DJ Who??

I didn't stick around long enough at Sonotheque last Thursday for the Biz Markie performance, but I did discover this great DJ who was the opener. He goes by "DJ Mel" and is apparently the hip-hop buyer for Waterloo Records in Austin, TX, which is an amazing store on par with the Amoeba stores in California. I wasn't able to find much else about DJ Mel and he seems to be a relative unknown outside of Texas...but damn, this Lone Star can spin! After a solid 20 minutes of cutting some of the best new hip-hop jams, he started dropping in some sick 80s samples. He mashed-up Men Without Hats with 50 cent, Ying Yang Twins with Janet Jackson and even dug deep in the crates to scratch up some Nu Shooz. Yes, that's right, I said Nu Shooz...the one-hit wonder band who struck synth-pop/dance gold with "I Can't Wait." DJ Mel even managed to make Hall & Oates sound cool. I was at the bar ordering a drink when he played "I Can't Go For That," and everyone around me went crazy. I'm sure Biz was great as well, but what Mel put together was an ideal set for me. Mostly new, mostly hip-hop but with a dash of 80's blended in to keep things unpredictable and interesting. It's a formula that I've always advocated, but Mel nailed it down as good as anyone I've heard.