And The Award Goes To.....🏆

In this episode of The Get Down Cream & Gary talk about:

• Some of their favorites for the year!
• Best of DJs, Producers, DJ Sets, Genres, Performances & More…
• Looking ahead to what this year will bring for the DJ culture. 

Transcript

0:01

All right, what's up guys? We're back from our brief pause here and we're gonna get into, Gary and I are calling this our favorite list, right? This isn't like our get down podcast awards. This is our favorites of the year, we're gonna call it. you know why? Because a lot of the things that I picked are probably, they're popular, but they might not be the most mainstream, quote unquote. So, you know, it's I, and I don't think that you and I are maybe close enough to like the going out and seeing a lot of DJs and seeing a lot of shows where, like, I feel like other people can speak more freely to that, you know? Yeah, I mean, I kind of approached it maybe a little bit differently, sort of like some of the artists that I like and sets that I saw from a distance, and I felt like the super FOMO of what like, I wish I was there kind of thing. So that's kind of how I approached it. So yeah, we're not going out as much as we'd like to or we once were, or going to festivals and stuff. But I think social media does a good job of like filling you in on what's going on. It does, it does. I read a lot of good articles actually over the last 24 hours about different shows that we might have missed over the year. So yeah, let's jump into it. Alright, so let's just go down the list. I'm going to, I'll start with you. What's your song of the year? Alright, this is gonna be a weird one. How many times am I gonna say, I don't even know who that is or what that song is on your list? All right, all right. um, the rapture part three, the end me black coffee track that came out there, they started playing it, I guess around like June or July, I think maybe that's when it came out, but it's really hit social media pretty hard recently and, um, it's not something that I can really play out maybe at the end of the night, you know, but it, I think it, it evokes a lot of emotion. It is a, it is one of those like. piano tracks that I really like that are a little more down tempo. And, um, it's just like a really high quality made song, which you expect out of black coffee every time. Yeah, I don't know if I know that song. I'm not as into Black Coffee as you are for sure. I appreciate him, but I just don't know his music as well. Well, Enmi and Kind Music, who has kind of came onto the scene in the last couple of years here, like Enmi I've been listening to forever. But that's the genre of house that if I could play, I'd play like that and like the tale of us version of stuff. some video from the Kai Music show at the Mirage. It was pretty dope. I know Tone said it was there and kind of filling us in on how great a show it was. Is that EME and Rampa and like Adam Port? Is that what kind of music? Right, I believe that is the three of them. So like, you know, and it can maybe be a variation of whichever, you know, whichever grouping. a DJ group with three people? Dude, I can't even play with one other person. But. to backs are hard enough. How the hell are you in a group with two other people? I just will never understand it, but... I, well, you know, I think in the, in the house music world and you're doing, and you're producing and you're, and you're researching all the time, you're getting music from all different types of people because, you know, you're, you're a major player in the industry. You know, you, you can pick through music a little better. And I. make decisions on music though? Just on choosing a kick alone. There's three people, how do you make a decision? Yeah, I, it's just all, I think it's style, right? Everybody brings their own style to it. And that's what I like about whenever black coffee or any of these guys do any kind of collaboration, you can hear kind of who's doing what, or you think, you think you can hear who, whose ideas were what that's what I like to pick a part when I I'm listening to like a group collapse. seen a lot of threesomes, right? Like, Swedish House, obviously, and then this year we saw the Skrillex 410, and Fred again, that played a ton of shows, and you could probably argue that one of their shows is in the argument for best set of the year or best show of the year, for sure. get, we'll talk about that in a moment, but yeah. So what was, what was your, what was your, what was your song of the year? So, you know, I'm gonna go with Dom Dalla, Rhyme Dust. And the reason why I chose that one was because it was one of those songs that got teased so much on socials and like many times those songs get teased forever, forever and then they come out and they kind of like don't hit as hard. But for me, like I still play Rhyme Dust. I still get excited to hear it. I just think it's a dope song. It fits into my sets and I just really like it. So. Love it. All right. Producer of the year. I'm gonna let you hit this one off. Ah, I wrote down like more than one for each of these because like I was kind of brainstorming and coming up with, I'm gonna choose somebody that I don't think you would think I'm gonna pick. I'm gonna go with Pickle. Wow, that's a great one. And I choose Pickle because he put out so much music that was playable. The song selection, the songs that he chose to remix, I thought were incredible. The production, it's not super in-depth production, but it's clean, it's produced well, it sounds good. And like I said, he picks songs, you could tell he's a DJ, the songs that he picks. You know what I mean? Like all the songs that were chosen were smart choices. And... I just tend to edit his songs a lot and I play his originals a lot and that's why I chose Pickle. Wow, that's a good one. I'd never, the pickle wasn't even on my radar. Yeah, it's a little off the wall, but you know, I went with it. We're doing favorites, right? Like this is not best of the year, it's favorite. It's my favorite. I played a lot of his stuff. Gosh, you know what, I didn't really play a lot of one artist this year. That was the, and I don't leisurely listen to house music as much. I kind of felt that the, gosh, I liked, Tale of Us was great. I liked the stuff that they put out. I felt like they were kind of a force in the industry this year particularly. Sure, they've been out for a long time. but I feel like there was a step in a different direction to a broader audience with them. Do you hear like construction happening in my house right now? I don't know what's going on, bro. I'm recording a podcast. So yeah, that's, I, I kind of liked Al of us for that, because I feel like their whole label did well, you know? Um, and it's, it's not easy to do to, to do that as a group. And then also have your entire label really take a step forward in the, in the industry. And I, they did. Yeah, I mean, I think they also brought some visual stuff that was super unique this year and stood out. And, you know, for someone, I didn't