Good pal Sampology promised me he’d make a video to my stupid edit of the dumbest Jay-Z verse of all time. A few months passed and Sam came good on his promise.
This video is truly wonderful and in three days it’s gotten more than 16,000 views. Hopefully Jay-Z records more songs about pastries this year!
People have been saying some wildly negative things about 2013 on social media in the last month. There’s even a NYE party in Georgia called #Fuck2013, which boasts free drinks all night and “everything u need”, according to @Osama_BinFuckin on Twitter.
But you won’t catch me pounding free alcopops at #Fuck2013 this year. Flights to Riverdale were just too expensive and more importantly, I loved 2013. Bianca and I got married this year, went on two huge holidays and have spent the last few months awaiting the birth of our first son (our number one name for him so far is Osama BinFuckin).
“Good for you, dickhead! My 2013 sucked! I got divorced, smoked two packets of holidays and my son hates me!” I hear you man, and I’m sorry to hear that. Maybe one of these eight mixes I made this year will cheer you up.
THE SOUNDTRACK 2 DA WEDDING
We went all out for our wedding in April, spending the three months beforehand making decorations, desserts and dresses that added a personal touch to our big day. We wanted our friends to take home something once the wedding was over, so I made an activity book and a mix which we gave to all our guests.
The mix is a collection of dorky love songs that we have both been obsessed with over the five years we’ve been together. Songs we yell at each other in the car or have forced our friends to listen to at 5 in the morning.
CRISP FOREVER
I made this mix for Vanishing Elephant and it’s probably the best mix from start to finish that I’ve ever made. Highly emotional r&b and rap. Some good grinding anthems. The intro is me being a dickhead with the intro from Rick Ross’s Rich Forever mixtape.
DO THE DIP VOLUME 2
Our restaurant The Dip turned two this year! This mix is a follow up to Do The Dip Volume 1, made in 2012 when The Dip turned one. This is the opposite of the low tempo vibes on Crisp Forever. Do The Dip Volume 2 is nothing but upbeat club rap, the kinda tunes we blast in the kitchen when we’re busy. There’s a tonne of DJ Mustard on here.
THE LAST LOVE KINGS
Love Kings, the semi-regular R&B night that I ran with Radge over the last three years, had its last hurrah in August this year, just before Radge moved overseas. This mix is a few new R&B songs I was feeling with a lot of R&B hits from the last couple of years that were felt very deeply at Love Kings. This is my most listened to mix ever! I should end my parties more often.
This is a bigger and better sequel to my 2011 Love Kings Mix.
KOOL DAD FM by Levins on Mixcloud
KOOL DAD FM
Another team up! This time for the Halfway Crooks & Hoops Xmas party at Goodgod (which was last weekend and was incredible!). The Wamp Wamp mix was 3 DJs putting together 20 minute mixes, this mix is 6 DJs putting together 10 minutes mixes! Anna Lunoe, Nina Las Vegas, Bad Ezzy, Captain Franco, Elston and me, throwing down a quick mix featuring some of our favourite songs of 2013. Hosted by Google Text 2 Speech, the hottest MC of the year.
GOODGOD NYE PROM HITS
My 8th and final mix of 2013 is a mix I made to promote the crazy concept of the Goodgod NYE Prom, a party that’s an 80’s Homecoming Prom in the front and a Jiggy 2001 Year 10 Formal out the back. The mix is half 80’s soul and half early 2000’s R&B. It’s some smooth listening and acts as a taste of the smoothness you can expect at Goodgod on New Years Eve! Buy yourself a ticket to the prom here.
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There you go! Eight mixes in one year! A personal best, even if you take out the collaborative mixes (which you shouldn’t, because they’re great!). Please share these with everyone you know who likes kool music and I’ll try to make even more mixes in 2014.
Let me know which mix is your favourite and which mix you’d like a sequel to in the comments! I promise that 4 MILLION IQ, the long awaited sequel to 1 MILLION IQ and 2 MILLION IQ, will drop early next year. Thanks for listening!
