Sometimes, people like a DJ that can actually mix and make songs. Here is sample of my mixing abilities. Tag Team’s “Whoomp There It is” with The Rocky 3 Theme “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor.
“99 Problems with Tequila.” DJ Kenny Casanova’s Jay-Z & Pee Wee Herman MashUp.
DJ Kenny Casanova – Jay Z & Pee Wee Herman Mash Up
A buddy of mine sent me an email after seeing my new mashup on YouTube. “Wait, a Jay Z & Pee Wee Herman Mash up? Really? Are you kidding me?”
Yeah. I meant to do that.
Jay-Z meets Pee Wee. I decided to blend two things together that really shouldn’t go together. Technically, it was a surprizingly easy thing to mix. I had to cut up a few lines for only brief split second intervals to make it fit well and keep Jay-Z’s flow over The Champ’s “Tequila” track made popular by Pee Wee Herman. I only switched around a few of Jay Z’s words to make it fit. It still has flow and if you know the words, you can still totally sing along.
There is something really fun about mixing two things that don’t really go well together. There is an added shock value that makes people stare. It is kind of like when you see a bride wearing flip flops. The contrast is interesting. I like that.
There is definitely contrast to be had here. Jay-Z rapping over The Champ’s “Tequila” doesn’t sound very gangsta, but the finished product is pretty smooth and creamy. Here it is:
~DISCLAIMER: Jay-Z brings forth a bit of filthy gangsta language in this mashup and it may not be suitable listening material for Pee Wee, Chairy, or Miss Yvonne. (Jambi, however, would be down because he is a straight up pimp and keeps it real.) Therefore, to the kiddies out there, we ask that you do not be a Mr. Bungle and and watch this track, or speak like Jay-Z in the lunchroom cafeteria.~
Please share this on twitter and facebook, if you can… The video mix is simple, but gives you something interesting to watch. (I hate youtube audio tracks that just have you stare at one image the whole song. Pee Wee’s got the mad steps, yo, anyhow, so I had to share.)
Lady Gaga Song Sounds Like...Lady Gaga’s new song sounds just like… Just like…. Hmmm.
In case Lady Gaga’s new track “You and I” seems to sound familiar or like something else to you, you are probably right for two reasons. The music sounds like one song, and the singing sound like another. It is almost as if Lady Gaga has created her own funky fresh mashup for the little monsters on this one. Can somebody say, “remix?”
So after hours of racking my brain, I think that the pop-guitar music sounds like Shania Twain “Man, I Feel Like a Woman,” and the way she sings it really, REALLY lyrics sound like Anna Nalick’s “Breath (2am).”
PRODUCTION/MUSIC – For one, the song was produced by Robert “Mutt” Lange, the producer of Shania Twain’s Come on Over (as well as countless other rock/pop blockbusters). “You and I,” the radio release, which is actually a remix from the original studio trac, is now sort of country/pop and resembles Shania’s choppy guitar riff from “Man! I Feel Like a Woman.”
LYRICAL ARRANGEMENT – Okay little monsters. Here is the big one. Just like “Born This Way” sounded like Madonna’s “Express Yourself,” listen to Anna Nalick’s “Breath (2am)” and tell me there isn’t some similarity.
INDIVIDUAL LINE SIMILARITY – There is also to line “It’s been a long time…” that bothers me. I feel like that is somewhere else, sung identically, but It is not in Nalick’s song. If anyone recognizes it, please let me know. First, I thought maybe I heard it in “What’s Up” by The 4 Non-Blondes, but that wasn’t it, though that track , too, does sound a little like Lady Gaga’s “You and I.” Your thoughts? Drop me a line if you can think of it.
LADY GAGA’s “You And I” – So here it is… Leave a comment below and tell me what you think. You can also email me at ken@theDJservice.com.
With so many old first dance songs out there, it is easy to grab up one people have heard before and seen used at a wedding somewhere. Therefore, if you really want to stand out, you really should consider it important to choose a first dance song that is both important and different.
I’m don’t know you’ve heard this one yet, but there’s a super new track option out there that you may want to look at. As a Wedding song option, and an alternative ceremony song, some people are starting to look at this new tune that is climbing the charts.
