#2turnt

Michel Foucault once mused that he had spent his life trying to do intellectual things that would attract beautiful boys. I wonder how many works of art were really love letters — a lot, I bet. This one was.

Back in 2014, I heard a brilliant club set, on CKUT's Ill Groove Garden, by a little-known Montreal DJ named J-Kutz. If you can find his stuff, and then you listened to this set, you would never believe it was the same guy on the decks. The selection and the mixing is a cut above his usual mediocrity. (Sorry J-Kutz!) Anyway, as is the norm for college radio, the hosting MC, Jesse Walker, rambled endlessly over the set, sharing a mixture of mundanities and arcane observations, which really detracted from its energy. I therefore enlisted my brother, who goes by Côte St. Phonique, to help me recreate the set without Mr. Walker's insights. After a day in Pro Tools, we had bounced a mix that expanded upon the original. It was a huge hit at house party I hosted; I believe it helped bridge the divide between myself and one of my former flames — a serious rap aficionado. You can listen here, if you want!

About a year and half later, another onetime flame of mine wrote me to say how she was still playing the aforementioned mix on the daily. In that instant, I found inspiration to sort of sequel, just for her: the 2turnt mix. Like the previous mix, it would be mostly new, clubby, hip-hop tunes. But it would also be longer, and more groovy than dancey. Anyway, for me, a big part of getting the mood right is in creating a matching visual: the album art. For this project, I liked the idea of an end-of-the-night / closing-the-deal sort of sound. That is, I wanted something that could soundtrack the transition from club, to Range Rover, to quiet city street. In my mind, that conjured images of the neon signs on strip clubs. Conveniently, I had recently been shown an otherwise unremarkable Tumblr account, on which I found my model. The "turnt-out" nude was perfect, and after a few hours playing around in Photoshop, I had created my own. I particularly liked the ambiguity of the blue puddle-like scribble — what is that?

Ultimately, I am more happy with the album art than I am with the mix. I believe that my drawing accurately advertises the mood of the mix, as I envisioned it. When I look at that pathetic neon corpse, I don't see affection. I see usage. And when I listen to the mix, I don't hear serenades. I hear cocky declarations of independence. The first thing I think of when I think of a strip club is T-Pain's classic song, Bartender. Maybe I, like T-Pain, was really just trying to move on.