//This time around DJ Zita and I went to our respective record shelves on opposite sides of the living room and handselected not just classic hip hop records...but those records by our HEROES. Dayum, remember when you could actually say a rapper was like a hero? I mean I like 'Ye and Weezy but me and my middle school students aren't looking at them like heroes. I'm 32 so when I was a teenager there were some folks I really looked up to. I'm talking like Rakim Allah, KRS-One, Nasty Nas, Common Sense. Yo these records really have a lot of personal meaning and weight to them, some of them shaped my political wordview as a youngun, some of em straight up changed my life...and I could tell a story about each and every one, I mean my "Mass Appeal" 12" is signed by Guru, my It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back is signed by Chuck D. I had a P.E. t-shirt in 8th grade, my mom thought I was crazy. I can say Poor Righteous Teachers had some influence on my choice of profession. These are those records when ?uestlove talks about "risking your life for hip hop." And maaaaan, let me just say that me & Z both got sick making this mix, we holed ourselves up on the house on the warmest, sunniest weekend of '08 so far, we called in subs so we could finish it on time. And we also recreated 2 classic album covers with US in them, and we made a dope ass timeless mix that our grandkids can listen to. Last but definitely not least, gotta give a BIG shout to the fiercest femcee, AIMA of the Mamaz who added her intro flavor, drops and halftime freestyle to really put a stamp on it. Come and get your FREE COPY this Saturday. We work hard for the people!

//The Midnight Mix at GOLDEN has really forced us to expand our selection, go deeper, and apply more composition to our live set. It has made the music at GOLDEN better and the night more exciting. So for this month we a riffing off of the HIP HOP HEROES theme and we have each selected 3 artists from the Vol.2 mix and we are going to go back and forth with mini-tributes to each. Zita picked A Tribe Called Quest, KRS-ONE, and RUN-DMC and I chose Public Enemy, OutKast and Nas. So be there by 12 to catch it!