Brown Sugar with Angie C: Fresh Radio 1yr Birthday
10 October 2011 Brown Sugar
One Year Later
365 days of freshness… 8,760 hours of dopeness… 525,600 minutes of music! Aight you get the point.
On 101010 DJ Bee launched Fresh Radio. On a Sunday much like the day I’m writing this piece, my musical landscape changed. Many of my musical memories existed in mental flashbacks from Old School Wednesday on Video Music Box, w/ DJ Ralph McDaniels. McDaniels can be credited with my knowledge of Slick Rick, KRS1, Afrika Bambata, other icons. But those were memories of a generation passed. The music needed to be brought to life. Enter Pandora and the creation of stations that carried a theme of similar vocal and instrumental styles. The music was coming to life. But something was still missing until 101010. On October 10th 2010 Philly’s own DJ Bee’s Fresh Radio hit the internet airwaves and the music of the ‘70’s –to the early 2000’s was ALIVE again.
Programmed by the turntable teacher himself DJ Bee aka Beesus, fresh radio combined the current technology with culture and the feeling of a time almost forgotten. Verbal Intercourse on the site made sure that “freshians” had somewhere to reminisce about the music and where you were when the song dropped, and what you were wearing. Fresh added new shows almost monthly making sure that there was something for everyone. From mixes of the SAMPLES that were the basis of classics we loved, to mixes dedicated to hip hop icons we’d lost. Boasting 20 plus different shows intermixed with classic album skits and drops from fans and famous people alike FRESH RADIO changed my music scene. Then as the icing on the cake Bee teamed up with Commonwealth Clothing stores to present Fresh Friday! Fresh Friday was more than a club date or a theme party it was a monthly class reunion for lovers of old school music. Playing music you could hear on Fresh Radio, crowds of music lovers gather and bust old school dances straight out of videos last seen on 80’s MTV or on BET, while wearing outfits ripped from the pages of Right On magazine, music lovers basked in the skill of DJ Bee and a guest DJ every month. The music was ALIVE again. The feeling of a house party, no drama all love, and every month in 2011 is all but unheard of.
The last twelve months have spawned tons of music lovers who listen to fresh on the website, and on their smart phone apps. Fresh Radio has increased my love for the carefully crafted beats of producers like DILLA *RIP* and the tight flows of every one from Big Daddy Kane to Phife of A Tribe Called Quest. The DJs that we hear on Fresh are lovers of music as well as artists of the genre. Fresh Radio now has a lil something for everyone. And DJ Bee has no plans of stopping the expansion, new shows, new platforms, his mind never stops spinning. So cheers to the FRESHIANS, cheers to the DJS and cheers to REAL MUSIC.
-Ang
Spielburg On October 10, 2011 at 9:45 am
Well written Ang!!!
J.Lewis On October 10, 2011 at 1:18 pm
How reFRESHing is this?! How amazing it to have someone so committed to keeping real music alive. How awesome is to have someone that won’t rest until the generation of today knows and recognizes the true source of musical genius that has served as educators to an era ignorant to what FRESH music sounds like! Awesome writing Ms. Ang! What a birthday, thank God Fresh radio was born! And thank God someone like Ang was there to witness it’s birth…thanks for the play by play, feel like I was there! Awesomely amazing!