Martin Arceneaux, aka DJ Quickie Mart, collected vinyl 45s for years. He played with nearly every bonafide funk band in New Orleans. He suffered through Katrina’s aftermath and continued playing gigs with Kevin O’Day, Galactic, and Dr. John. But Quickie Mart knew New Orleans music traditionalists don’t consider DJ mixes to be legitimate, and that belief bothered him.
“It’s a hard community in New Orleans to convince them that you are, in fact, a New Orleans artist. I wanted the traditionalist community to have something they could enjoy of mine, and for them to know that I know my shit.”
HBO’s Treme was a bittersweet experience for the DJ who had lost everything in Katrina and relocated a few years after to Los Angeles, only to see his friends on the show as featured “real” New Orleans music. The show spurred him to do what he’d been longing to do for years: cut a damn good mix of the New Orleans groove.
“I was in the trenches, I didn’t have a house, I was couch surfing,” Arceneaux says, describing his post-Katrina lifestyle. “I love the show and I love seeing all my friends on it and honestly I just want to be represented now.”
Arceneaux calls “Ask Ya Mom And ‘Nem….QM should be in Tremé” his “tribute” to New Orleans. It’s also a reminder that he’s relevant to the New Orleans scene despite his move to L.A. The mix is an hour and seven minutes worth of all Louisiana artists (save Gil Scott-Heron’s track “Angola, Louisiana”), whose tracks came straight from Arceneaux’s collection of vinyl records. He cut it in a day, seamlessly mixing the mostly seventies funk and soul samples together and weaving in some fine turntablism. It jumps off with a quick scratch, Wild Magnolia chants, and a young girl’s loud Creole calling to her mother, then blends into Mary Jane Hooper’s soulful “I’ve Got Reasons,” and so the fun begins. “Everything on it is old, old school,” says Arceneaux. “Louisiana music touches me more than anything else. I do a lot of hip-hop, but I love funk and soul. I know my history, I know where I came from, I love where I’m from and I’m proud to have been given a chance by Galactic, Rebirth and other groups I’ve played with.”
This mix also does something that many traditionalists fail to do: attract a new generation of New Orleanians to seventies funk, which laid the groundwork for hip-hop. For those of you familiar with Arceneaux’s hip-hop mixes, or his recent Haze Diaries Vol. 3 album, don’t be afraid to check out this mix. While the songs might be decades old, the groove and funk is familiar, with the occasional heavy snare, drum breaks and fun beats.
“The seventies is what popular electronic music stems from today,” Arceneaux explains. “All the drum breaks that you hear on pop, hip-hop and electronic records come from the 70s. It was a huge point for popular music now, and a lot of people don’t realize how huge the sound of the recording studios and the sound of the breaks was.”
He continues, “When I first heard ‘Sexy Back’ on the radio in 2007, I was like, ‘Why is there an Eddie Bo sample on this Timbaland and Justin Timberlake song?’ College kids or whoever was listening to the radio would just think it was Timbaland or somebody.”
This mix proves that Arceneaux really does “know his shit,” which he combines with the technical expertise to cut these old-school samples to make them sound fresh in 2010. Don’t believe it? Check out the mix’s take on “Angola, Louisiana.”
Download the mix free here.
Ask Ya Mom An ‘Nem… (QM’s Treme Mix) by Quickie Mart
Here’s the full tracklist for the mix:
1. Mary Jane Hooper – I’ve Got Reasons
2. Ernie K. Doe – Here Come The Girls
3. Betty Harris – Mean Man
4. Eddie Bo – Hook N Sling
5. The Explosions – Garden Of Four Trees
6. Gil Scott-Heron – Angola, Louisiana
7. The Meters – The Same Old Thing
8. The Gaturs – Cold Bear
9. David Batiste – Funky Soul
10. The Wild Magnolias – Soul, Soul, Soul
11. Robert Parker – Hip Huggin’
12. Sonny Jones – Sissy Walk, Pt. 2
13. Professor Longhair – Big Chief
14. Porgy Jones – Dap
15. The Meters – Just Kissed My Baby
16. Lee Dorsey – Give It Up
17. Allen Toussaint – Get Out My Life Woman
18. Cyril Neville – Gossip
19. Jimmy Hicks – I’m Mr. Big Stuff
20. The Enticers – Thief
21. The Prime Mates – Hot Tamales
22. Al Hirt – Sentries Charge
23. Inell Young – What Do You See In Her?
24. Dixie Cups – Iko Iko
25. The Meters – Lil’ Old Money Maker
26. Warren Lee – Funky Belly
27. Chocolate Milk – Pretty Pimpin’ Willie
28. Aaron Neville – Hercules
29. Dr. John – Familiar Reality
30. The Fantoms – Turn Me On
31. Bonnie & Sheila – You Keep Me Hangin’ On
32. Johnny Moore – Haven’t I Been Good To You
33. Eddie Bo – Showdown
34. Reuben Bell – Superjock
35. The Brother – A Monkey That Became President
36. African Music Machine – Black Water Gold
37. Eddy G. Giles – Soul Feelin’
38. Professor Longhair – Tipitina
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