• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

RVA Mag

Richmond, VA Culture & Politics Since 2005

Menu RVA Mag Logo
  • community
  • MUSIC
  • ART
  • EAT DRINK
  • GAYRVA
  • POLITICS
  • PHOTO
  • EVENTS
  • MAGAZINE
RVA Mag Logo
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contributors
  • Sponsors

This Beat Is Mine: Weekend Playlist by Body Talk

RVA Staff | May 3, 2019

Topics: Body talk, DJ, Dj collective, local music, music, Playlist, rva magazine weekend playlist, Weekend Playlist

Every Friday night, RVA Mag drops an absolutely amazing playlist curated by Virginia’s most influential artists, musicians, and institutions.

This time around, we’ve got a flawlessly-curated selection of bangers from Body Talk, a local DJ collective made up of Mike Murphy, Tru Blu, Sean Lovelace, and DJ Mordecai. The members of Body Talk came together to get Richmond dance floors bumping with boogie-funk, disco, soul, go-go, and more sounds to keep your feet movin’ round.

You can catch up with Body Talk around town on a regular basis, and their next live appearance will be on Saturday, May 25th at Black Iris (322 W. Broad St). Music starts at 9:30, and if you arrive before 10:30, you get in free! After that it’s $5, so show up on time and dance all night! Body Talk DJ Sean Lovelace can also be heard weekly on WRIR, every Monday night from 11 PM to 1 AM, co-hosting The Heavily Cosmic Rotation along with DJ Heavy Styles.

Check all that out, but first, check out this massive collection of groovy tunes perfectly designed to get you prepared for a weekend of dance-floor transcendence. Funk, soul, R&B, disco… this playlist has got it all and then some.

Get it right, Virginia.

Open this playlist from mobile in your Spotify app HERE.

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

Gotta have that funk: A chat with RVA DJ collective Body Talk before Skyyline show 7/8

Caley Sturgill | July 7, 2017

Topics: 4 Hours of Funk, Body talk, boogie, dance, disco, Dj collective, DJs, funk, HofGarden, rva music

Richmond-based DJ collective Body Talk has been funking up the local disco scene for almost five years. This weekend, their newest Skyyline event is kicking off at The HofGarden’s rooftop with guest DJs from Baltimore’s 4 Hours of Funk.

Body Talk’s funk parties bring the 80s dance party to RVA every last Saturday of the month at Continental Divide. The Skyyline party is set to fill the mid-month gap every second Saturday at The HofGarden throughout the summer and likely into early October.

“Part of what we love about this music is that even if you’re not familiar with it, it gives you a good feeling,” resident DJ Sean Lovelace said. “So what better to complement that than a rooftop party?”

Lovelace joined the crew in 2013 alongside resident DJs Mike Murphy, Mordecai and Tru Blu. All of Body Talk’s DJ’s have been at it for over a decade, and their first party in December of 2012 was put on by DJ Mike Murphy and DJ Mordecai. 

Photo Credit: Wes McQuillen

“We’re all huge fans of that kind of music where it went from being four-on-the-floor disco stuff to a little more loose, a little more funky and with lots of synthesizers,” Lovelace said. “We might play some early hip hop like Sugarhill Gang or Grandmaster Flash, and sneak some golden era hip hop in there. It’s all in that wheelhouse, the feel-good 80’s funky stuff.” 

Body Talk emerged among other DJ crews that have popped up across the country over the last decade. Baltimore’s 4 Hours of Funk just celebrated their 8th anniversary, and have DJ’s Graham and Fleg making the trip down to RVA for this weekend’s Skyyline show. With funk, soul, boogie and disco, the Baltimore shows play on a similar wavelength to Body Talk.

“It’s a party that focuses on an era of music that a lot of people have a lot of different names for,” Lovelace said. “Some people call it post-disco, some people call it boogie, but it’s all from that post-1979 period after the disco demolition when folks hit their saturation point. Disco became a dirty word, but dance music and club culture hadn’t started yet.” 

The crew was partly influenced by parties along the west coast, Lovelace said, and draws inspiration from crews like San Francisco’s Sweater Funk. Body Talk has also seen guest DJs like the MOdERN CLASS crew from D.C. and Studebaker Hawk from Massachusetts.

Image may contain: 1 person
Photo Credit: Wes McQuillen

“We’ve had everyone from local and regional to the shakers and movers in what’s called the modern funk movement,” Lovelace said. “So that’s kind of where we’re at, Richmond gets skipped over a lot of times for certain music genres. Part of my thing with Body Talk is not to just throw a good party for the locals, but also to be a blimp on that radar, so when west coast crews want to come to the east coast we can make sure they have a place to land in Richmond.”

For their Richmond shows, Lovelace wants folks to remember the parties are organized to be as inclusive and welcoming as possible.

“It should go without saying, but it’s a helpful reminder that we want everybody to feel safe and have a good time,” he said. “The DJs that I look back to from the 70s and 80s, that’s what they were about, bringing everyone together and letting them work out their differences on the dance floor.”

When they’re not playing shows for Body Talk, Lovelace and DJ Mike Murphy can be found volunteering at Richmond’s WRIR 97.3 Independent Radio. Catch Lovelace’s show Cosmic Slop Sundays from 11pm-1am and Murphy’s Mellow Madness on Sunday afternoons from 1-3pm.

The full list of Body Talk’s guest artists include DJ’s Andrew Morgan, Ben Johnson, Benjamin & Cermakk, Bus Crates 16 Bit Ensemble, Computea Games, Fulani, Mr. Felty, DJ Provoke, Studebaker Hawk, Trev-ski, and live set artists Brian Ellis and Shirt Schwarz.

Catch Body Talk, along with 4 Hours of Funk at their Skyyline event at The HofGarden, located at 2818 W. Broad St., Sat., July 8. 8 pm-12 am. Free.

Check out Body Talk tunes on Mixcloud, Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr.

RVA Shows You Must See This Week: 4/30-5/6

Marilyn Drew Necci | April 30, 2014

Topics: ANIMAL, Asylum, Balliceaux, Bandrew, Barge, Bermuda Triangles, Big Air, Body talk, Cretins, Dead Fame, Hellbear, Hydrophonics, Jordan Tarrant, KO & Company, Man Man, No, Nude Beach, People's Blues of Richmond, Proverbial, Scott Flynn, shows you must see, Silo Effect, Snowy Owls, Stoic Violence, strange matter, The Camel, the men, Trongone Band, Truckfighters, US Brass, Wobblesauce

FEATURE SHOW
Saturday, May 3, 10 PM
Dead Fame Vicious Design EP Release Party with DJ Connie Sue, Sean Lovelace @ Balliceaux – $5

As befits RVA’s most prominent postpunk/goth band, the release party for Dead Fame’s brand new EP, Vicious Design, looks to be an actual party.
[Read more…] about RVA Shows You Must See This Week: 4/30-5/6

Body Talk Brings Cherry R&B Jams to RVA

Brad Kutner | March 14, 2014

Topics: Body talk, Cermakk, cherry records, dance parties, R&B

Andrew Brearley, AKA Cermakk, and recording artist Benjamin will be playing at Balliceaux’s Body Talk on Saturday, March 15 at 10:30pm.
[Read more…] about Body Talk Brings Cherry R&B Jams to RVA

sidebar

sidebar-alt

Copyright © 2021 · RVA Magazine on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Close

    Event Details

    Please fill out the form below to suggest an event to us. We will get back to you with further information.


    OR Free Event

    CONTACT: [email protected]