Daddy G’s DJ Kicks : a downtempo feast

Some DJs get their kicks by dropping the most obscure tunes they can find. Others take pleasure in kicking back with friends and digging out timeless favorites. Daddy G, also known as Grant Marshall, belongs to the latter school. “These,” he says of the components of this mix, “are the records that are always in my box.” Although he’s best known for comprising one half of Massive Attack, Daddy G has been DJing ever since he started making mixes on a cassette recorder at the age of ten. Reggae records filtered through via his older sister’s DJ boyfriend. And his devotion to a good bassline grew out of his mid-teen experience of Jamaican sound systems. From around 1982, he ran the Dugout club in St. Paul’s, part of the unique Bristol scene where reggae and funk collided with post-punk – and eventually produced trip hop.

One of the best things about the DJ Kicks collection is the way it allows the mixers/producers/DJs creating them to really be creative, and give props to their influences. One of the more outstanding examples of this is Daddy G’s mix. Starting with obscure tracks from Willie Williams and Melaaz, he segues into a black box mix of Tricky’s suffocatingly dense “Aftermath”, and never looks back. He also gives plenty of face time to his day job in Massive Attack with 3 songs from their repertoire including a remix of Unfinished sympathy by Paul Oakenfold. Just a great laid back mix to listen to with the following tracklisting :

1. Intro (by Philip Levi & Tipper Irie)
2. Willie Williams – Armagideon Time
3. Sound Dimension – Rockfort Rock
4. Melaaz – Non Non Non
5. Tricky – Aftermath (Unreleased Mix)
6. Meters – Just Kissed My Baby
7. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – Mustt Mustt (Massive Attack Remix)
8. Les Negresses Vertes – Face A La Mer (Massive Attack Remix)
9. Massive Attack – Karma Koma (The Napoli Trip)
10. Johnny Osbourne – Budy Bye
11. Badmarsh & Shri – Signs (Dublate Mix)
12. Barrington Levy – Here I Come (Dublate Version)
13. Foxy Brown – Oh Yeah
14. Leftfield – Inspection/Check One
15. Massive Attack & Mos Def – I Against I
16. Aretha Franklin – Rock Steady (Danny Krivit Edit)
17. Massive Attack – Unfinished Sympathy (Perfecto Mix by Paul Oakenfold)

Daddy G : DJ Kicks [ Studio k-7 : 2004 ]