The next Bump N' Hustle Party is March 8th at the Rivoli...this one's going to be on the 2nd floor with LOTS for room for LOTS of people: www.hotstepper.com---
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OK back to my personal interests:
Muuuuuusic- soul, funk,house,disco,Latin,roots rockas,hip hop,jazz,electro,rock,punk,cheesy 70's suburban pop rock, old school D&B, good techy beats, funny mash ups, my own style of electro-snap and punk-crunk! futbol (Aresnal / Brazil /Espana) and of course Hot Stepper events...here are some recent pics from our artwork and parties, mostly Bump N' Hustle, tons more pics on our website at www.hotstepper.com - enjoy -
Music
For music I gotta at least start with shouts to the people I've had the pleasure of bringing to perform at our events:
A-Trak, Abacus, Ann Nesby, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Amon Tobin, Barbara Mendes, Bear + Task (Up Bustle + Out), Bebel Gilberto, Byron Stingily, Carlton Rosebure, Caron Wheeler, DJ Chillfreeze (Giant Step), Choclair, Cut Chemist, Danny Krivit, Dego (4Hero), Dennis Ferrer, Dino & Terry, Divine Brown, Dominique Keegan, DJ Cam, DJ Ease(Nightmares On Wax), DJ Food, Karl Injex, DJ Louis(Statik Sound System), DJ Spen, DJ Vadim, E-Man, Esthero, Franck Rogers, Francois K, Frankie Cutlass, Fred Everything, Gilles Peterson, Glenn Lewis, Gwen McCrae, Heavyweight Art Installation, Herbaliser, J-Dub, J. Sinister, Jacksoul, Jason Palma, Jay Dee (Dilla - R.I.P.), Jenifa Mayanja, Jerome Sydenham, Joe Claussell, Jojo Flores, K-os, Karizma, Kaskade, Kid Koala, Killer Kela, King Britt & Sylk 130, Lady Alma, Lenny Fontana, "Little Louie" Vega, Luke McKeehan, Mark Andrus, Marques Wyatt, Maseo (De La Soul), Mateo & Matos, Matthias Heilbronn, Medeski Martin and Wood, Michael Lange, Michael Watford, Michie Mee, Miguel Graca, Mike Tull, MKL, Monique Bingham, Mr. Thing, N'Dea Davenport, Nick Holder, Nicky Siano, Neil Aline, Norman Jay, One Step Beyond, Patrick Dream, Paul E. Lopes, Peanut Butter Wolf, Peter & Tyrone, Peven Everett w/ Seance Divine, Panic, Phil Asher, Pucho and the Latin Soul Brothers, ?uestlove, Rich Medina, Robert Owens, Roots Manuva, Roy Ayers, Slam Mode, Stacy Kidd, Steve "Silk" Hurley, Taana Gardner, Teddy Douglas, Timmy Regisford, Tony Humphries, Turnstylz, United Future Organization, Vikter Duplaix, Wunmi, Wade O Brown, Zapp and Roger Troutman (R.I.P)
Movies
Scorcese and Copolla mafia flicks, Kubrick, Jarmusch, some Spike Lee, Cinema Paradiso
more TBA...
Television
Family Guy, Ali G, The Office (UK), Trailer Park Boys, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Colbert the others I'm waaay too embarrassed to say...OK Prison Break, and I'm starting to warm up to Heroes cause I'm too damn lazy to change the channel after Prisonbreak - there I've fessed up.
Heroes
"Most of my heroes don't look like John Wayne" - P.E.
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My uncle Ben Bousquet...former councillor for West Kensington and Chelea London, supported the interests of common people of London, ANC member who risked his life to fight for freedom for S. Africa, Mandela and Namibia (all achieved within his lifetime thankfully)
Sadly passed away June 19th 2006. A life well lived. Here's his obit in the Manchester Guardian:
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Ben Bousquet
Anti-apartheid campaigner and passionate Labour party activist
Mike Phillips
Monday June 26, 2006
The Guardian
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Ben Bousquet, who has died, aged 66, on the western Cape in South Africa, was a migrant from St Lucia, who became a Labour party local councillor and parliamentary candidate in London's North Kensington, as well as an internationally renowned campaigner against South African apartheid.
He was from a rural family in St Lucia, and after finishing school, he came to Britain alone as an 18-year-old in 1957. Even before leaving the Caribbean, he had a lively awareness about the complex intertwining of race, economics and politics which was to become the focus of his life and work. Describing his reasons for leaving his island, he would say that "the whole system in the Caribbean is based on two things: race and class".
Typically, almost as soon as he arrived in London, he began working, in Notting Hill, with the best known activist in the migrant community, the communist Claudia Jones, who was about to launch the first immigrant newspaper, the West Indian Gazette. During his first year in Britain, however, Bousquet found paid employment with the BBC, as the subject of the first ..ary about race on British television, when the BBC's Tonight programme followed him around Brixton looking for a room. Predictably, the film was a record of cruel and sometimes insulting rejections, which were a painful eye opener for most of its audience. Talking about the programme later on, Bousquet said it was "an awful experience. That hurt. Yeah. That hurt a lot. It hurts even now."
The Notting Hill riots followed soon after in 1958, and Bousquet became part of a group that organised a series of events, initially aimed at raising funds for victims of the riots. These were part of a network of events that later on crystallised in the early Notting Hill carnival.
