My peoples,

Damn it was a hot summer. Combination of the CARTE BLANCHE REVUE tour and BUSY P+DJ MEHDI adventures kept me on the road almost non-stop since June and lack of updates here or there can attest.

Nevertheless, in partnership with the good blokes at TSUGI MAGAZINE, I have the pleasure to offer you this new SUMMER MIXTAPE, mixed live at Paris Social Club in August.
It’s that usual mixtape momentum that you guys know I like: starting quite slow, creeping up to a couple of current favourite hits, and finishing with a classic throwback and a Hip-Hop tune. 2011 Time Capsule business. Here’s the tracklist:

Last but not least, this mix is, quite humbly, dedicated to the people of my ancestors country, TUNISIA, for obvious reasons.

Also, shout-out to my 2011 summer crew, from Paris to Toulouse, NYC to LA, and Bali to Tokyo.

Love always,

Mehdi.

Shamelessly reposting these from Questlove’s twitter, but DAMN how good are they!??

PARLIAMENT is possibly the best black music act of all time (of ALL TIME!), it’s about time they get a proper Cool Cats coverage.

Soon, soon, soon—

M.

DEAR SUMMER: 33 MINUTES OF SUNSHINE by DJ Mehdi

DOWNLOAD HERE

JAY-Z ‘Dear Summer’ Quick Intro
FLYING LOTUS ‘A Cosmic Drama’
NINA SIMONE ‘Summertime’ INTERLUDE
DJ SDUNKERO ‘Choosing Love’
L-VIS 1990 ‘Forever You’
CHROMEO ‘Don’t Turn The Lights On’ CARTE BLANCHE REMIX
LARRY HEARD ‘The Sun Can’t Compare’
JESSE ROSE ‘You Know It’
SCISSOR SISTERS ‘Any Which Way’ CARTE BLANCHE REMIX
GONZALES ‘I Am Europe’ DJEDJOTRONIC REMIX
HOT CITY ‘If That’s How I Feel’
CASSIUS ‘I <3 U So’
QUEEN ‘In The Lap Of The Gods’
DRAKE ‘Made’

Peeps,
In the spirit of the season, to celebrate the holidays coming to an end, and to announce my ALL NIGHT LONG special night in Paris on September 3rd, I prepared this little mixtape (photo and artwork by So-Me. Yes, that’s me swimming in there).

You might know how I do now: a bit of rap, a lot to dance to, some new, some old, everything black party music. And a couple of Carte Blanche exclusives, peace to my main man Riton.

It’s called DEAR SUMMER: 33 MINUTES OF SUNSHINE. I had much, much fun mixing this, I hope you like it as much as I do.
Please play loud, share, tweet, retweet, blog, and let your neighbours know.

Again: DOWNLOAD HERE

From France, with love, your caring DJ,
Mehdi.

This is a response to So-Me’s excellent post about Nino Rota.

Peeps,

The subject of narration in music (and with music) is fascinating to me.

In that respect, the narrative structure of HBO series THE WIRE (especially season 1) is a very interesting example. If you watch carefully, the only music you’ll hear is “diegetic”, which means you’re hearing it because the characters in the scene are hearing it (with the exception of the opening theme). A car blasts a Mos Def track. There’s funeral music at a wake. A band plays in a bar. That’s it. There’s no soundtrack, no ‘overheard’ sounds, no illustration of a feeling, or of an atmosphere. It’s all, well, “real within the fiction”, indeed adding a realistic effect to what you’re seeing. No artifacts.

Which is, of course, the exact opposite of how music is often used in modern cinema, especially in MARTIN SCORSESE movies (I understand that I could find youtube clips to illustrate my point better). Usually, a director would use “non-diegetic” sounds to set a mood, or a time, in an economy of effects. Example: Gimme Shelter by THE STONES takes you immediately to 1968. Or, put the opening guitar chords of Sound Of Silence, and you instantly feel the disarray of Dustin Hoffman in THE GRADUATE. Even cheaper, use any rap track (or classical music theme) to step down (or up) a notch in the social class where the scene takes place.

