Friday November 13th 2009 Will.i.am was booked at Pacha for a DJ Set. I initially thought that I was going to get some Black Eyed Peas-esque pop/hip-hop, while the girl I was with was hoping for ‘cheese’. However when he began playing, all the collaborations he has been doing with DJs (and the hours of Dj’ing he has recently put in) seems to have paid off. Here is an extract from the Pacha team, explaining exactly that:
‘Will.I.Am’s foray into DJing may be a surprise to some but he’s honed his skills during the Black Eyed Peas tour, where he can always be found DJing at the afterparty. Recently featured on David Guetta’s “I Wanna Go Crazy”, he’s also working with Berlin’s Boys Noize and Dutch rising star Fedde Le Grand. The self-professed electro DJ’s box is full of everything from David Guetta, Crookers, to the more minimal strains of Guy Gerber, along with his own mash-ups and remixes. Recently citing Pacha Ibiza as one of his top four party places in the world, Will.I.Am. is set to rock Pacha NYC for his spectacular debut!’
www.pachanyc.com
Upon arrival I managed to grab a few shots of Will.I.Am before his interview with Pacha TV. He seemed rather stiff before he had his redbull and vodka. However, when I caught him later in the booth, the energy drink had given him wings as he jumped, grinned and learned over the DJ balcony to get closer to his fans. Music styles were seriously mixed, but seemed to work very well from one song to the next. The crowd were engrossed, however not just by his celebrity status as I had expected, but because he is genuinely a good DJ. Read below for a post by Sleepy & Boo, the following DJ’s and Basic NYC residents:
‘Will.I.Am went on and everyone went nuts, I’d never seen so many cameras out and hands up, everyone was giving it up for him. The crowd was a nice mix of younger people, hipsters, pretty racially mixed…it was refreshing.
Musicly, Will.I.Am was playing with Torq – first time I’d seen that out. He had done a lot of edits on tracks, and was jumping around from a whole bunch of styles and sounds. Some I liked more than others. He played some hits – electro anthems, some of the Black Eyed Peas. He played some rock and roll and did some cool things where he jumped around and played three different eras / styles of tracks based around the same sample. He’s obviously excellent on the mic and was getting the crowd hyped up and dropping some verses over the tracks. He had some fun chants and singalongs – “I am from the west coast, you are from the east coast”, “who’s here to party party party? nyc motherfucking make some noise”…you get the drift.’
Check out the Sleepy & Boo MySpace here: http://www.myspace.com/basicnyc and enjoy the pics below:
