For Discriminating Booties

New York City is known for its grime, late-night debauchery, and heat waves during the summer, and three of New York's best party DJs know how to throw a jam that glorifies these attributes. On the first Saturday of every month, Brooklyn's divey music venue Southpaw transforms its stage from being the floorboard for live acts to a mere dj booth that consists of the standard 2 Techs, mixer and a table, turning the club into a no-holds barred house party. The tendency for this soiree to be a complete sweatbox is natural to DJs Ayres, Eleven and Cosmo Baker when they put 'The Rub' in effect. Ayres founded The Rub in 2002, which quickly became the place to be for discriminating booties. Over the years The Rub has hosted the hottest throw-down around, not to mention the countless mixtapes and vinyl mash-ups to help push the sounds of this party to the streets. With special guests ranging from Mark Ronson to our man DJ Zeph, people with different musical tastes can always find something to dance to: the dirtiest of the dirty south, earth-shaking electro, some dub/roots, an occasional '80s flashback and all that good hip-hop from coast to coast. All these styles get put into The Rub's blender and creatively mashed out with one goal in mind: to make you move. And with the $3 Rheingold special, along with the colorful patrons devouring them, The Rub stays loose 'til last call comes at 4AM. Just in time for church.

- Joshua Lynne

RUBBING, VIRTUALLY RUB FREE

On the first Saturday of every month, my roommates and I head to THE RUB, a very popular dance party in NY, cause it's like a two-minute walk from the apt. Inevitably, I have so much fun dancing, I always show up at 10:30 pm and leave at 4 am, which completely ruins my Sunday for anything but Gorilla Coffee and Grey's Anatomy. It's hosted by neighborhood DJs Ayres, Eleven and Cosmo Baker, but they often include star guest DJs, emphasis on the DJ; no Hillary Duff "spinning" New Order joints at this party. (No dis to the Duffinator--I love me some Lizzie Maguire, but I sure wouldn't wanna see, say, DJ Drama casually deciding to spend a night "acting in a movie," you know?)

Anyway, I like it cuz you can go there and dance with a really varied crowd, and for the most part, people are respectful--no weird dudes will try to rub up on you uninvited, despite it being called "The Rub." This weekend, I met a whole lot of really nice people who all knew the words to "Front Back Side to Side." Uh... perhaps Rub denizens are not rubbing because we are too busy OBSESSING OVER MUSIC!) And, as usual, I was wrecked for Sunday, spent the entire day in my pajamas with frozen green teabags over my puffy eyelids and trying to get Ring the Alarm out of my head from the night before. There are worse things, indeed.

I just found out from their website they are going on a mini RUB TOUR, to SXSW in Austin, and WMC in Miami and then some, so non-New Yorkers can experience the all-night-long danceathon, I mean, if you want.— Julianne Shepherd

At the start of 2004, the term "mashup" finally went overground in the U.S. when Danger Mouse's infring-o-rama The Grey Album earned the bootleg blue ribbon for its surgical deconstruction of the Beatles' sound. But while some cats are trying to make sense from absurdity by calling a spade a spade, let's be perfectly honest: The rock guitar vs. emcee isn't new. Run DMC did it, Public Enemy did it, even Onyx did it. Fortunately, DJ Ayres and co. skip the semantics: It's the Motherfucking Remix. Known for the innovative sets at the Brooklyn-based Rub parties, The Remix carries all the energy and creativity for BK crowds itchin' to scuff up their dancing shoes.

The collection capitalizes on two elements: originality and flow. Listening to Mobb Deep's Prodigy boast about murderous blood splatters on his daughter over the Ghostbusters theme evokes a few chuckles, but succeeds because the synth-tuba perfectly accents the Queensboro duo's spitfire. Nick Catchdub's cross between middle school favorite "Cannonball" and "Party & Fire-Shit" combines a fiery Rah "Ima beat that bitch with a bat" Digga with Lollapalooza. (For all you Phillyheads, it's like Y100 shaking hands with Power 99.)

And, of course, conceptually this doesn't clear any new ground other than offering a new platform for some rising deejays. Nonetheless, The Remix is honest and creative. "Culo" and "Let's Go to Bed"? Motherfucking brilliant.