necessarily know Tale of Us too well, their music at least, until I started seeing clips on social. And I was like, who are these guys? And I had to dig a little deeper. So super dope visuals got me to dig deeper into them as, you know, producers and artists. that would be my quote unquote, like party of the year, like a broad party that like traveled or is a monthly or something like that. Like, I know we don't, we didn't really, we don't have that on this list. Um, but that would be, that would be mine is it, it's driving you nuts. Isn't it the construction. kind of driving me nuts, but I just don't want it to come across in the podcast. They're like literally banging on the wall right behind my back. All right, let's continue on. Then we'll go to DJ of the year. I liked for me, I liked, um, I liked Fred again and everything that he did. Uh, cause I feel like he just wasn't one dimensional. He was kind of all over the place. His style always changes. Um, he could have even been in, you know, he was in there for producer of the year for me as well. Um, but because of the couple of songs that he came out with, the singles that he came out with were so different from one another and then like, just all of the different things that he did for the year and he was versatile and he was just popping up at pubs. I think that was this year, right? And doing all these different things, it was fantastic. Like, sometimes it's hard to think back. Like, was that the end of 2022? Was that the beginning of 2023? But yeah, I think, I mean, you can't argue with Fred again as DJ of the year. Some of the others on my, he was on my short list, but some of the others on my short list included Dom Dalla, included my pick who I'm gonna go with, John Summit. I just think he... He had so many like iconic moments this year in 2023. And I think he had so many like marathon sets and just a staple at Space Miami. And I just think that for me, he kind of made the most noise as a DJ. I'd also put Skrillex on the list as a short potential winner for me. Yeah, producer of the year, Skrillex was definitely involved, right? Um, putting out those two albums, it was just early. It's so hard. Cause you're right. Cause earlier in the year, it's, you forget that was like when it's February and it's March, you forget that was, you have such recency bias, especially with the pace of music, right? I, John summit, you're correct in the, in the fact that like, I feel like he went a very old school route where he was playing those marathons. That's like you said, he was a staple at a BS as a, as a young DJ and I like how we like documented his, his like just jumping around like from party to party in one day. And it's like this dude's working, he's out there working hard and it's just good to see. Yeah, I mean like at every big show, every big event, Miami music, like you name it, he was there and playing a major role, so. All right, DJ set of the year. I have a weird one. Alright, what do you got? Chase and Stratus boiler room. I am not a fan of that music per se, some stuff. I thoroughly enjoyed the energy that they brought to that boiler room and everybody was just really like involved, like I get it. You go to a boiler room and you're there to be involved, but like there were some great moments in that boiler room set. I love it. I mean, I love it. It wasn't on my list, but I think it's an amazing choice. I also agree, you know, that boiler room sort of opened me up to that style of music and I've been sort of not playing it a ton in my sets because it's harder to work that in here in the US. But, you know, you could play, and it works, you know, like I've been sneaking that into my sets for sure. Yep. So yeah, I love that choice. I'm gonna give you some, you know, I told you I have like a couple on each of these. So I'm gonna give you some runner-ups, so to speak. I think the Chris Lake and Fisher in LA was epic. So sick. So many people. Just a super unique, cool set. I think also Skrillex, Fredigan, and Fortet when they saved, I believe it was, was it EDC they did, they covered for, or Coachella? It was Coachella. and it went, what that actually went down on a, on a couple lists as like a top five set of the year. So. Like, not a set they were supposed to play, and then went in there and like, saved the headline set. Ha ha. But, actually, and then one other. the ISO XO and Knock 2 at Shrine, which was really recently, they had like the 360 set, but not only did they have that, but the actual stage and DJ booth like raised up into the air. And obviously like that style of music is near and dear to my heart. So I thought that was so epic and so dope. But my pick of the year is Subjonix at EDC. And... Wow. I pick that because never in a million years would I think that John's Summit and Subtronix would come together to form a duo and headline shows. And you know, it takes me back to like we talked about Tally Ho earlier and like my Thursday party and being able to play all these different genres and like being able to play dubstep and trap and then weave that into tech house and techno and progressive house is just so cool to me. Yeah. And if I could pick one of these, I would want to be there because I just think that would be such a unique and cool experience. Yeah, for sure. That's a great one. I like it. Oh man. Um, alright. Personal favorite set of the year? Is that like sort of the same thing as what we just did? I guess my personal favorite would be the ISO XO and NOC 2 and Subjonix would be DJ set of the year if I was breaking them up. Right, so my personal one, and you're gonna hear this come out of my mouth a lot, but it was the tiny desk, Freddie and Tiny Desk. It was just so impressive. It was a throwback to, not a throwback to, but it brings a light to live artists, right? And there aren't a lot of live artists out there right now doing sets. Like Junkie XL used to be one, I just talked about that on a, that I saw him at an Ultra back in like 03. And that was like the first time I got to see a live set. And I was like, I don't even understand how you do this. And then as my DJ career grew, I went and I used to DJ next to a live, a live artist and we ran like four or five shows and it was so challenging and so innovative and you have to really be on your toes at all times. Um, I really appreciated that set a lot. And I was happy to, happy to know that a lot more people are being subjected to that type of music making. Yeah, I love that. And I love everything that Tiny Desk has been doing with all their shows, just like from artist selection to just like the setup. It's just been really awesome. And I think you and I talked about the juvenile one and that sort of put me down the road of digging into more of the Tiny Desk sets and like the Action Bronson one, obviously the Fred again one was sick. So I think... It's not one of our items, but if I had to choose like a mix series or live production series, I think, uh, that would have to be the winner for me. Over boiler room. producer of the year, quote unquote. We're not, you