I used to hate soca music. I've been into dancehall music a long time but it took me so long to warm to soca. I grew up on the east end of Toronto where there is a big West Indian community, so I've been exposed to both since a very young age. The problem with soca, is that I would for a long time associate it with songs like this. It was only after my first time attending the enormous Toronto festival known as Caribana that soca finally clicked. During Caribana they have this huge parade where all these floats have different dj crews and everyone can go around the floats and dance to the music that each respective DJ is playing. If you want, you can follow a particular float the entire time but I found it way more fun to stay put and let the different music come to you. While a few of the floats play dancehall, the overwhelming majority play soca music and it was being in the middle of all those people where I came to realize how awesome it really is.
Soca is to dancehall what dance music is to rap. It's about the moment, it's about letting loose. It's hypnotic, sometimes frenetic, beat and repetitive lyrics serve the same function they would in more conventional (read Western) dance music. Once you realize that and get exposed to different types of soca beyond the type of shit your grandma might get down to at a wedding, it's pretty amazing. It has so much variety and can range anywhere from 120 to 160 BPM.
Listening to this exclusive mix from St. Louis-born but London-taught Mr. One Hundred, courtesy of our friends at Mixpak Records, reminds me exactly of that Caribana experience. It's a hypnotic mix where his own futuristic tracks and original soca songs from some of the major artists fade and blend into each other as the music of floats in a parade. I obviously recommend you taking a listen to it. After you do that, go grab his latest EP Palm Tree Destruction or (but also and) if you're cheap, you can grab his bootleg of Machel Montano's "Higher Than High."
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Tracklist:
Mr One Hundred - Sunshine Riddim
Eclectik - Roboman
Mr One Hundred - Fire Now Rmx
Jeff Mills - Captivater
Roy Cape feat Blaxx - Breathless
Mr One Hundred - Axis Jab Jab
Fay-Ann Lyons - De Stage Open
Mr One Hundred - Untitled
Big Boi - You Ain't No DJ beat
Mr One Hundred - Headgone
Jeff Mills - Call of the Wild
Mr One Hundred - HOW Riddim
Machel Montano - Advantage
Aphex Twin - Isoprophlex
Ricky T - Pressure Boom Roadmix
Mylo - Drop the Pressure
Mr One Hundred - Untitled
Cam'ron - Oh Boy
Mr One Hundred - Higher Than High Rmx
Traxman - Work me
Manuel Gottsching - E2E4
Shal Marshall - Carnival Day
Kenny Larkin - Art of Dance
Mr One Hundred - Soca Workout
Omar S - Here's Your Trance Now Dance
Paul Johnson - Feel My M.F. Bass
Shal Marshall - Doh Drag D Flag Roadmix
Faithless - Insomnia
Aux 88 - My AUX Mind
Mr One Hundred - Ratchet Riddim
Fay-Ann Lyons - Get On
Mr One Hundered - Everybody's Free RMX
Vapourspace - Gravitational Arch of Ten