Disco Challenge

Afros and bellbottoms, rollerskates and butterfly collars… caaaaan yoouuuuuuuu dig iiiiiiiit?!


Since we started working on things for season 5 back in 2009 we knew that the producers wanted to do a Disco episode.  We consulted with everyone and along with Napoleon and Tabitha submitted what we thought would be some good songs to not only shake your groove thing to but would make good master mixes. While MTV loves to give their “suggestions” there were some songs that just weren’t gonna make the cut but some that we all agreed were perfect.  With many a long night spent at the studio making the beats, recording vocals, adding those specific touches for each crew and along with the creativity of the choreographers and dancers this episode turned out to be one of the best of the season.

Here’s how the specific mixes were created…


Blueprint Cru
This master mix of “Le Freak” contains a vocal at the end by our boy m2c. The song is so groovy and smooth so when we got to the end of the mix we wanted to give it that punch and strong ending that ABDC is known for. We went back and forth with the crew on this one but at the end of the day the routine came off clean and we love how the end turned out. Y’all better promise to cop the m2c record when it comes out!

Blueprint Cru Master Mix of “Le Freak” by Chic

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Heavy Impact
We all knew that there had to be at least one song in this episode by the BeeGees and “We Should Be Dancing” was a perfect fit for this crew. When they had the idea for the number to be an audition, we added the “5,6,7,8” and “Sorry, you’re too heavy… next” vocals which really help hit that concept on the nose. We think these guys are so talented and always have so much fun with our mixes, they will be missed.

Heavy Impact Master Mix of “You Should Be Dancing” by The Bee Gee’s

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Hype 5-0
Young Pops is one of our favorite new rappers we’ve been working with and he provides some hype to the Peaches and Herb classic “Shake Your Groove Thing”. If  you listen to the beginning he gives you a little “Let me see you shake it”. You can check out his new single “College Girls” on  iTunes now.  Also Furious Bob enjoyed playing some live drums on this mix while we hit you with the fire.

Hype 5-0 Master Mix of “Shake You Groove Thing” by Peaches & Herb

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Jungle Boogie
While it seems to like a no brainer to give this dynamic crew the song that is their namesake, we were curious with what they were going to do with it. They were originally coming out of a TV, which is why there are static sound effects at the start and end of their mix. We love the horns in the original version of this song and played with them in the middle to really give this one a unique flare. The crew attacked this mix with so much energy and check out the guns on Raqi!

Jungle Boogie Master Mix of “Jungle Boogie” by Kool & The Gang

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Poreotix
As soon as we heard that this crew got “Dancing Machine” by the Jackson 5 we knew we had to put in a cool robot section. Later we got a note to take the robot section out and make it funkier. The one thing we know is that these guys definitely respond to the sound effects in a mix so multiple revisions later we added some robot noises back towards the end of the mix. Our boy sixxxHole played some dope horns to accentuate other killer moves and this routine came off great. Even JC had to give mad props to these poppers.

Poreotix Master Mix of “Dancing Machine” by The Jackson 5

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Saltare
In all honesty, this mix was a challenge. The producers weren’t really feeling our original mastermix of The Tramps “Disco Inferno”. We had Wordsmith spit at the end and really gave it some life but for whatever reason, it wasn’t the direction they wanted it to go. So we were told to change to the B.O.B remake of the song that was used for the MTV movie “Turn the Beat Around”. While there were changes galore and six passes alone on getting the right end fire sound effect, at the end Saltare did a nice job and really handled the fire ropes well.

Saltare Master Mix of “Disco Inferno” by The Tramps

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Static Noyze
This was another mix that went through a long journey to get where it is now. The original version had sixxx and Furious doing a cool Justin Timberlake and Fat Man Scoop style team-up, somewhat along the lines of what Robin Thicke did when he sampled “A Fifth Of Beethoven” for his song “When I Get You Alone”. But alas, this didn’t vibe with the show’s vision of the mix and we had to cut it. We were able to salvage a little bit of sixxx’s vocals to help give the mix a more raw hip-hop undertone – you can hear it if you listen carefully. Unfortunately, this week, Static Noyze seemed to really feel the absence of Enrique and it showed a bit on the stage.

Static Noyze Master Mix of “A Fifth of Beethoven” by Walter Murphy

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