know, not, not maybe not music production, but the, the show production, Bobby Carter does an amazing job. And since he's taken over, they've really transformed what tiny desk does. Um, and he's a great follow on Instagram too, because he, he promotes it. It lets you know what's going on and really well versed in all types of music. All right, I'm gonna skip one of these. We'll come back to it. Breakout Artist of 2023. Peggy goo. I mean I. crazy because how long has she been around? I know, but like serious breakout, like two big records, probably arguably one of the bigger records of the year was. argued song of the year or record of the year for sure. Yeah, for sure. Summer anthem, you know, uh, and I feel like that track also brought, not that it brought back, but it brought that nineties house sounds more to the forefront. Like, yeah, sure. Be Beyonce's Renaissance started to bring it back. And then Peggy goes that, uh, that track that, you know, that sound really kind of punctuated it. Yeah, I love that song because it was so versatile as far as being a DJ and how and where you played it. You could play it as a transition from the early part of the night into peak. You could play it in the middle of peak and go down like a little housey or tech housey set. You can play it at the end of the night as a feel-good, you know, end of the night banger type thing. And I love that in that record. It was just a great song. And... Like I said, I just love the versatility in where you can fit it into your sets. Yeah, 1000%. All right, so I'm gonna go with, I'm gonna go with Knock2. I just think everything he did this year was just like, heat, banger, edited a ton of his songs, played, his songs are probably the most prominent artist in my sets, especially when I'm going to play artist sets. And, you know, he's been making music for a few years, but I just think this year he broke out and really made a name for himself in the mainstream and in the dance world. Yeah, definitely. And I think my runner up would have to be Mal P. I mean, he crushed it. And you know, Ferrari and I talked about him on one of these episodes. He's been grinding for a long time, you know? He produced music under Maurice West. He did a lot of ghost producing. And you know, even he rebranded and re, you know, kind of retooled his sound. And now he's, you know, my runner up for breakout artist and crushing it. lived in my DJ sets this year, about me. Cool. All right, let's move on to Artist to Watch. It's a tough one for me. It was a tough one for me too, and then like the light bulb clicked, and I have someone. So my artist to watch is Son Pacho, bass house, tech house, I think kind of unique in his sound. He fits in that tech house, bass house world, but no one really sounds like him, I don't think. And I have used some of his records as like scaffolding records for my production. I always try to find ways to take his tracks to edit and definitely try and sneak his music into my sets. Originals, remixes, edits, he killed it for me this year. Nice. I don't know. Because I feel like a lot of the things that I play are so commercial, you know what I mean? So I'm playing a lot of music that guys have been around for a long time. I don't really have one for this. You know, like I said, I've been getting into Kai music. I don't know if that's gonna blow up, but like that's really, that's what I've been getting into. I think that's a pretty good one. I mean, those guys have been around, but they sort of became more popular and more mainstream this year. And I think that's kind of what I think of when I think of a breakout artist. Like I would like to see like, and me get big, you know, because I've been such a fan for a long time. And like, do I play a lot of his music? And I try to maybe like earlier in my set first, you know, 30 minutes, but like it's nothing I'm getting away with, you know, playing multiple because it's just so down tempo. But I just think maybe that kind of music, I think those, those guys, like, hopefully like they come to the forefront in the next year and become the next like tale of us. Like we were speaking of. Yeah, I know we're talking more like dance music in these choices, but I have to throw a little hip hop and I think Ice Spice could also be in that breakout artist where she came from like nothing to just crushing. I remember when she first came out, we were talking about, well, like, is this just a New York thing? Like, is this going to translate to peak hour all over the place? And you know, just in my travels, Ice Spice kind of hits no matter where I am type thing. yeah she does. I'd like to I'd like to hear her do some like different sounds this year. That would be just the drill 70 BPM hip hop thing. Right. But I love it because I could play all of her records. Like they all go off and they're all party records. Yeah, that was a little different. That was, that was good. All right. Editor of the year. I have a selfish one. I mean, this is hard for me, man, because there's a lot. I'm gonna go with an oldie but a goodie, and just a classic all-time editor, DeVille. Like, guy just doesn't miss, man. And he's the only person to me that's putting out like hip-hop edits that are really good, you know? And his house stuff is always amazing. So I just, DeVille just understands how to make music for DJs, and playable music. and he picks a lot of the right songs. So DeVille's my guy with CRG as my runner up. Met Deville for the first time this year, super nice guy, you know, knowledgeable, um, smart guy. So yeah, I like that pick. I'm, I'm going to be real basic here. I'm going to go get down DJ group. Basic Angela, the kid, I play all of his stuff, all of it. Like I'm, and I'm sorry. Like, I know that sounds home teamy. It sounds, you know, basic and you could have did anything and that's what you went with. But like, If I went with percentage of. editors that I played, like, you know, how much percentage of one editor did I play? I like, he was probably like 10% of the music I played this year. That's a ton. It's one in every 10 songs, you know? And because his peak hour stuff for me in the rooms that I play personally work. No matter what, no matter where I am, gay club, bar, nightclub, it works. peak hour music that there is. Yeah, I mean, I think anyone listening is probably nodding their heads like, yeah, I play a ton of Angelo the Kid. I do as well, for sure. I felt bad picking him, but I went and looked at my sets. I'm like, how can I not? Like, that's it. I look at Angelo, especially this past year, as transitioning more to being an artist and producing more of his original stuff. He put out a lot more remixes this year, and I know that's sort of the path that he's kind of traveling down. So that's the reason why I didn't choose Angelo. But like, yeah, Angelo's edits are always fire. They're a staple in my peak hour sets as well. Alright, alright. Alright, favorite record pool, not DMP. Yeah, we love DMP. Obviously we have such a close relationship with them. And you know, we go to war for