FDL rep Prince Klassen is a central representative of the DJ culture in Austin, TX. He is a true designer of musical landscapes when he is behind the decks, regardless of the environment. The man holds down three resident nights in Austin and has traveled to both coasts, sharing the stage with a number of DJs and groups like The Rub, Flosstradamus, Klever, Spank Rock and the list goes on. You can also find his writing contributions of cultural activism on both the centralbooking and fullfitted blogs. Next week, the Prince is heading out on a mini-tour, reppin’ The Austin Bats for Frank151, beginning in Calgary, Alberta and ending in L.A. He laced us with his new mix “Mi Fresh”, which is broken down into four parts: hip hop, soul, club, reggae along with interludes from some throwback movies. We had the chance to chop it up with the Prince, Texas estilo (style). Full interview after the jump. (more…)

Doug Cohen is, and has been, many things.

A pioneer of the turntablism scene; founder of a record label and open turntable showcase; one of the consultant co-designers on the Rane TTM-54; magazine editor; BBQ fiend; wine connoisseur… the list goes on. But his most recent persona seems to have stuck, unshakably, and despite Doug’s versatile background, his next step was nothing you could have predicted.

Doug Cohen makes watches.

When he saw Tableturns, his record label and touring DJ event, fold after the turntablist scene dried up, Doug opted out of the music business rat race. Starting up a fledgling watch company in 2007 on inspiration alone, Doug watched Flüd Watches grow from a tiny operation in his parents’ basement to a thriving concern in the urban watch market.

 

Frank151 had a chance to sit down with him and talk about timepieces recently; Doug’s answers were anything but reserved.  (Ed. note — the views Doug expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Frank151, no matter how hilarious and incisive they might be.)FRANK151: So, why watches? What was it about the idea of starting a watch company that appealed to you?

DOUG: I’ll give you a business answer, I’ll give you a creative answer and I’ll give you an abstract answer. I’ll start with the abstract.
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Frank151 had the opportunity to talk with director Josh Gilbert about the controversy surrounding Tommy Chong’s questionable federal indictment, along with Gilbert’s documentary a/k/a Tommy Chong that was seized by federal agents without any explanation. The counter-culture icon was sentenced to prison time after he sold glass bongs across state lines, and what follows illustrates the corruption of the U.S. Judicial System and the precarious foundation of the First Amendment.

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Tomorrow night is the 3rd Anniversary bash for NYC’s groundbreaking dubstep event, DUB WAR. To help warm people up for the celebration, Frank151 took a minute to sit down with Dub War’s founder, Dave Q, and reminisce about three years of heavy basslines and white label dubplates.FRANK151: So, let’s start from the beginning. How did you get turned onto dubstep?DAVE Q: I’ve always been into dub reggae. I was a big dubhead, and I was into roots reggae and all of that. I was into hip hop. I was into jungle in the 90s, and I used to go to the bigger jungle raves in the late-90s up until 2000, but by 2000 I was starting to get a little bored.The music that was coming just wasn’t as interesting to me. And I used to go to the Drum & Bass Arena, this big online message board, and some of the people on there posted about how this UK garage stuff was cool — I mean, a lot of people hated it, especially in the drum & bass scene in the UK, but some people said, “Oh, it’s kind of interesting.”So, I checked out this artist, Wookie. He was one of the producers for Soul II Soul back in the 90s, and then he started producing garage and two-step stuff, and so I checked out — actually, there’s one particular tune of his, called “Battle,” which is the one tune that, when I heard it, I was like “Wow, this is some really interesting shit.” Because it had the R&B influence going on, which I like, it had the hip hop influence, it had some of the palette of drum & bass and dancehall — it was just this fusion of different sounds.

From that, I started checking out more and more of what was coming out of the UK garage scene. And at this point, it was just when some of the producers were starting to experiment with some darker, deeper, more dub-influenced sounds…

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As featured on Speed Channel’s Unique Whips, Unique Autosports of Holbrook, NY has customized cars for some of the biggest names in the game. Which game? Just about all of them. Owner Will Castro and team have worked with everyone from baller LeBron James and rapper 50 Cent, all the way to author Tom Wolfe.

Will took a few minutes away from the shop to answer a few questions for Frank151, after the jump…

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Anyone who’s serious about going to the best parties in town — whether you live in London, Sydney or Philadelphia — likely knows about Diplo and his Mad Decent label/crew. If you don’t, then you really need to start paying attention to what the rest of your generation’s up to. Frank151 recently had the opportunity to get down with Jasper, co-founder of NY’s own Turntable Lab and, more recently, label manager at Mad Decent.

Jasper was nice enough to lace us with the exclusive streaming audio of Blaqstarr’s new King of Roq mixtape (go check it now, on Radio151) and to share his thoughts on the difference between retail and record label, and what’s going on with Mad Decent’s global-street chic….