Yup – yet another mix! But this one is to give you a better idea of what to expect at the Goodgod NYE Prom. That’s right, we’re doing a Prom at Goodgod this New Years Eve. Better than that – we’re doing TWO PROMS!
It’s a 1988 Homecoming Prom in the front bar and a Jiggy Year 10 Formal out the back, so I tried to make a mix that represents both rooms, like something a fickle partier would hear as they walked in between each room. This is a mix of 1980’s soul and some R&B heaters from the late 90s / early 2000’s. Nothing too banging, just some smooth grooves to get u in the mood.
Come and find love at the Goodgod NYE Prom, it’s a cracker of a lineup with me, Shantan, Radge, Ariane, Joyride and Mike Who! Buy your tickets here!
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TRACKLIST:
GEORGE BENSON breezing
G-UNIT wanna get to know you
ZAPP & ROGER i want to be your man
CHRISTION feat JAY Z bring back your love
504 BOYZ feat MERCEDES i can tell
AL B SURE nite and day
DJ DMD feat LIL’ KEKE and FAT PAT 25 lighters
HOT BOYS feat BIG TYMERS neighborhood superstar
BITS & PIECES don’t stop the music
AALIYAH if your girl only knew (TIMBALAND extended mix)
NEW EDITION mr telephone man
LIL’ FLIP sunshine
PHARRELL WILLIAMS frontin’
MTUME juicy fruit
FABOLOUS & JAGGED EDGE trade it all
Just in time for our X-MAS BLOW OUT party at Goodgod this Saturday night is the HALFWAY CROOKS x HOOPS BEST OF 2013 MIX. Nina Las Vegas, Captain Franco, Anna Lunoe, Bad Ezzy, Elston and I selected ten minutes worth of our favourite tracks of 2013 and put them all together. Our good (and very famous) friend Google Text 2 Speech hosted the mix for us and the tracklist is GINORMOUS! Read it all after the jump!
Come see us all DJ back to back, front to front and side to side this Saturday night as we take over all of Goodgod Small Club from 10pm till the bloody sun comes up!
TRACKLIST
ANNA LUNOE MINI MIX
BEYONCE we like to party (SAMPOLOGY remix)
SWIZZYMACK drip
DJ FRESH VS DIPLO earthquake
ASTRONOMAR careless earthquake
RIHANNA birthday cake (KIDD SPIN edit)
KENDRICK LAMAR backseat freestyle
BUSTA RHYMES twerk it
TRIPPY TURTLE only wanna give it to you
DJEMBA DJEMBA stahp
DRAKE worst behaviour
LEVINS MINI MIX
LIL’ WAYNE rich as fuck
PARA ONE every little thing remix instrumental
KEY! guess who
2 CHAINZ where you been
KINGDOM feat KELELA bank head
MIGOS hannah montana
RICH HOMIE QUAN type of way
CIARA feat FUTURE body party remix
BAD EZZY MINI MIX
JUSTIN BIEBER hold tight
CANBLASTER i see you
KOWTON and whut (KAHN GYAL-DEM edit)
TODDLA T SOUND worst enemy
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE feat PUSHA T, J COLE & A$AP ROCKY tok remix
CAPTAIN FRANCO MINI MIX
YO GOTTI act right
TY DOLLA $IGN paranoid
KID INK feat CHRIS BROWN show me
AUGUST ALSINA feat IAMSU! numb
SNOW THE PRODUCT feat TY DOLLA $IGN don’t judge me
T-PAIN up & down
NINA LAS VEGAS MINI MIX
KELELA go all night
CASHMERE CAT do you…
GANGSTA BOO & SINJIN HAWKE yea hoe
DANNY BROWN smokin’ and drinkin’
M.I.A. y.a.l.a. (MIKEQ bootleg)
MAJOR LAZER bubble butt (DJ SLIINK x BIG O jersey club remix)
TA-KU closet drake fans
WAVE RACER my boo
JUSTIN BIEBER roller coaster
ELSTON MINI MIX
DOM KENNEDY & NIPSEY HU$$LE checc me out
DRAKE come thru
DEVIN THE DUDE probably should have
2 CHAINZ feds watchin
SLEEPY BROWN some of that
Oh cool, it’s the end of the year already! Fuck you 2013! Thanks for nothing! Except these many fine parties and events that I will be at before the year is out, starting with Crooks this weekend and right through to New Years Eve!
