Show Preview: DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist

Written by: Mike Hogan

 

Imagine what you could learn by searching through your favorite artist’s personal record collection. You could discover all the subtle nuances in their musical identity; you’d pick out their favorites by the worn corners on the album sleeves, and know which ones were gathering dust, still wearing their price tag. You could figure out which inserts they poured over as if they were studying for a test, and which ones were simply discarded. Someone’s music collection tells a lot about who they are, it can speak volumes about who they were and who they are by chronicling their own personal journey through musical history.

Now, what if that collection was home to more than 41,000 albums, and what if it belonged to one of the most legendary pioneers of hip hop and has been deemed so important that it has been permanently archived at Cornell University? Well, if you happen to also be two hip-hop, turntablist heavyweights like DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist, you’d do precisely what they did, and start rummaging.

 

They searched through the nearly endless record collection of rapper and DJ, Afrika Bambaataa and picked out the gems. They found all the important pieces that laid down the groundwork for hip hop, and everything from house to punk rock that supplied the samples that begat the early days of the hip hop culture; the very groundwork of modern music.

And this isn’t something that you keep hidden from the world, they’re taking their findings on road for an all vinyl tour played on six turntables spinning THE records, the exact copies from Bambaataa’s collection, that changed the landscape of music forever.

 

This Monday, DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist are bringing this once in a lifetime history lesson to The Fillmore in Silver Spring, and you can sure as hell bet that we’ll be there catching all the action firsthand, and we recommend you do the same.

 

Be sure to snag your tickets right here.