Shystie, Deekline, Assault

[koganbot]

Please tell me about:

Shystie
DJ Deekline
DJ Assault

The DJ Deekline mix of Shystie's "New Style" is my track of the year so far, though I gather that earlier versions of the track have been kicking around for a while. Shystie got drowned out on a mediocre track back on the Run The Road compilation, and that was all I knew about her, but now I want to know everything. I gather that Deekline has been getting attention since the early '90s, and I ran across the excellent Stanton Warriors Mix of "Handz Up" recently. (Sorry U.K. residents, those are both YouTube links, though if they don't work, you can try this imeem for "Handz Up," and the Shystie video which is YouTube but from a non-"premium" user.)

My knowledge of DJ Assault is confined entirely to what's on these two links, and the four tracks or so I've heard of his:

http://www.discogs.com/artist/DJ+Assault

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dj_assault

Detroit "ghettotech" guy, most of his stuff released second half of '90s, first half of '00s.

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

DJ Deekline = mainly known in the UK for a daft late-90s 2-step track with a sample of some dude going "AH DON'T SMOKE DA REEEEEEFAAAAA!" which was deemed v witty when I was a sixth-former.

DJ Assault = don't know rly much detail about him apart from a similarly jocular social context whereby a member of the party might refer to 'the DJ Assault mix' as the version that one might wish to avoid playing to one's Gran.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Shystie = little known outside grime circles (or at least people who pay attention to the output of Channel U), unlike say, Lady Sov or Stush. However if you asked me to name five female grime MCs she would definitely be included in my list. Also she is probably slightly more well known by the Kids With Phones On The Back Of The Bus demographic.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

(am totally willing to be corrected on any of these obv - I am no expert in any of them!)

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Kids With Phones On The Back Of The Bus

This is basically my key demo for finding new music these days!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

They play music out loud through their phones, it sounds v tinny and provokes much middle class ire in London. (I love them.)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

She's definitely more known than Stush, and was better known than Lady Sov first! She was one of the first grime MCs to get a major label deal and an album out, was cast as the "female Dizzee" when grime was still really young (ie, I was still in Cardiff - Sov on the other hand didn't come close to blowing up until way after I'd moved to London) and even scored a top 40 hit off it. Her profile declined after that cuz no one, either in the scene or the mainstream, thought the album was any good at all. (I think it's OK, suffered from the standard set by Boy In Da Corner but no worse than most other inconsistent 'urban' albums and loads better than the crossover shite people are coming with now.)

I also did a potted history of Shystie here already with youtube links &c, ahem ahem.

As for DJ Assault, I should know much more about him...I've seen him live though, it was BANGING. One of my DJ friends absolutely idolises him.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I can totally believe that Shystie is more massive in the grime/garage scene - but from what I can see I don't think she's made anywhere near as much of an impact in the pop world as Sov has, and hasn't really had the high profile (ie outside the grime-sphere) guest spots that Stush has had in the last year. Hopefully this will change v soon - she's awesome.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Oh, Sov is definitely more well known now, I was just saying that Shystie preceded her by a couple of years! I don't think of Sov as a grime MC any more though. As for Stush, I guess now she's got a bigger profile, but at this point everyone does given that Shystie fell off the map completely - but Shystie had a major label album, a top 40 single, numerous solo cuts and a lot of mainstream press attention at her peak, whereas to date Stush has had...one solo (non-hit) single of note? A couple of guest spots on street singles? Not really comparable...

[koganbot]

Deekline on TOTP f. dude w/ cowboy hat and guitar.

[koganbot]

The tune itself f. lip synching Viking.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

byebyepride ♥ DJ Assault, at least in my head anyway.

i like the one that goes "@ss and t!tt!es, @ss @ss and t!tt!es" and "h0s take off your clothes, h0s get nekkid"

shystie did a very funny answer version of dizzee rascal's "i luv u" that i have a radio rip of somewhere...

Stankin' ass bitches who need to wash up

[koganbot]

"@ss 'N' "T!tt!es"

[koganbot]

"T4ke Off Your Clothes Get N4ked"

[koganbot]

By the way, how are the YouTube links working in Britain?

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

dude, i'm at work, i'm totally not clicking on those DJ Assault links ;)

i think (think?) it's only content the record companies themselves have supplied (i'm assuming this is what "premium content" means in the news stories), but all i ever watch is tatty indie vids and bits of old kids shows...

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Yep, so far. Word on the grapevine (not that I know ANYTHING about this, of course) is that "this content may account for about 1% of YouTube music streams" and " PRS for Music and Google are due to meet again over the next few days" and "The [10th March] meeting was positive".

[koganbot]

Back on Month In Pop for January, Lex linked Shystie's "Step Bac" and "Murderation," where she accuses Lady Fury of molesting pigs (unless that's an invention of my rorschach ears).

http://www.myspace.com/shystie

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Oh I didn't see this, I just harrumphed to Kat about having already done that!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Also, did you like the new Ms Dynamite track I posted?

[koganbot]

Yes, I did, though I can't remember anything about it, and the link you just posted now comes with this message: "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Richard 'Sticky' Forbes."

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I think pretty much all the DJ Assault most people need is on "Belle Isle Tech", which was a mixtape of a load of his earlier singles that came out on Mo'Wax in 2000 (apparently it was a re-release of a 97 mix). I think he's still doing stuff though and maybe it's all just as good, more likely it's all just the same. I got it off byebyepride, yes.

The appeal is a) the beats, b) the enormous earnestness. On "B1g Booty Hoes" for instance the chorus goes "B1g Booty Hoes! And slvts too!" in a way that suggests he's suddenly realised he's forgotten the slvts and doesn't want them to feel left out.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

DJ Assault is also playing at this illustrious event which myself and a number of companions are attending :)

[koganbot]

Well, none of the four tracks I'd previously heard - "Burn Funky Bitch," "We Get Freaky," "Ectomorph," and "Caddy" - are on Belle Isle Tech, and I think they're better than "4ss 'N' T!tt!ies" and "T4ke Off Your Cl0thes Get N4ked." Weirder, darker, dubbier.

[koganbot]

Oh, upon further review, "My Caddy" is on there, as well as something called "Funky Bitch," which may be the same as "Burn Funky Bitch," unless the latter is a sequel.

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

Something I wrote about DJ Assault 9 years ago:

DJ ASSAULT "Technofreak"/"U Can't See Me"/"My Caddy"/"We Got It All"
(Mowax EP)

The other clown prince of ghetto-tech's got two different 12-inches out that say Belle Isle Tech on the cover (meaning the Belle Isle in Detroit, not Newfoundland or Virginia). This is the green one. The red one's got screwed-up, stretched-out recastings of "Pusherman" by Curtis Mayfield and possibly "Kyle's Mom's a Bitch" by Joe C (R.I.P.), but the green one's got open space almost as ominous as Phuture or Strafe back when they were inventing acid house. And Assault's eerie atmosphere is more compelling, if less distinctive, than his funny funk; his latest album squeezes 83 cuts into 57 minutes, but this EP's got genuine songs (or, okay, chants: "every freakin' day, every freakin' day") oozing out of the vagueness, then wobbling and percolating and eventually falling into deep wormholes of dub. Or golf holes, maybe—though I suppose "My Caddy" is really about a car.

http://www.villagevoice.com/2000-12-05/music/paranoia-jumps-deep/