The Homie Kiddrae and I, just dropped these tank tops at last weekend’s Sneaker Summit (H-town). We snapped a few shots of the young Stetston rocking one. Be on the lookout for a full video with detailed views, as well as store updates. Tank top tan!

The Sour Grapes just finished up this Paleta mural on the side of Oak Cliff Bicycle Company’s building. Channel 11 will be airing a time lapsed video of the process next week. Keep an eye out for the segment.

Thanks to Josh Obama for rolling with me to grab a flick. While you are at it, peep his new NY video.

This is a HUGE weekend for Top Notch. Saturday night we are hosting the official H-Town Sneaker Summit pre party in conjunction with our regular scheduled monthly party. This means the crowd will be extra bonkers! Get there early to secure your spot on the dance floor or perch near the bar.

Join us the following day at the Summit. We will be holding down the side room, as well as slanging some brand new Decade tanks designed by Kiddrae. These are super fresh! Trust.

Also, BIG shout to my dude Brent for the extra ill poster design. You killed it man!

This Friday it goes down once again! The July edition of Top Notch is guaranteed to be extra hot. This month The Homie Tyrone Smiley will be helping me help y’all, sweat it out. The back room will be rocking thanks to Schwa and Genova. If you are in the Dallas area, swing through.

The Homie Jeremy Holmes just send me some old footage that his friend recently uploaded to Youtube. This footage was all shot in Dallas and Philadelphia between 2000-2005. Good stuff from Mr. Holmes. Keep it Sir. Keep your eyes peeled for a Jeremy Holmes x Decade project in the near future.

Big Sekto at :39!

This is the second installment of my ALL vinyl monthly Dope On Plastic. Last month popped off really nice! Big Thanks to Schwa & Tyrone for wrecking the spot with me. This month local vinyl advocate Dj Love will be joining me for some party rocking action. Side note, this is the first time Love and I will have played together. Dust off your dancing shoes, we will dust off the records.

This past weekend was a blast! Eleven caught a bus from Austin on Friday and rocked D-town with Tyrone, Genova, Schwa and myself. I must say Dallas showed out for this one. I haven’t seen Zubar this packed in a minute. Big Thanks to the Sour Grapes for bringing their whole crew plus some. Saturday, Eleven and I road tripped it south to Houston with the help of some proper road trip sustenance. (i.e. beef jerky, cheeseburger chips, Red Bull and Diet Coke). Boondocks was packed and extra sweaty as usual. Thanks to everyone that fought their way through the Pride parade or rode up on one of the floats to party with us. Good times! The weekend ended late Monday night at The Flat. DJ Sun and Eleven closed it out with a soulful set for a crowd that definitely knew how to get down.

PHOTOS – ONEOCTOBERNIGHT

I am super excited to have The RUB’s DJ Eleven joining us for a big Top Notch weekend blowout. I have been trying to get this dude down here for some time now and the timing couldn’t have been better. Eleven has been hard at work releasing countless edits as well as a slamming new EP. If you are in Dallas or Houston this weekend, show face. These are going to be epic parties. If you are not familiar with Eleven and his crew, visit their site asap and get to downloading!

What first got you interested in the DJ game? How long have you been at it?
I first started doing college radio in 1991 and started picking up DJ gigs from there. I got into doing parties & clubs in the Bay Area before moving to NYC in 1999. In NYC, I was splitting my time between my day job at Rawkus and trying to make it as a DJ in New York. Since 2001, DJing has been my full-time gig.

How/when did The Rub form?
Ayres started The Rub as a monthly party in July of 2002. I spun at the first one and Cosmo played at the second one. After a year or so we started taking the party on the road and it all started to take off like crazy after we released the first “It’s The Motherfucking Remix” mixCD.

Let’s talk a bit about your new EP. What else can we expect from DJ Eleven in the near future?
My newest EP is the second release on my new venture, 11 Inch Records, and features the homie Mike Baker The Bike Maker (from the Bay Area based Honor Roll crew), plus remixes by Ayres, Mike2600, and Illo & Kaem from Ottawa. I’ve slowed down on traveling in the last year and have been focusing on production more & setting up the infrastructure for the label. It’s been a really interesting & fun process, but very challenging.

Give us 5 tunes you have been bumping as of late. New or old.
“You Won’t Go Far” by O.C. & Organized Konfusion
“Baby I’m Yours” by Breakbot
Reflection Eternal’s “Revolutions Per Minute” album
“Shutterbug” by Big Boi
DJ Apt One’s “Show Me What You Got”, which is going to be the next release on 11 Inch.

Any shout outs, fashion tips, favorite rap quotes or recipes you wanna throw out there to cyber land?
While Texas is too damn hot during the summer, it has the best food in the entire universe! yeah, I said it.

dancing kittens after the jump

The first edition of Dope On Plastic was off the hook. The Cavern was packed, the crowd was live and the tunes were on point. Big shout out to Tony Schwa and Tyrone Smiley for rocking the spot with me. Both of these dudes came correct with their crates and went all across the board on the genre tip. Thanks to Observer for the write up, all of the sponsors for the giveaways and everyone that supported the night. Next month is shaping up nicely,  I will have the Homie Dj Love joining me (dude has crates for days), as well as some new sponsors sending goodies. It all goes down on July 10th. See you there!

This Saturday marks the beginning of my new monthly “Dope On Plastic“. D.O.P. is an all vinyl night that will take place every second Saturday and have rotating guests. The Observer just published a nice article on the night in this weeks paper. Read more here. The Homies over at Fools Gold Linked the story as well.

Be sure to get there early. We have lots of goodies to giveaway .

The above image is exactly how Sage Francis looked the first time he visited Dallas’ Liquid Lounge back in 2003. Sage quickly captivated the audience with his performance of Mullet. He stole the show with his creative lyrical stylings, disguised look and amazing stage presence.

If you would like to see Sage Francis perform at Granada Theater on June 14th, email me at decadepromo@gmail.com. Please include Sage Francis in the subject line of the email.

*I was wrong. Just dug up the flyer I did for the show. Looks like it might have been 2001.

Last night was the closing party for POP UP 310. The event was great. I saw lots of familiar faces as well as new ones. If you were there, you know that the gift bags went fast! In that gift bag was a mix I just did for my new friends over at Red On Greenville. If you didn’t get a physical copy, it is now available for download right here. This was a live from home mix session, no multitrack, one take. I hope you enjoy it!

MIX – DIAMOND IN THE BACK SUNROOF TOP