Way back in March I had the great fortune of once again getting to spin some records with my old DJ partner Jules Gayton. He was in town to do a party for the launch of some skater shoe for Vans, and he asked myself and Dante Ross if we’d like to spin with him. You can read about Jules’ impact on my life in the very long story of how I became a DJ. He’s one of my true musical mentors, a stand up guy, a cool ass mutha fucka, and a good egg.

 

Dante Ross is a true legend of the NY Hip Hop scene. He began as an intern in the very early days of Def Jam and clawed his way up in the record industry as a brilliant A&R exec at first Tommy Boy Records and then Elecktra – signing and handling people like De La Soul, Queen Latifah, Brand Nubian, Leaders of the New School, and Digital Underground. He’s successful producer with SD50 – who made famous beats for cats like Brand Nubian and Kurious George, to name just a few. He went on to form his own record labels and made platinum records with Everlast, Santana, & Eminem. He is the Dante in De La Soul’s legendary “Dante is a scrub” skit from their very first album. Betta axe somebody. If nothing else, he should be given a medal just for discovering BUSTA RHYMES. I mean seriously, that’s like finding the one and only living leprechaun and saying “you know what? I COULD keep you all to myself, but fuck that, the world needs leprechauns” and unleashing him on the planet.

Now a mild mannered congenial fellow, he was an infamous brawler in his day. We may never have even met had we not almost come to blows with each other at Soul Kitchen many moons ago.

The party was a gas, and a few old friends like Bennet, Jon Perry, Jimmy Fingers, & Ghazia Jalal stopped by to pay their respects to us old heads.

Jules, Dante, and Bennet the Wino.

Oh, BTW, Jules was kind enough to give me a dope CD of some rare disco, and I put a bunch of them on a recent mix, entitled “15 reasons to dance”, which is in the mixes section of this site.