DMP. But as DJs, we're all, we all have multiple record pools, right? So I thought this would be a good conversation. Like what record pool do you like the most? Have you used the most this year? So what's yours? I liked HMC the most this year. I like them because I can go to them for so many different genres. Not to say that I can't on other record pools, but I like their editors. I've been a Nova fan for a long time. And then all of the guys that are there, I like them. I've been fans of them for a long time, so I know that I'm going to get some quality out of their editors. Uh, and you know, when I have to go look for my Latin stuff, it's, it's accessible there and they, they're, it's knowledgeable there. And I like how they went a little more house heavy this year. And that was, that was good. And it wasn't so hip hop heavy because it had been when it first started. And they've really found their footing in being a versatile record pool, uh, especially for my style. Yeah. Yeah, I love HMC. It's one of my go-to pools for sure. It's in like my rotation of three or four pools that I'm going to every single week to download music. So I love that pick. I'm gonna go with Clubkillers and you know. I'm glad you want club killers, because I think they're my runner up. And, you know, DeVille and CRG were my editors of the year, and I'm gonna go with the pool that those guys are on, because I think besides DMP, I think Club Killers, to me, has the best exclusive artists with, you know, DeVille, CRG, Revis, JD Live, and there's a handful of other guys, but those guys really stand out for me, for sure, as far as the pool that I kind of went to, especially just for the exclusive artists, you know? You know where I, so I went to them for a little bit of a different reason. Um, when I would go to download off club killers, it was for, you're going to laugh, it was for country back backlogged, backlogged country music and also like backlog, like backlogged, uh, Latin. So whenever I had like one of my non non-club sets and it was the Latin nights and the country nights, they were really a great source of a lot of different, like, um, intros and edits for both of those things. Cause you know, when I have to mix salsa, it doesn't come natural. It's hard. You know, it's hard for me. So to have intros for a lot of the salsa music that I play was huge. And then the same thing for country. Cause mixing guitars is not always easy, you know? Yeah. Yeah, I think all these pools, right? Like you go to each one for a different thing sometimes, you know, and whatever your favorite one is, you pick one and you kind of go and check all their music. And then the other ones you go for whatever you go to that pool for kind of thing. And I think that's what's great about being subscribed to multiple pools is you can kind of pick and choose what you like from each of them. And it creates this really cool, unique, you know, music catalog that you can play from. So, yeah. I love that. I think I gotta show some love to the DMP guys because I mean, not only have we added a number of exclusive editors this year, I mean, we have some of the best editors out. Like Danifex has been crushing. Pat C has been crushing for 10 years or more. Chumpy and crushing. Love the music that he's been putting out. He's been pumping out. I think a lot of what's happening in Australia is like, BPM and the Speedhouse is like really popping off there. So I love, love all the stuff that those guys have been putting on DMP because I've been incorporating a lot of that into my sets more so lately. And then Armando Vera who was at it, I think this year as well, or maybe end of 2022, but he's like, these guys are so consistent and just pump, pump music. Castro, like it's just such a good, Castro put out a lot of music, man. He did like I felt like every time that I went to download, he had like a ton of new stuff out and it was quality. I liked it all. I downloaded a lot of it. It's impressive to see the consistency and the dedication that a lot of these editors, especially on DMP, have where every week they're putting music out. And I look back at how many edits I put out this year. I don't know what the exact number was. But I started out the year and I was pumping, pumping edits and we got really busy towards the end of the year and I slowed down a bit, but I feel like that tends to happen with us because our business is so cyclical and... Our DJ sets are cyclical as far as how busy we get. So yeah, so look for me to be kind of pumping a lot more edits and also promoting them a lot more. I've been really looking for a unique way to put my edits on socials. I think Rick Wander's been doing a great job with how he's been doing it. It's just tough, man, because it seems as though the algorithms on the social media sites kind of push. some of the music stuff down. So I've been trying to figure out a unique way to highlight some stuff without getting dinged for music and copyright and stuff on those socials. All right, we got off on another tear here. What is, what's your genre of the year? I think that 140 to 150, whether you want to call it, you know, hard techno or whatever you want to group that kind of BPM in. You know, that's what it would be. Like that 140 to 150 BPM just sped up house, you know, whether it's trance-y, whether it's techie, whether it's like real techno, just that kind of, that's like kind of my sound of the year, if you will. Yeah, yeah, we saw a real transition from just tech house, like hammering, hammering tech house. I think that was like, for a couple years, tech house has sort of been the genre that everyone's been producing and all the edits and, which has been interesting because like, tech house doesn't, hasn't always translated to our club sets, you know? Like certain, certain tracks, yes, but not necessarily. But yeah, I agree with you. I think I would call it big room techno would be my emerging. genre of the year. A lot of the edits are now that coming out in that style where it's, you know, like you said, 70 or 75 or 68 BPM. That harder techno style or a speed house even you can kind of group that in a little bit just because of the BPM. But yeah, I just think that's the single genre right now. Is this something that I might have hated on this podcast years ago? But I like that, or I've grown to appreciate that house music can change. Like the name of a genre can kind of bend into something different, right? And I think that maybe at some point, we will have a name for this 140 to 150 BPM thing and really be able to put it under one umbrella. Even though the sounds might... You might be taking from trance and you might be taking from hard tech and you might be taking from, you know, whatever real house, you know, or disco house. And maybe we'll get a name for it, but that's what I love about house music. Like beat port has had to reorganize their genres so many times, you know, and, and when you go into, you get used to like, all right, melodic house. And then you go in, I like, I've gone in like a month later and I'm