This is a DJ mix of classic, alternative, and obscure rock blended with hip hop featuring DJ Zeph & Azeem. All Mixes, Remixes, and Cuts by DJ Zeph. Cover Art by Ezra Li

On The Rocks ---DJ Zeph & Azeem

On January 31st 2012 my friend and collaborator DJ Solomon, aka Soloman Khan was killed in a car accident in Thailand while on tour. His fiance, Nicole,  was seriously injured but survived. A very talented and loved man, Sol will always be in our hearts.

About 10 years ago....Solomon asked me to do a routine with him on 4 turntables for a halftime show at a Lakers vs Warriors pro basketball game. This was a great opportunity, not only to play in front of a big (sold out) live captive crowd at the oakland arena, but also for Sol and I to display something we'd been working on recently: a 2 man 4 turntable Dj set using all the elements available to us....party rocking, remixing, scratching, juggling, etc...

As the anniversary of his death was approaching I wanted to find this mix and post it because I really enjoyed putting it together, performing it. Solomon had a great reputation for rocking the party and his skills were no joke, but for some reason when we got together we pushed each other and the chemistry really jelled. His background with music in his family and as a bass player made us great counter parts for such a colab. This was at a time when we both practiced often and were constantly on the hunt for records to flip. Solomon was a resident DJ at many hi end, well attended parties, and was also the Golden State Warriors in house DJ for all home games. I had just won SF weekly DJ of the year, and recently had a release that was a #1 college single...so I can say on top of our collective games perhaps....In the process of digging for this in the vaults I came upon several more live DJ sets of us recorded that i will post one at a time over the next week. For me these were great recordings for many reasons, that i will go into with each. overall, they represent a great era in djing, music, hip hop, and the bay that I hope everyone will appreciate, and pay tribute to my homie at the same time. 

This recording is the set we did live, as performed in Solomons bedroom days before the game. it came off without a hitch at the game as well. 
thanks for listening
DJ Solomon - RIP


DJ Solomon vs DJ Zeph Lakers Routine (remastered)

Live Breaks Mix using all original pressings, 3 turntables, 2 mixers. Performed by DJ Zeph & Imperial. recorded live to DAT. mastered by Rafi at Studio 45. 
This is not the original cover. Real cover coming soon. I'd never seen this cover until i did a google search for our mix....gotta love the interwebs....

I Read a couple of blog posts about this one. SOME  of the comments I'm not sure I agreed with. All thought part 2 was a success for different reasons, part one offers some cool shit i'd like to point out.
This was recorded Live!! not many other mixes, especially featuring breaks are done that way. Sure theres better technical DJ's, and DJ's with better collections, but we kinda brought a good balance of both to the tables (haha) , but more importantly TRANSITIONS!! Neither of us are Q-Berts, but DJ Imperial isn't far behind. His cuts are so dope, Oh my god, and funkier than most big name dj's. The selection is what it is, and we definately weren't above playing records that weren't super rare, especially compared to a Shadow/Cut Chemist mix. We set out to provide a vibe, and i feel like that was more important here. both Imperial and I spent the most amount of time deciding on what to play. But the transitions, whew!! definately more considered than other popular breaks mixes of the day. if you listen to most you can definately tell the transitions were secondary, like a Muro mix. Where as here you can really tell its all part of a story, and seamless/interesting transitions are telling it. And again Live!!

We really had a great time putting this together, and it reflects a great time period when Imperial lived with me for a summer in SF, and we worked on music as much as possible. DJ Paul Nice, our roomie at the time, was driven crazy while we were putting it together, thanks for putting up with us Paulie!! We got a good amount of recognition when it came out. Allthough only pressed up in small numbers, and sold at exclusive locations, it was always sold out and on re order...earning an Amoeba records Staff pick of the year, and supportive comments like "better than [Shadow & Cut Chemist's] brainfreeze'. 

We used three Technics 1200's, one Gemini Scratch Master (really!!), one Vestax 06pro, Ortofon Needles, A Sony DAT recorder...don't remember how we combined the signals, this was circa 1998!!!

Break Builders Vol 1 part 1 ---DJ Zeph & DJ Imperial

Break Builders Vol 2
by DJ Zeph and DJ Platurn, Feat DJ Teeko

this is Vol 2 in a series of original breaks mixes. 
After finishing Vol 1, DJ Imperial and I had this idea to do a volume 2 using a sampler, and really blurring the lines between what was produced and what was played. When Imperial moved back to Sweden, and using a sampler seemed to be unnecessary with the editing options in what was then new- protools, I stepped up to do Vol 2 w/ one of my favorite DJ's and crate diggers.....DJ Platurn!!! 

Since the previous mix was predominantly live, and with this new concept, Platurn and I found that we were not in jeopardy of reinventing the wheel. We met up, and came to some conclusions...we wanted it to be B Boy/Girl friendly, we werent going to limit what we used to any category, and that we wanted to feature one of our favorite DJ's with the illest cuts DJ Teeko.

This format proved to be really hot, and i dont think we were the only ones to do something like this, but we were definately one of the first, and we were really proud of the end result. Being able to extend and overlap breaks indefinately really is a great way to approach a breaks mix. This is really proven in moments like the Olympic Runners kazoo mashup, or the Ramsey Lewis rock blend. By not limiting the selection to any categories we get edits of newer releases of classics like the Kenny Dope/J5 and its monster drums intro, but without all the excessive parts (the song lol). We also get DJ Teeko just murdering the cuts in moments like the Shadow/Cut Chemist numbers redo.

We had a lot of fun putting this down, and hope you enjoy listening/dancing...


DJ ZEPH

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