“If he wants to work with you and he really likes you, he says, ‘All right, I wanna fuck with you.’ And that means that he wants to work with you.”

Zach Baron, interviewing P4KTV employee Greg Finch on a new performance space/collaboration laboratory in Brooklyn:

And does Dame come to the shows?

Oh, absolutely. The last show that we did on Tuesday (with London Souls and the Cool Kids), after the show was over, he told everyone to stay and he MC’d like a freestyle-off, with Curren$y, Jay Electronica, Amanda Diva, Swizz Beatz, just everyone that was there.

Swizz Beatz was there?

Yeah, he was the DJ. There was a rotating set of people who were throwing beats on a laptop. Mos [Def] got there five minutes too late [to perform]. He was coming back from Letterman. But that’s what I like, the spirit. The spirit of what Dame has going on there is just getting people together and making things happen. After the first at Under 100 [with Javelin, Knyfe Hyts, and Sleigh Bells] was over Mos was like, ‘I want to jam with Javelin.’ And Damon was like, ‘Let’s do it right now.’ 15 minutes later everyone’s in the basement again at three in the morning. They set up and Knyfe Hyts asked me if they could jam with Javelin and I was like, ‘Of course, let me just run up to Javelin.’ And Javelin was like, ‘Of course.’ And now we have two of my favorite bands jamming, and then Mos did like twenty verses over it. It was very special. I’m very happy that we got photos and video of it because there were about 10 people there at the time. That was a very promising first show. If any of the shows are half as good as that was and how special that was to me I’m very happy to continue working and doing things at Under 100.”

Finch and Dash both call it a “DIY” space, which is an interesting way to leverage that loaded term–I mean, it’s not exactly like they’re struggling for money or exposure.  Regardless, it’s hard not to be excited about the possibilities inherent in this sort of collaborative locale–merging into one physical space Pitchfork’s and the Web’s penchants for non-stop newness, hipness and spreadabilityness with Dash’s money and rap-world connections–no matter how much people want to hate on Brooklyn, Pitchfork, or whatever.  Sure, there’s a distinct possibility for this to end up being another incestuous hipster group-grope party-haven, but music fans should hope not.  Blakroc was okay I guess, but I’d hope Sleigh Bells are closer to being what gets fucked with:

Filed under: Damon Dash  Pitchfork  Sleigh Bells  Under 100