HALFWAY CROOKS / SAT 7th DECEMBER
Crooks is back again for the last time in 2013 and won’t be back until February 2014! Come celebrate as me, Franco and Elston play the best raps from the year at Phoenix.
HOME ALONE TRIVIA / WED 18th DECEMBER
I’m hosting a trivia night at Goodgod for one of the best movies ever made, Home Alone, and will include more than just a few questions from Home Alone 2, while ignoring both Home Alone 3 and Home Alone 4. Come get a Christmas banquet at The Dip (compete with highly nutritious microwavable macaroni and cheese) and join in on the trivia. Make sure you go easy on the Pepsi.
WAKA FLOCKA FLAME / FRI 20th DECEMBER
Halfway Crooks are supporting Waka Flocka Flame! I’m so amped for this show. Make sure you check out this playlist I made of all my favourite Waka jams.
HALFWAY CROOKS x HOOPS XMAS BLOW OUT
Crooks and Hoops team up to take over all of Goodgod for a Christmas miracle to end all Christmas miracles! Five of my favourite DJs and people playing back to back with yours fucken truly. Merry Christmas indeed.
And finally – the last party for 2013 – the Goodgod NYE Prom! Double Prom even! We’ve got a 1988 Homecoming Prom in the front bar, channeling the sweet sounds of our bi-centennial and then in the back things are getting sweaty with a Jiggy 2001 Year 10 Formal playing nothing but R&B and rap classiques. Prizes, champagne and grinding will feature heavily in what is sure to be a top notch send off to a damn good year.
WAMP WAMP RETURNS: THE EPIC THROWBACK MIX BY LEVINS, KATO AND TRANTER!
Wamp Wamp returns to Goodgod Small Club on November 16th!
FOLLOW KATO AT: @barnee-kato
FOLLOW TRANTER AT: @tranter
COME TO OUR PARTY! www.facebook.com/events/254506658034353/
~~~~TRACKLIST AFTER THE JUMP~~~~
~~LEVINS MINI MIX~~
*WAVEY DAVEY B INTRO*
THE GAME how we do
PITBULL bojangles
CIARA goodies
THE PACK at the club
E-40 feat KEAK DA SNEAK tell me when to go
GHOSTFACE KILLAH charlie brown (DJ ORGASMIC remix)
JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE my love (ROCTAKON remix)
CRYSTAL CASTLES crimewave
LADYTRON seventeen
HOT CHIP ready for the floor
MU paris hilton
SPANK ROCK bump (SWITCH remix)
CAPLETON fireman’s anthem
JUICEBOXXX AND DRE SKULL sweat
ISAAC DJ jiu jitsu
BONDE DO ROLE soltao frango
ZOMBIE NATION kernkraft 400 (funk version)
BENGA night
MIKE JONES feat SLIM THUG & PAUL WALL still tippin
~~~KATO MINIMIX~~~
SPANK ROCK backyard betty
E-40 white gurl (U-TERN remix)
DEMA vs AALIYAH 1000000
MODESELEKTOR feat SASHA PERERRA silikon
DIEZE TIGRONA injecao tnt
DJ TECHNICS my life extra
ROD LEE latin groove
KANO i’m ready
THE COUNT & SINDEN beeper
EL GUINCHO kalise (MUMDANCE remix)
CIARA ride (SO SHIFTY remix)
~~TRANTER MINIMIX~~
YING YANG TWINS feat PITBULL shake
CUT COPY saturdays
BUMBLEBEEZ rio
ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI heart it races (A-TRAK remix)
INTERPOL evil
BLAQSTARR supastar
KINGS OF LEON taper jean girl
COUSIN COLE chicken monkey rhino goose
THE COUNT & SINDEN beeper
THUNDERHEIST suenos dulces
YO MAJESTY club action (CHRIS BAGRAIDERS remix)
TIM AND ERIC sit on you
HIGH POWERED BOYS hoes get down
BONDE DO ROLE office boy (SHIR KAHN remix)
THE RAPTURE out of the races and onto the tracks
KEAK DA SNEAK super hyphie (remix)
M.I.A. galang
THE PACK vans
THE AVALANCHES electricity
*WAVEY DAVEY B OUTRO*
THE CLIPSE wamp wamp (SAMMY BANANAS remix)
DUST OFF YOUR FLURO PANTS, WAMP WAMP IS BACK!
