Miami Music Blog

via myspace/djpurfiya

DJ Purfiya with Suga Shack from Wild 98.7

​DJ Purfiya is from the city of Palmetto, Florida, just south of Tampa. He's affiliated with Miami's own Slip N Slide Records as one of their official DJs.

Wednesday, rumors hit the Internet -- namely Twitter -- that he had died due to complications of the flu. Yesterday we found out he's alive and well, and claiming hackers got into his MySpace and Twitter accounts and spread the false message of his death.

According to his former boss, Howard Roberts, CEO and founder of Firm Life Entertainment, a concert promoter in Southwest Florida, DJs from Tampa to Fort Myers are saying Purfiya pulled the stunt himself for publicity.

DJ Purfiya's myspace page still lists Howard's phone number as his booking contact. Crossfade called him up to see what he had to say.

Here's what he told us, after the jump.

​September 19 marked another recent, terrible loss for the DJ community , and hip-hop at large: Pioneering turntablist Roc Raida, born Anthony Williams, passed away after cardiac arrest. Williams had been hospitalized after an accident while practicing Krav Maga, which he had been studying for the past two years. He successfully undergone surgeries and physical therapy, according to a family statement, and as such, his death was unexpected.

In the music world, Raida and his crew, the X-Ecutioners, were known for helping to develop turntablism as we know it today. In 1995, he became the first DJ from New York City to win the world DMC championships, instantly earning a place in the DMC/Technics DJ Hall of Fame. His further artistic accomplishments are too numerous to mention here, but most recently, he had been touring as Busta Rhyme's official DJ. (In fact, many learned of Raida's passing through Busta's Twitter.)

The loss hit local DJ I-Dee especially hard -- he counted Raida as a huge inspiration, and is signed to his mentor's label, AdiarCor. As such, he's put together a benefit for Raida's family tonight at the weekly Champion Sound party at Electric Pickle.

Befitting the evening's honoree, the DJ line-up is pretty stellar: I-Dee, Immortal, K-Razor,  Aliyo, K-N-S, Fuse, and others, along with Champion Sound residents Mr. Brown, Sire Esq. and A-Train. A special appearance also comes from Exotic E, part of Raida's original X-Men crew. MCs Wrekonize, Bernbiz, and Protoman will also be on hand to keep the night moving.

Roc Raida fundraiser. Wednesday, September 30. Electric Pickle, 2826 N. Miami Ave., Miami. $5. Ages 21+ with ID. 305-356-5613

Photo by C. Stiles

​Jose L. Carrera, artist, family man, and founder of OchoPlacas Tattoos passed away quietly on Sunday morning of natural causes. Carrera was an immensely talented artist who started in the street and first cut his teeth on body art while incarcerated, eventually opening the thriving tattoo shop on 8th Street. Employee Leo Valencia stated that "Jose did everything for his daughter and his family...hopefully his vision will live on."

New Times recently chronicled his artistic ascent in an extensive profile, which you can read here.

There will be a service for him today, Monday, September 8, at 5 p.m. at Bernardo Garcia Funeral Home, 8215 SW 40th St., Miami.

*CNN's complete coverage.

*Rolling Stone's extensive tribute, with links to coverage throughout the RS archives.

*SPIN magazine remembers Michael as a hero, not as a punchline.

*At New Times' sister paper LA Weekly, an exclusive interview with longtime MJ lawyer Bob Sanger.

*Also at the LA Weekly web site: a slideshow, remembering Michael Jackson through his possessions.

*New Times sister paper the Village Voice is uploading its archival MJ print coverage. Click here to see the latest.

*New Times contributor John Hood's remembrance on the Huffington Post.

*Sweat Records' cofounder-at-large reconsiders her old Jackson jokes.

*Power 96's video tribute.