like, they changed this completely. It's like a completely different sound. But that's the beautiful thing about house music that is that you can take so many different elements from different quote unquote genres and kind of create new genres. Yeah, I agree. And I think like we see some aspects of Tech House production in there. You know, some of those Tech House tracks that were 126, guys are producing now at like 134. And it's like sort of a mashup between the two genres, which is really playable in your sets, you know? And it's cool to see, but I agree, it's hard to like, is it Tech House? Is it Techno? Is it? I don't know what it is, but it's just good. It's just good. found that even like anything that I'm playing, even if it's 128, like I'm speeding up to 134. Like I'm like we're going like the. I've been speeding up a lot lately too, where I'll hear like 126 or 128. I'm like, why does it sound like there's no energy here? Right, right, because now we've been trained to, our ears have been trained to think that is no energy. Right, where that, it's funny how it changes and how it's cyclical like that, because when Trance was 70 BPM and or 140, all the 128 stuff sounded slow, but you had completely two different crowds. Now I think that everybody has such an appreciation for house music that. You know, it has grown and people have matured into being able to consume more than just one genre of house music. And it's great to see that, you know, producers are taking that bull by the horns and. Fucking around with it. Yeah. Um, so actually something I wanted to bring up, like this year I started, uh, my cream and friends edit pack where basically I choose three artists from a region is kind of how I've been doing it. Um, and just editors and producers that I just think are really dope. And some of these people I've known and have a relationship with, sometimes it's a blind DM, like, yo, I love your music. I'm doing this. Our last edit pack did this many listens and downloads and we were number one on hype that overall. Like, would you do this? And like. They say yes, which is awesome. But when I did like the Euro guys, I had Vandal on the track, who's from France. I had Sam Collins, who is from, I don't know where Sam's from, Germany? And then I had Sergio. And like, I asked these guys to send me three edits each. We do 12 edits on the pack. And I knew that techno was gonna hit here because. Every edit they sent me was like 140 BPM. And I was like, oh shit, it's like that over there right now. And this, you know, that was probably back in March of last year kind of thing. And I'm like, damn, maybe I need to start producing in this style and like digging into this because it seems like it's gonna be the next thing. Yeah, it's here and I like it. Yeah, same. All right, what trended this year? What will trend? I think we kind of just talked about that, right? about that. Yeah, I think that was the big trend. You know what though? What also trended, and like we said, that darker house sound is also trending a little bit. That Ane and Anya, however you say it, and the Tale of Us and everything that they're doing is trending also. I'm hearing that creep into some of our DJ sets, which is... kind of funny to hear because it's not, that's not something that our crowds are listening to, but I know our DJs are into it and they're listening to it if they're creeping like one or two tracks into their set. Yeah, for sure. I'm sure the Get Down DJs who are all at Green Rock late night probably didn't break 140 BPM. It was probably real dark in there. Ha ha. I hope so. Um, all right, do you want to talk about equipment trends? Is that something you want to get into? I don't know, I think we all know that stems were the highlight of the year, right? It's what everybody talked about, it's what the equipment producers are incorporating into all of their new hardware. We saw it creep into our software, and hopefully we can have a little bit more of an ease of function in using it, because I think that. I have an issue executing the ideas that I have because I don't have enough hands. You know what I mean? Like I'm sometimes like, God, if I had like three hands, this would be phenomenal. But like, you know, so I think our minds can move faster than the hardware and software right now. Yeah, I mean we talked about this on a previous episode. I would not be shocked to see 3000s that have just stem buttons. And that'll be like the next installment of the 3000... at Nexus 2 or whatever they want to call it kind of thing. I have ideas in like, you know, having simultaneous, like if you have the three buttons, like having being able to like simultaneously hit two and I don't know, just like having it be a little more easy to execute because I felt it, I felt it to be a little difficult at times, like I said, where my mind was moving faster than my hands could. Um, I agree with you with the STEM, so I'm not going to dig into that, but I think something that we might see here moving forward, and it might not be 2024, but I would say like by the end of 2025, I would not be shocked if the days of like downloading music start slowing down and like streaming directly from whether it's beat port, whether it's beat source, whether it's... the record pools directly in my Serato. I just think that we're moving in that direction. I can hear Cheezy screaming right now. I know. Well, right, but that's what I'm saying. I can hear him yelling, I'm like, finally, you're talking about it. Ha ha. I just think that, you know, if you look at Spotify and how they kind of set up their playlists, right, like, you go in and you create a playlist, and then you could download the playlist so that if you're not, if you don't have internet, you could still listen to the, to the songs on that playlist. And I just think DJing is going to be the same thing where you won't need internet necessarily. I think that's like the big objection from DJs. Like, well, what if the internet sucks and I can't get music? Well, you are going to download the playlist of the, the all the songs that you normally play and it's just gonna be there and you're not gonna have to worry about it. I think it's gonna be one of those things that's gonna be hard for DJs to adopt but I think once they do and the industry adopts it it's gonna be a huge improvement. The, what would have to happen is, you know, a company like Serato would just have to adopt it to make it look like your crates, right? So your playlist just looks like your crates and it's a drop down and it's easy. I would be a huge fan of this because my, I get caught a lot where I think that I put music into my crates and no, I'm just listening to it on my Spotify at home and. you know, I'll be digging for a song. I'm like, I listened to this song a million times. How do we not have it on here? And then realize, oh, well it's on my Spotify. So I would be a huge proponent of incorporating this into my Serato, but I'm a Spotify user. I don't know, do I have access to doing that right now? Which, you