Sunday, August 31, 2008

A band a day...Skratch n'Sniff

Earlier in the week, I talked about The Senate, a band that mixed hip-hop and elements of rock into their music.

Skratch n'Sniff is kind of like that...only they don't actually have to play instruments.

Skratch n'Sniff is:
DJ Mike Czech: Turntablist
Malcolm: Host

Skratch n'Sniff isn't actually a band in theory...it's a radio show that was born in San Diego during the golden age of the mashup (2003) and has been around ever since.

Small history lesson on mashups:
Mashups started getting attention when Danger Mouse (who later went on to create half of Gnarls Barkley) produced The Grey Album (mixing Jay-Z's Black Album with The Beatles' White Album) to positive results.

MTV liked the idea so much that they wondered what something like it would sound like live and Jay-Z and Linkin Park were the first (and so far, the only) artists to try the Collision Course.

Lesson over.

The idea behind their radio show is very simple, mix contemporary modern rock songs with some of the best rap out there.

As a listener of both genres, you would think that I'd be rather skeptical of rock and rap mixing.

But one listen to their mix of Saving Abel's "Addicted" with Lil' Wayne's "Lollipop" and you might just wind up being "Addicted to Lollipops"...I've never even heard the full original of Lil' Wayne's "Lollipop".

The two songs on their own have been very popular, but together sound as if they were meant for each other, both musically and lyrically (which is somewhat rare for a mashup).

The one hour show's popularity has actually grown to reach 45+ cities, including major markets such as Dallas, Boston, and Atlanta.

Skratch n'Sniff have actually stood the test of time with mashup music where others haven't and they're still growing.

Here's a super mix featuring clips and full songs that they have mixed.

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