New York City’s Kush Jones reps the Bronx on this hard-and-fast selection of innovative bass-heavy dancefloor gold.
Born and raised in the Bronx, Kush Jones grew up surrounded by inspiring black music. His grandfather was Richard “Richie” Davis, a doo wop singer in 1950s band The Five Willows, and when his grandmother died, he inherited a grip of soul and disco records.
This inheritance inspired Kush to take music production more seriously. He’d learned to make beats at high school, and now had a selection of sounds from across the genre map to manipulate wildly. Making his own remixes and edits, soon Kush was producing full tracks and getting recognition as a producer.
In 2015, Kush was inaugurated into LA crew Juke Bounce Werk. His DJing was again influenced by his family: older cousins that had roots in the Caribbean and inspired him with tales of sound system culture. The idea of having exclusive music to play at shows still informs Kush today, and his series of “Strictly 4 MY CDJZ” releases, a planned 40-part selection of DJ tools and offcuts, acknowledges this concept.
With a slew of records, mostly released via Bandcamp, Kush Jones constantly shows his versatility as a producer, traversing footwork, juke, techno, jungle and beyond to formulate a sound that’s rooted in the Bronx’s rich musical heritage. This year, Kush has releases planned on DC’s Future Times label and Juke Bounce Werk.
His FACT mix is a testament to this as he pays respect to NYC peers like DJ Swisha, Color Plus, AceMo and MoMa Ready/Gallery S, footwork legends DJ Manny and RP Boo and UK pioneers A Guy Called Gerald and Goldie. It’s a deep, varied selection that illustrates New York’s manic energy without ever losing sight of the dancefloor.
Tracklist:
Kush Jones x DJ Swisha – ‘Snare Track’
Kush Jones x James Bangura x DJ Swisha – ‘Pre Club Workout’
Borrowed CS – ‘Silver Surfer Dub’
Kush Jones – ‘Doppler’
Wehbba x DJ Deeon – ‘Relax Work’
2Lanes – ‘Giving & Receiving’
DJ Swisha x Kanyon – ‘Pop & Shake’
AceMo – ‘Get Down Hun’
LCY – ‘L’
J Lin – ‘Romance’
DJ Compton – ‘Lesgo’
DJ Swisha – ‘No Cap’ (feat. BASSBEAR!!)
DJ Manny – ‘Smoking Mild’
RP Boo – ‘What Yo Mouth Do’
Cakedog – ‘Hooked’
DJ Earl – ‘Work DT Body’
Inkke – ‘The City’
Kush Jones – ‘Spinz 808 Test’
Kush Jones – ‘F### Off’
Nicki Minaj – ‘Megatron’ (Color Plus Edit)
A Guy Called Gerald – ‘Energy’ (feat. Goldie)
Gallery S – ‘One Thing Restructure’
Max B – ‘Take My Time’
INVT – ‘Decompression’
Listen next: FACT mix 744 – MoMa Ready
