Justice do deserve the hype. You know the name, you know what they do—Here’s their latest, on the payroll of fashion design house, Dior Homme (that’s “Dior Man”, y’all). You can hear Justice’s new mix in action on the Dior Homme site in the ‘09 Spring/Summer fitting video. This is very similar the collaboration between Daft Punk and Louis Vuitton, where Daft Punk supplied a mix to celebrate Vuitton’s ‘08 Spring/Summer collection.
The little mix is available for iPod consumption below:
Stay fashionable. More photos of the Dior Homme Spring/Summer line, on the web at YouTube in two parts: Part One and Part Two, set to Justice, of course.
One more for good measure—in case you missed it—Daft Punk’s brief mix for Vuitton:
Justice are currently in the middle of a world tour through the end of September. Dates in Europe, Japan, US (including San Francisco). See full dates and details at Justice’s MySpace tour page.
Justice, everyone’s favorite French crossover phenom have released their newest music video today via (adversary come BFF) Kanye West’s blog. Now, it’s safe to say this won’t be in any MTV video blocks. The video is hostile. It’s confrontational. It may be a bit stressful to watch—How appropriate.
Justice get a lot of well deserved attention, and a ton of quality remixes come our way, here’s the creme: Montreal’s remix don, CFCF, London/Paris’ electro kids, Chewy Chocolate Cookies, Berlin’s electro superstar, Boys Noize, Parisian terror clubstar, Surkin & Charlotte’s up-and-comers, Your Drity HabiT.
We expect that tons of you have Justice’s debut LP, ‘†’, but if you haven’t, snap it up now or risk losing your credibility when fools troll your iPod. Get it hard or digital at Amazon.
Fresh off of Southern Cali’s Coachella festival, Justice are trekking through just about every music festival in the world. Always stay up on Justice shows on their official tour page on MySpace.
Indie darlings, Mystery Jets, have a new video and single on the cusp with a March 10th release date. The track is produced by, the man, Erol Alkan and mixed by top-talent Nick Launay. The song is sweet indie-pop with no pretensions about its intentions: This is ‘Young Love’, a playful collaboration with folksy British songstress Laura Marling.
While we’re on topic, be sure you’re up on Mystery Jets’ LA Riots remix in the archives and these other remix favorites from UK re-rub champ Riton that’s the MFin’ jumpoff and another from the insurmountable Justice, that’s proves to be some of their mellowest to date.
Steve Aoki (a.k.a Kid Millionaire)—the founder of Dim Mak Records and co-founder of Hollywood’s premier indie/dance weekly, Cinespace (Tuesdays)—is known the world over as a int’l party rocker and so-called celebrity DJ. Today, Steve Aoki droped his debut mix album, ‘Pillowface and His Airplane Chronicles’ on Thrive Records.
And what did I tell you? Aoki starts his record off with Refused’s hardcore punk classic ‘New Noise’ and from there on it, it’s three thick layers deep of partytime. Layer one: take a club hit: Justice’s ‘Waters of Nazereth’. Layer two: find the most balls-out remix from one of the biggest names in dance music, Erol Alkan. Layer three: (now here’s the tricky part) enlist your hip and talented friends, say, Spank Rock affiliate Pase Rock to put a special verse in the mix.
Now do that over and over again. You’ve got a pretty unique and phenomenal mix. Here are some layered excerpts pulled from the mix:
We’re happy to have the album to give away to y’all, but you have to play to win. To enter the CD contest, ‘Pillowface and his Airplane Chronicles’, email us your name and mailing address. Winner picked at random for eligible (follow directions!) entries.
Send your entries to: missingtoof@missingtoof.com
Use the subject line: “Steve Aoki Pillowface Contest”
Done! Thanks for playing!
Furthermore, if you want to attend the CD release party tonight at Roxy in Hollywood with Steve Aoki, A-Trak, DJ AM & Them Jeans, shoot an email to the address below with your name for free entry (quick, fast). Get there early! Flyer and full details at DimMak.com.
Send RSVP requests to: partyline@dimmak.com
Use the subject line: “Pillowface At The Roxy”
More tour dates at Steve Aoki’s MySpace, link below!
