VIDEO: Astonish - All I Need [PROMO VIDEO]

After months of performing this joint live and dropping this in my dj sets, Astonish of my Molemen Records family drops this promo video for "All I Need"!

I am a huge fan of this joint from top to bottom.

This joints comes from the soon to be released "The Astonishingly ODD Project". I have heard the entire project already and let me tell y'all, it's bananas. The Molemen family is putting in some amazing work right now and I am damn proud to be a part of this movement!

Molemen Records! SRNC! Chicago!

MUSIC: Wes P - Instrumentals Vol 1

So for those who don't know about my fam Wes P, please read this and stop sleeping on this talent! He is one of the very few "go to" producers we (SRNC) likes to use for Scheme tracks. Something about his sound is just BIG! For a more familiar listen, you can catch him having full production credits on Scheme's "Billion Dollar Dream" track off the Same Rebel, New Cause (Deluxe Edition) project!

Wes just dropped an instrumental project titled "Instrumentals Vol 1" and you can hear the FREE project via SoundCloud below:

WesPBeats Instrumentals Vol. #1 (www.WesPBeats.com) by WesPBeats.com

Be sure to find him online at the following sites:

Website: www.wespbeats.com
Twitter: @WesPBeats

- Embrace the Madness -

VIDEO: Shoebox Session (8/29/2011)

So after a few months of crazy schedules, long nights, weeks that felt like days and just an overall madness of work, Scheme and I will be dropping the 3rd installment of our "2 Turntables and a Mic" series next Tuesday, September 6th!

This series will feature the production works of the legendary DJ Muggs. With over 20 yrs in the game and timeless projects with Cypress Hill and his Soul Assassins family, this was a no brainer for us to choose him as the next producer we wanted to spotlight for this series.

The video above was captured by Scheme last night while I was recording some cuts for the series. After 2 very long days and a combined time of over 24 hrs put into this series, the 4 min mix is something we are both highly anticipating to release!

Playing catch up...

The last 10 days have been so busy for me and I've slipped on posting anything since...

Since my last post there have been some really amazing things that have gone down. After a busted experience at Stompkee Fest, yet a dope time with my SRNC family, we had a show at the legendary Elbo Room here in Chicago last Sunday, the 21st. Shout out to Aeries for bringing us out. The week continued w/ my weekly Deemo Farina session with Kid Enigma. He pushed my creativity to new level with the track we laid that night...

Thursday marked a new member of SRNC being brought into our family. Much respect to Oscar of Modern Notoriety for becoming the newest brethren to our umbrella that is SRNC.
Friday I got home from work to shoot for Astonish's "Shine Like Dilla" video and man we had a blast! Shout out to all the artists, friends and models who were involved and show mad love and respect for the Shoebox.


Saturday night my homies Esohel and Ricky Dubs had a show out in River Grove so I rode up to the event to show love and I'm always a fan of their performances. Mad respect to y'all and I look forward to seeing the continued growth in the both of them as a duo now. Another highlight to the evening was a trip to Gene and Jude's famous hot dog stand after the show. Good times clowning in the parking lot y'all lol


Leading me into today, I woke up on this beautiful Sunday morning and began working on the next installment of "2 Turntables and a Mic" series that Scheme and I started a few months back. After hours of perfecting the mix, I got it sounding like I wanted it to and the wait begins for Scheme to finish writing to it.

I was also able to knock out a few cosmetic changes to the Shoebox, in particular my work station...


In short, I am beyond thankful everyday for the team I have around me. Not only for the amazing growth they help me with and continue to produce amongst the entire circle, but for the trust I am able to instill in them, enough to call me real family. Don't ever let negative things stand in your way. You may be set up for success but are too blinded by bullshit to even notice...