-Jamin Warren, March 1, 2005

Village Voice - Best party in Brooklyn to dance sweatily to smart music - The Rub @ Southpaw

"Dirty hipsters have been trying so fucking hard to make rock music danceable that they've been ignoring the obvious: Franz Ferdinand is a dance band only if you've never met a person of color. Thankfully, the next gen has no problem communing under the tent of black and brown polyrhythms, and it does so at THE RUB @ SOUTHPAW, the city's most promising and unassuming new party. On the first Saturday of each month, signal di plane and rock away to a perfect blend of dancehall, hip-hop, '70s funk, and recently, reggaeton." -Jon Caramanica

Best Party: The Rub
DJ Ayres, Cosmo Baker & DJ Eleven

"Don't pass it on. There are plenty of talented jocks in this city who are overlooked because they haven't figured out the mysterious art of promoting. New York City is huge, always offering an alternative to the alternative. Most club owners have skimped out on promoting by asking the dj to do all the work. Cosmo Baker, Ayres, and DJ Eleven have figured it out, and are throwing the best party in the city, with a fun crowd and properly mixed rekkids. Their revelers come from all kinds of different backgrounds and ethnicities, but are joined together in just blamin' it on the boogie, dancing to hip-hop, disco, funk, 80s, and guilty pop pleasures. It's hardly forward thinking, but that's beside the point. Uncross your arms, lean back, dip it low, shake your goodies and yell back that you don' care...you don' give a fuck, whuuut!"

The Rub 2nd Anniversary in New York Press's Summer Guide 2004

What if heading out on a boat full of house- heads makes you green? What if you like your feet planted firmly on the ground? What if...you live in Brooklyn? Also Sat., July 3, it's still the best party in Brooklyn: the monthly jam at Park Slope's The Rub at Southpaw with DJs Cosmo Baker, Ayres and Eleven. These DJs keep their floor moving and packed with deep crates filled with soul, funk, hiphop, dub, dance hall, house, guilty-pleasure pop and bumping disco. Last month, they featured an entire evening of 45 platters. Tonight, the Rub celebrates its second anniversary of no pretentiousness and great tunes. Southpaw, 125 5th Ave. (betw. Sterling & St. John's Pls.), Park Slope, 718-230-0236, 9, $10.

- Dan Martin

Hollertronix + The Rub

Taking the 2 Many DJs concept and swapping out the global cosmopolitan for the Southern crunk thug, Hollertronix have perked up nightlife first in their native Philly and now here with lengthy dj sets that forego shame in favor of genuinely unstoppable musical assauls - tear-the-club-up anthems, dancehallshot-licking, blissful '80s pop, and whatever else might inspire a milkshake or three. And we'll always remember DJ Ayres fondly from the Indie 5000 days, when hip-hop parties could just be, without having to be something more too. CARAMANICA

POP REVIEW
Mixtape Stars Spinning and Flipping Fresh Tracks
By KELEFA SANNEH

On Friday night the Brooklyn nightclub Southpaw was host to a more low-key hip-hop party. The headliners were Hollertronix, a Philadelphia D.J. duo, and DJ Ayres. Together, this three-man team played a casual, exuberant set celebrating the gleefully synthetic sound of current and recent hip-hop: Lloyd Banks's densely (and chintzily) orchestrated club hit "On Fire"; Khia's Casio-powered sex rap "My Neck, My Back"; B.G.'s cheap-sounding high-rollers' anthem, "Bling Bling."

All three D.J.'s do their best work on mixtapes. Hollertronix released 2003's best party album, "Never Scared" (Turntable Lab), which makes unexpected connections between Southern hip-hop and 1980's new wave: Soft Cell, meet Trick Daddy. And DJ Ayres has quietly become one of New York's best mixtape D.J.'s. (Ordering information is at www.djayres.com.)

First there was "Hip-House," compiled with Cosmo Baker, devoted to that brief, weird moment, 15 years ago, when hip-hop and house music seemed ready to merge. And now comes "Flashback," which uses sly segues to show which new rappers are borrowing beats and rhymes from their 1980's predecessors.

Read the whole article here: Arts section Page 1, June 1 2004. (at NYTimes.com - requires login)