John McHale of Breakeven Booking is teaming up with Goo this Saturday to get some funds together to help out Brandon Holding's mom, who damn well needs it.  Holding recently passed away after a long battle with cancer.  His family was of modest means and could not afford a funeral or services.  This show will be both a celebration of his life and a fundraiser to help out his mother. 

Thick as Blood, Consular, Homestretch, Knock 'em Dead, and Maldito are confirmed for the show so far; look for some surprise guests popping up and off.  Brandon was a fixture at shows since his teen years.  He was 21 when he passed.  He will be missed. 

Adam "Atom Xmas" Hernandez of Miami's Dyslexic Postcards passed away sometime this past Saturday, January 24.  Hernandez was a fixture in the Miami music scene for the past several years, frequently collaborating with his brother Josh. At the time of his death, he was developing a new music project called Atomic Xmas, and most recently had been bartending at the Vagabond. Hernandez was 26 years old. A memorial service is being planned by his family; the details are forthcoming.

Condolences go out from this writer and the South Florida music and arts community. 

News has come in from Italy this morning that prominent South African singer Miriam Makeba has passed away today from an apparent heart attack. Makeba, who collapsed while exiting the stage right after performing in Southern Italy, essentially died doing what she loved most--singing. She was 76-years-old.

Widely revered by many as the voice of the South African struggle during its apartheid years, Makeba's music stirred millions of blacks to fight for their independence across the entire continent of Africa. (That's right Sarah Palin, Africa is a continent, not just a country) She not only had a beautiful voice, but also a certain grace to her that made her songs and albums so enjoyable.

Her passing today is sad, but I've been listening to her albums on vinyl this morning and so much of it is uplifting, that it just makes you want to smile instead of mourn. Her music has always had that quality.

Above is a rare video of her performing live in Stockholm, Sweden from 1966. It gives a glimpse of the rebelliousness in her music which caused her songs to be banned from the airwaves in 1976. She was kicked out of her own country shortly afterward and lived mostly in exile for the remainder of her life. Throughout it all, she always fought for what was right, and she'll be sorely missed.

--Jonathan Cunningham

To younger, casual consumers of Miami’s downtown nightlife, Alex Del Bueno was the lord of the Vagabond door, the no-bullshit sentry who guarded the final entrance to the club’s inner sanctum. But to a much, much wider swath of the local music scene, however, Del Bueno was a fiercely loyal, fiercely talented musician and friend who bridged the often-contentious worlds of punk and hardcore.

The sheer number of people who considered him a friend has become evident in the week since Del Bueno, age 35, was killed in a car accident. This weekend sees a street-punk-oriented benefit show tonight at Churchill’s, organized by U.F.C. frontman Roach, and an all-day benefit tattoo event on Saturday at Hell Bound City Tattoo in Wynwood.

Next Thursday, Del Bueno’s friends have organized another two concurrent benefit events: a special edition of the Vagabond’s weekly Thursday party, Shake, and rare, intimate show by Poison the Well, again at Churchill’s. Miami’s hardcore and punk kids, when it matters, definitely take care of their own.

Versatile saxophone player, LeRoi Moore, of the Dave Matthews Band died yesterday at a hospital in California. He was just 46-years-old. He'd been in the hospital for several weeks suffering from complications he suffered on June 30th when he was thrown from his all-terrain-vehicle on his farm in Charlottesville, VA.

At the time of his initial injury, Moore was admitted to a hospital briefly, then went back to his home in L.A. to begin physical therapy and assumed he'd be fine. But he needed to be readmitted to an area hospital on July 17th where he remained until his death yesterday.

The Dave Matthews Band played a show yesterday in Los Angeles with heavy hearts and dedicated the evening to Moore. It was Moore who first put the Dave Matthews Band together back in 1991. At the time, a young Matthews gave him a copy of his early demo tape, Moore listened to it, reached out to his friend Carter Beauford, a local drummer, who also liked the demo, and with that, the Dave Matthews Band was born. He's been in the group ever since, and was just recently replaced by Jeff Coffin in July while he attempted to recover.