FRANK151: So, you founded Turntable Lab a while back, but now you moved over to managing Mad Decent. What inspired that shift?

JASPER: I’d been doing Turntable Lab for awhile. I started directly out of college, and by the time I left, I’d been doing it for eight-plus years. I mean, it’s retail. That’s basically what it boils down to. We tried to make it fun, but the grand majority of our day is retail — budgeting, doing inventory, ordering…. I guess I just got kind of tired of it after awhile. So I’m just trying to take a break from that. I’m still co-owner of the company, but I’m not really working there anymore. The opportunity came to do Mad Decent, and that seemed like an interesting thing to do, so I thought I’d just jump into it.

FRANK151: How is the Mad Decent experience different from Turntable Lab for you? How are you doing things differently?

JASPER: I mean, it’s two completely different things. Doing this is a much more fluid job for me. As Turntable Lab, you’re pretty locked down. You’re in the office, just kind of banging it out … [Mad Decent] is a much more … modern job. I can work from anywhere. But it’s one of those things, where you’re like, “when does work end and private life begin?” It’s got its ups and downs — sometimes the girlfriend doesn’t believe me when I’m like, “No, really, I have to go out!” You know?

But I’m definitely excited to be working with Mad Decent. I’m excited for all the things we can do together. All the things we are doing, all the things we will do.

FRANK151: Is there something you particularly enjoy about being there at the start of something new?

JASPER: I really enjoy being in the beginning of a company. That’s the thing I most enjoy, actually… Building stuff up. It’s an appealing thing, to be in on the beginning and working on — not that Mad Decent wasn’t already established, but in the next year — a legitimate record label, you know? Working with [Diplo], working with the artists, organizing the release schedule, all that. The other cool thing about Mad Decent, like what Turntable Lab was, is that it’s kind of whatever we want to make it. We can just kind of do whatever we want , sell whatever we want. It’s undefined as to what a record company can be, so we can do it with more of a lifestyle approach. It’s pretty hard to make money just doing one thing — but with Mad Decent, the style can be anything. We’ll put out a baile funk record, then Baltimore club record. [Ed. Note — you can find a list, in order, of Mad Decent’s upcoming releases at the end of this interview]

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For months we’ve teased you with rumors of the Shut Skates x Frank’s Chop Shop x Steve Ellis skate deck. Frank friends, the wait is finally over. The limited edition deck is now available in the ‘novelty’ section of the frank151.com online store, and at Frank’s Chop Shop. We spoke with Steve Ellis, the man responsible for the deck art, about his show at Frank’s Chop Shop, working with SHUT Skates, and some of his other projects.

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Lately there’s been a debate over hip-hop’s vital signs: dead for years, alive and well, comatose…. While the state of hip-hop in the US all depends on who’s taking its pulse, it looks to be in good health elsewhere in the world.

From graffiti to breaking to beats, from the UK to Germany to Russia, like it or not, all things hip-hop have exploded in Europe. And anyone who says they’re not doing it well isn’t paying close enough attention.

Take for example rapper and producer Sam The Kid. Born and raised in Lisbon, Portugal, Sam has built upon the foundation of a traditionally American art form to create something that is at once uniquely Portuguese and universally enjoyable.

Frank151 recently had the opportunity to speak with Sam The Kid at Frank’s Chop Shop (where else do you go on your first visit to NYC?).

Interview after the jump…

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March 15, 2008 for Frank 151

“Not much was ever written on the topic of 52 Hand Blocks, but its previous name managed to get some ink in several publications. Jail House Boxing (a.k.a. Jail House Rock) first showed up in an article on Martial Arts in prison called, “KARATE IN PRISON: Menace, or Means of Spiritual Survival?,” by Anne Darling and James Perryman in Black Belt Magazine, Vol. XII, #7, from July, 1974.

An inmate described a style of boxing based on the Comstock prison. The term Jail House was universal in speaking about prison fighting styles and the name of each prison was used to separate each form. Each prison had its own environment and the styles were used to meet the challenge of survival in that prison system.

During the late 20’s another term for 52 was being used to describe the fight; “Stato,” which means the fight from upstate New York. Elders in my community remember this era and spoke about the styles of boxing that were born during the Chittlin’ circuit, a period in boxing history where Black Boxers could not compete for the Title but fought each other throughout the South, Midwest and up and down the East Coast.

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NPR’s Michele Norris did an interview this morning with Sunny Abberton, talking about his flick Bra Boys, violence in the Australian surf scene, and the murder trial his brothers became involved in during the documentary’s filming.  Check it out here — Norris is a great interviewer, and Abberton gives her thoughtful answers.  Worth the listen.