heads

Muroさんは、私が一番好きなDJの一人です。まさかThe Guardianの記事になっているとは思いもしませんでした。

記事のheadsは、「あたま」「あたま数」が転移した意味で「熱狂的なファン」を指します(C.f. Hip Hop heads, Metal heads)。(Othello)

DJ Muro is one of Japan's most prolific and well respected hip hop artists. A producer, a DJ and a digger for obscure breaks and samples, he's been active since the late 80s when he formed a group with that other Japanese icon, DJ Krush. You may recognize his name from African hip hop radio.

Outside Japan, Muro also gained notoriety with his King of Diggin mixtape series – originally on tape and later on cd, the mixtapes collected rare funk, jazz and other styles as sampled in hip hop productions. Remember this was back in the days before entire label discographies could be downloaded at 1 mb/s via the web.

Muro got his hands dirty and dug up records that had been all but forgotten. His compilations are characterized by impeccable mixing, great selections and a true b-boy aesthetic, real mixtapes rather than compiled songs with silence in between. Later Muro classics include Tribe Vibes, a collection of rare ATCQ mixes and sampled originals, and Hawaian Breaks which shed light on music that few people knew about until then.

The King of Diggin series was copied and distributed by heads worldwide, and in 2006 British record label BBE released a double bill compilation called Kings of Diggin, where Muro shared the honours with Kon & Amir, the duo whose Off track compilation series also featured some serious Afro funk nuggets.