-Jonathan Cunningham

You never know who some of Miami Beach’s golden oldies are or might have been in their younger years, unless of course they reach into their wallet from time to time and pull out old black and white photographs of themselves posing in big bands with the likes of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Dizzy Gillespie. The late Diego “Mofeta” Iborra was such a man. Born in the Cuban countryside in 1919 and raised by a professional flautist father in Havana, the drummer was inspired to take New York by storm as a young adult in the 1940s. His audacity in asking to jam alongside Dizzy helped to change the tempo of one of America’s greatest musical genres.

“My father happened to be a very loving and compassionate man, so it was easy for him to go and meet people in the jazz world,” says Mofeta’s son Frank Iborra. “He was very unassuming and they just took him under the fold.”

Hip-hop artist Camu Tao, known for his membership in acclaimed underground assemblies MHz, S.A. Smash, the Nighthawks, and the Weathermen, passed away Sunday afternoon after a two-year battle with lung cancer. Born Tero Smith, he was two weeks shy of his 31st birthday.

In his hometown of Columbus, Ohio, he got his start as a member of the MHz crew, along with RJD2, Copywrite, Jakki Tha MotaMouth, and Tage Proto. But it was mostly in New York, through his association with various heavyweights from the Definitive Jux record label, that he positioned himself to break out. His 2002 Nighthawks album with pal Cage garnered critical and fan kudos, and S.A. Smash’s debut, 2003’s Smashy Trashy, was a minor underground hit. Since then, while releasing a few solo records with only regional release, he kept himself in the public eye with notable guest spots on tracks by artists like, again, Cage, Slow Suicide Stimulus, and Aesop Rock. In fact it was Aesop Rock who made the first public announcement of Camu’s death, onstage Sunday evening while performing in Minneapolis.

It’s come as an extreme shock to his fans, first, because few knew he had been ill, and second, because the guy was a class act. I met Camu a few times over the years in New York, and one thing that always struck me was his open friendliness. Whereas a lot of MCs in his milieu can be, shall we say, standoffish, Camu was genuinely nice, laid-back, and always ready with a joke.

Possibly the most tragic part about this is that the world at large had not yet gotten acquainted with this singular, but largely unsung, talent. With S.A. Smash more or less on hiatus, Camu had been cooking up a full-length for Definitive Jux, all full of next-shit weirdness unclassifiable by subgenre. It was to be his first solo album to receive major national distribution. One track, “Plot For a Little,” appeared last year on Definitive Swim, the label’s compilation of music for the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. If the world loved, say, Gnarls Barkley, they would have been ready for and loved Camu Tao. With label head El-P’s track record of looking after his own, it’s more or less a safe bet that whatever portion of the record was completed should still see public release. El-P’s statement, from his Myspace blog, follows after the jump. R.I.P. – Arielle Castillo

Chad "Pimp C" Butler 12/29/73-12/4/07

By John Nova Lomax

I came late to the UGK party. I was out of the country for much of their rise from 1992-1995, and then I lived in Nashville, where their legend had not yet spread, until the end of 1997. Even after moving back to Houston, it took me a few years to come around to them — I had kind of soured on hip-hop around that time.

In fact, one of the last hip-hop albums I was really digging then was Big Mike's Somethin' Serious, which came out in 1994. I had it on cassette, and had lost the insert card, so I didn't know until quite recently that Bun B was one of the guests on the posse track at the end of the record or that Pimp C had produced and sung the hook on "Havin' Thangs," one of the funkiest songs on one of the funkiest rap albums up to that point.

What I loved about Somethin' Serious was that it was resolutely, absolutely Gulf Coast hip-hop music — Big Mike had divided his youth between Houston and New Orleans, and you could hear it in his Meters samples, laid-back tempos and unabashedly Southern accent.

