Chosen By The Funk Presents: Midwest Funk Association featuring Carl Craig and Waajeed
Chosen By The Funk Presents: Midwest Funk Association, a Prince tribute featuring DJ sets by Carl Craig (Planet E, Detroit Love) and Waajeed (Planet E, Dirt Tech Reck) of Detroit, as well as locals DJ Nola and Focus. Hosted by Bobby Kahn. Saturday April 21, 2018 at Seventh Street Entry. 8 PM Doors/showtime.
On April 21, 2017, a special gathering took place at the 7th St Entry in honor of the patron saint of Minneapolis, exactly one year after he left the mortal plane. While the hits were pumped next door in the Mainroom, the Entry’s headliner – the Detroit legend Moodyman - stated plainly, “If you came expecting Purple Rain, I’m gonna be your worst DJ,” as he opened his set.
On April 21, 2018, the same people who brought you that party return to the Entry with another Prince tribute night for the real heads and true fans, this time with another legendary Detroit DJ: Carl Craig.
As Craig was coming of age in a post-Motown Detroit, an eccentric radio DJ by the name of The Electrifying Mojo had captured the ears of the Motor City with his nightly radio program. Mojo played all types of music on his show, but once the clock struck midnight, it was all about funk. As one of Prince’s earliest supporters, Mojo quickly made the Minneapolis icon into a staple of the Midnight Funk Association segment of the show, which helped Prince become a superstar in Detroit months before he attained that status in his own hometown.
Craig and some of his fellow Detroiters found inspiration in Prince and his posse of Minneapolis Sound musicians, which they would put on display when they were becoming techno music’s pioneers in the following years. The same could be said of their house music counterparts in Chicago. Of course Prince himself was heavily influenced by artists from around the Midwest, whether it be Earth, Wind & Fire and Curtis Mayfield out of Chicago, Stevie Wonder and George Clinton out of Detroit, or countless others.
That is the Midwest Funk Association. That’s what this event is about.
This night is not just for Prince, it’s also for the bond we share in the Midwest as Brothers and Sisters in funk. It’s for The Electrifying Mojo, and other forces that helped turn Minneapolis funk into Detroit techno. Prince’s music will be played, but so will music that inspired him as well as music he inspired. Carl will be playing a special tribute set and he is joined on the line up by fellow Detroiter and label-mate Waajeed as well as two of Minneapolis’ finest funk DJs, DJ Nola and Focus.
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About Carl Craig:
Considered a member of Detroit techno's second wave of artists, Carl Craig was not the first to do it, but few, if any of his peers can match the diversity and extent of his output. Craig has been one of the most prolific producers and DJs in the world since he got his start in the late 1980s. He has written numerous classic songs in genres including techno, house, jazz, down-tempo, experimental, and more, and has produced hundreds of remixes for artists ranging from fellow techno producers to the industrial band Throbbing Gristle to dance bands like LCD Soundystem, Hot Chip, and Caribou. Craig further helped put Detroit techno on the map by co-founding the precursor to Movement festival, which still brings tens of thousands of people to Detroit each year nearly 20 years later. In 2014, he started a party series called Detroit Love in which he brings fellow Detroit DJs with him around the globe to represent their home town. He lists Prince as his second biggest influence, after Kraftwerk.
About Waajeed:
Though he is currently a genre-defying producer and primarily a house and techno DJ, Waajeed’s career as a musician began as an underground hip hop artist. He was a high school classmate of the revered producer and rapper J Dilla, and would go on to be a member of Slum Village, which formed in 1991, alongside Dilla, T3, and Baatin. After Slum Village disbanded in the early 2000s, Waajeed went on to form his own hip hop label called Bling 47 and continued to produce hip hop instrumentals under that imprint. In 2012, he founded a second label called Dirt Tech Reck to explore more dance floor oriented music, which has served as his main outlet ever since. In March 2018, he released an EP titled Mother on Craig’s Planet E record label.
About DJ Nola:
DJ Nola got her start as a DJ over 15 years ago as a radio DJ for the Duluth station KUMD. Soon after, she discovered house music and gravitated towards it. After nearly a decade of primarily playing house music, she started exploring the songs that were sampled in some of her favorite house tracks, at which time she got really into disco and funk music - interests that carry on to this day. In a day and age when most DJs use computers or CDJs to ply their trade, DJ Nola plays almost exclusively vinyl. She moved to Minneapolis last year, where she has since opened for Rick Wilhite, played at some of the city's biggest house parties, including Communion and House Proud, and started a new funk and disco focused party series called Freak of the Week at various Twin Cities venues.
About Focus:
Craig Lambert, aka Focus, started collecting records over 40 years ago and has spent nearly three decades passionately sharing those records and his love of music with dance floors across the Midwest. Through hundreds of club, lounge, and warehouse appearances, Craig and his crew, The Disco Devils, have carved a unique niche in the crowded, competitive DJ culture. With his simple “2 turntables and a mixer” approach to DJing and his vast knowledge of music history, Craig is able to seamlessly weave the old with the new, creating cohesive sets spanning multiple genres and generations. He recently began producing music and playing live sets under the moniker Midnight Music Club, where he blends deep house, techno and electro. 2017 saw the vinyl release of his first published work on Chicago’s “Descendants of the Deep” label. In 2018 he is honored with a forthcoming solo EP on Headphoniq, another highly regarded Chicago publisher where he is label mates with some of the most respected producers in underground dance music history.
About Bobby Kahn/Chosen By The Funk
Bobby Kahn is a writer, performance artist, event promoter/curator, community organizer, cable access TV star, and accountant. Bobby used to be shy and afraid to dance, but he drawn to funk music in his early 20s, music which gave him no choice but to move his body. Since then, funk has held a very special place in his heart – he considers himself an ambassador to the funk. He is on a mission to keep Minneapolis funky in a post-Prince world. He began throwing events under the name Chosen By The Funk in December 2016, and has since had a had in throwing 10 events including a sold out Prince tribute in 2017 featuring the Detroit legend Moodymann, and has hosted DJs including Rick Wilhite and Frankie Bones. He has also covered Midwest funk extensively as a writer for both the Local Current blog and his own website (chosenbythefunk.com)