Lefto is wanderin´ ´round in your area, you´ll recognize this man as never shaved, always trimmed, tri-lingual (including some foul Japanese words) and with a strange love for beanies, bonnets and whatever keeps his head really warm. Also during the summer. You don´t get it? Neither do we? (maybe his homeboy Nalden does).
To make things more complicated, you ´ll have to shape up your French in order to really understand what Lefto is all about. Yup, this guy isn´t goin´ to make it easy for you, so we´ll be generous for once. His name was given by his homeboys when they used to go out, armed with spraycans. Always the first to awaken the next morning, this early bird was called ´lève tôt´ which literally means ´gets up early´.
Growing up on his father´s jazz-collection, the boombap on the streets and the eagerness to know where it all came from, this music-lover got noticed more and more. In search of a way to support his living, he was offered a chance at the Music Mania record store in Brussels. The chain of three Music Mania-stores steadily made it´s name as being thé spot to discover new talent, new genres and, of course, new releases. Their success was based on well informed employees with wide rangin´ antennas and by fitting that profile, Lefto was a proud part of something legendary to many. Ten years on their payroll made his 6th sense for dopeness sharpen even more and so it can hardly be a surprise, that since nine years, Lefto is the dj and composer of De Hop on Studio Brussel, the only HipHop-radioshow nationally broadcasted. Formerly hosted by Krewcial, the show now has Gus on the mic and Lefto still on the decks. Naturally, the show fed his fame and opened new doors.
Being so much in love with music, Lefto couldn´t resist starting to produce himself. Releases so far, include the Eardrums EP with Jerboa (still sought after in Japan), a contribution to the recent Nine-compilation (distributed by Rush Hour) and a remix-album for the world-famous Blue Note-label. Out Of the Blue, as it is called, saw him and his long-time companion Krewcial remixing some of their favourite tracks from the Blue Note vaults. This highly demanded record, again brought him to attention of like minded souls all over the world.
After playing literally all over Belgium, Lefto has been invited throughout Europe for parties, radio shows (most recently: The Best Damn Rap Show (CZ) and Future Vintage by Kindred Spirits (NL) and festivals like the upcoming HipHopKemp (CZ). To list àll the artists who he played alongside with, would just be way to big a burden, but Slum Village, De La, Talib, Jean Grae, Jurassic 5, Premier, The Roots, Spinna, The X-ecutioners, Kev Brown, Vadim, A-Trak and Mixmaster Mike for instance, are no strangers to him. Word is, he even has a direct line to the universe of Lord Quas(imoto) and family. A longer and more specified list of his achievements can be found below.
Amongst his fans, we also find Gilles Peterson, who praises him for his eclecticism and ultratight mixing-skills. No wonder Lefto has been asked to play during the upcoming WorldWide-festival. That the Brownswood fam really digs this guy, is also proven by an upcoming 4 turntable live project by Lefto and Ben Westbeech and to top it off, there´s a big chance that he´ll also be responsible for a Brownswood teaser-mix for the Benelux-area. Closer to home, Lefto has just been officially welcomed by Appletree Records as a resident dj for their Appletree-nights and recently delivered Appletree Smoothies Vol. 3! Rumours also say that a beat-EP on this label might be on the way… (By Midleft – Kicksnare.be)
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written by moovmnt
\\ tags: brownswood, de hop, dour festival, gilles peterson, kicksnare.be, lefto, moovmnt, the hop
