Matthew Africa – Best Of DJ Quik

The Bay Area’s Matthew Africa dropped this heavy heavy tape this weekend. Matthew gets deep on Quik and his career in the de facto liner notes for the tape, which you should definitely check out, but this quote sums it up:

When people talk about Quik they usually talk about his production. Aside from Dr. Dre, no one has been more influential in shaping the sound of L.A. rap over the last two decades.

Dude also mentions his exclusion of “the more juevnile gangster shit,” which is good. Not that I have any problem with juvenile ganster shit — I copped three pieces of No Limit deadstock promo wax this weekend! — but you can make a great DJ Quik mix without going there so you probably should.

Anyways, if you’ve been following me on twitter or had the misfortune of being online at around noon today, you have already been lambasted with how much I love both DJ Quik and this mix. He’s an incredible producer and a highly underrated lyricist, for sure. But most importantly, Quik is a top-notch whiner.

Not talking about Willie D-style old-man-on-the-front-porch drunk bitching, I’m talking about Jewish grandmother-esque complaining. “Tonite” has entire verse about being hung over, “Pitch It Onna Party” is almost entirely about dudes fucking up his crib after he throws a party (“$500 bottle of White Star…bout to hide it!”), and “You’ze A Ganxta” is mostly Quik bitching about how everyone thinks he’s harder than he actually is which is, of course, pretty annoying. As a dude who is also both easily pissed off by day to day life and also (duh) skinny, me and DJ Quik are reading from the same playbook.

Anyways, Quik has a new album coming out with Kurupt called BlacKQout on June 9th. Go cop. In the mean time, bump this mix.