Take good care of you”
We are currently living in the #QuarantineEra, where creatives are forced out of their comfort zones to stay productive, happy, and paid. There have been some moves that have catapulted artists into hero status, credited for saving us during these isolated times. Instagram has become the home for many of these heroic acts, from the Timbaland and Swizz Beatz “Verzuz” battles to Torey Lanez and his virtual Freaknik. Many DJs started performing from their home setups via live streams and in the process, discovered the perfect working environment: they spin what you didn’t know you wanted to hear, without the pressure of pop requests and overbearing club owners. Questlove and his deep cut marathons, D-Nice and his viral “Club Quarantine”, Diplo and his rave nights all attract thousands to hundreds of thousands of viewers nightly.
Then you have the lesser known, equally talented DJ’s that have also found their niche in the IG Live world. Local celebrities like Wally Sparks in Atlanta, Mad Skillz in Virginia or DJ R-Tistic in LA attract their core fanbase of hundreds day and night. And sitting in the middle are producers that also know their way around a turntable. Just Blaze, Jermaine Dupri, and DJ Premier have all performed live sets, capitalizing on their expansive knowledge of music and beats to curate a night of bonafide jams.
9th Wonder falls under this category. A self-proclaimed “90’s Slow Jam Collector”, his Fass Auntie Lounge sets have become a brand onto itself, complete with a logo and apparel line. For those of you who don’t know 9th Wonder pre-Rona, he is the North Carolina producer behind underground legends Little Brother. He is also a college professor, part of the executive committee of Hip-Hop and Rap for the Smithsonian, and a fellow at Harvard for the Hip-Hop archive. In other words, Patrick Douthit knows music, especially the R&B and Soul samples he’s flipped to make some of the biggest underground hits of the 2000’s.
Six months ago, 9th Wonder released an album of instrumental beats called Zion IV, 46(!!!!) tracks of flipped samples, from legends like Stevie Wonder and DeBarge to modern artists like SZA and DRAM. Our track of the week is a flip of the latter’s song, “Caretaker”, to build the timely themed “TakeCareSoul!!!!”. The message is simple, take care of yourself. You are the owner of you, and self-care is mandatory during these times. That simple phrase is repeated so much, that by the end of the 3 minutes, the hope is you actually start to believe it. Be sure to check out 9th Wonder’s live IG streams if you like what you hear, and take good care of you.
You can learn more about 9th Wonder here:
About the Curator - Ben Young:
Ben Young lives a life of polarity. He has split his life between the coasts: half his life on the West (California) and half on the East (Georgia and Virginia). He has pursued careers in the art world (film school graduate) and the corporate world (executive with Fortune 500 companies). And he is Biracial, the personification of being two things at once.
Ben’s musical influences were formed by music loving parents, raised in a world of John Coltrane and John Lennon, James Taylor and James Ingram, Huey Lewis and the News and Prince and the Revolution. Saxophones, electric guitars, synthesizers, and breakbeats filled the air Ben breathed from birth. And being born one year after the birth of Hip Hop, Ben has been joined at the hip with the genre his entire life.
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