DAD Mix 087: Mr. One Hundred

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 whe

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Complex Original

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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."

Keep in touch with Mr. One Hundred: Twitter | Website

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

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