Dee Phunk

Big happy Mother’s Day to @vaness179 who is pretty simple. All she wanted was her usual: breakfast in bed and Bravo on TV. But she also wanted some peace and quiet. And she deserved it. So while she kept it low, got a massage and her eyebrows done, I threw the kids in the van, and headed to @33taps in Silver Lake to witness the Knicks sweep the Sixers. (Shouts to the @leftcoastknicks crew as always.) Everybody wins.

It didn’t really hit me all the way until I landed in New York. @donutsareforever was happening for the 20th time. An idea that came up amongst four friends, a tribe called @rareformnyc , in a Bed-Stuy parlor apartment in 2006 and executed for the first time in 2007. Just because we were nerds and wanted to hear this specific music on big speakers w/ our friends and simultaneously pay homage to a guy who helped shaped the sound of our young adulthood. Life has taken us all in very different paths yet we manage to still find the time to be involved w/ @buildingbeats producing a stellar event to pay tribute to one James “J Dilla” Yancey. This is the longest running annual tribute to Jay Dee in the world. Big shouts to everyone who has ever bought a ticket, spun a set, hosted for us, and assisted us in any way over the years. (Especially @questlove , @freshoffthepressnyc , @lovejessica.xo , @danabartle , @_mawkus_ , @krithimusic , @dcharnas and @maratberenstein .) That was the main reason for the trip. To take in all of that and be present in it. That led to reunions. And laughs. And big hugs. And talking really loud. New York was alive that night. And pretty much for my very rapid three days and three night visit. Thank you for all the warmth literally and figuratively. Catch you on the next one, Lord willing. ✌🏾

Sitting here on the couch nursing an ankle I twisted playing ball this morning. Figured it would be a good time to throw up these recent Spring Break pics. We packed the van and hit the road w/ stops in Buellton, Monterey, Carmel, Big Sur and San Luis Obispo. Kept it hella coastal. Still learning about all that California has to offer. This was our first time driving down the 1/PCH. Roughly two hours w/o cell service, one lane cliffside and foggy. Precarious! But so breathtaking. Kinda didn’t want to come back home. But we’re back to school tomorrow. Womp womp. Another successful respite.

If you told me back in 2007 when we put together the first ever @donutsareforever that we would go on to do it 19 more times, I would have probably laughed in your face. I don’t even live in New York anymore. I have a wife, two kids and a mortgage now. But each year would inform how the following year would blossom. The people kept coming so we kept producing. So much help from friends and friends of friends… so much community support. How could we not? @rareformnyc may not be as heavy in the streets as we used to be but this one gathering is too important. With all that being said, we pushed the milestone 20th edition of DAF to the Spring for you. No frigid temps this year. We hollered at the homie @questlove to make his first appearance since DAF4 in 2010. We snagged our guy @djspinna whom I believe is gracing us for the fourth time if I’m not mistaken. @djtaranyc and @dj_bles_sed will be providing the space w/ plenty of warm vibes and ear candy. Now all we need is you. Saturday, April 18, @bricbrooklyn . I’m gonna be there, btw. It’ll be my first time at a DAF since I left NY. And I’ll probably doing a lot of what you see in that second photo if you swipe left. Just less hair. Same nerd though. We’re doing it for Dilla, y’all. All your ticket proceeds go to benefit @buildingbeats in their ongoing mission to provide music education programs to underserved high school youth. Extra big shouts to @krithimusic , @dcharnas and @maratberenstein for all their assistance this go-round. Y’all are champions. Let’s celebrate. ====== #DAF20 flyer/merch illustrations by @bkmagnolia . Second slide photo by @musiclookslikethis .

Mom and Dad are back home after a quick road trip up north. After we dropped the kids off at school on Friday morning, we SKRRRRT’d 🚗💨 out of the parking lot and hit the 5 Freeway. Made a stop at Cass Winery in Paso Robles for lunch and a wine tasting (thx for the rec @marnizzy !) and continued up the 101 to kick it in SF and Oakland for a couple nights. It was such a good recharge seeing all the homies, eating good, laughing controllably and unplugging a little bit. And of course, big happy bday to @livinproofsf , a genuinely good human being. You can always tell everything about a person by the company they keep. Shouts to everyone we got to hug and hold. In the times we live in, we need it more than ever. The gas was too damn high but it was worth it.