WAMP WAMP RETURNS
w/ KATO, LEVINS & TRANTER
Saturday November 16th at Goodgod Small Club
In the Summer of 2006, DJ pals Kato and Levins (then known as Sleater Brockman) teamed up and put on a weekly Thursday night party at the tiny Bright’n Up Bar on Oxford St in Sydney. Their music brief was simple: only play genres with stupid names. The party was called WAMP WAMP.
Partygoers quickly became devoted fans of the mix of Crunk, Baltimore Club, Baile Funk and Hyphy that was played at Wamp Wamp each week, and were treated to guest sets from members of Ro Sham Bo, Bang Gang, Bag Raiders and other local legends. One insane night we were lucky enough to get Diplo to come play a set on which was easily the most packed night Bright’n Up Bar had ever seen.
Meanwhile, in the country town of Melbourne, our dawg Tranter was DJing at every single party there was, from Favela Rock to Fashion Keyboard, playing the same rad shit we played at Wamp Wamp. He was even in a band called Gameboy/Gamegirl whose songs we played every week!
We’re now headed into the summer of 2013/14, which means that Wamp Wamp was SEVEN YEARS AGO. What the fuck seriously. Let’s celebrate this pointless milestone by bringing this party back with LEVINS, KATO and special guest TRANTER!
Dig up an old Modular tshirt, dye your hair neon and come pump your fist as we pay homage to one of the best eras for new club music ever. Wamp Wamp is back!
Earlier in the year I was asked to give a talk at a Tedx event at the Northern Sydney Institute. Without hesitating (also without having ever watched a Ted Talk in my life) I said yes, opting to speak about the music workshops we run with Heaps Decent and the lessons young kids can learn through hip hop. Basically I wanted to focus on all the positives that can come out of using rap as a teaching tool.
I spoke about using rap to improve reading and writing skills through repetition, this was brought to my attention last year by a friend and speech pathologist Georgina Smith, who was in Wilcannia at the same time as us in 2012, running workshops at the Central School. She forwarded some relevant essays my way, in particular this one which I referenced a few times in my talk.
I love rap and so does almost every kid in high school and primary school. It seems to be a taboo in most schools, a bad influence that parents and teachers refuse to understand. We get incredible results using rap in our Heaps Decent workshops, from the short term bursts of confidence and teamwork to the long term improvement of reading and writing skills.
The Ted Talk was a great opportunity to focus on the educational side of Heaps Decent (and rap music!) and find case studies that backed up our personal experiences working with young people. I’m keen to explore this further and hopefully give more talks on the subject. Hopefully I can encourage teachers to further their knowledge of rap instead of ignoring it completely!
If you want to find out more about Heaps Decent head to our website. To speak with me further about using rap in the classroom – or maybe even Heaps Decent coming to your classroom – email me! Levins at heaps decent dot com.
Thanks to everyone at Tedx and the Northern Sydney Institute for giving me the opportunity to talk at length about something I love in front of a room full of people. I hope the video finds its way to the computer screen of someone who can gain something from it.
