SHIT I'M DIGGING THIS WEEK

Prince Zimboo says "heh" to American ears

1. Prince Zimboo - When the oft discussed on this site's Diplo/Switch produced "Major Lazer" album Guns Don't Kill People...Lazers Do is dropped on June 20th, the man most poised to become an undergound sensation from the album's release isn't someone like Mr. Lexx, the patois tinged rap dynamo on lead single "Hold the Line," but rather the artist featured at various other points of the album, and in possibly the album's funniest point, African born, Jamaica living Prince Zimboo. Armed with a strong sense of X rated and otherwise scatalogical humor punctuated with his sentence ending punctuation of "heh," the reggae rapper on his "Pop Champagne" edit "Say Heh" is quoted in the most uproariously absurd four bars of the year saying "Practice safe sex don't exceed the sex limit/Zimboo don't drink water because fish have sex in it/You wonder why the water is salty/It's because the octopus is getting naughty." Zimboo, on his Myspace page also claims to have 1000 wives, with which he has sex for three minutes each. Ridiculous, yes, but in a manner reminiscent of old time vaudeville performer turned fatback flavored Southern soul party starter Rufus Thomas, he has enormous talent to mix with his ribald humor, and it creates a potent blend of listenable fun and instantaneous mood creator. As well, recently Zimboo has created his own "Hold the Line" remix as well, showing that he also realizes he can and will strike while the iron of his career is hot as well.

2. Steve Starks - I Called You: The quiestet as of yet of the Nouveau Riche party starters, Starks drops his most complete, tailored to his personal tastes and best production as of yet, "I Called You," a track that samples a clearly deluded and very stalkerish ex girlfriend who is definitely following around her ex boyfriend "in her blue car." With a dark, bass heavy, dirty South rap with a touch of deep house harkening production style to it, it only accentuates the sample and creates the type of tune that if "Ibiza Afterparty" mixtapes were still as hot as they were almost a decade ago, would fit that genre to a tee. Hip hop and club DJs get on notice, if you want the 21st century response record to Art of Noise's "Moments in Love," or something to that effect, this track is your best friend.

3. Cmonwealth's 95 Live Party @ DCs Steve's Bar Room - Initial talk of Steve's Bar Room's resurgence as a DC night spot came with discusion of HipsterOverkill.com's "The Fringe" party, namely the night in March when Delaware's own DJ Bis rocked the party into the early early early morning as an excited throng, as well as literally every major DJ in Washington, DC watching on, cosigining both the party and the DJ's excellence. Well, stalwart DC/VA staple brand Cmonwealth has created a destination point event for ALL DC scenes at Steve's, the second floor converted office space party room in Dupont at the edge of the Golden Triangle in the space of under a month. The party features a simple enough concept. Take a DJ, and limit their vast sphere to just the 1990s . Given the nature of Cmonwealth as an urban trending brand, the parties have featured a vast preponderance of 90s hip hop, but with that comes great moments as well like Bmore legend Scottie B and DC selector extraordinare Stereofaith last Wednesday pulling out such winners as Tracey Lee's "It's Party Time" and Onyx's "Shiftee" out of the way back machine. In final, it's a fun event that really advances DC's developing weekly party agenda quite well.

4. DJ Class - Dance Like a Freak : DJ Class advances past "one hit wonder" status and proves that Bmore club DJs and producers are better than most people at producing music of any variety in this minor key stab filled, politely autotuned club banger. The most phenomenal and intriguing part of Class' rise to prominence is that it hasn't required Class to wear a jester hat or funny sunglasses, invent a dance, or in any way create an over the top persona. In what may be the signature for Baltimore club music, it's the fact that the music that is produced is just so damn good that it creates it's own buzz because it just moves people to dance through excellence. Bmore club tracks, when all is said and done will be like classic Motown songs, albums you'll just want to have in your collection if you're a fan of great music. "Dance Like a Freak" is possibly MORE important than "I'm the Shit" as it's going to have to keep the wave going. It's never the door opening that's important, it's how one walks through that is.

5. Major Lazer - Hold the Line - The Video

No words. Just images.

CLICK THE LINK FROM MTVU