Steinski and Double Dee 'The Payoff Mix'

It's 1983, I'm wearing skin-tight red cords and a Captain America t-shirt that together make me look like a spray-painted golf club. Tommy Boy Records have just held a remix contest to promote G.L.O.B.E. & Whiz Kid's "Play That Beat (Mr. DJ) and the winner has just been announced. It's unanimous: Steve "Steinski" Stein & Douglas "Double Dee" DiFranco's "Lesson One: The Payoff Mix.

It gets played everywhere on American radio but never gets commercially released. Thse guys can't afford the clearance on any samples, let alone the bucket load that they've used here.

It's all done with a gallon of vinyl and a light touch on the pause button of a double tape deck. Loads of kids try and copy the feat. A little later, I make my first mix myself, stealing bits of old Monty Python albums and mixing them in with Abba, Public Enemy, Bauhaus, The Byrds and Chris Carter's contributions to TG's "DOA: the second annual report". Bits of tape I've put over the record / overwrite heads on the cassettes start falling into the mechanism and fucking up the stereo.

Two more Lessons soon followed: "Lesson Two: The James Brown Mix" and "Lesson Three: The History of Hip-Hop."

Together, these Lessons became history and a new genre was born.

Listen to all three Lessons Here or Here

And then listen to Steinski and the Mass Media's take on the Kenndey Assassination The Motorcade Sped On courtesy of the splendid fellows at Illegal Art

Then go here and download the Destiny's Child vs Fugazi bootleg ( i just knew those guys'd get it together one day...)

And if none of this grabs you then go over to Red Lotus Radio where you'll find some excellent ambient ur-folk from Scandinavia, anime soundtracks and Persian Classical music.