- Embrace the Madness -

EVENT: Scream Like You Mean It

The homie AERIAS invited us down to rock his release party for the "Scream Like You Mean It" LP. The lineup sports some dope local talent that includes the homie Vince Nantes, The Whoevers, The Odd Couple, Abet Speaks and of course the man of the hour, Aerias! It's as Sunday show, but an early one so come out!

WHERE: Elbo Room (2871 N Lincoln Ave)
WHEN: Sunday, August 21st
COST: $5 if you mention "DJ Scend" or "Scheme" at the door, $10 otherwise
TIME: 8p-12a
MISC: 21+ event



- Embrace the Madness -

EVENT: Stompkee Fest

I'm definitely looking forward to rockin' this music fest that has Kool Keith as the headliner!

- Embrace the Madness -

RANDOM: Priceless

As I finally snap back into that "9 to 5" mode this morning after a long weekend and a very tiring and blurry Monday here at the day gig, I wanted to share a few thoughts...

Last night I was filming for my EPK with my fam Sense Hernandez of BEAST FACTORY FILMS and could not stop talking about the weekend with him. As he asked me questions about who I am, how I got started, what and who inspire me and so forth I could not help but to think of this particular incident that went down after a show we performed Sunday evening...

After Scheme, Astonish and I rocked The Darkroom Sunday evening, amidst the intimate crowd of fellow musicians and friends, the dj who was booked for the event approached me and asked me to sign an Astonish CD for a woman that was there. Being this was my first time ever being approached like this my initial reaction was to kinda chuckle at it and say something along the lines of "aight aight we got jokes tonight" lol

Turns out the woman's son was a huge fan of ours (Scheme, Astonish & I) and sent her to get an autograph from all 3 of us. Her son is 14 yrs old causing him not to be able to attend most of our 21+ events and knowing we were performing not far from his house he asked her this favor. That was 3 days ago and I'm still completely floored by it.

To know you have people who follow you on social media sites, watch performance video on YouTube and genuinely support your vision is beyond words to me.

This was yet another one of those experiences that tells me I'm on the right path and acts as a reminder that there really are people out there paying attention to what I am doing. It brings a whole new level of pressure to music knowing you can't and don't want to let your fans down.

I would never have thought I would say that I have fans, but since I do I will not disappoint y'all!

Til the next one...


- Embrace the Madness -

VIDEO: Ruby Hornet x Bing

So the Ruby Hornet family came together with Bing to do a really dope new campaign for a new search feature that allows you to connect to Facebook. All I can say is huge respect to my fam cuz y'all really do put on for Chicago the right way.

Check out why they've been making a name for themselves at their home base here:
RUBY HORNET SITE

EVENT: Shine In The Dark

The homie Ill Legit invited us down to rock this event at The Darkroom (2210 W Chicago Ave) this Sunday, August 14th. Definitely looking forward to this event as I got some fam that will also grace the stage such as the lovely duo of voices that go by SevenSevenThree and the homie DJ Ambidecktricks!

Check out the info below for further details:

WHEN: Sunday, August 14th
WHERE: The Darkroom - 2210 W Chicago Ave
TIME: 9p-2a
COST: $6 (21+ event)

MUSIC: What's Happening To It?

As somewhat of a hip hop purist, it's easy for me to be biased towards new artists that are coming out these days because in my opinion, they all mostly suck. Don't get me wrong, as a DJ I do keep my ears open to everything, but how many shitty tracks can I listen to before finding something decent?!?! There are a good amount of quality artists out there that are breaking ground, but it's the V-Nasty's of the world that are taking everyone's attention.

Without sounding like "a hater" or whatever you keyboard warriors may want to say to me, I am just not a fan of a lot of music coming out these days in the hip hop world. I find myself more tuned into other styles and sounds. Now, I have had numerous conversations about "the state of hip hop" with a bunch of different people and my opinion is always the same. I like the state of hip hop cuz it's not completely dead, but I don't like the fans. All these people out there complaining, posting blogs and FB and Twitter statuses ranting about how our "scene" is dead. These are the same folks that won't pay $5 at a show to see 7 quality artists on one damn bill! So from me to y'all, kick rocks....

