What is CMJ & what did I do in college
A lot of you may have no clue what CMJ Music Marathon is…and that’s is fine. I’m all about it, but that might be because I went to UofM and realized my dreams of being a Radio DJ for 4 years. Well, I am being a bit modest. I wasn’t only a free forum radio DJ, I was also the jazz & hip hop Director. What did that mean? It meant that I had to review CDs that came in directed at the Director of the specific genre. I would rate and review it and then put it in the new bins for all the DJs to check out. Each DJ wrote their playlist and I compiled them to CMJ weekly, so they could chart. Sounds lame? maybe, but the show was anything, but lame. Each week a different MC would come in and freestyle on the show. Max B would drop in a bunch. He is that Dude, Matis brings up who crushes him on the beat box. My friend Gilad would also guest. He thought he was cool and told everyone it was his show. He is the other Yemenite dude in Juez and we would pretty much just talk about being Yemenite and lovin hip hop and arak on the show. Once in a while we would beat box and rap indian-yemenite style. It was horrible and I don’t even think our mothers would have been amused, but it was also totally awesome. Anyway, CMJ stands for College Music Journal and it is a way in which some bands get to the mainstream, by pushing their album to colleges stations across the country. College stations are one of the last non-internet based forums for independent music. Major radio is all bought out (that’s why you hear the same 20 songs every hour). Well, it’s an honor to have Shemspeed showcasing this year, but not only that. We also have Shemspeed artists performing everynight. the next two nights you could catch Kosha Dillz at Santos Plarty House (tonight) and Eprhyme & Diwon at SOBS (Tuesday night).
grab tix to the Shemspeed CMJ Showcase this Thursday night at shemspeed.com/cmj
– Erez Safar
