Device.

I even still have that first edition Lab t-shirt somewhere! I wore that shit in South Carolina like it was the coolest shit ever, which let's be honest, it was.

I met DJ Craze in Miami a few months back and he bugged the fuck out when I mentioned super skratch nerd shit like the Allies crew, double click flares, etc. 

What was it like growing up in the South. Did that influence your comedy? Bet there were some haters?

Sure, occasionally there were racist things that happened to me, but 85% of the time I may as well have been a really tanned white kid. It wasn't too bad. I didn't really start comedy until I was in NY going to college, so I can't say its a huge influence. 

When I first heard of your comedy, it was that boombox video. From there, things just started to blow up. At what point did you realize, damn this might get big?

I don't know if there was any particular moment. Its kind of a long haul thing, you know? You just kind of keep trucking away and hope you build on what you've done and work on bigger and better projects. 

Any career tips for HUSTLERS?

Never stop hustlin'. When you feel like quitting the hustle, start hustling harder. When you've hustled harder and you're like, "Ok, I can take a break from hustling." Then..  YOU HUSTLE EVEN HARDER. 

Indulge the blog readers for a sec: along the similar lines: You've made it. Any specific times/occurances where  you thought: damn, I'm famous.

When Diddy and I were riding jetski's side by side in tuxedo's and jumped into a hot tub full of Ciroc, champagne, and Asian women.

There was also that time I beat 50 Cent at an arm wrestling competition at Fabolous' house. 

Also, I feel famous every time I walk into a Planet Hollywood and am seated IMMEDIATELY, line or no line. When you can get seated quickly at Planet Hollywood, then you are famous son.

You love Kells. I love Kells. Tell the rest of world, why he's one of the greatest of all time.

The man is unstoppable. You go to one of his shows and its an experience. I detail this in my act so I'd feel like a fraud repeating it, but this video should give you a taste:

Who do you draw influence from for your character on Parks & Rec? 

For some reason, Jamie Foxx is a go to. He's Tom's hero in my head - Oscar winning actor, R&B superstar, probably a club owner, and all around smooth cat. Another thing I keep in mind is Tom's interest in fashion and being a baller. We did an episode where Tom has to dress up for a club opening and I thought, what would Tom do? I knew it. He'd go on WireImage and see what Diddy wore to like a party for a cellphone or whatever. 

Who's the funniest person to work with on the show?

I could never pick a funniest person on our show, because they all make me laugh. The whole team is tight, it's like the late 90's Bulls. 

Mike Schur and Greg Daniels - Phil Jackson. Our executive producers that are in charge of the show and lead us. 

Amy and Rashida - MJ and Pippen. 

Ron Swanson - Rodman. The wild man. You don't know what Swanson has up his sleeve (probably some cured pork products and maybe some deviled eggs.)

Andy Dwyer - Toni Kucoc. The sixth man who would run shit on any other team and we are insanely lucky to have as a sixth man.

April - Steve Kerr. When they put April in, its like Kerr sinking 3's - money every time.

Jerry and Donna - Wennington and Buechler . Ready to come in from the bench and kill it any time.

Me - Luc Longley. Fuck, I didn't think this analogy through. I don't wanna be Luc Longley. Shit, no offense to Luc if he's reading.

In your TV talk show appearances, you always seem to grab the moment by the ballz. Is that conscious thing, like I'm going show these people in Iowa what is really funny?

When I do talk shows, I go in with the attitude of I just want to murder this shit. If you're a comic doing the couch on a late night show, you usually tell some stories from your act and since my act has a lot of story telling element to it; its a big advantage. I hope I can one day become one of those guests like Norm MacDonald that people get excited to see as a guest cause they know they're gonna bring it. 

Top 5 Records You Love To Hear in the Club (all-time)

Fuck this is tough! Off the top of my head, with no disrespect to any classics I left off...
Flashing Lights/Can't Tell Me Nothing (TIE!) - Kanye West
Don't You Want Me Baby - Human League
Age of Consent - New Order
Bigmouth Strikes Again - The Smiths
Billie Jean - Michael Jackson
Rock Your Body - Justin Timberlake

Top 5 Listening Albums

Here's my current go to album listens:
James Murphy and Pat Mahoney - FabricLive.36 
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Raekwon - Built for Cuban Linx 2
Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
Deerhunter - Microcastle
Optimo - How to Kill the DJ Pt. 2

5 Favorite Places to Eat

BI-COASTAL ANSWERS COMING YOUR WAY!!!!