Runner Runner‘s new song, “I Can’t Hardly Wait,” is about a groom who is anxious to finally get married to his bride. The lead singer, Ryan Ogren, has explained in interviews and on stage before performing this song live that he wrote this song for his own fiancé, and their wedding.
Runner Runner, a punk band from California, is finding great success from this ballad, an unusually different sound for their norm. The band’s name originated from their love of poker. The card term ‘runner runner’ means to beat the odds and pull a winning hand in the very last possible moment.
My wife and I took a gamble and chose to wait and see what was out there before we selected this unfamiliar song for our first dance. We picked it only a week after it hit the charts. From the reaction, it looks like by holding out until the last possible minute, we too picked a winner.
Here are the lyrics for “I Can’t Wait” Lyrics, by Ryan Ogren
The way you curse while we are in traffic, A million flavors of your chapstick,
The way you keep my heart captive… The Journey concert in A.Z., Do you remember we sang faithfully?
I’ve still got that old hotel room key… This is the way I feel.
Cause I can’t wait for you, to be my wife, To live this life, together.
And I won’t let you go, I need you to know, that you are my heart, forever.
And on, and on, and on…
The way you like to sing my songs,
you always know when something’s wrong.
The way you say you miss me when I’m gone.
The things you do that show you care,
you are always down for truth or dare.
Freeze this moment, let me stop and stare.
Nothing before was real. This is the way I feel
And I can’t wait for you, to be my wife, to live this life together.
And I won’t let you go, I need you to know, that you are my heart, forever.
And on and on and on… And we’ll go on and on and on
For better or for worse, no matter how it hurts
You’ve got me to hold you hand.
I promise you the world, in your wedding dress
We’ll dance till no one’s left.
Don’t wanna blink my eyes. I Don’t wanna miss a thing
I can’t wait for you, to be my wife.
To live this life together.
And I won’t let you go, and I need you to know
That you are my heart, forever.
And on and on and on… And we’ll go on and on and on.
The Gourds needed a video for their Snoop Dogg cover, so Kenny Casanova stepped up.
New Video Remix… The Gourds – Gin & Juice
DISCLAIMER: Before viewing… There is some adult language in this song.
The Gourds are an alternative country/bluegrass band that have been playing since 1994. Out of Austin, Texas, they are best known for playing a song that is not even theirs. “Gin & Juice” is a Snoop Dogg “gangsta” rap. The lyrics of the song discuss sex and drugs in the hood. I think what made this cover an underground success is that the content and familiarity of the lyrics to some makes for a whimsical and fun experience when performed over a bluegrass backdrop.
Anyhow, The Gourds are an independent band and did not release a music video for this Snoop Dogg cover. Therefore, I made my own, enlisting a few friends from Jim Henson’s house. Here it is:
Grandmaster Flash; one of the pioneers of Beat Juggling.
Before sampling machines and software on laptops that let you digitally loop a sequence on a track, DJ’s used to do something called “Beat Juggling.”
Beat juggling is the act of playing section of a song on one turntable, and at the precise moment when the beat ends, cueing it up on a duplicate record, on another turntable. This was often done to extend a part of a song that a DJ particularly liked; perhaps one that really got people dancing. Beat Juggling was also used in order to create unique compositions, using multiple turntables and one or more mixers.
It is said that beat juggling with a small section of a beat is looped using two copies of the same record was first done by Kool DJ Herc at a disco club in 1973. The idea caught on and later was refined by other early hip hop DJs like Grand Wizard Theodore (arguably, the first DJ to scratch out loud in 1977), Grandmaster Flash, and Afrika Bambaataa.
This meant that DJ’s couldn’t fire up an iPod, or open a folder of thousands of tracks stored on a laptop, it meant they had to physically carry bulky records to their events, and quite often have on hand TWO of many of the same albums!
“Scratching” came about by mistake, as the DJ was cueing up the next beat and enjoyed the sound that it made. This eventually became the artform that it is in the hip-hop world today.
Afrika Bambaataa. Also known as “The Godfather of Hip Hop” – produced one of the first major breakdance tracks called, Planet Rock. He invented turntable techniques that eventually spread throughout the world. The first song with beat juggling and scratching to hit the mainstream charts was by mixed by Grand Mixer DST performing on the turntables in Herbie Hancock’s dance track, “Rockit.” As a result, scratching and turntablism was first exposed to the masses.