And then, just a couple of years ago, Matt Sonzala loaned me a copy of Super Tight, UGK's second major label record and their first classic. My mind was utterly blown. Super Tight took Somethin' Serious to whole other levels. I have always believed that had I heard it when it first came out, my life might have taken a different direction — maybe toward hip-hop jour­nalism instead of general music ­criticism.

And the hits just keep on coming...
News reports out of New York this morning state that highly acclaimed Cuban percussionist Carlos "Patato" Valdez passed away yesterday at the age of 81. Most stories I'd ever read about the guy said he was crazy (in a good way) both on and off the stage and one of the most versatile percussionists to ever make a name for himself in New York's salsa and jazz scene. The entire concept of Latin jazz was formed around guys like Patato who were walking across the street from the Palladium to Birdland in the wee hours of the morning during the 50s and 60s.
Until yesterday, he was also one of the last guys from that era still around. His music will be sorely missed.

- Jonathan Cunningham

Chad "Pimp C" Butler with his mother, Wes "Mama" Monroe in Port Arthur, Texas, 2006

News reports trickling out of Los Angeles are revealing more about the unexpected death of 33-year-old rapper Pimp C.

Some of the details are conflicting, which is to be expected in the immediate hours following a high-profile death, but it appears that Pimp C, born Chad Butler, may have died from natural causes yesterday. According to this well-packaged story by Joey Guerra and Peggy O'Hare at the Houston Chronicle, however, his death is being investigated as a homicide.

My thoughts on that go both ways. At 33, it's easy to assume he didn't die of natural causes, but without any evidence of foul play, I'd hate to think homicide is on this case solely because he was a rapper.

But then again, he was a rapper, and most rappers who die, aren't lucky enough to drift on in their sleep. Either way, that's a law enforcement call, but it does raise questions about the way young black deaths are investigated.

Reports coming out of Los Angeles and Chicago are sadly stating that rapper Kanye West's mother, Dr. Donda West, died over the weekend "as a result of complications from a cosmetic surgical procedure." The family released a one sentence statement this morning, which read: "The family respectfully asks for privacy during this time of grief."
Details will be forthcoming over the next few days and CrossFade will keep you posted. For more info, check out the Chicago Sun-Times obituary this morning. -- Jonathan Cunningham

Last Thursday, Lucky Dube's luck ran out.
The South African reggae star was shot dead in a botched carjacking attempt in Johannesburg. Currently, there was no other motive for the killing beyond the carjacking, which was unsuccessful. South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, has appointed a special task force to search for the assailants, but the latest killing just underscores how out of control South African violence is on a daily basis.
Dube (pronounced Doo-Bay) was the first South African reggae star to make an international impact. He recorded 22 albums over his long career including Rasta Never Die, and Slave, his biggest selling album to date. He's recorded with Seal and Peter Gabriel, and was the first South African to perform at Jamaica's Reggae Sunsplash in 1991.
Dube was just 43 years old and is survived by his wife and seven children.
If you're not familiar with his songs and the magnitude of his star power in South Africa, here's a video for, "Back to My Roots," one of Dube's most popular songs performed in his homeland.
R.I.P. Lucky

-Jonathan Cunningham

No albino python, no making-out with Madonna, not even any making out with a python! Britney Spears' “comeback” performance Sunday on the MTV Video Music Awards, where she performed her new single “Gimme More,” was simply lackluster. It only served as validation that this former pop-princess – who once held the music industry by the balls – now only has a grasp on one of her dancer’s packages. Which you probably missed because it was brief and boring, like a desperate hooker’s plea for a quick $2 blow-job.

Her entire performance, to put it mildly, looked like a dress rehearsal. Britney went through the motions like an aloof robot, remembering her choreography, but seemingly reserving her trademark umph for another time and place. Perhaps this other time and place was 4:20 in Britney-land where magical talking Cheetos drink Red Bull and poop on couture dresses while telling her that she’s still pretty enough to get away with having minimal talent.

