RSSMove Mothafucka Move
DJ Spanish Fly – “Smokin’ Onion (Remix)”
DJ Spanish Fly – “Get Buck”
DJ Spanish Fly – “Shoottriggaman“
from I’m Da Nigga (underground, 19??)
The mp3 dorkosphere got Memphis on lock. While most other underground tape scenes remain largely undocumented online, huge chunks of the Memphis catalog has attained permanence in the rabbitmegauploadshare circuit with great regularity for the past few years. I assume we can thank some paypal fat not flat German dudes for obsessively ripping undergrounds from Triple 6, Tommy Wright, Al Kapone, etc. and I’d encourage anybody with the knowhow to find and explore some of these tapes.
DJ Spanish Fly may one of the craziest (and earliest) to emerge from that scene. I’ve been sitting on this and another tape of his for a while and I had completely forgot about it until I was listening to this pause tape from a couple months back and I was like shit yeah this shit bangs. Crawling, unbalanced pre crunk/screw styles spliced together out of seven minute triggaman loops and primitive NWA and Marvin flips. It’s the exact off kilter sound that lo-fi impresarios like Madlib and Dilla were striving to emulate. Except built for getting buck at the club instead of getting wine and cheese at a headwrapian art show.
Fly was a mainstay on the Memphis scene dating back to the 80’s and apparently still holds down the late night slot on Hot 107.1. There’s a very detailed bio up on his Myspace. He has a new record that supposed to be coming out sometimes soon and will appear on the forthcoming Three 6 album. Fader ran a piece on him a little while back in their artists pick their heroes issue, at the behest of Project Pat, so I guess I’m sort of playing catch up. There’s a PDF of the issue here.
17 Comments, Comment or Ping
Mike G
Damn, that shit is tight! You can definitely hear the influence on Project Pat and 36. Awesome!
May 9th, 2007
r8r
Noz, I have alot of those Memphis tapes converted like that 196 clique – Crusafixex….gr8 post
May 9th, 2007
nick
That Fader piece was really fun to write, whenever Lex Records ends up putting out the Spanish Fly reissue I’m going to post the full Q&A. Pat also shouted out Rodney O and Joe Cooley (”They could have been the mayors of Memphis!”).
May 10th, 2007
jackson
i like that post what wtf is it with the reference to madlib an dilla being on some bougie shit? they are/were about the 2 most aloof smoked out mfs thats been in music… they aint on some art gallery bullshit… good post that had to have a sour taste at the end, lame.
May 10th, 2007
noz
“they are/were about the 2 most aloof smoked out mfs thats been in music… ”
aesthetically they do/did not make club music, for the most part.
May 10th, 2007
crimson
The beats on these bang. I’m not feeling the rhymes though.
May 10th, 2007
rexisaplace
headwrapian, HA!
May 11th, 2007
jackson
noz that doesn’t mean they are some heads that are into burning incense n talkin about their new poetry books.. hell you know what the dilla lade is?
May 11th, 2007
caf
“headwrapian” lol. Genius.
May 12th, 2007
noz
“hell you know what the dilla lade is?”
dilla’s failed lemonade brand?
May 13th, 2007
Lee
Please post more mp3z — you’re our only hope.
May 21st, 2007
Kid Slizzard
Man, I love Spanish Fly’s “oh word”… no one else seems to squeeze quite so much power out of sparse 808 cowbelling
Oct 10th, 2007
Nemoburbank
Whattup Moz… thanks so much for creating your site, because it has inspired me to personal greatness in my own life, and newfound levels of excellence in the rap music I now listen to.
http://marlostatus.blogspot.com/2008/03/dj-spanish-fly-199x-2003.html
my DJ Spanish Fly megadrop is here. Mostly complete, excavated from a post from a wacker prervious blog. Hope everyone enjoys it, because it’s pretty frickin’ amazing.
For my money, “Goin’ to Mr. Zs” has some of my favorite tracks and a productions. Was/Is there still a “Mr. Z’s” in existence?
Mar 23rd, 2008
Jay F.
Yes, I believe Mr. Z’s still exists in several locations in Memphis.
Jan 24th, 2009
william
just saw this…nice post…
I still love “smokin onion” after all these years…
I go to memphis every now and then…
Mr Z’s still exists, but is a shell of what it used to be…
they dont sell tapes or even CDs anymore….
strictly speakers and car sudio stuff…
its a shame…
Sep 17th, 2009
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