Originally posted on You Only Live Once.
The sweet tender lyrics of Petey Pablo echoed in my head as we flew into Raleigh Airport, North Carolina (sadly we flew in on a plane, not with our shirts spinning round our head like a helicopter). This was to be the last stop on our BBQ pilgrimage, which had so far taken my wife and I to Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia – with a brief BBQ-free stay in Louisiana somewhere in the middle. Our belts had buckled and our pores were in a permanent state of meat sweats, but here we were in North Carolina, ready to Raise Up once again.
Staying with some family friends in Raleigh (avid readers will be happy to know that we were staying with the same family that I stayed with during my 1997 trip to Memphis! How bout that!), we had some satisfying BBQ at the enormous, family-friendly restaurant The Pit, but had hired a car so we could drive out into the sticks the next day, in order to sample some truly legendary North Carolina style BBQ.
North Carolina is vastly different to BBQ served elsewhere in America. Pork is the focus here – and not just shoulders and ribs. In North Carolina they slowly smoke whole hogs, remove all the bones and then chop all the tender meat up, before drowning the meat in a thin and spicy vinegar sauce. Spoiler alert: this was my favourite style of BBQ that we had all trip.
“Can we have some bread” I asked the waitress at Wilber’s BBQ in Goldsboro, two hours out of Raleigh. “No bread, sorry” she said as she plonked a basket full of deep fried golden curls on our table, “we do hush puppies instead” – and so began our lunch at the best BBQ spot we visited in America. A chequered tablecloth, an endless cup of Dr Pepper and a papered basket, stacked high with perfectly fried hush puppies.
In the middle of the table were packets of butter, intended to be spread on the hush puppies. Buttering deep fried cornmeal? Wilber’s was not fucking around.
We ordered a combination plate, which came with a vinegary mashed potato salad, a finely chopped, vinegary slaw and a huge serve of finely chopped, vinegary pork, fresh from out of the smokehouse. If the hush puppies weren’t so crunchy, you wouldn’t need to chew any of this meal. The pork was tenderer than a Drake album, with the Wilber’s signature sauce supplying the perfect amount of vinegar tang and cayenne pepper spice. It was great on it’s own, even better when eaten in between mouthfuls of potato and slaw. We polished the plate off in no time and knew that we had to order a pork sandwich as well, so as not to anger the BBQ Gods.
A minute passes and a humble little sandwich arrives on our table. A hot, sugary roll filled with pork and slaw. Even on this 100 degree day, the warmth from the roll is cozy. The pork and slaw, exactly the same as the pork and slaw served on the combination plate, tastes even better in the roll. This is a perfect little sandwich, and each loud, spicy vinegar burp on the 2 hour drive back home reminds us of our incredible meal, and of what a terrible person I am.
Before we left Wilber’s I took a walk around the back of the restaurant, through the many piles of kindling, and introduced myself to the staff manning the smokehouse. I pulled out the unicorn card – “Hi I’m an Australian who loves BBQ can I please go in that big smokey room?” and was greeted with high fives and a short guided tour of the huge smokehouse. There were some 50 pigs being smoked at the one time! I took a few pictures and actually considered getting this one printed up as a set of postcards:
What a beautiful view.
The next day we were laughed at by our host for wanting to drive even further for our next meal. “You wanna take a four hour round trip just for lunch?” he exclaimed as we snuck out the back door and embarked on a four hour round trip just for lunch. It amused me that in 2 days of being in North Carolina we had visited two towns that he hadn’t even considered visiting in the two years he’d lived there. Such was our passion for BBQ!
We passionately drove for 106 miles until we got to Ayden, home of The Skylight Inn. A sign welcomes our arrival that announces “If it’s not cooked with WOOD – It’s not BBQ”, one of the few facts that BBQ spots all over America would probably agree on.
For many reviewers who aren’t from Texas, The Skylight Inn is thought to be BBQ capital of America – the owners even built a replica of Capitol Hill on top of their roof to announce this.