The witty-tour award absolutely goes to DC’s Tittsworth and ATL’s Klever, who are kicking off their “Kleavage” tour in Miami tonight. Expect good things from this pair of club smashing turntablists—but I didn’t have to tell you that. You already know this isn’t something to be missed when they roll through your town.
Get amped with these Club knockers: Titts’ re-work of Bell Biv Devoe’s ‘Poison’, and (’cuz ’tis that season again) ‘Titts’mas’ with the sleigh-bells and Paul McCartney’s ‘A Wonderful Christmas Time’ samples. Oh, and that A+ remix of Justice’s ‘D.A.N.C.E.’. We put it up last month, but it’s so good it gets a blog-rewind.
Klever is one bad dude! These tracks will sound very familiar if you’ve ever spent a little time on a club dancefloor. We’ve got a re-work of Purple Ribbon Allstars featuring Big Boi (of Outkast) re-branded as ‘Kryptobounce’. We’ve got a so called “VIP mix” of Youngbloodz featuring Lil’ Jon and Pitbull on ‘Don’t Start No Shit’. And, lastly we’ve got a remix of Hollywood Holt’s ‘Caked Up’.
The Under The Covers column returns! We’ve slowly been collecting more cover songs that run the gamut from awesome to odd to awful. All varieties are worth hearing! Listen in awe or disdainful laughter.
30 Seconds to Mars covers Kanye West’s ‘Stronger’ live on BBC Radio 1. This falls into the laughable category even though frontman Jared Leto delivers the vocals so earnestly. They saved the Daft Punk vocals, so don’t expect any. I’d be rolling if they tried.
File this under fantastic, I first heard do this Pink Floyd cover at last month’s Vegoose festival and was very impressed. Not many groups can come close to a classic, but the The Shinsdo.
And in that same vein, this Zwan (Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins fame’s 2001-2003 project) cover of Metal gods Iron Maiden on ‘Mark of the Beast’. Probably one of my favorite covers comes at you from the Spun soundtrack.
Next up, Lightspeed Champion covering The Beatles immortal John Lennon. Lightspeed Champion is Devonte Hynes or just “Dev”, formerly of thrash-rap-punk group Test Icicles. Test Icicles remains one of my favorite things ever. I seriously moaned and writhed while morning the death of the Test Icicles last year. But the musicians live on! Dev maintains a blog at TheWorldForgot.com, there he puts up a great many home recordings—quite different from Test Icicles, but great in a whole new way:
Ladytron getting sexy R’n'B’d out covering Tweet’s slut-anthem ‘Oops (Oh My)’. Y’all remember this original? With the Timbaland beat and Missy Elliot doin’ backup vocals? This cover appeared as a b-side on their ‘Evil’ single:
Our Blow Up parties take SF off the damn chains. Blow Up, Frisco Disco, and Robot Rock parties take it to 11 every time (know your Spinal Tap references?). We’ve recently had Justice, Uffie, Steve Aoki and are set to bring in The Glass and Pink Skull next time around on the 16th. Your hosts Frisco Disco Crew, Jeffrey Paradise (a.k.a. Jefrodisiac) & Richie Panic come to hit San Francisco upside the head. All of it’s captured by photographer Lady Meleksah and videographer Peter Noble.
We posted the undeniably good Justice remix of Klaxons ‘As Above, So Below’ last week, but remember I said it reminded me of Michael McDonald for some reason. Well, it finally dawned on me that Justice must’ve have been listening to a lot of the Doobie Brothers at the time of making the remix. Listen to the Justice remix and then The Doobies 1978 hit ‘What A Fool Believes’ and you decide.
You should already have ‘Myths Of The Near Future’ in your collection, but if you don’t you can remedy that here here. Everyone can use a little Michael McDonald in their life. Pick up some greatest hits here. Anyone remember Michael’s hit ‘Sweet Freedom’ from Running Scared with Billy Crystal & Gregory Hines? Get all nostalgic by watching the video.
Too good to be true? Probably but, it has happened; UK indie rockers Klaxons have been remixed by Parisian electro producers Justice and the result is this swoon worthy track which would be criminal not to post. Listening to it I can’t help think of Michael McDonald and the old sound is proof that we still have much to learn from decades past.
