I've been holding on to this DJ AM mix for many years waiting for a good time to release it. With the 10 year anniversary of Adam's passing upon us, I think now is the right time to put this previously unreleased mix out into the world. It's an almost finished (but ultimately unfinished) mix that Adam and I worked on together at his Cadet residence in Hollywood in the summer of 2005.
These random pics below of his beloved cat Muggsy and a couple of legendary DJs you might know help show the Cadet house DJ & production setup we used in making the mix:
Adam's house on Cadet was a trip. It was the first Hollywood home he ever owned and he treated it very much like any kid living the dream would: perfectly stocked fridge (with mostly junk food), giant sneaker wall and records & shoe boxes everywhere throughout the house & garage. Peep some additional flicks from the Cadet house:
The video below is basically a walking tour of AM's Cadet house and a true insight to Adam's bigger than life personality:
The idea behind making this demo mix was that he was being asked every week at Body English (the infamous Las Vegas nightclub) for mix CDs. He wanted to get something out there and make some extra cheese in the process. He was planning to sell the mixtape for the ridiculous amount of $40 (this was a very AM thing to do at that time... get what people will pay) and he would proudly say "People will pay it... just watch!" Below are a couple pics from my personal archives of Adam manning the Body English DJ booth in May of 2005, very close to the time we were working on this mix:
In the summer of 2005, AM's career was really taking off and offers were coming in from all sides. He was still managing himself at that point and he was being inundated with requests for private gigs, media interviews along with a multitude of other opportunities. One of the opportunities that came along while we were working on the mix was from Interscope records & Jimmy Iovine. He wanted AM to make a DJ mix that they would put out in music stores and market heavily. At the time, CDs and other forms of physical media were still a big deal and what everybody was still listening to in their cars and at home. Adam jumped at the opportunity (and the big cash advance) that Jimmy & Interscope were offering. I was negotiated to be the "executive producer" of the mix as well, basically taking a role to help shape the cleared content and also to sign off on all the mixes & transitions to make sure everything was up to expectations. Adam could do this himself but he wanted a second pair of ears to validate what would be released and somebody to bounce ideas off of... plus I think he was just throwing me a bone. He was cool like that.
He wanted the mix with Interscope to be all classics and not current hits which was the way most mix CDs of that time were made. His thinking was that if he used current songs, the mix would already be dated by the time it came out but if he used classics then the mix would always remain relevant. The thing was that Adam wasn't messing around by saying he wanted "classics".... he literally wanted the toughest artists & songs to clear ever: Michael Jackson, The Rolling Stones, Queen, U2, Madonna, Run DMC, Guns N Roses and... well, you get the idea. He wanted it all, no compromises. Ultimately, this is the main reason the Interscope mix never happened, it just wasn't feasible economically or practically at that time. So what are we left with? This demo mix, which is the closest thing we will ever have to what the Interscope mix could have been.
Before calling it quits to focus on the Interscope deal, we layed out a 52 track, 64 minute mix of classic early AM mixes along with a few of the bigger club tracks from that era thrown in like Missy Elliott's "Lose Control" and "Hollaback Girl" by Gwen Stefani, both of which became club classics. Also on this mix is a very rare, never heard before mix skit that he made about Michael Jackson's 2005 child molestation trial for which MJ was found not guilty on June 13th, 2005. The skit, although now inappropriate, really shows Adam's genius in putting together different short pieces of music to create a story. To my knowledge, this is the only time this skit was ever recorded (he played it live once maybe twice I believe). You can check it out around the 52 minute mark right after AC/DC. Legendary stuff.
It should be noted that this mix is not mastered or even messed with on an individual track volume level, I've left it the way we worked on it the last time at his house so please excuse the volume levels in some spots. This was an intentional decision to preserve the full history and nostalgia of the project. Also, the intro to the mix was not fully completed either, it was going to be more elaborate but the artist drops serve this version of the mix just fine.