Before you guys dismiss me cuz you think I'm just bitching, I would like to introduce y'all to one of the many things that motivate me to do what I do. All the long hours, non-stop days of meetings and all the other crazy shit this lifestyle brings to you, all of it stems from things like this. I get inspired to keep my personal movement going forward when I see stuff like this.

I'm not one to rant and talk shit over the interwebs much, minus the random Twitter post of free speech haha, but I would like to use this chick V-Nasty as a sign for all you folks out there complaining about "our state of music". You wanna keep dissing the sales of albums by not purchasing? MORE V-NASTY! You wanna not support a live show because it costs $10 at the door? MORE V-NASTY! You wanna keep talking about a change when all you do is spend your rent money at the club on bottle service only to listen to the same 7 whack ass songs you heard on the way there and the same 7 you will hear on the way back? MORE V-NASTY! As my final salute, I leave you all with a V-Nasty freestyle.....



- Embrace the Madness -

PICS: A Humbling Experience w/ Nixon

As I sat home Saturday night after an amazing day of playing records at The Belmont Army Surplus store here in Chicago, IL I was reminded once again that hard work pays off...

I got a call from Virgil, who is part of my RUBY HORNET family, about doing a gig for the NIXON brand which specializes in action sports wear, in particular watches. They sponsor skaters such as Tony Hawk, Paul Rodriguez and Ryan Sheckler to name a few. That's a mean ass roster right there, not to mention their gear is real dope. This was an obvious no brainer for me lol

I was picked up by one of their reps in a big ass cargo van. We hit the store, I set up and was presented with an awesome bundle package of Nixon brand merch. The party was to celebrate the release of their new line of DJ headphones. They had free booze, merch give-aways, crazy sales on in-store merch and of course, some tunes to set the tone for the day...


After all was said and done the 2 reps from Nixon helped me load up all my stuff and drove me home. Once we got back to the Shoebox and unloaded all the stuff, we politic'd for a few and exchanged contact info for future events and promo. I looked through all the amazing stuff they gave me and realized this was yet another one of those times in my life, this yr in particular, that slaps me in the face with appreciation. If you know me I'm one of those cats who sounds like they are border line gripping nuts when something good happens to me. I can't help it, I am just so appreciative of everyone and everything that brings positivity into my life.

Remember kids, when you least expect things to happen, they do. 2011 has easily been one of the best years I have had in the music journey. It has easily been the busiest and most stressful year, but it's all that elbow grease that brings certain opportunities to me and I am a firm believer of my 2nd wife, KARMA!

Until the next one...

- Embrace the Madness -

EVENT: 6th Annual "We Are Hip Hop" Fest

My homie PHERO invited myself & Scheme to rock this hip hop fest in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. The lineup has a lot of my family on here including MASS HYSTERIA x GHETTO DIVISION x MATT BOY WHITE x PHILLIP MORRIS & WEST to name a few.

I will be rockin the decks for a set as well as an SRNC performance by none other than SCHEME and ASTONISH. Check out all the details and flyer below:

WHEN: Saturday, August 13

HOSTED: Pros Arts Studio x Whyknot Records

WHERE: Dvorak Park
(In the back fields)
1119 W. Cullerton
1pm - 6pm
All Ages
Cost: FREE! FREE! FREE!

MUSIC: North Side meets South Side

So my long time fam KID ENIGMA, also known as M Natural, approached me months ago about doing a project together. We have known each other for yrs, have done countless events together and have vibed on a music level that was almost identical from both ends. He was actually amongst the first people to have shown me love on the dj scene when I started breaking into it heavier back in 2007. He pretty much told his crowd of fans and friends to "go check out this dude Scend" and that led to a lot of where I am at today.

After many moons of being busy and finally being able to sync our schedules, we started the "Deemo Farina" project.

