I ❤️ Digging the Greats

Brandon Shaw’s Digging the Greats is an absolute gold mine for hip-hop heads. Brandon and his team have a real format, story arcs, and a cohesive-but-not-at-all-sterile presentation style. It feels like what MTV used to be.

Plus, although I’m a music nerd, I’m constantly learning stuff here.

Here’s a video on the 2005 Michel Gondry doc, Dave Chappelle’s Block Party:

I’ve know about this film for years. For Reasons, I haven’t seen it.

I don’t want to spoil it, but I want to make something right: Adam Blackstone.

I thought I knew my bassists, but wow… this is an egregious miss by me.

The reason? Check out this live, pitch perfect performance by Justin Timberlake on SNL:

Watch. That. Bassist.

Like the comments say:

I come back every now and then just to listen to the bass line; absolute divine.

One hundred percent.

Didn’t know his name. Thanks to DTG, now I know. (And knowing is half the battle.)

Thank you, Mr. Blackstone.

Wrong, righted (I hope).

The title of this next video reads like clickbait, but Brandon really is clarifying his stance: he’s not publishing these pieces for Patreon or YouTube, he’s producing for both.

This video also shows where the channel’s headed and how you can support it. Once I come back into some money, I intend to be a paid Patreon supporter (https://www.patreon.com/diggingthegreats), especially when you hear Brandon’s vision for what’s next. I think they’re gonna do it.

Finally, huge shout-out to Brandon for showing love to his illustrator / graphic designer / motion designer “Ace”. Whoever those mystery hands belong to, they have serious chops (hand. drawn. work. people; no AI Slop here) and absolutely nail the visual grammar of this subject. If I had actual turntables, those slipmats would be at the top of my list.