Inside The Skylight Inn is a stark contrast to the colourful, family friendly vibe of Wilber’s. White walls, a small amount of paraphernalia from the restaurant’s long history and complete silence, save for the constant chopping of the chef in the kitchen, making his way through whole smoked pigs with two huge cleavers. The old man behind the counter stares at us with cold eyes that say “don’t even try and say a thing to me or my staff besides your order!” Not even my Australian accent can get me a smile. These guys have probably never heard of a unicorn.
We order a barbecue tray, the most unique way of serving BBQ we’ve ever seen. A small tower of trays stacked on top of each other. Down the bottom is pork, which is not quite as tender and tasty at Wilber’s was but it has pieces of crunchy skin mixed through the meat which is an amazing vibe. On top of the pork is a big piece of corn cake, an incredible take on corn bread made with lard, based on a family recipe from 1830! At the top of the tower is a tray full of pale, vinegary slaw, with a plastic fork wedged inside. A few bottles of BBQ sauce adorn the table.
Break off a piece of the corn cake, top it with pork and slaw, add some sauce, eat. Speak too loudly about how good the food is, get glared at by the long line of people who have come to order an unbelievable amount of pork takeaway. We had heard legends of this place, we heard almost nothing while we were inside. We tasted some damn good BBQ though, further testament to my decision that North Carolina style BBQ is the BBQ for me.
Before we hop back in to our car and complete our four hour round trip just for lunch, we pop into a thrift store across the road. “Oh did you eat at Skylight for lunch?” asks the large, mysterious shop owner – “I don’t think it’s very good”. We counter his argument for about 10 seconds before he admits that he just doesn’t like BBQ, and we suddenly realise what your average Yelp reviewer looks like.
The next day we flew to New York and a week after that we were home in Sydney. During our time away I somehow only managed to put on just one extra kilo. We had to buy another suitcase just to house all of the various sauces and trinkets we picked up at every BBQ spot and diner we ate at.
I apologise to Kansas for not including you in our trip. I hear your BBQ is amazing too, and I realise that throughout these 7 posts I’ve only managed to visit an extremely small percentage of America’s great BBQ spots. I hope I’ve provided anyone with an interest in BBQ who’s visiting any of the cities I went to with a good starting point. This is a trip that I would recommend to anyone and would happily do again and again. The barbecue scene of the South is insanely engrossing, full of so many amazing different takes and hilarious opinions. It’s a cuisine that will never be able to be mass marketed due to the many different styles from each region and thankfully you won’t see a McSmokie’s or a BBQ Hut anytime soon.
The difference in produce and cooking techniques means that it’s hard to replicate great BBQ in Australia. There’s a small and building scene of people doing it properly (or as close to properly as possible given our limitations) across the country and hopefully that will keep growing. My advice to anyone who wants to try great BBQ – especially chefs keen to put it on their menu – is too get yourself to Texas, North Carolina, Tennessee or Kansas and experience it first hand. You’ll fall in love with the food and the culture. Then you can come home, write about it and claim the whole thing as a tax expense.
Thanks for the write off, I really enjoyed writing all these and hopefully will do more in the future!
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Part 1, read it here: When Levins did Austin, Texas
Part 2, read it here: When Levins did Lockhart, Texas
Part 3, read it here: When Levins did Spooney’s Bar-B-Que, Mississipi
Part 4, read it here: When Levins did Memphis Tennessee
Part 5, read it here: When Levins went to Big Bob Gibson’s Bar-B-Que, Alabama
Part 6, read it here: When Levins did Daddy D’z Bar B Que Joynt
Andrew Levins (known to all as Levins) is a DJ, chef, writer and Dad. He is behind the monthly 90s party The Rhythm of the Night, and is one of the DJs behind Sydney's long running rap party Halfway Crooks.
Hear him every week on the podcasts Hey Fam and The Mitchen.
