i started this mix not out of some delusional foray into the realm of the DJ but because i love music and i wanted to flex my creative muscle.

i wanted to create what i was always looking for; a dope mix to listen to on Sunday. Something for when i’m recovering from the celebration of week’s end while slowly preparing for the onslaught of the week coming. A classic mix with an appreciation for the music still coming out today. Admittedly there’s not a lot of genre bending, or even generational too much, more then anything it’s a vibe, mostly from the 70’s; A crazy time to live in the city, to be of the ghettos and slums.

Being away at school and removed from that which i knew, i’ve been forced to reflect in a way that i’d never had the luxury to up until now. i was too busy living. More honestly, i was too busy reacting, surviving. i grew up in a city where i saw a lot of crazy shit. From the streets to politics. Some people say they saw too much too young. Anytime someone starts that sentence I want them to stop after the word "much". Once you’ve seen “too much”, it doesn’t matter what age you are, you’ve crossed the threshold of ignorance’s vaunted bliss. Your consciousness, as a decent person, becomes tormented under the weight of societies faulty constructs.

“Drink like a war photographer, we’ve all seen too much anyways.”

i wanted to pay tribute to life in the city and to music that reflected the seemingly timeless nature of class struggle. This music is primarily from decades long past and yet, this shit just feels so right when i’m blasting it; by turns letting the waves of disillusionment, frustration, love and hope wash over me, bleeding out my trepidations and baptizing my sins in their own admissions of imperfect spokespeople. Flawed role models.

Our urban centres, and the outlying ghetto’s and working class communities have been hit hard the last few years. I’ve witnessed it, been a victim and a villain in the underbelly of civility and the widening gaps between the “haves” and the perpetually wanting. With much of the industrial economy long fled and an increasing focus on soft economies of intellect being all the rage in the west, you can’t help but wonder at the even more sinister implications of a public school system crumbling under the weight of indifference and administrative imaginations poorer then their constituents.

The climate of our communities, the ways i see our eco-systems insatiably consuming themselves, coupled with a general sense of malaise and frustration that gets exhibited, most often, in the almost nihilistic annihilation of responsibility, makes me want to succumb… smoke a backs, pour a drink, get lost in hedonism. And more often then not, i do. But my malaise isn’t sated. Increasingly i’m seeing that action is the only thing that starts to sate the ravenous howling in the back room of my conscious. So action. Creation. Movement (s?). We shall see.

This mix is for people that love soul music. That just want to vibe out. That have their eyes wide but still keep their hearts open. That know what it is already. That still want to know more. It’s some music that inspires me. It’s also just some shit i vibe to. A rap tape is forthcoming. i grew up too deeply in that shit to not celebrate the rawness of hip-hop in a mix, but first, the soul tape; hangover classics: sunday.

i hope you dig it.

rob.

twitter.com/robletat