Inspiration is sudden, fleeting and often cyclical. Ask a musician and he will tell you that he doesn't write songs, he just picks up his instrument and out they come as if they had always been looping in the recesses of his conscience. Those recesses are really just a crate of their favorite records. When we pull a sample from the crate, it comes out slightly different, molded by our own experiences. In a way, we're all DJs.
A week ago, the Super Bowl inspired Volkswagen to fork up millions to rework its Darth Vader commercial of Super Bowls past. The New York Football Giants' victory over Sith Lord Bill Belichick and his Patriots moved Giants fans to celebrate. Most fans were moved to the kitchen to grab a final celebratory Bud Light before calling it a night. One particularly famous fan and host of yesterday's 54th Grammy Awards Ceremony, LL Cool J, was moved to write the song "Super Baller," a Giant's victory anthem that samples the NFL horns you hear at the beginning of every NFL broadcast.
Spin back 27 years to sleepy Prundale, California where Dusty Hickman was using his lawn mowing money to purchase his first tape ever, LL Cool J´s Radio. The tape was the first of many in Hickman's hip hop collection, before he eventually became Phoenix turntablist, Pickster One.
"That album was a staple for me as a kid and it changed the way I walked for the rest of my life. Listening to 'I Can't Live Without My Radio' or 'Rock The Bells' just really changed a lot of things for me," Pickster wrote in an email.
A week before the beginning of this NFL season, Pickster made a hip hoppy, moombahton edit of DJ J.R.'s "NFL Horns" song, a clubby rework of the trumpets you hear during NFL broadcasts. Before the Super Bowl, he reminded all his DJ friends of the remix. Z-Trip, the world renowned former Phoenix DJ, played the remix at gigs he had with LL Cool J in Indianapolis and Las Vegas over Super Bowl weekend.
LL Cool J loved the remix. When his Giants beat the Patriots, he asked Z-Trip to help him make "Super Baller" using Pickster's edit. In half an hour they pumped out the track.
"This whole thing really brings me full circle from being inspired by LL when I was a little kid, to making a tune now and inspiring legends like LL Cool J and Z-Trip to make a song. It just really brings me full circle and I'm honored," Pickster said.
Check out Pickster's edit and the LL Cool J, Z-Trip collaboration below.