This project consists of nothing but organic creativity. I normally handle projects on a real tightly knit work flow having a set idea and building from there. This one however is the complete opposite. We meet on Wednesdays, catch up on bullshit real quick and immediately start vibing to records and sounds and drums and anything musical. No traditional format in the way we work other than just to make good music. Even the theme of our project isn't really a theme haha...

We have knocked out a few joints already, but they are left with finishing touches that need to happen.

Last night however we started this crazy ass melody that took us both to Puerto Rico. The rhythms were just unmatched. Kid laid down the first verse for the joint and I'm really happy with the results so far.

Be on the look out for our colab titled "Deemo Farina" scheduled for release under B NATURAL RECORDS later this year in October. NATURAL!



- Embrace the Madness -

RANDOM: Bad Business Politics

Many of you rappers, dj's, producers, promoters, musicians and anyone else in the music business need to read this book! Until then I will just vent...


I'm not one to air out dirty laundry on the interwebs and in specific, not one to throw names out there but a somewhat recent incident got me really laughing to myself about how stupid some people are in this music game. I won't go into exactly what happened because I am not a keyboard warrior, I prefer to fight in silence, as in not work with you again...

My grandmother from my dad's side taught me something at a very young age that has never left me, and that's to always treat another person better than you would want to be. She said better than because she always put people ahead of herself, no matter how crazy things got. I learned to kinda flip that and use it with my business and it works. I have had too many funny style scenarios I have been placed in, so I know what to look out for. I even gave a few people another shot (which never really happens in my book) and I was so easily reminded as to why I don't do that.

You fuck up once, you fucked up...end of story :)

'Til the next one kids...

- Embrace The Madness -

PICS: "L.O.V.E."

After another very productive session last night w/ Scheme, Astonish, Panik, AG and Jav, I am feeling really great about 2011. The year kicked off nicely and being that we are now past the 6 month mark, shit is going just like I want it to, and that's forward!

Scheme was able to knock out the 1st verse to a new joint we are working and it's sounding real smooth!

'Til the next one kids...

- Embrace The Madness -

PICS: Sessions...

Taking a quick break from this session to post about my man Scheme being a beast with his work ethic, it's obvious in his music...



- Embrace the Madness -

FASHION: Be Nerdy

For over 2 yrs now I have been a huge fan of The Nerdy Brand Clothing line! I discovered them online via like Twitter or Facebook and linked up with one of the founders PromoKid and got my 1st taste of their gear.

My man hooked me up with a couple of T's and some buttons and the first day I wore one of the T's I was being stopped on the street by people loving the logo and general idea of the design...


http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Since then I have always supported their brand in spending $$ on it rather than asking for a hook up, even tho my dude PromoKid does look out lol
I dig their idea so heavily that I rocked a crew neck from them for my press pic shoot.

Official Site: Be-Nerdy
Twitter: Nerdy Brand

Support your local artists whether it's music, photo, video, fashion, whatever! Just do it!

MUSIC: The Creative Process

Since the beginning of this summer, Scheme and I have been working on his next EP titled "Almighty Supreme" and man has it been a blast so far.

My man Scheme decided to go organic with his writing process with a pen and a pad for this project. I can see the new inspirations and motivations in him as we sit at the Shoebox going through different ideas and creative processes...


This past weekend we were both working along side the homie Astonish on this joint called "Life That I Chose" and holy fuckin ham is this gonna be an instant classic! It's that joint that is gonna relate to everyone. From the back pack kids to the swagged out street rappers, this is that joint that has it all and I am so glad to be a part of this process.

Until the next one kids...

PICS: Fun Times...

Absolutely nothing comes close to having a scratch session where some of your personal idols are cutting a beat for you to cut samples over, nothing! To be able to be booked with cats like DJ Rude 1 and Pumpin Pete is epic in itself but to go back and forth on a session is just ....damn!

Here's some pics from the weekend...







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- Embrace the Madness -