Matthew Africa

Although this post has very little to do with Buenos Aires, it would be a disservice to keep quiet about this new mixtape.

Matthew Africa has been an important figure in the Bay Area hip hop scene for years, garnering a reputation as a formidable crate digger and a real DJ's DJ. He also gets some major bonus points simply because Matthew Africa is not some fake DJ moniker - it's his actual name.

Besides bringing the heat in the Bay Area club scene, Matthew also pilots a weekly radio show on Berkley station KALX. Last year he jumped into the mixtape game, first with Soul Boulders, a collection of "slow, funky soul burners" he put together with fellow Bay Area DJ B. Cause. Then he teamed up with DJ Eleven (of the Rub) to release Dirty Raps: The Best of Too Short, which chronicling the career of the Oakland hip-hop legend. That tape has been so well received that XLR8R magazine recently invited the pair to sit down for an episode of XLR8R TV to talk about Dirty Raps and the mixtape game in general.

Now Matthew is back with a new solo mixtape, Dirty R&B: The Best of R. Kelly. After assembling 69 tracks of Kells magic, he broke them down into two separate CDs, one full of slow jams and the other loaded with club tracks. Not surprisingly, XLR8R already loves this mix too. Go here for a full tracklist, ordering information and little more backstory provided by Matthew himself.

(At this point you might be wondering where the Buenos Aires connection comes in. Keep in mind that I said this post has "very little to do with Buenos Aires" and keep reading.)

Last year DJ Eleven came down to Buenos Aires to spin and local clubbers are still talking about it. Since Matthew and Eleven are such good buddies, perhaps some Porteños will be inspired to give Mr. Africa a listen. Furthermore, Matthew has actually made some quiet (very quiet) comments about possibly coming down here to play, so I'm doing my part to start the official campaign.

See, I said "very little to do with Buenos Aires". Can you blame me? It is not every day that I can hype something with a song called "I Like the Crotch on You".