lockdown : vinyl find #8.

I will be cheating with this one : I bought it on internet. 

Earlier today, I was reading a great interview of Jeff Dominguez, a prominent recording engineer who helped shape the sound of French rap in the years 1990's and 2000's. Dominguez mentioned working with the late DJ Mehdi and how he fitted in the rap scene back then, how Mehdi used to interact with his friends and crew mates. 

To me, Mehdi is the one who built the bridges between rap and electro, rap and world music. I know he didn't, at least he wasn't the first one ; he "only" contributed to this movement. But he did it when I was able to understand and capture the moment. Him and Imhotep, the producer of IAM, did it for me. They helped me understand there could be a gangway between genres, that samples can come from anywhere and could be cut and filtered in many different ways, that personality was a major, if not the most important, element in music, even if machines were involved in the process. 

Later on, when I started collecting, I wanted to own some of Mehdi's pieces on vinyl. They were/are pretty difficult to find in stores, so I decided to look for them on internet. I purchased this one, that I already knew from "Espion Le EP" (or at least two out of three tracks), which is according to me, a masterpiece. 

Owning the music Mehdi composed and assembled as side projects to his career in hip-hop is still a goal of mine. I must confess I'm no so hyped on the music he made for the Ed Banger label. 

On this maxi, Mehdi, under the The Cambridge Circus alias, gives his rendition of the classic hip-hop cut "Wild Style". But for me, the peak of this record is on the B side, with two joints that represent the essence of Mehdi : "Ulysse" and "Spanish Harlem". These two tracks are the ones who introduced me to the softer yet energetic side of Mehdi, so I hold them dearly in my heart. Strings and a unique way of blending fast beats and basses with samples are Mehdi's trademarks ; they're here. 

The Cambridge Circus - Wild Style. 

A few weeks ago, before the lockdown, I went to the Père Lachaise cemetery with my girlfriend, and while looking for the exit, we stumbled upon DJ Mehdi's grave. Simple, with touches of Tunisian blue. It moved me.