A while back I interviewed The Agriculture‘s James Healy for the small WORLD podcast. Shortly afterwards I got a message from a cat named Macedonia telling me that he dug the interview and was fan of The Agriculture label.
Turns out that Macedonia hosted a podcast of his own called Both Sides of the Surface where he spins music, as he says, “from around the world and around the way.” Macedonia plays everything from Afrobeat to Soul but it was immediately clear that his passion was hip hop. I started tuning into his show and became a fan. That’s saying a lot because I’ve had a love/hate relationship with hip hop for years and years. I love hip hop for it’s freshness and inventiveness and for it’s honesty, even when it’s outright lying to you with a wink. I hate hip hop for crass commercialism and the coma it’s been in during the gangsta era and I hate hip hop for it’s intolerance and inflexibility. During the last 10 years I’ve had more of a hate relationship with hip hop than a love relationship. But there was Macedonia, a soft spoken deejay, rekindling everything I originally loved about hip hop.
Earlier this year I put together an Exquisite Corpse mix and when I asked Anji Bee, host of the Chillcast, which deejays I should include in the mix she unequivocally said Macedonia. Now that I’m into the second year of solipsistic NATION I plan to have more guest deejays on the show and the first guest I wanted to have on the show was Macedonia.
As I mentioned, while Macedonia’s first love is hip hop he’s not limited to that genre, as you can tell by today’s show. Everything is grist for Macedonia’s musical grill. More than that, Macedonia waxes eloquent on all forms of music for Impose Magazine. Recently he’s written about Amon Tobin‘s latest release, Foley Room and Copperpot‘s WYLA? (What’re You Looking At?) album.
I’ve only known Macedonia for a little over a year but after listening to his voice on BSOTS podcast after show I feel like I’ve always known him. If you’ve never listened to BSOTS, go subscribe to his podcast after listening to this week’s show. Let’s expand the circle of friends.
- Kraak & Smaak “Real Pain” (K&S Remix)”
- Someone Else “Generic Atmo”
- Christian Walt “Still Sleeping?”
- Simian Mobile Disco “Wooden”
- Tokyo507 “Body Electric”
- Jonny Sonic “Medicine”
- DJ Z-Trip “Rockstar”
- Think Tank “A Knife & A Fork”
- DJ Dope “Jimmy Kills Us”
- Goldlix “Latinozo”
- Urban Clearway “African Culture”
- David Last “Where It Falls”
- Caribou “Lovely Day (Four Tet Remix)”