Global news outlets are reporting that the most famous opera singer of our time has passed away. Luciano Pavarotti died at his home in Italy after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 71 years old. The king of the high C's and longtime member of the famed Three Tenors was one of the most respected singers of any genre that the world has ever known. He'd been battling with cancer for slightly over a year, and recent news articles reported that his health was getting better. Read more about his passing here. --Jonathan Cunningham

To watch Pavarotti at work...click on the video below

For an even crazier video...check out Pavarotti and James Brown performing together!

New York media is reporting the death yesterday of Hilly Kristal, founder of legendary downtown rock club CBGB, which finally closed last October after a 33-year run. Kristal, 75, had been battling lung cancer. Although Kristal talked of opening a new branch of his club in Las Vegas, the forced shuttering of his baby and the gentrification of its Bowery environs were doubtlessly stressful. Between this and Factory Records' Tony Wilson's passing, it's been a sad month for rock fans. Rest in peace.

Read Newsday's full obituary of Kristal here.

-- Arielle Castillo

Jah Jerry

It's come to the attention of Crossfade that Jerry Hines, founding member of legendary Jamaican group, the Skatalites, has died. The guitarist, who passed away last Monday in a Jamaican hospital, was 80-years-old. Better known as Jah Jerry, Hines helped push the sound of ska forward long before it became popular on a global level. Today, ska groups from Long Beach to Japan are making a living off of the sound because of pioneers like Hines and his Skatalite brethren. The group itself was started in 1964 and featured some legendary musicians such as Tommy McCook, Don Drummond, Jah Jerry, and Jackie Mittoo to name a few. We're not totally sure if Jah Jerry's last name was Hines or Haynes as both surnames seem to be associated with the guitarist. But regardless, it's a loss to the ska world and music world as a whole.
If you're not familiar with the Skatalites sound, the group still exists and tours so check the video below for an updated version of the group with the same, classic sound. --Jonathan Cunningham

The Legendary Max Roach At work

In sad news, great jazz percussionist Max Roach passed away yesterday at the age of 83. He'd been sick for some time according to reports and died on Wednesday in a Manhattan hospital. Roach was one of the well noted innovators of bebop jazz and worked with everyone from Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker to Fab Five Freddy decades later. Most of his contemporaries considered Roach to be peerless when it came to drumming, and if you've ever listened to his recordings with Coleman Hawkins or Charles Mingus or countless other jazz masters, you could hear it for yourselves.
For more on his passing, read the story here.

And if you've never seen or heard his music, here's just a taste of the genius that was, and always will be, the immortal, Max Roach --Jonathan Cunningham

It was hoped to only be a rumor but reports now confirm that legendary rapper KRS-One's step-son, Randy Parker, was found dead. Preliminary reports suspect that Parker committed suicide. Depression and mental illness are believed to be the reason behind the alleged suicide.
Read more about the story here.
The Temple of Hip-Hop finally issued it's own press release yesterday. --Jonathan Cunningham

Yes another rapper is dead... shot down well before his prime. It's a story that hip-hop seemed like it was almost ready to outgrow. There hasn't been a marquis rap homicide since rapper Proof of D-12 died in a hail of bullets in a gritty Detroit afterhours club last year. But as of early this week, Dipset affiliate and mixtape standout Stack Bundles is laying in the morgue, and he didn't die of old age. Dude was just 24. He caught two bullets--one in the head, and one in the neck. And another life is wasted. It's a sad story and, of course, details are still emerging. But what other genre has to deal with this shit so often? Why are rappers proned to getting shot so much, yet the police NEVER solve those cases. The nostalgia is bothering me. Some of us music journalists have covered this story one too many times. When are folks going to wake up and stop shooting each other over drama and verbal conflict? The fact that he was an MC has nothing to do with it.
Check out a particularly moving yet academic write up on it from the Village Voice -- Jonathan Cunningham