June 18th, 2008 by skidz | posted in .nl, download, free music, hiphop, info, mix, show |

Been a while since I posted on this blog. Blame lack of inspiration, lack of sleep and of course the Euro 2008 tournament.

www.spinnin.nl

This week the new Spinnin’ site was put online so I thought why not write a little piece about the east and what’s going on over there. Then I thought, when you write about hiphop in Twente you have to talk about one of the people who (in my humble opinion) laid the foundation for hiphop in the east and for years to come. I’m talking about the most underrated Dj, our own unsung hero DJ Sandman aka Sands from Hengelo. No I’m not biased, I just know first hand, he is one of the main reasons it started spinning myself.

Sands’ records pt 1

Sands started picking up skills behind the decks in the 90’s and had his own open mic night in Innocent Hengelo in 1997. It was around ’98 that he dropped his first Sandmania tape (yes we are talkin’ bout tapes here kids, if you don’t know: check it here; and while we’re at it, Soundwave is NO taperecorder, he’s a minirecorder). I’m from Apeldoorn and moved to Twente in ’99 and it was then when people around me knew all these underground jams. And they weren’t even hiphop heads. So I asked myself, how can these people have all this knowledge? (remember the internet wasn’t as common as it is today). The answer came in the form of a tape that somebody that came by popped in my tapedeck. It would be the first of a total of 6 Sandmania tapes that would drop in the years after that.

Sands’ records pt 2

But it would not end there. Everybody in Hengelo knew the duo Sandman & Pier when he collaborated with mc Pierski and the beats he crafted were used thankfully by countless mc’s. After the Sandmania mixes it was time for a new concept: the Sandees Blends mixes. The idea behind this was to give the listener an idea where samples came from that were used in hiphop tracks and to give the listener more to listen to than your average backspin-cuttn-scratchin-“just put some tracks on an album”-mix that most DJ’s came with. The series till now contains Cherry Flavour, Banana Flavour, and Watermelon Flavour.

Maybe I’m a little biased here but in all the elements that a DJ can have I think Sands is the most complete DJ when it comes to mastering them all. You want rare breaks, funky jams? Sandman probably already dug it up for you. You want sharp cuts and scratches, Sandman will serve it up for you. You want the latest hiphop and your party rocked? Just call Sandman and he will fix it for you. You want a beat to lay your vocals over? Sands is cookin’ up beats for years now when most of these cats weren’t even listening to hiphop.

Sands’ records pt 3

Hiphop has always existed because the people who know where it comes from pay respect to the people who laid the foundation back in the day. No matter how much the music will evolve, cats will always be sampeling. People will always be digging up that vinyl, it doesn’t matter how many DJ’s will carry that laptop with serato around. You can’t expect to be the next best thing if you don’t know where it came from or at least recognise the foundation. In Hengelo for me Sandman was that foundation. Before the internet was there, he was the main source that brought you those fresh and new songs. Today people just get all their knowledge online and don’t even bother anymore to go out there and to look in a crate or two. So all those cats out there that are doing their thing now, are picking up their first mic or buying their first black gold, recognise what came before you. For the others who don’t, keep hating.

So while being the local provider of hiphop flavour Sandman organised a monthly open mic night in Innocent Hengelo. The open mic moved to another location around 2002 where the parties were more focused on acts that performed on stage (Master Surreal & Skiggy Raps, imadodattazz, Tim, Terilekst, Jawat, and The Proov, just to name a few). Then in 2006 the Spinnin’ concept was born. The idea was not to only focus on music but also bring in other elements such as (street)art and VJ’s and just bring back the funky vibe in hiphop parties that was so lackin’ in that time.

So here we are, 2008 already and Spinnin’ almost has it’s 2 year anniversary. In these two years we saw a lot of acts come by: Delinquent habits, Black Sheep, Benny sings, Camp lo and we will not stop here (or even in Twente for all that matters).

The Spinnin team includes:
DJ’s: Sandman, Skidz & Skivvy
Art director & design: Luxe
Webdesign: Judith Philipsen
Coding: THS-DSGN
And can’t forget one of the originators and good friend Ruz who moved to London.

We hope you keep enjoying what we bring and you keep coming to our parties. ‘Cause without you and your word-o-mouth we can’t keep doing what we’re doing. If you want us to keep you posted about the latest info, please mail to: sandman@spinnin.nl and we will put you on the list.

So check out www.spinnin.nl
Site design by Judith & coding by my man Thijs Bode (props for that, I know you had little time but still managed!)

Till all are one
Skidz