In June 1959, a meeting in London was organised to promote the boycott of goods from South Africa. Julius Nyerere, then the president of the Tanganyika Africa National Union, addressed the gathering. This was a defining moment in Bousquet's life. Within a year, the boycott committee became the Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM), and Bousquet threw himself into its activities, becoming especially engaged in its black solidarity and trade union committees, and later being elected as an executive member. The consistency of his dedication to the cause of South African freedom illustrates the sort of man he was.
Bousquet's other passion was the Labour party. During the 1960s, AAM had brought him into contact with the leading figures on the British left, and by the next decade he was a Labour party activist, with Notting Hill remaining the most important site of his activities in Britain. In 1978, he was elected to the North Kensington council and he remained attached to the area for the rest of his life. He was the Labour party's candidate for North Kensington in two by-elections during the 1980s, but when the sitting MP, the Conservative Sir Brandon Rhys Williams, died in 1988, Bousquet was dropped in favour of a white woman. (Ironically, Bousquet served as an usher at Rhys Williams' funeral, welcoming Margaret Thatcher, who was among the mourners.)
His experience in Labour party politics intensified his commitment to the attempt to create a black section within the Labour party. At the same time he is remembered for his work as an activist in promoting the cultural interests of the black community, in particular, in establishing the community centre, Yaa Asantewaa, off Harrow Road, North Kensington.
He was widely known as a warm-hearted generous person who was passionate in promoting the cause of racial equality. He was also a most fervent Arsenal supporter; a season ticket holder for many years, he not only attended the big games, but was a regular for the reserve matches and was famous for writing letters to the club management about which players they should get rid of.
Towards the beginning of the 1990s, Bousquet suffered a heart attack. He retired from his job in the urban planning department at Lambeth council, and moved with his English wife, Mary - they had been together since the 1960s - to a farm in Sudbury, Suffolk, but he seemed almost as active as he had ever been. During this period, he campaigned for the recognition of black veterans in memorial celebrations, and began researching for a book (with Colin Douglas), West Indian Women at War (1994). He also campaigned for the reburial in St Lucia of the bones of some black prisoners who had been shipwrecked in 1796 off the Devon coast near Ilfracombe.
At the end of 2002, he and Mary retired to South Africa where he died. She survives him.
Paul Boateng writes: Ben Bousquet and his beloved wife Mary, striding across the bush around their home in the Overberg region of the western Cape, were a striking sight to eyes unaccustomed to multiracial couples in this part of the world.
If Afrikaner and other eyebrows were raised initially, this still British couple soon became very much part of their community. In South Africa, Ben, true to his ANC and anti-apartheid roots, threw himself into community development work in the townships. Music, history and politics were central to his life in South Africa just as they had been in Notting Hill. Visiting Ben you were as likely to find a multiracial mix of musicians - he managed local a band - as you were political activists from all over the world.
Seeing Ben just before he died, he spoke with his customary passion about his latest historical researches uncovering the previously untold tale of a Trinidadian, Sylvester Williams, who had practised law in Cape Town before going on to become a Westminster city councillor in the early 20th century.
Asking me for the latest news, he could not resist a dig at the Anglo-US alliance in Iraq prompting his wife to remark: "Can't we leave Bush out of this deathbed scene?" We all laughed. In the end that great warm heart gave up. It had seen him through so many battles. They were all worth fighting, but at the last what mattered was not just how he had lived his life but where he was able to die, in a free, non-racial, democratic South Africa.
· Ben Bousquet, political activist, born 1939; died June 19 2006
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Muhammad Ali who my family had the pleasure of meeting when he was Cassius Clay.
in no particular order:
Nelson Mandela, Marcus Garvey, Steve Biko, Malcom X, ML King Jr, Kwame Toure, Amiri Baraka, Pele, Arsenal FC, Ronaldinho, soon - Kerlon Souza - this kid is sick! James Brown, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Bob Marley, Charles Roach, Public Enemy, Dead Prez, The Wu, Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Satchel Paige, Fela Kuti
more to come...
About me: BUMP N' HUSTLE PARTY!!!!!
Second SATURDAY of every month @ THE RIVOLI!!!!
We'll be upstairs in the poolhall - LOTS of room for a LARGE crowdapeople.
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No my space ain't pimped but that's cause you shouldn't have to wait half an hour to load a gang of templates and pictures and videos without asking for it first anyway right?...OK the slideshow but thats it.
Here's Carlos' unofficial bio:
Born in West London England - was a Portobello Market kid
Mamasita was from Spain and pops was from St. Lucia.
Moved to Toronto at 7 - grew up and so did Toronto thankfully into a much larger multi cultural/racial pretty cool place to be.
Spent a lot of years clubbing in London, NYC, Toronto and Paris, met lots of interesting people and artists (artists aren't people?) you know what i mean. Saw a lot of cool stuff, listended to a lot of cool stuff, did a lot of cools stuff, learned and grew.
Started promoting clubs and concerts as Hot Stepper Productions during the Great Toronto Club Creativity Drought of '93-95. Created Bump N' Hustle on the soulful funky tip with DJs Paul e Lopes and Mike Tull and a huge list of live local and international artists and it blew like Katrina, my bro Pedro started Garage 416 on the soulful house tip and it did the same, 11 years later and we got the juice still thanks to our wikkid Hot Stepper party massive and brethren DJs Paul E lopes, Mike Tull, bluprint(check the website at www.hotstepper.com for more info) and brother Hoss holding down the door and guest list.
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Who I'd like to meet: My heroes...the dead ones I can wait much longer for though.
