We caught up with Havana Joe of Pugilista Trading Co to find out more about his back story and his plans for the Pugilista Mixcloud page.
About Havana Joe
In 2005, I was working/consulting one of the major labels, while also working at Stones Throw. Some of the artists that were coming out included Talib Kweli and his imprint Blacksmith, plus Cut Chemist.
Instead of us hiring street teams to pass out sampler & mix CDs, we hit both companies up about doing a podcast or mix hosted on-line. Unfortunately with the major, it didn’t take hold & we ended up having to hire street teams nationally to pass out the mix CDs for their respective projects
Stones Throw, after some time, warmed up to the idea of hosting this on the site. At the start of 2006, we were gearing up for Dilla Donuts. Unfortunately, Dilla passed away shortly after the release. It’s bittersweet, but we ended up having J-rocc “Thank You Jay Dee #1” mix as the start up for the Stones Throw podcast.
Can you tell the Mixcloud community a bit about your Mixcloud profile and how it got started?
This is basically our podcast/mix series. It’s a way for us to highlight some of the DJs, musicians & other upcoming projects we’re working with currently or in the past. We’ve had the idea of doing this for a long time, going back to 2006. With some of the projects that we had upcoming with new artists & reissues, it was pretty important that we go ahead with it.
How long have you been doing the podcasts, and what do you hope to achieve with them?
We started the series a year ago, but have been compiling mixes since 2009 from folks that we’ve worked with previously. With us being based here in the US, we wanted to expand this so we could also feature our friends overseas as well, such as DJ Nuts (Brazil) & a few other mixes we’ll have featured in the upcoming months.
Do you have a few favorites or recommendations from the series? What makes them special?
Always tough for us to break them down into which are our favorites. They all are! Christian Martir “Sociedad Sessions”. The stuff they’re doing over at Sociedad Records has us eager to get another mix from them. J-Rocc “Mobb Deep The Infamous” sample mix he did for us. We knew he was going to kill it with the mix he gave us for this, I was just amazed to see the reaction from internet/blogs/people. Nu Goteh “A Lil’ Louder” is something we listen to regularly, easily one of our favorite DJ’s hands down. Last but not least, the DJ Nuts mix. When we asked him for a mix for this series, we would have never imagined him giving us a 3 hour Brazilian rap mix.
What can we expect in the future from you and your forthcoming podcasts?
Definitely have some more mixes coming from our friends & family overseas. Along the same lines, we’re hoping to plot out bringing of the folks with us on the road to some of our upcoming events.
Follow Pugilista Trading Co
For all the latest Pugilista Trading Co shows on Mixcloud, follow them here.
For all the latest Pugilista Trading Co shows on Mixcloud, follow them here.