know, Beatport, BeatSource, and SoundCloud, and Tidal, and iTunes. So like, that's kind of where, you know, where the Serato playlists are living at the moment. Spotify would be a fantastic integration. Yeah, that would be, Spotify would be awesome. Or Beatport, you know, one or the other would be amazing for sure. Oh, you can stream from Beatport now? See, like, I'm so disconnected, I don't even know that. Yeah, yeah, Beatsource, SoundCloud, Beaport. Yeah, so you got options. Alright, do you want to do your most played record of the year? You know, you go ahead. I'm going to look. I don't even know what my most played record would be. hard for me to pick one, but just thinking back to my sets, because I do love that Serato has the play count, but many times that play count is not true, where you could download a song and it has 5,000 plays for whatever reason, I don't know why. What I did notice in trying to find my most played song is that I just play so many edits. Like, it's ridiculous. And I think in 2024, I want to dedicate I'm gonna try and play more original music if I can. And just try and like, I don't know, my brain has just been in this like playing edits, playing edits, playing edits that like, sometimes the original song is just really good, you know? And I just wanna play the original. So I look back, I think my number one would be Bloody Mary, Gaga, the Angelo the Kid Satisfaction edit. It just kinda worked in so many rooms. and that satisfaction melody is so iconic. And then the drop has that thumping, driving, sort of a techno sound, even though the track was produced, I think, at 130 BPM. So that was my number one, playable in any room, energy immediately in any room, and the Bloody Mary vocal was really popular for a while here. honestly, my most played tracks are all of the women hip hop tracks. Like that, that I played those in every single set because they, they worked in every single room and I can't say it was just gangsta boo. I can't say it was just boys liar because it was all of them, you know? And it's just, I felt like whenever I was like hitting peak hour and wanted to drop into hip hop, like that's where I was dropping into. And I've been saying it for years and I, you know, I sound like a broken record, but like that's, that's what was working. And it worked all year from January to December. Um, I don't know. I think that was pretty much my, those are my go-to tracks for the whole year. Yeah, I would agree with that. I mean, there's not as many hip hits that are coming out in hip hop. So you end up playing a lot of the same songs over and over again. This is something else we talked about this year, right? Like the huge trend was people complaining about hip hop and the ladies kind of dominating the hits. There just aren't as many hits. So you end up playing a lot of the music in if you're playing open format or playing hip hop rooms. Like you gotta play certain songs kind of every set and that lasts for a while like those songs. are the peak hour songs for months at a time, you know? I'm gonna, okay, I can give you one. So that was like my overall, but my number one, Everybody Wants to Rule the World, Nico and Sway, before it was even picked up and redone by Tiesto, then it was redone by Tiesto and it kinda tweaked a little bit. And I love, love that original. I'm a huge, huge fan of, I got, really got into, really got into New Wave again this year, Depeche Mode and the Cure and all of. everything that came with that in the 80s. And I really love that sound. And I love that they started to incorporate it into house music and I was able to play it out. So everybody wants to rule the world, eco and sway, even pre-Tiesto version. So that's it. We've documented my hate for New Wave and 80s music pretty well on this podcast. I will say the last time I played kind of like a funky house set, I created an 80s house inspired folder and played a bunch of those records. Just saying, just saying. I'll show it to you. There's not a ton of, there's like maybe 20 or 30 tracks in there. I'll send it to you, but it's sort of like. A lot of tracks that I end up, like I pick through sort of my like private event house music folder, because like some of that stuff crosses over where you can, it's all vocals or melody they know, even like the older people that kind of translated to nightlife as well. So I'll send you that folder and I'll see what you think of it. Man, this might be a whole, this might be its own episode. We're 44 minutes in, you know? This is, this is, this is gonna. the longest episode we've ever put out or break this into two episodes. We'll see. Ha ha! Work smarter, not harder, right? Content is king. So I think before we finish, I think that kind of wraps our awards or favorites of the year. I just want to reflect back a little bit because you and I don't do the best job of kind of looking back and seeing how much we actually accomplished this year. So I just kind of want to like, I'm gonna pat ourselves on the back. We never do that. You know, like I try and not do that too often, but you know, we grew get down over 50% this year. Yeah. not just the number of DJs we're working with, but the number of DJ bookings and revenue that we brought into the business. Yeah, go ahead. gigs booked this year. You ready for this? 2619 DJ gigs. Think about that. It's ridiculous. Different DJs booked. Different DJs. 125. We've worked with 125 different DJs this year, which is huge. And it shows the, I think the passion for, you know, using... you know, up and coming talent and not always, I guess, when you do over 2500 gigs that you're going to have to reach out and use some people. But I've liked the relationships that we've built over the last year and got to know a lot of new DJs and got to hear a lot of new DJs been fantastic, especially with our, our monthly party and everything like that. So it's been great. monthly open decks party, right? Like that's helped us feed this machine of finding more DJs and young DJs and like, it's just been really cool because, you know, we do the coaching thing and the mentorship thing and then we're growing as a business and those DJs end up coming in and working with us. So it's like a really cool thing we've created. It's like, you know, it's a machine. We feed the machine and it's like. Not all those young DJs are gonna pan out, but some of them do, and some of them become staples in our group, which is awesome. big shout to UFO for having that idea for the B3 party and putting up with setting up the equipment and getting the video working. There's a lot that goes into that event. It's not always easy, but people show up for it and it has fed the machine. And then we've worked with, to go back to the numbers, we've worked with 34 different venues this year. This is a lot. Right, and that's not even counting all the private events and corporate events that we've done too. So. No, that's just, that's bars, nightclubs, lounges, strictly. So, it's a lot, a lot of personalities to, between 125 DJs and 34 different venues booked, it's a lot