Skinny Friedman has been steady holding it down in Philly, Brooklyn, and Pittsburgh running with the Young Robots for over 5 years. With nights Philadelphyinz, Hot Mess, and Players Club with Fool’s Gold Sammy Bananas, Skinny has been putting in work and created a crazy buzz on the East Coast for the music. He is coming down to Richmond for DYI tonight at the Hat Factory and answered a few questions for RVA.
Also, check out the exclusive mix for the magazine HERE to get a taste of the percussion heavy, driving set he will play at the club tonight.
MORE BELOW THE BREAK
Skinny Friedman has been steady holding it down in Philly, Brooklyn, and Pittsburgh running with the Young Robots for over 5 years. With nights Philadelphyinz, Hot Mess, and Players Club with Fool’s Gold Sammy Bananas, Skinny has been putting in work and created a crazy buzz on the East Coast for the music. He is coming down to Richmond for DYI tonight at the Hat Factory and answered a few questions for RVA.
Also, check out the exclusive mix for the magazine HERE to get a taste of the percussion heavy, driving set he will play at the club tonight.
MORE BELOW THE BREAK
Skinny, how did you come about your name?
It means “great warrior” in Aramaic
Where you do call home, and what parties are you rocking right now?
I live in Brooklyn but split my time between Brooklyn and Philly. Me and Apt One have been doing the Philadelphyinz party for five years now and are about a year into another monthly called Hot Mess. In new york, I do the reliably weird Players Club party every 1st and 3rd Wednesdays at Pianos in the lower east side with Sammy Bananas.
What started you into the DJ thing?
I thought underground rap would make me cool in college. it kind of worked, then I realized nobody wanted to hear Sir Menelik in the club so I diversified and bought a bunch of house records. That worked a little better.
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When did you first hear Moombahton and what do you like about that sound?
It was just kind of silly at first and after I heard about it I made that remix of Count and Sinden “Mega” in like 15 minutes. I really like dance hall and I play a lot of super-percussive mid-tempo stuff, so it was cool to have somewhere else to go at 108 BPM. A lot of the jams I’ve made have been pretty cynical, but when you have a Moombahton remix of “No Speak Americano” you can play it anywhere and people really feel it. Now that it’s been around for a few months, even top 40 crowds are getting into the original production.
If nothing else, it’s just rad how organically this entire genre sprouted up from one idea, and how the internet has helped dudes from, like Charlotte and Rotterdam become super influential.
Also, I pulled a girl at a coffee shop a couple weeks ago by explaining Moombahton to her–so i guess it’s working for me.
Tell me about the Young Robots crew?
I’s me, Apt One and Relative Q and we’re in three different cities – NYC, Philly and Pittsburgh. I probably have the best haircut of the three at any given time. Apt One is good at baseball. Relative Q lives on a diet of Diet Mountain Dew and Cheetos.
Apt One and Relative Q have a really awesome Italo-Disco project called RCMP, and the label sort of grew out of the frustration of shopping the digital release of that record around after the physical EP did really well on Flamin Hotz records. We put out my EP last year, Hundred Dollar Salad, and you should check that out, if only to hear how Sammy Bananas murdered me on my own shit.
We’re kind of mired in logistical hell right now/trying to handle all our own business, but we have some really rad records in the pipeline by Pumpkin Patch, Peter Dragontail with Maggie Horn and Frankie Banks.
If you had to pick 5 records to take with you on an island (that somehow has a turntable and speakers) what would they be?
I’m gonna switch this up and just talk about five full-length things on my ipod that stay in constant rotation:
1) Restless People, Restless People
2) Jackmaster’s mix for Dazed Digital that came out last year
3) Ice Cube, Death Certificate
4) T.I. Urban Legend or King (Trap Muzik is my fave T.I. album but I’ve officially played that one out)
5) Ghostface Fishscale
I dunno, I basically listen to rap all the time when I’m not doing research.
Are there any new sounds or certain producers you are really into? Maybe your favorite producer?
Beautiful Lou. Smalltown DJs / Smalltown Romeo are crazy underrated. DJ Morsy has some “I can’t believe he’s not famous” chops. This dudeTommyKid in France is really great. My dude BD1982 who is a Tokyo transplant from Philly. We used to get drunk and watch Lost every week, now he makes really awesome, beautiful dubstep jams.
What’s you party rocking secret track?
I don’t think I’ve done a big gig without playing “Lick It Before We Kick It” by 20 Fingers ever.
Do you know Krames? He is one of our homies. You need to convince him to grow out the mullet and chops again!
I think it’s only a matter of time before I see Krames hit someone with a metal chair in a bar fight.
What do you know about Richmond?
The first dude I met from Richmond was one of the bartenders at the Khyber in Philly, where Philadelphyinz started. There were always dudes coming in and ordering Corona with Grenadine in it, and one time someone rolled up like “let me get a blue jawn, but make it red“. I don’t remember how that story ends but that’s what Richmond reminds me of.
Thanks Skinny.
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CHECK THE RVA MIX BY SKINNY FRIEDMAN HERE
Skinny Friedman is taking you on a Willy Wonka type musical trip thru the love tunnel of electro with this mix. Based in Philly and running with the Young Robots crew, Skinny brings the heat to Richmond and the Destroy Your Idols party on Thursday, February 24th at Hat Factory. Get hype people and we will see you out there!! $6
