90 minute grand taxi ride to Ouarzazate followed by a five hour bus ride to Marrakech, and then a six hour train ride to Rabat – what music are we listening to?
Hour long lofi (also written as lo-fi) compilations on repeat as the bus turn the winding Tichka roads. If a person on the bus were to ask in Moroccan Arabic "who are we listening to?" we would not respond a name; rather, we would say "lofi" beats, which include sounds such as the overheard chatter, the cassette sounds, and the static that are normally taken out of a song. The artist name was anonymous at that time and becomes known as the lofi beats play. Thus, our DJ name was formed:
Sharing anonymous beats that will be known, we are DJ *67 ("star sixty seven"). Our projext *67 ("project star sixty seven") involves experiments in sampling, remixing, and beat making as well as linking the sounds to the discography of resistance.
Quick Note: "discography" may be singular; however, in this space, "discography" is plural to indicate the multiple dimensions and modalities of resistance beyond music. These "discography" are inspiring; thus, the name of the "discography of resistance" html page – inspiration.
Projext is spelled with an "x" for they "cross" streets and transgress boundaries not only with disciplines of knowledge but also on what it means to create and heal in community. We also cross streets. Our, at times, anonymous crossings makes beats. Thus, the name projext *67.
The 16 drum pads on this site are sounds to different aspects of Projext *67. We recall the verses on the importance of remixing and sampling in relation to reimagining education in the eulogy for schooling from our recent open-access book Pencils Down" Conversations on Humanizing Education:
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There are two aspects of beat making which resonate with our writing thus far as well as with the subsequent conversations as anachoreographies — sampling and remixing.
In beat making, there are samples, which are parts of audio from a different track made at a different place and time. Samples are interwoven together in another audio track. This is what happens in the Pencils Down introduction which includes an excerpt (i.e. "sample") of Diane Sawyer's interview with Whitney Houston. Our first time hearing about this interview came from the audio sample present at the beginning of Boldy James and Chan Hays' song 730K in the PRISONER OF CIRCUMSTANCE album. Hearing the sample and subsequently listening to the actual interview, we recognize the connection of drug receipts to the unpaid bills of dominant education; thus, we include the sample in our introduction.
Remixing works differently than sampling. Remixing in beat making refers to ways of augmenting the sound of an originally recorded audio in attempts to repurpose it for another track.
Remixing can be view as merely the politics of citation. However, viewing remixing in this manner, similar to simply viewing anti-blackness as racism (hear kihana miraya ross in conversation later), removes the fangs from the theoretical framework of remixing. We do not only remix quotes. As co-founder/co-producer of the Journal of Black Educology, Dr. Andre Carter speaks, we remix the temporalities for the conversations as anachoreographies to take place. Remixing is an art of refusal to resist the linear conception of times that view past as past to illustrate how the past endures in the present, which is also the future. Sampling works similarly. Looking a remixing and sampling as ways to create ruptures not only in dominant worldviews (read: dominant epistemic traditions) but also provide a pathway of participating we continue to create music with theory with anachoreography moves.
Though remixes have a different function than sampling (at times), artists can remix a sample or sample a remix. The goal is not to have a definite definition on sampling and remixing. We question what it would mean to have a definite solution to education if the conditions are constantly changing. Rather, our goal is to demonstrate how we are drawing the from the repertoire of beat making in our conversations as anachoreography to resist linear conceptions of time to express as well as connect the resonances in ideas around humanizing education —sampling publicly available conversations and standup comedian routines as well as remixing academic articles and books.
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Much appreciations for engaging in these beats and mixes.