of different personalities to maintain. But we are in the people business, and that's what we do, and we enjoy doing it. So. Yeah, and the core of what we do is putting the right DJ in the right venue, right? And having based, getting feedback and then shuffling the deck, so to speak, to making sure that those venues always have DJs that make sense. If the, if the style of music changes, sometimes the DJs have to change. And that's like, that's really the core of what we do, right? We saw that happen this year at a couple places. And I wanna be clear that it's not, we don't put the best DJ in the venue. It's the best DJ for the venue, right? Because that doesn't always translate. The best DJ that you have might not work in this one venue, but they work in this other venue very well. So that's what you kinda have to figure out, you know? And ownership sometimes, and management's like, I want your best DJ. It's like, well, It's like me with Downtown Social. They're like, well, why don't you come play headline Downtown Social? It wouldn't work. It just would never work. of, it's not how you play. You could do that for a few hours, but like to do that for a whole night just doesn't make sense for you really anymore. Right, right. And all that energy and all that shit, like it's not, it's not me. It's not, you're asking me to do something that's not me. Right. So that's what we need to do. We need to figure out, you know, what is right for that venue and, and does that personality and does that DJ style fit that venue? It's fun. It's fun to do. It's like a little puzzle. how many episodes of this podcast have we put out? Do you know that? 36 episodes of the podcast. I have these numbers too for you. Did a couple numbers last night while you were gone. I would let's hold off on the podcast numbers. We could just talk more generically for the pod, I'd say. was, it was 36 episodes. Um, we had, you know, a good amount of listens and that will downloads, I should say, and a lot of different countries, a lot, a lot of different countries, and, uh, just really interesting to get DMS from people from Africa and people from the UK, uh, and just hear from people from all over the world that, Hey, thanks for putting out this podcast. Um, really like respect the in-depth, you know, thought process that goes behind the industry. That's not just music and that's not just skill-based, you know, it's more, we like to stick to more business-based and teaching-based. I think the final thing I'll say for Get Down is this year we've really expanded our network like incredibly. I think like you just said, the reach of the podcast is way bigger than we thought, you know, like with these random people and bigger artists sometimes hitting us up wanting to be on the show or seeing one of their DJ friends on the show and wanting to come on the show. And it's really created a lot of great relationships. It's expanded our network. I think it's helped. kind of solidify our quote unquote expertise in the industry, you know, and talking about the business and not just talking about DJ stuff and kind of educating people on what drives a lot of these owners and the venues and the businesses and what we need to be thinking about in that area in order to do well as DJs and as DJ businesses. So podcast has been great, man. It's a lot of work and it's something we like to do and I'm Glad this pod kind of ran a little long here. Because it's giving us a chance to kind of talk about some of this stuff. I mean, it's this is this podcast is a perfect example of how we like to do this because this was supposed to be about 20 minutes, knock it out. And here we are 51 minutes in. So like, yeah, you know, we have to set up our stuff and, and so far, you know, so on and so forth, but once we get going here, it's just, it's an enjoyable thing to do. Yeah, so to just kind of wrap about on the get down overall, I just want to say like... I constantly tell myself for Get Down, let's think bigger. Because I don't think you and I sometimes realize how big we've been able to grow this thing. And from where it started to where it came from, to imagine that this is where we're at right now. And we talked about our story of sitting at the pool and helping each other fill our calendars to now booking all those shows and all those DJs and having all these relationships and 140 something episodes of the pod. It's like, oh. lot of growth in a short period of time, and that doesn't come without working really hard, and we really worked really hard. So guys, listening, my two little points, think bigger, and if you bust your ass at something, like you're gonna see the fruits of that labor at some point, and it might not be immediate, and you need to be patient, and you need to keep putting in that work, but you're gonna see results if you're doing the right things and you're working hard. Yeah, agreed. I want to get into some cream stuff real quick too, because I never really talked about any of this stuff either, but I kind of went from a local DJ to more of a regional DJ this year. And it's been a goal of mine for a long time. And I think COVID before COVID, it was starting to happen. And then obviously everything shut down. And that plan kind of got put on hold for a couple years. And it's been really exciting for me and really gives me the energy to keep going, you know? I played some of the best shows of my career this year. Forward Cleveland, best show I've ever played in my entire life, it was unbelievable. I had to throw that in there. We've made relationships with 4AM and Chachi, who's someone that I've always looked up to, and Rick Wonder, and those guys we talk to on a regular basis now, and we do some work together in our businesses, and it's been really great to think about some of these things here at the end of the year. I think business-wise, that's, I think, my personal proudest moment of the year. I went from shutting off Chachi's music at the W Hotel many, many years ago on accident while I was plugging in my computer. Ha ha ha. So now we work, now I looked up to him for so, so long and now we work with him regularly. So that was a highlight for the business for me is to work more closely with 4AM because to get on the 4AM roster was always like a dream coming up when I was younger. So yeah, that was awesome. And it was really humbling to sit down and talk to him and really create a relationship. Yeah, man. The 4AM connection has been awesome and will continue to be awesome. And I know we'll find more ways to work together for sure. You know, we linked with Conflict this year. Conflict was someone who inspired me for this podcast because during COVID, I loved listening to his perspective and I could tell he's just a really smart dude. Obviously, he's one of the biggest open format traveling DJs in the world, to be quite honest. period. So to be able to link with him through RM randomly was really cool this year and having some phone conversations with him has been really cool and has brought a new perspective to travel DJing for me and