Every Sunday this summer we woke up early, showered the sweat off and then started to sweat again all through our journey towards the center of Harlem. First we'd bike across Bed-Stuy in its hour of rest, the tumble weed empty time after Saturday's parties and before morning church service. Then we'd park and take a train, then a train then a shuttle bus to hang out on the sidewalk for half of the day. Do you know that on Sunday mornings double decker busses of tourists, mostly German and Danish from the sound of it, cruise through Harlem to look at it? Do you know that they line up at the churches and sit in the back behind folks? The tour companies pass out hand fans, to relieve them from the heat and the provide the full Disney experience. It is hard to project what the tourists have thought of the neighborhood before, what they believe they know of it after these sojourns. Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts just published a book called Harlem is Nowhere, named after a Ralph Ellison essay that deals with the black and the human experience of being without a stable identity or place in society. Probably like the visitors, DJ Rupture and Rhodes-Pitts say they first "arrived in Harlem through books and poetry and music; a Harlem of dreams." They've now combined those impressions with ones accumulated from real time spent in Harlem's spaces. Those ideas and wishes are all living together here as the radio of an unreal place created from phone calls, gospel groups, Gil Scott Heron's aged wisdom, Spanish PSA's and cumbia remixes. You can read more about the piece here, and download the other mixtape (about Mexico City) in the series it came from, here. Complete track info after the jump.
Download: Dj Rupture's Harlem is Nowhere Mix
1. DJ Rupture, Matt Shadetek, and Chief Boima – Elegy for Mr Peach (Rupture mix)
2. Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts – "It's a Long Story"
3. Shabazz Palaces – kill white t, parable of the nigga who barrels stay hot, made by hardkings@freecasino.blk
4. Maga Bo – Saye Mbott feat. ALIF
5. Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts – "Change Your State of Mind"
6. DJ Rupture, Matt Shadetek – Don't Give It All Up feat. Jahdan Blakkamoore and Aku (mudd mix)
7. DJ Rupture – Schomburg Approach / Congress Hiss
8. Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts – "Searching for the Underground City"
9. Pursuit Grooves – Pressure
10. Superfront PSA – English version
11. Rev. Johnny L. Jones – I Got Drunk for the Lord / Train is Moving on
12. Gil Scott-Heron – New York Is Killing Me
13. Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts – "The Magnitude of the Current Crisis"
14. Yannis Kyriakides & Andy Moor – School Burnt Down
15. Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts – "Everything is Gonna Be Alright"
16. Jennie C. Jones – You Make Me Feel Like 100 Billie Holiday Songs
17. DJ Rupture, Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, Timeblind – "Rajah Rabo's 5-Star Mutuel Dream Book"
18. Timeblind – Slow Conv Stryder 2
19. Nettle – Ballad of Jimmy Hollin (Leafcutter John remix)
20. Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts – "Why Are You Scared of Reparations?"
21. Lamin Fofana – What Elijah Said
22. Das Racist – Puerto Rican Cousins
23. Superfront PSA – Spanish version
24. Sekreto – Gota (El Hijo de la Cumbia remix)
25. Jahdan Blakkamoore - Dollar Van (skit)
26. Timeblind – Rastabomba
27. Richard Skelton – Threads Across the River
28. Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts – "Even the Dead Will Not Be Safe"
29. DJ Rupture, Matt Shadetek, and Chief Boima – Elegy for Mr Peach (Rupture mix)
30. Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts – "See You Next Year At the Parade"