On a personal note, this mix is special to me for a few reasons. It represents the first major project we worked on together & it drew us closer as friends and also because it's a true snapshot into his genius and what was going on for him musically at this critical time in his career. Right before we started working on this mix we took a trip together to Texas for a private gig he got and to talk out some ideas about the mix. The gig was a "white party" in the backyard of some mansion owned by an internet hosting entrepreneur. He was throwing the party for his girlfriend. Adam got a lot of random, high paying gigs like this. My job at the gig was simple: get the check and keep the bozos away. AM got paid a grip of money that day but he wasn't even the "headliner"... BT was. Weird times. I also remember it just started pouring rain out of nowhere during his set and everybody scattered for cover but, under the stage canopy, Adam continued to spin and was dropping an impromptu set of songs about rain and putting beats under them on the fly. I remember him playing Eddie Rabbitt "I Love A Rainy Night", Blind Melon "No Rain", Eurythmics "Here Comes The Rain Again", Milli Vanilli "Blame It On The Rain" and Creedence Clearwater Revival "Have You Ever Seen The Rain" among others... then one dude, that was trying way too hard to be cool, started dancing by himself in the rain and Adam dropped Led Zeppelin's "Fool In The Rain"... that shit was incredible and completely off the dome. We had a big laugh over it and, appropriately, the joke went right over the guys' head. The pic below of us is from that Texas house party on May 30th, 2005, just days before we started working on this mix:
Here is the previously unreleased DJ AM Demo Mix from the Summer of 2005 (produced by DJ Kevin Scott). Have a listen!
DJ AM DEMO MIX (SUMMER 2005) TRACKLISTING:
1) Punjabi MC "Beware of the Boys"
2) Snoop Dogg "Drop It Like It's Hot"
3) Snoop Dogg "Drop It Like It's Hot" (Club Bangaz RMX)
4) Oasis "Wonderwall"
5) Nancy Sinatra "These Boots Are Made For Walking"
6) Phantom Planet "California"
7) 2 Pac ft. Dr. Dre "California Love"
8) Notorious Big "Real Niggaz" (Nuthin' But A G Thang Blend)
9) Dr. Dre ft. Snoop Dogg "Nuthin But A G Thang"
10) Snoop Dogg "Gin & Juice"
11) Nas & Bravehearts "Oochie Wally"
12) Fat Joe "Lean Back"
13) Fat Joe "Lean Back" (Instrumental) w. 50 Cent "Magic Stick" (Acapella)
14) 50 Cent "Candy Shop"
15) 50 Cent "Candy Shop" x Marvin Gaye "Sexual Healing" (Inhumanz Mashup)
16) Mr. C "Where Brooklyn At" (Notorious Big Freestyle)
17) Crooklyn Clan "Franklinz"
18) Notorious Big "Hypnotize"
19) Slick Rick "Lodi Dodi"
20) Color Me Badd "Sex You Up"
21) Beyonce "Crazy In Love" (Lethal Weapon RMX & Heavy Hits RMX)
22) Modest Mouse "Float On"
23) U2 "Sunday Bloody Sunday"
24) Lynyrd Skynyrd "Sweet Home Alabama"
25) Steppenwolf "Magic Carpet Ride"
26) Run DMC "Walk This Way"
27) Mobb Deep "Got It Twisted In The End" (Inhumanz Mashup)
28) DJ AM "Franz Ferdinand Ni**az"
29) Gwen Stefani "Hollaback Girl" (Acapella)
30) Queen x Gwen Stefani "Hollaback Dust" (Breaks R Us Mashup)
31) Indeep "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life"
32) Queen ft. David Bowie "Under Pressure"
33) Beastie Boys "Brass Monkey" (Mixx-It Remix)
34) Wild Sugar "Bring It Here"
35) Afrika Bambaataa "Planet Rock" (Instrumental)
36) Nirvana "Come As You Are"
37) Percy Faith "Theme From A Summer Place"
38) Hot Streak "Body Work"
39) Missy Elliott ft. Fatman Scoop "Lose Control"
40) Michael Jackson "Wanna Be Startin Something"
41) Madonna "Holiday"
42) Michael Jackson "Wanna Be Startin Something" (Bridge Only)
43) The White Stripes "7 Nation Army"
44) Run DMC "It's Tricky"
45) Guns N Roses "Sweet Child O' Mine"
46) AC/DC "Shook Me All Night Long"
47) AM's Michael Jackson Child Molester Skit
48) Bernard Herrmann "Twisted Nerve"
49) Michael Jackson "Billie Jean"
50) INXS "Need You Tonight"
51) Prince "Kiss"
52) Prince "Erotic City" (with Justin Timberlake "Like I Love You" Tone Play)
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