In the 10 years I’ve published Disquiet.com, I’ve been asked twice to DJ, both in the past month or so. The first was for an event featuring Annie Sprinkle, and I explained that my reluctance had nothing to do with prudishness, and everything to do with not feeling up to the task of playing music in front of people.
The second was for an event this evening in San Francisco, a book party for cartoonist Keith Knight, whose new collection, Are We Feeling Safer Yet?, is being published by Top Shelf. Again, I didn’t feel capable of DJing for an audience, but Keith suggested, as an alternative, that I put together some mix tapes of instrumental hip-hop for the evening.
So, I’ve programmed three hours of i-hop (three hour-long sets, really, each with an intended starting and closing), which will play in the background tonight at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco, at 655 Mission Street, around the corner from the SF MOMA. I’m amazed regularly by the studio-forged electronica that pulses beneath rap, and tonight’s set list includes plenty of DJ Premier, Timbaland and Neptunes productions for various vocalists, plus some less often heard edits by the Beastie Boys, Run-DMC and Cypress Hill, and some hip-hop purposefully composed without vocals, including work by DJ Krush, just to name some of the material.
The event runs from 6pm to 9pm. Humorously enough, the San Francisco Chronicle included my name when featuring the event in its listings: “Music provided by Mad Marc Weidenbaum.” I am, apparently, the DJ; I am what I burn.