Mixtape Mondays: Deadly Dragon, Smutlee, Yaadcore

Words and Photo by DJ Theory

Broadcasting live from Bermuda this week (check out the view from here below), we have three big new mixes connecting London, Jamaica and NYC. From the brand new to the almost extinct, it’s just another week here at Mixtape Mondays. Let’s ride.

Deadly Dragon Sound, From The Archives: When it comes to preserving a culture in its purest form—in this case, reggae music—few can say they’re doing their part like NYC’s Deadly Dragon Sound. Staying true to the all-vinyl format with their Downtown Top Ranking party every Thursday night in NYC (where they even had reggae/hip-hop crossover pioneer Just-Ice as guest DJ just this past week) and extremely well-stocked store, Deadly Dragon are giving the people a look into a not-so-distant past that’s packaged with pure love and extreme dedication. From The Archives is exactly as it implies, with Deadly Dragon selectors Scratch Famous and JD providing a brief look into their extra heavy crates and 45 boxes. Apparently, they mixed the show many years ago to showcase some of the rarest and biggest digital tunes in their massive collection, but didn’t realize it had been preserved until just recently… and now they’ve uploaded it to the ‘Net just for you. Listen and subscribe to the podcast here, and check out more of their mixes here.

Smutlee, Dancehall 2011 Mix: We have a new face here at Mixtape Mondays this week, but it probably won’t be the last time you see his name on LargeUp. London’s Smutlee has been making serious noise in the moombahton community, and has been one of the key folks actively meshing the genre with dancehall, building a nice collection of crossover edits for the 108-bpm dancefloor. Now, he gives us a mixtape on the straight dancehall side of tings, smoothly wrapping up some big tunes from 2011 with a bag of original edits and blends, and throws in a few surprises as well including my recently released remix of the Flatlands riddim from the Federation Sound fam. If you’re curious about moombahton in general, look no further than Smuttlee’s exclusive mixes for Mixmag and LargeUp homies, Mixpak, for whom he also did this freebie edit featuring Ms Thing on vocals a year back, when moombahton was still in its infancy. Listen and download Dancehall 2011 (aka the “Yeah, I put a Daniel Beddingfield on there, and what?” mix) here.

Yaadcore, Dancehall Night Vol 1: Jamaica’s Yaadcore Music has come with a heavy new dancehall mix delivered straight from yaad! With 77 big and current tunes from Busy Signal, I Octane, Khago, Razz & Biggy, Popcaan, Kartel, Konshens, Matterhorn, Vegas, Delly Ranks and plenty more, this mix will get you up to di time and fired up for the club—or at least banging on the cubicle walls—in no time. Download here.