DJ Spanish Aztec

DJ Spanish Aztec

I'm signed up for a digital MP3 list-serve called MP3Waxx.  A lot of rap audios arrive through the list-serve, mostly mainstream with a couple of gems.  Each time I check out the MP3Waxx emails, my old friend DJ Spanish Aztec crosses my mind.  He'd often go through a bunch of list-serves and record pools he was a part of to round up what he wanted to put people on to. He was gracious enough to share those audios with a lot of people including me.  He did this for years.  Below are some words I wrote shortly after his funeral three years ago.  It talks about SA's love for music... whether vinyl or digital, his archive was deep.  I plan on assembling tracks from these record pools and maybe starting up a newsletter listserve to share with whomever wants free access to music.  All of these audios are sent out from the labels or people that represent their promo teams.  They're already available online for free.  If you're an eMCee, beat maker, musician, one of those folks that works at a label or just interested in having someone hear out your music, email repshowhost@gmail.com.  I recently got a volume started up of a few mainstream tracks I downloaded from MP3Waxx.  What I'm interested in doing though is combining the mainstream with the independent.  My heart is into underground but I listen to everything... this is what DJ SA was all about too whether he was just hanging out listening to music with you, at the radio station, or out dj'n somewhere.    

In the future I plan to use this blog to document DJ SA's story.  When he was alive we got the chance to sit down and talk about his life everything from the ups and downs.  He let me write about his experience at the time for a short story I was putting together for one of my English classes at NMSU.  We recorded his story on cassette tape in audio... hours of conversation starting with his born day.  I put some pieces of the memories he shared for the short story I wrote for class.  I plan on returning to that story, including those cassette tapes I have.  Blogger seems like a good permanent platform that's not behind something you need an account to access like FB or Tweet. So I think it's the best place where I can "archive" something like this without it getting lost in the world wide mix.  That's the plan.

If you're interested in a digital download of some music, email repshowhost@gmail.com. I'm calling the digital collections Mp3oBOX... the Mr. Postman Volumes.  We on volume 1 right now.  It's mostly all mainstream stuff that sounds pretty good but in the future there will be more variety.  Maybe it'll turn into something else we can connect to interviews to educate people on what's out there with links to support what these artist have for sale  In a simple way... just MP3, download, play.  Nothing else to it, no theyTunes, streams, nothing like that.  Just simple... MP3, download, play.  

Here's the write up about my good friend  It was posted online at the time but the whole site was removed about a year later when I decided to turn it into a blog.

Dedicated to SA. Peace.

In Memory of DJ SA

October 22, 1968-March 6, 2012

Thinking of 2012 and the meaning of HHA (Hip Hop Alumni) I want to dedicate this site to Joseph Troy Candelaria, who a lot of people, including myself, called DJ S.A. (Spanish Aztec, Still Alive, and a few other acronyms he told me about).  DJ SA passed away this year.  SA’s life revolved around family, his friends, and his two Technics turntables and the new digi-wax setup he was starting to get down.  One of the things I appreciated most about the brother was his passion for music which was a lot like mine.  He had a lot to say about it, and more than that, he had a lot to share.  Thinking on the end of this year, and time throughout the first decade of the millennium, I appreciate having had the chance to get on air with SA, to check him out at a few of his events, and also for his help for a couple times I needed a DJ.  He’d come through and represent straight out of love.  It wasn’t easy for SA to get around, but he never hesitated when I reached out.  I also really appreciated SA’s exchange of music.  I like to think I’m up on a lot of stuff and when I first got to know SA and his interest in music, I was hype to put him on to what I was listening to.  But from the jump, it was never just me telling him about the music I had, it was him telling me.  He always had a top 20, 30, or 40 new joints he had to talk about.  “Yo, listen to this G…” he’d say on the phone.  I’d be on the cell my ear pressed up against the phone speaker and he’d ask… “You know who this is?....”  I’d say, “Naw…Who is it…”  And he’d laugh. 

For a Doujah Raze record that I’d pass to him, he’d put me on to Y Society, and then I’d go back at him with some Pharcyde/Space Boogie X records, and he’d hit me over the head with some DJ Skratch Bastid.  It got to a point where I was receiving data discs from the dude every time we’d get together… “check this out, check that out”… “listen to this, listen to that”… “check out this old mix I did back in like, I don’t even remember (97’ or something)”…  And me being who I am, I couldn’t put my appreciation for this dude into words.  And beyond that, the hospitality of him and his wife, and young B, was bar none.  It wasn’t just about what I was listening to… this dude was always asking if I had eaten yet, or if I was hungry.  And by no means did SA have a lot of loot, but he treated you like he did, sometimes spottin’ a meal at a restaurant and just lookin’ out overall, whether it be music, food, or a prayer while one was going through their own challenges with health or life in general. 

This post is for somebody I think of every time I’m listening to music by myself.  Just today I was going through some files and found a digital vinyl recording of a record he had lent me that I dubbed from the Dakah Hip Hop Orchestra.  I’mma miss all them boxes SA had in his living room that towards the last few months before he passed he never got the chance to share.  It was a bunch of music that him and his fam had recovered from his old days diggin’.  And what’s crazy is he usually has no problem showing you everything in the stash, but all them boxes he took home from EP was just too much.  In my mind I think of the Liquids Swords record he had flipped his hands through and a lot of Funkdoobiest stuff and crazy remixes that I couldn’t wait for him to share once he started to feel better and out from under the weather. 

There are a lot of songs, a lot of old mixtapes, CDs, tapes of recorded shows, that I look forward to going through some day just to share.  Cause that’s what dude was all about.  Getting people to hear that new, or old, instead of the same ole’ … So yeah, when I think of HHA (Hip Hop Alumni), I think of dudes like SA.  Who in their own way contributed a lot… And when you get around to learning about where he came from, what he had experienced, and survived… it’s  real interesting story when it comes to what Hip Hop means to us, whether we’re on our own, with our family, or with others.  Whether you be an MC, a beatmaker, a DJ, or an educator.

With much love, respect, and rememory of the big homie, DJ SA.