I linked up with DJ Musa and DJ Hamadi aka DJ Empty Nest to discuss the philosophy, culture and music direction of their Blvck Ice dance party which took place on Friday, Febuary 13 at Ace of Cups.
The origin of my intrigue stemmed from a New Years Eve party I attended that Musa and Hamadi deejayed.
People were having fun but eventually the party got shut down by the police who maced celebrators and arrested some residents.
At some point I watched someone burn an American flag while black humans explained their opposition with the abrupt ending of the evening to the police.
Hamadi recounted his vantage point from behind the turntables, “We dropped acid that night. We were on acid playing the largest house party I had every seen. I remember being on acid feeling the floor shake.”
Musa explained that the house party ended when police came knocking, “One of the residents got pulled out of their house and they pepper-sprayed everyone that tried to help her back into the house.”
Although this depiction might sound like me regaling in debauchery, the response was actually more in line with an instant protest that reflected the recent dissatisfaction with the Michael Brown, John Crawford and Eric Garner non-indictments.
Musa summed it up, “People were ready to take a stand.”
Hamadi added, “When the cops were out. People were feeling such feelings of love, crunktivity and jolly spirit. That all of those high level vibrations went straight towards the cops at the same time knowing about the summer of murders that just had occurred. It was pretty magical. Not in a good or bad way. But in a real and potent way.”
Friday at Ace of Cups marked the second installment of Blvck Ice. The first being at the Summit in January. The police did not arrest or mace anyone but there was a definite positive and progressive feeling in the air.
Hamadi, Musa and Bohno fused R & B, and rap songs with electronic, house, Jersey Club, Juke and other forms of dance music to create an exciting mood.
There were video projections, and other forms of visual stimulation provided by Miharu Kato.
The sounds reflected musical direction that Hamadi had explained to me, “There are lots of different kinds of dance musics. There are lots of different kinds of electronic musics. Most of them have black roots. I see what I do and also ideally what I want to be doing is drawing a connection between the electronic dancy-ness of rap. And all of these regional hybrids. Like Techno and house which have Detroit and Chicago black roots. Connecting the dots between black dance music and electronic music.”
Hamadi’s musical background started off in Columbus but was honed in Atlanta where he lived from 1999-2012.
Musa is originally from Sierra Leone but that country’s civil war brought him to America. Musa moved around the East Coast before settling in Columbus.
He started off in the noise community and eventually fell in love with deejaying saying, “I love pop music. I also love really abrasive noise, power electronics and just harshness. So it’s a weird balance. So I got into deejaying from my dad. That would be a good way to compile the two. Deejaying just got more influx with the way.”
Musa spun first at a Future Maudit party and has also promoted various events at Mint.
Musa sees deejaying the Blvck Ice event as a method to bring people together, saying, “It’s cool to see the queer crowd, the people of color crowd, the trans- community, everyone, the punk crowd, the metal crowd, the real hip crowd, the electronic crowd, scene kids, punk, all together. Actually enjoying the people around them. It’s like a punk atmosphere and laid back atmosphere at the same time.”