The original track ‘As Above, So Below’ is from Klaxons dreamy release ‘Myths Of The Near Future’. You can pick that up here. Klaxons are currently touring Australia then heading to Paris. Sorry folk, no US dates are scheduled at this time. French sensation Justice is finishing up their tromp around the states catch them in Philly on the 21st if you are able.
Nod to the oft-mentioned Frenchie Justice, but this blog’s not about you. This one is for the original, The Hip Hop Gangster, Brooklyn-born Just-Ice (a.k.a. Justice, his assumed name within the Five-Percent Nation of Islam).
Just-Ice emerged in 1986, and left heavy footprint in hip-hop’s sprawling path(s). His debut album, ‘Back to the Old School’, produced fully by iconic beat-maker Kurtis Mantronik, of hip-hop group Mantronix was original in many ways. It was gangster, it was electro, it was dancehall, it was New York, it was heavy in beat-box.
Kurtis Mantronik and Just-Ice met at a club, hit it off proper. Their fruit, ‘Back to the Old School’ found a home on short-lived, but legendary, Sleeping Bag Records (primarily a dance label), or more specifically their equally legendary subsidiary, Fresh Records—the first home of Nice & Smooth and EPEE MD (later EPMD).
Just-Ice’s first track ‘Put the Record Back On’ became his first 12″ single, and is backed by his second recorded track, ‘Latoya’—both featuring pioneering human beat-boxer DMX (who differs from the widely-known Ruff Ryders‘ DMX). DMX was more than a novelty, his contribution to Just-Ice’s first record is substantial, adding greatly to the entire album, and notably the human-percussion only cut, ‘That Girl is a Slut’, a humorous (albeit, arguably misogynistic) rip on an un-named STDzy skeezer. Just-Ice is absolutely the first recognized gangster rapper in NY, and among the very first in any area code. Not quite bangin’ on wax, but hella gangster, none the less:
Kurtis Mantronix has always had beats made for the dancefloor. Kurtis’ production with Mantronix and for Just-Ice shows marked electro sensibility. After the ’80s era, Kurtis Mantronik’s solo career went on to include production and remix work for EDM icons including Kylie Minogue, Fatboy Slim, and The Chemical Brothers—Not to mention remixes for *NSYNC (in their heyday), and more recently, Rihanna. It’s all part of a well-rounded resume, don’t hate.
Listening to ‘That Girl is a Slut’, hip hop fans might notice a crude sample from early N.W.A. hits regarding dick sucking. L.A. gangsta rappers N.W.A. sampled Just-Ice on their poetic ode to oral, ‘Just Don’t Bite It’ and the sequel track, ‘She Swallowed It’. Did Just-Ice inspire early N.W.A.? Definitely.
Just-Ice’s second album, titled ‘Kool & Deadly (Justicizms)’ departed from the production guidance of Kurtis Mantronik and relied solely on that of another hip hop pioneer, KRS-One of Boogie Down Productions. The pair had chemistry and KRS-One provided hard-hitting production based on the break beat. Just-Ice recorded ‘Going Way Back’ as a brief history lesson of hip hop in NY. Name dropping, it serves as a decent time-capsule of the era, or—at the least—a great track to space out and head-bob to.
‘Moshitup’ with MC/producer KRS-One is one of my favorite tracks. Just-Ice was one of the very first MCs to mesh dancehall rhymes with rap, and ‘Moshitup’ is a perfect specimen. Just-Ice in all of his dancehall-infused gangster-dom probably influenced Spice 1 and all future hardcore rappers with a streak of dancehall toasting (like, Soulja Boy who is in the stylistic shadow of Just-Ice, whether he knows it or not).
Just-Ice’s full career is beyond the scope of this mp3 blog. He has 7 LPs in his catalog and is still making music, now with the ultimately talented producer, DJ Premier of Gangstarr.
We’re wrapping up, but not finished quite yet! On Just-Ice’s 5th album, 1993’s ‘Gun Talk’ he collaborated once again with Kurtis Mantronix and the formula still worked! Here is a favorite dancehall rhyme titled, ‘Girls N Guns’.
Further reference, check the in-depth interview with Just-Ice over at Jayquan.com (part 1) and Mantronix MySpace Blog (part 2). Or, skim the surface with a Just-Ice bio on Wikipedia.
Photo credit: André Wolff
. Everyone can use a little Michael McDonald in their life. Pick up some greatest hits 
