This month I'm reporting from the Winter Music Conference, which takes place every March in sunny South Beach, Miami. WMC brings 50,000 industry professionals and fans together to connect, listen to new music, dance, and tan together. From the minute I got into the van headed to the hotel, the conversation revolved around which parties were happening when, who was DJing, and what we were all looking forward to. Of course I gave out flyers from the get go.
After checking in, freshening up and making sure I had my itinerary for the night, I met friends at Porto Sagua, the best Cuban restaurant on the beach. This seemed to be the perfect welcome since Cuban food is like home-cooking for me. As soon as dinner was over we headed to the Tommy Boy party where I met founder and legend, Mr. Tom Silverman through one of his protégés, my friend, Claudia Cuseta from Maxi Promotion. For those of you who don't know, Tommy Boy released the debuts of Afrika Bambaataa, Queen Latifah, De La Soul, Digital Underground and 808 State!
We then walked over to check out Bugz in the Attic vs Jazzanova and have a sweaty dance for a couple of hours. As if this weren't enough, our crew decided to pile into an SUV and venture to downtown Miami to check out some D&B and dubstep. We got there right on time to catch Goldie, whom I hadn't seen in years, and dubstep sensation, Benga. The dancing continued til much later than any of us expected!
After a few hours of sleep and a swim at the Delano pool with frozen mojitos, I made my way to my first gig, The Godfather-the music of, sampled from & inspired by James Brown. Since I was the only woman DJ at all the parties I played, I had to represent at this one by playing only the JB ladies - Lyn Collins, Marva Whitney, Vicki Anderson, Tammi Terrell, Yvonne Fair and Elsie Mae. The decks were blessed by a host of DJs, including Spinna, IG Culture, Daz-I-Kue and Sake One - a feel-good, get-down.
Eventually, we checked out Carl Craig, Gamall and the Fania party, but settled in to the monster OM party with the never-ending line up. There were five distinct areas complete with waterfalls, floating DJ booths, cabanas, lounges, outdoor visuals and amazing talent. Rich Medina kept it hip hop. Nickodemus brought some world flavor. Vikter Duplaix gave us sexy dancehall and Daz kicked it back up with some jump up drum & bass.
My legs were definitely sore and my feet needed a bit of rescue, which was perfect timing for my Puma in-store gig with Geology & Karl Injex. As soon as I finished my set of Latin, disco, Afrobeat & jazz, I set my sights on a pair of golden kicks that were heaven sent. I skipped back to my hotel room with some lovely gear and got ready for the second night of Giant Step with Alex from Jazzanova and the incomparable Erykah Badu.
Ms. Badu kept us all waiting, but it was well worth it. The crowd magically parted as she strolled to the stage with an entourage of photogs, video cameras and of course security. Her performance was as politically charged and socially conscious as her record, with fists up as hips swayed to Soldier and the acapella battle cries of Master Teacher. The energy in the crowd was so electrifying that Erykah decided to take a dip in the pool. I'm happy I had enough energy to get to Co-Op, catch Simbad, and waltz to Deep for Marques Wyatt. Fun!
Ok. Fourth night and I still have two big gigs to play at - Giant Step's last night at the Delano and the Raw Fusion / Brownswood party. My first set started right before sunset by the pool so I kept it sexy and eclectic with some soul, Latin, deep house and broken beat. I also got to debut two live songs from my production partners Duke and the dope MC, TKWonder. Together we make up GAEA and loved our reception.
I slipped out to the Stone's Throw party to catch Madlib, and then was off to my next gig where I played right after OP! to an unexpectedly packed room. Fortunately for me the upstairs wasn't open during my set, so I ended up with a captive audience ready to get down. My future soul set was not going to cut it, so I went back to old school classics - Public Enemy, the Queen, Special Ed, Kane - you get the idea. Of course the place went nuts, screaming and hollering with all the dances to match. The perfect way to end the conference - paying homage to the culture that paved the way for all DJs, B-boys, B-girls and MCs - good ole hip hop.
