Kindness on Missy Elliott and Jay Sean

1. Keith Frank ft Lil Boosie – Haterz 

I remember being in Louisiana, working with Solange Knowles. We were going to a rodeo that evening where there would be local Zydeco bands playing, and I remember just quickly trying to teach myself the basics, who was who – and I came across this track. It sounds somewhat old school because of the accordion, but then you have this guest verse from Lil Boosie, and hearing a well-known rapper on this arrangement is interesting to me. People love this hook, as well. It has a similarity to ska almost, but it’s just really compelling; you couldn’t stay still.

2. Missy Elliott – Red Lights (demo) 

So I think we should roll all the Missy tracks into one… there's a lot of Missy on my laptop. I recently interviewed Tweet, who works a lot with Missy, and I also worked with Jimmy Douglass who was Missy and Timbaland’s engineer for a long time. He home mixed [Kindness’ second album] Otherness. Jimmy would have been one of the engineers on these [demo] sessions, too, and It’s just amazing to see that she has her innate talents on display, so early on. It’s just been refined, and taken to a place where it really connects with a huge audience.

3. Missy Elliott – Izzy Izzy Ahh 

I would see these Timbaland records at the store where I lived – we’re talking mid-90s, and I think people were a little more snobbish about straight up R’n’B, at least in Peterborough. Hip-hop and R'n'B instrumentals would be stocked, but they weren’t getting that many cuts in. It was only when Missy hugely crossed over into the mainstream that you could actually listen to and buy it. She’s just always been someone you can’t help but be inspired by, especially in terms of diversity of sound, all of these different eras of progression, the longevity of her career… I can’t think of many people that are making solid hits 20 years into their careers.

4. Missy Elliott (ft. Lil' Kim) – Throw Your Hands Up 

We're looking at these leaps, from '94, '97, and then this Lil' Kim interlude is 1999. I think Missy, Tim and the journey that whole group – the Basement Crew – made is just really inspiring. I have so much respect for Missy as a woman in the industry, and people forget that Missy is also a producer, at the same time as being an artist and bringing other artists along with her... and that visual aspect she always has. And just generally being an amazing person! Did you see the viral poem that was going around? The poet’s theme was how empowered Missy made her feel. Missy saw it, and turned up at the poet’s house the next day. You can just sense that there’s a real generosity there, and a willingness to share talents.

5. Kindness (feat. Robyn) – Who Do You Love  (Joakim Remix) 

It’s lucky for me this wasn’t more embarrassing! Robyn and I ended up playing this track to [legendary producers] Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam, and because of the off-kilter nature of the beat on the original – everything’s a little bit wonky – I remember Terry raising an eyebrow, saying, 'You do make things difficult.' I hadn’t worked with someone who was as high profile as Robyn before; she hadn’t worked with someone so left of centre. I wanted to see if I could bring something a little less precise and Scandinavian to her songwriting, and I remember saying, 'This is literally the weirdest thing I could imagine you singing on.' Joakim’s a good friend of mine, and this remix is a really good example of someone finding what was already euphoric about the song, and taking it up another couple of notches. 

6. Earth, Wind & Fire – Runnin' 

I work with a bass player who’s a huge fan, he's always pushing them on me. I’m slowly coming around to it. I get the hits, and I get the musicianship, and as a group they are incredible. When Frankie Knuckles died, people were putting up links to all these old school soul and funk tracks, stuff that doesn’t necessarily have a constant 4/4 beat, but it was all in this danceable zone, which is what Earth Wind & Fire were doing. Having sections that were one tempo, one kind of groove, and then it switches suddenly and it’s something else completely.

7. Jay Sean – Maybe (Sunship Remix)

This is just me loving all UK garage. Jay Sean is also an example of a British artist that comes from an Asian background, and maybe wasn’t sure he was getting the breaks he wanted in the UK, so came to the States. I was lumped in with a UK indie underground, because I have long hair and was in the same shows as Ariel Pink. As soon as it was apparent I wasn’t being ironic about a love of funk and soul, and R’n’B, and not just British black music but an American black music heritage, I think the UK music press was somewhat confused. I do work more in the States now, and there isn’t any part of the music world here that would work in those genres ironically. 

8. Green Mamba – Busiku Bwanduuma

​Another Joakim link! A museum in Paris invited the two of us to DJ one of their afternoon family sessions with music from their archive – we had full access to all of their CDs, tapes & vinyl. This is one of hundreds of tracks that made it to my final playlist for the day. 

9. Touch and Go (ft. Barbara Roy) – Ecstasy, Passion & Pain

Featuring Barbara Roy. She founded the group, she ought to be getting the credit! This is also the song that the [JX track] Son of a Gun sample is from, which I guess most British people knew before the disco record. There’s another amazing version of this song by Danny Krivit, which just loops that opening with the piano and the hi-hat for a really long time! That, to me, is the most exciting part of the song, this drawn out intro, just quietly building… I don’t want to sound old-fashioned or nostalgic, but we’re kind of losing that in this weird post-EDM era.

10. Naoya Matsuoka – ワクワクソンゴ 

Record shopping in Japan can be a bit of a headfuck, especially since every sleeve looks amazing, and the music's invariably good too. I think I came across this LP in a YouTube wormhole of 80s jazz influenced funk. What I never realised until last night is how similar it is to Bernard Wright's song Who Do You Love. I wonder if it may have been a direct influence? 

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Kindness plays Broadcast, Glasgow on 10 Jun and Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh on 11 Jun