for our business for sure. And then the Kreeman Friends I mentioned before, but the number of downloads on those edit packs have been incredible. And the artists I've been able to link with through that, we hit... hype edit number one overhaul and all of them that we've put out so far has been really cool. Put out an original track this year that's done decently well. What else for Kareem? I'm trying to think. Did a lot. You've grown a lot in the last year. It's been something that like we had a conversation offline yesterday, but like really hoping that forward trajectory keeps going. And you know, you get to focus on doing that a little more here in the first quarter, first two quarters, because as we know, these are the first quarter is usually slower than the other three. So it's a really good time to buckle down. This is for anybody. It's a good time to buckle down and really focus on, you know, your personal growth and what you need to do in order to continue the positive trajectory that you might have had in the fall because that is, you know, the, that is go time for most, for most markets. Yeah, I think the takeaway for the cream stuff this year has been sometimes you have to be selfish, right? And that's not only in your business, but it's also in your personal life. And I took a bunch of time off here to spend time with my family, and I talked about, and like, sometimes you have to do what's best for you, and it might hurt some people's feelings, it might sever some relationships, you might lose some gigs, but you know what? If you're goal-focused and you're hyper-focused on what you wanna accomplish, and you work hard, you can get there. And my big focus really is gonna be music. And I think I had to say that every year, but I think this year it has to be. And I put some things in place to try to make that happen where I'll be producing music every day when I first wake up, the first thing of the day, even if it's for 30 minutes. Just opening Ableton first thing and doing something in Ableton, I know that by the end of the year, I'll reach my production goals. It is paramount to your success as an artist. And I think that goes for everybody. To wake up every day and work in Ableton for some amount of time, like you said, whether it's 30 minutes or an hour or five hours, if you're gonna be a successful artist, if you're gonna be a successful DJ that wants to become an artist, this is what you need to do. You can't revisit it every once a week or even twice a week. It has to be. at Solano. He lives, I feel like he lives in on his Ableton. Like he lives and breathes it. And you can tell just by talking to him, how much he loves to do it. great example of a young DJ who said, I wanna be bigger than just a DJ. I wanna be a producer, I wanna be an artist, I wanna go travel and I want other people to play my music. And he took a step back from Get Down and from DJing as a whole, where he's still playing some shows, but they really have to fit into the Solano artist style of show. And he's busted his ass and put out a lot of really, really good music. And if you listen to the first thing he produced, in January to the last thing he produced in December, there's huge growth, huge growth. So huge shout to Solano. I tell him all the time, I believe in him and I play his music and I support his music and I know he's gonna go bigger and just keep doing what he's doing. But I think that's just a great example of, maybe it's not music producing, maybe it's creating a private event business. Maybe it's just becoming a staple local DJ. Whatever it is, things are gonna come into your life that distract you and pull you away from those big goals that you wanna accomplish. So it's really important to remind yourself every day, what are the big goals? What's the big thing that I wanna accomplish? And what can I do today to accomplish that big goal? What's gonna help me get there? And if you have that mind state, I know you're gonna accomplish the things that you want, and it's gonna suck. You're gonna have to say no to some things. You might lose money in the long run because that's always the battle, right? Do I do this for money or do I not? That's always the battle. It's been a huge battle for me, you know? Do I take a step back from this job so I can focus on DJ Cream? Do I take a step back from this responsibility to focus on Cream? Do we hire someone from Get Forgedown to take some responsibility off my plate so I can focus on my big goals? And I've been distracted in some of those things. I'm not complaining about it because we've created an incredible business. But for me this year, it's how can I pull things away to focus on personal Cream? personal goals that I want to accomplish this year, but still be able to maintain the other things that we're doing. Listen, I hope that we do narrow all that stuff down for you, because I do want to see artist Cream do his thing and take the next step and continue to do what you did last year. That's exciting to me. Yeah, like another step in that direction, you know, and it's kind of part of the plan. It's part of the three-year plan of less gigs, better gigs, higher paying gigs, higher profile gigs. That's what excites me in the DJ world right now, for sure. Yeah. Love it. All right, anything you want to say or to put a bow on the podcast, a little year end reflection or anything. I just want to thank everybody that has supported the podcast over the year. Just real, real simple. You know, guys, if you listen and you're not subscribed, please, please do that. It helps us a ton. If you haven't checked us out on YouTube yet, please go over there and subscribe and like a couple of videos over there. Maybe leave a couple of comments. If you get anything out of this podcast, it would be the one way you can repay us. Because obviously like Kareem said in our, it's gonna be our last episode is that, we don't get paid to do this, but there are ways that it is beneficial for us and we love to do it. And we hope that you guys like to listen. And if you do, please, like I said, like and subscribe. That'd be great. For sure. Actually, one other thing, selfishly I'm going to promote. My Cremix Spotify playlist just hit 10K this month. So thank you guys for supporting the Cremix Spotify playlist. It's been interesting to see the labels and various people that have been hitting me up to try to get on that playlist now. So if you don't follow the Cremix Spotify playlist, go check me out on there. All my socials, SoundCloud. Instagram, TikTok, everything is at DJ cream NYC. Get Down is at Get Down DJ group. And this podcast is the Get Down pod, I believe. Man, this is funny. No, I think it's the get down pod. Let me double check. The get down podcast. Oh man, we're shot. shot. Got a lot. I've got a lot of different things going on. Personal podcast. Yeah, absolutely. we appreciate you guys for everything and. Go after it this year, go accomplish that big goal this year. And that's how I'll leave you guys. So thanks for listening. Talk to you guys soon. Peace. Peace.