Shake Shack (NY)
Momofuku Ssam (NY)
Kogi BBQ Tacos (LA)
Jitlada (LA)
Osteria Mozza (LA)

Things you like to do when you're not working.
Eat food. Music. 

Word on the street is that you like asian girls, true?
Look Pete, when you're famous, you only date waitresses from Planet Hollywood. Sometimes they are Asian, sometimes they not. Either way, its all good. 

GET HIS NEW RECORD AT THE LAB

GET HIS NEW DVD AT THE LAB

CATCH AZIZ IN NYC AT COMIX

Just got back from tour with Rusko, Blu Jemz, and 12th Planet...
Here's some pics from Czar Bar in Tampa courtesy of partyfoulz.com:

Usually me and Jemz would start off the night. Luckily, people were showing up EARLY, as the venues were intimate on purpose..

Every night I would roll up and invite a few girls from the back of the line to walk in with me..
-had a few dudes follow me in and I just turned around and said "sorry guys!"

gettin ready to cut the line..

meanwhile inside we were already at capacity..

Blu Jemz connecting with new fans

florida OG Pauly Crush helped mayor the scene...

I really liked this crowd. Totally open to downtempo, wonko, techno, electro, uk funky, smart-step, luvstep, and anything classy with quality bass characteristics. did i mention the soundsystem was a huge 12 foot wall?

me n 12th Planet prepping the silky switchover..

Planet lets looose

Crowd lets looser

Rusko predicts that at least 6 of the new MIA cuts will win a grammy...

are we at an MxPx concert? NO? ITS... ITS.... ITS....

RUSKO!! My man was born with the Bass Face!!

blipsters surfin usa

Probably playing "Da Cali Anthem"

madness...
Thanks to Scion for taking chances and getting electronic music into the creeks and cracks of the US and A. (Yes, when a tour is done right this is how I honestly feel .. ) I'll try to find some behind the scenes pics soon..

Mux Mool - Viking Funeral EP

Released yesterday on Ghostly as a free download...
Get it here.
(Mux Mool's full length drops March 23, 2010)

On the strength of the last post...

Working record stores in Texas since I was a kid, this was one album that flew out of the store. I always thought the cover was awesome...

check out this super on-point post about
the 20 worst hip-hop covers
you could really spend an hour, analyzing these...

via k and bg

This Friday I'm back at Cielo, and we are going BIG:

Hit me up at djsabo@solselectas.com for $10 reduced list all night long. And in case you missed it, DOWNLOAD HERE my final hour closing set from last month's party at Cielo.

Frank over at voodoo funk just got back from another month long digging trip in nigeria, lagos, ghana, etc and is blessing the masses with another mix of solid afro 45s that he found

*** LISTEN/DOWNLOAD "DANGER" ***

Man Law: Always give dap on the line.

Chloe is always watchin you...

there's a new generation of TTL trollers these days that, as of right now, are in school trying to show their friends those yabbos Eggfoo posted while simultaneously trying to hide them from Mr Schmidke.

a mear 10 years ago on a layout long gone from most peoples' imagination before the one you browse today, i was doing the same thing in his graphics class. Pete, please educate the youth and post that up for ol' time sake.

"ain't nothin changed but the numbers on the range"

miami says hello..

OHHH SHOTS THROWN AT THE NICENESS...I LOVE YOU AYRES: LIL WEEZY'S AND "DADDY'
S" #1 FAN...

-NN

Dear Reggae Monkey, it's been a long time...

-Keyboard King

was going through some photos today and found this one from last summer with barcelona's manager and celebrity dj, Pep G

"puedo obtener aplaudo de soul?"

Little known fact: Neil Nice actually invented the 1990s, all the way back in 2006.

In other news, Flashing Lights finally has a proper website. We've been putting up tons of photos and mixes plus MP3s from ripped from my record collection every Monday. Check us out!

Btw-I shot this photo of all these records for a party DJ Elle and i did called "The Killa Kuts" back in 2006, pre throwback 90s party craze for the record...no pun intended...CNN "WHAT WHAT!!!"