Great movie composers understand this better than anyone else. In my opinion, that’s why it is such a different skill to write songs opposed to movie soundtracks. To that extent, it could be a possible explanation of why, say, a Paul Mc Cartney, or a Stevie Wonder were never notable movie composers – and why an Elfman, a Burwell, even a Morricone, didn’t make old rags in the pop-song field. And of course why I can’t wait to see:

Peep the subliminal technique:

I been crushin the buildin since Izod socks
I’m so independent sh.. i might buy Koch
I might not stop
Places to cop, 76 floors you can call me the Doc

Inspired by Basquiat, got my chariots of fire
Everybody took shots, hit my body up, I’m tired
Build me up break me down to build me up again
They like “Hov we need you back so we can kill ya as. again”
Hov got flow, though he’s no Big and Pac, but he’s close
How I’m ‘posed to win? They got me fighting ghosts…

Same sword the knight you they gon’ good night you with
Sh.., Thats only half if they like you
That aint even the half what they might do
Dont believe me ask Michael
See Martin, see Malcolm
You See Biggie, see Pac, see success and its outcome
See Jesus, see Judas, see Caesar, see Brutus
See success is like suicide
Suicide is a suicide
If you succeed, prepare to be crucified
Media meddles, ni..as sue you, you settle
Every step you take, they remind you, you ghetto
So its tough being Bobby Brown
To be Bobby then, you gotta be Bobby now
Now the question is, “Is to have had and lost
Better than not having at [all]?”

Everybody wanna be the King then shots ring
You layin on your balcony with holes in your dream
Or you Malcolm X’d out, get distracted by screams
Everybody get your hand off my jeans!
Everybody look at you strange say you changed
Uhh! Like you work that hard to stay the same
Uhh! Game stays the same the name changes
So its best for those to not overdose on being famous
Most kings get driven so insane
That they try to hit the same vein that Kurt Cobain did
??No dangers, so shameless??
Invited to the intersanctum of yo chambers
??Low chained em as the enemies approach??
So raise ya draw bridge and drown em in the moat
And the Spirit I’m evokin
**Mumbles some BS** Hold on…

Everybody screamin they want the old Hov
But the new improved Hov hit like Albert Pujols
Everybody wanna hear me talk that money like Phil Rizzuto
But my mind is on Pluto
Bills that I do fold, i now invest on
Tryna find some loopholes in the IRS
As where I used to have a few hoes I am just
Concentratin on makin a new Hov through sex
I’ve awaken just in time to school those putos
Tryna follow in my shoes wit jewels froze
Better adhere to this text ‘fore you go
Broke, spendin more than you’ve accrued on silly baguettes
I know silly begets, silly you’ll learn on your own
At least my conscience is clear, I’m no longer steering you wrong
Aint nothing wrong with baguettes after you get a home
Take care of your home, you can go back and **Ugh!**

I’m getting courted by the bosses,
The Edgars And Doug Morris-es-es
Jimmy I’s and Lyors-es its
Gotta be more than the choruses
They respecting my mind now
Just a matter of time now
Operation: Takeover Corporate
Makeover offices-es-es then takeover all of it
Please may these words be recorded
To serve as testimony that i saw it all before it
Came to fruition, sort of a preminition
Uncontrollable, hustler’s ambition
Alias, SUPERSTITION, like Stevie
THE WRITINGS ON THE WALL, like my lady, right BB
Saw it all before some of yall thought I was crazy maybe
Like a fox I’m cagey, Ah Ah!
The more successful, the more stressful
The more and more I transform to Gordon Gekko
In the race to a billion got my face to the ceiling
Got my knees on the floor plz Lord forgive him
Has he lost his religion, is the greed gon’ get him?
He’s having heaven on earth, will his wings still fit him?
I got the Forbes on my living room floor
And I’m still talkin to the poor, ni..a I want more
TIME’s most influential, was impressive
‘Specially since, I wasnt in the artist section
Had me with the builders and the titans
Had me right with Rupie Murdoch
Billionaire Boys and some dudes you never heard of
Word up on Madison Ave, is I’m a Cash cow
Word down on Wall Street homie, you get the cash out
IPO Hov no need for reverse merger
The boy money talk no need to converse further
The baby blue Maybach like I own Gerber
Boardroom I’m liftin ya skirt up