On a whim, we decided to hop in the minivan and embark on a short trip downtown to check out the #NBACrossover fan experience at the LA Convention Center since #NBAAllStar Weekend was in town. Hours of basketball, music and free swag. I remember going to something like this at the Jacob Javits Center back in ‘99 when NYC hosted and having a great time. Happy I was able to now take my own kids. Now if they’d actually wanna play organized basketball, we’ll really be cookin’.

Whether you’re gingerly stepping into the new year or barreling in head first, it’s nice to take a step back and reflect on how 2025 was musically. Here’s some of the most interesting stuff I listened to all year. A heaping majority of them are on your favorite DSPs. A gang of them are on Bandcamp. Some of them are of both. A few are *only* on the latter. (Support indie artists always and forever.) Let Google be your guide. But in my opinion, they all deserve your ear. Did I listen to every single one of these? Absolutely. You may wonder how I’m even discovering and ingesting all of this? It’s a mix of Spotify, SoundCloud, DJ mixes, YouTube, email newsletters, Bandcamp and, most importantly, good ol’ fashioned recommendations. And sometimes artists I’ve loved and followed lead me to other similar artists. It’s damn near endless. People sometimes ask me why I don’t just make a playlist and highlight all of this? Because that defeats the purpose to me. I feel like everything on here should be listened to as full bodies of work. Playlists are great when you have intention and a vision for what you want to create. But sometimes you just need to listen to an album front to back and give it all of your focus. We can’t lose that. You’re never gonna be able to listen to all of the music in the world in one lifetime so why keep everything to yourself, y’know? Sharing is caring. And music is therapy. I hope you find something on here that you like or maybe that you didn’t even know dropped. And if I put you on to something via this list or previous ones, let me know. And feel free to forward them on to someone in the market for some new tunes in their lives. ✌🏾

A little compilation of how we closed out 2025 featuring @brissette25 ’s Christmas visit, @leimatic and @bradleyxcampbell ’s *surprise* Christmas visit fresh from Belize, a whole lot of good eats (Armenian backyard bbq on Christmas Eve plus bangin’ dinners at @delanonna_la and @badmaashla ) and a last minute two-night trip to Santa Barbara and Solvang. And big shouts to Irwindale Tire for patching our tire. We were driving around w/ in a nail in it for days. As we enter another year we’re presented with another opportunity to make more memories. Here’s to good health, strength and serenity to you and yours in 2026. Receive love, reciprocate it and keep that negativity up off you. The universe never gives you more than you can handle. Go Knicks.

I want to thank my wife and kids once again for letting me skip town to drive to Vegas to catch the @nyknicks wax the @orlandomagic in the Emirates NBA Cup semifinals in person at T-Mobile Arena — a tournament I talked sh*t about for the last three seasons until my team actually played well enough to advance to Sin City. Just days later, they’d win the whole damn thing. So it was all worth it. The trip was @bradleyxcampbell ’s idea in the first place. That fool got on a plane for this. The sickness runs deep. Shouts to @eatalylasvegas and @bestfriendvegas for keeping us full too. Minus the tables not being kind to us this around, another successful hang.

Brought the fall in hot. A quick 20-piece from late October spanning my third trip back to Brooklyn (the most I’ve taken in one year since I moved to LA), quality time w/ the homies, a Rhode Island/Martha’s Vineyard/Connecticut road trip w/ mom + the siblings (I almost forgot how stunning the trees and leaves look in the fall) and then we teleport back to LA for a day at Universal Studios. Super Nintendo World was fun as hell. And Optimus Prime told me that Bumblebee’s favorite Wu-Tang song is “Duel of the Iron Mic” off GZA’s Liquid Swords. I have several witnesses. Grateful for it all.

We close out Libra season w/ a very special b-day. This week, my siblings and I have been road tripping it in the Northeast w/ stops in Rhode Island, Martha’s Vineyard and Connecticut. We haven’t all been in a car together for this long since the ‘90s. It’s been a rip roaring time. And today marks the whole reason for these shenanigans. Please join me in wishing my mom @brissette25 a happy 80th trip around the sun as she shines just as bright. And shouts to our dad bc we know he’s here spiritually. We’re sure of it.

Forgot to drop off these photos from a few nights ago where I got my “how do you do, fellow kids?!” on at the @thegr8khalid listening party at @8thandsantafe . A lot of gen Z energy, fly vintage cars, good music, room temperature pizza, plus a demo of the new @shmafeela whip coming out in 2026. Big shouts to @lenroq for the alley oop. This has renewed my urge to one day own a vintage 4x4.