Nothing comes from nowhere.

Oldies’ music gets younger all the time. Who would have thought wed be pouring over compilations highlighting black music – of the non-hip hop variety – from years as recent as 1984 and 1985? The chaps at BBE have been shining a light on modern soul and funk music for over 10 years - for the latest detour, they’ve teamed up with Brooklyn renaissance man DJ Spinna for a compilation of NY post disco/boogie joints, ‘The Boogie Back: Post Disco Jam’.

So Dam Funk may be making the world go boogie boogie boogie right now - but BBE label was way ahead in this game. They’ve been doing the ‘80s ting for some time – way back they teamed up with Keb Darge and (Bob Jones) [www.myspace.com/drbob06].

Back in the late ‘90s, they let eccentric Scotsman Keb run riot by compiling all his records in the Spectrum series (pissing off a lot of collectors in the process), allowing him to join the dots between the Dee Felice Trio and King Tutt.

As ever, he was miles ahead of the game (they really need to preserve his ears in the Smithsonian) and with his delightfully unpretentious liner notes he put peeps up on amazing shit from the ‘60s - oldies like the Whispers to Northern bits like Vise and plenty of disco and modern soul like Curtis Anderson, Tony Troutman at a time when 80s funk and soul was seen as an inferior, slightly backward younger brother to the 70s’ standards.

They also put out plenty of new ish – representing everything from Jay Dee’s Detroit techno to Dilla’s beat hop, Masters At Work, plus street hip from the Bronx’s UN – one of the heaviest hip hop groups of the last 10 years - and of course the great neo soul collaboration-by-internet of Foreign Exchange.

So the Brooklyn’s man a perfect pick to compile some 80s NY heeters for this label. Spinna has never been afraid to stray from hip hop’s (at times) narrow confines. There’s a great range on the comp from Chemise’s paranoid soul to T Swann’s disco rap with some NY latin thrown in and a nod to left coast electro. Here’s Spinna…

Like Bobitto, you have a wide range of influences – not too many hip hop producers are into house and techno as well as being knowledgeable on breaks, funk, jazz etc. Growing up, were you always as open minded and into different styles? Did this make you stand out or was Brooklyn as open minded?

Well, first off before becoming a producer, I'm a DJ first, not to mention a music lover. I've been DJing since the 80's and as a party DJ, you always have to be diverse and play for different kinds of audiences.

Most of the classic hip hop producers I know are into all kinds of music. What I've always said is that the foundation for hip hop is based on sampling all kinds of music from jazz to rock to funk so it's all relative.

Did you have difficulty fitting into one scene or did you enjoy the flexibility of all the genres? Never had any difficulties. Love all genres. I think it has a lot to do with being from New York when so many styles of music were big and had their own scene. I get a lot of respect for being diverse - if anything, I opened up the minds of many.

The next movement will be digging for Chicago house records.

New York hip hop – especially the indie stuff – seems very stagnant. Any idea why? 10 years ago there was a real exciting movement but NY seems as quiet as I can ever remember hip hop wise – any ideas why? Do you expect a resurgence?

Many of the artists that were around back then simply couldn't sustain themselves anymore. There isn't much support in radio and media, and everything is internet-based now. Vinyl sales are at an all time low and distribution channels are close to none. People got older. The ones that are still around probably adapted to the new millennium or are doing it for the love.

There's a whole new era of underground artists like Blu, Tanya Morgan, Kids in the Hall, Homeboy Sandman who are part of the new resurgence, so there is some hope, but I don't think it will ever be the same as the 90's era. Times have changed. Especially in NY.

It seems that the skill of MCing in general isn’t appreciated as much as it once was – but the producer scenes are very exciting now. What do you think of these new producers like Flying Lotus etc? Does NY have anyone we should be watching out for?

I dig Flying Lotus. To me though, all the producers that are cutting edge like him are part of a new Dilla renaissance. He really influenced a new school of cutting edge, forward thinking producers. Out of New York right now, no one is really impressing me to the point of mentioning names.

We got Bus Crates out of Pittsburgh, Odissee from DC, Floating Points, Dorian Concept, Dam Funk, Afta-1, Yan Keez, Karriem Riggins who are all dope but not from New York! We even have ‘transplants’ in NY - Marco Polo originally from Canada. I think part of the New York problem is there's no mental room for creativity here. The hustle and fast paced lifestyle that one has to adapt to in NY doesn't leave any room for experimenting and trying new things.

Just to play devil’s advocate here: ‘80s funk – vastly inferior to its ‘70s counterpart. Tell us why we should listen to it when there is all the incredible ‘70s deep funk and soul available?

That's a matter of opinion to me. It's true that there were some undeniable deep funk and soul records of the ‘70s but there's some killer ‘80s funk too. You can't deny groups like Cameo, Zapp, Slave, Funkadelic and all the roller skating classic club rockers that people will always remember and DJs will play forever as trust worthy floor fillers. You should listen to the new comp because you love good music, not because you're stuck in one moment.

OK, so listening to the compilation it seems very far removed from the hip hop of the early 80s – particularly the electro or the political rap of ‘The Message’. Were Bambaataa and co spinning these tunes at the jams or were they going down a slightly different path?

New York definitely had its own electro phase. If anything ‘Planet Rock’ was the one record that inspired that electro sound for both coasts. Bambaataa really played everything. I wasn't at his park jams in the Bronx because I was a kid in Brooklyn in them days but if you go back and listen to his ‘Death Mix’ record or do your research you'll find that he and the founding fathers of hip hop - DJs like Kool Herc, Charlie Chase, Grandmaster Flash, Red Alert, Jazzy J - all these dudes played it all. ‘The Message’ was really the first political record ever made and was revolutionary for its time.

However, disco cannot be denied as the foundation for hip hop production. DJs used to cut up disco breaks way before hip hop records were made, and once all these artists started to make records labels would get bands to re-record some of the same records DJs were back spinning.

It wasn't till the use of drum machines, particularly the Oberheim DMX used in ‘Sucker MCs’ and the Roland TR808 that the sound of the music started to change. It's basically the same transition that happened with the disco movement which transformed into what's now called modern funk and soul. Technology changed the game.

A lot of the artists on this comp - Chemise, Final Edition, Captain Rapp, TJ Swann, Jan Leslie Holmes – don’t have the biggest discography. 1980s funk is littered with these artists who vanished without trace. Any idea why? By the mid-‘80s was hip hop and the smoother radio-focused R’n’B running the show?

The whole thing with artists vanishing after one or two releases has been happening since the beginning of time. There are many factors that contribute to this like bad record deals, poor distribution, or simple lack of perseverance from artist to pursue a long term career.

Out of New York right now, no one is really impressing me to the point of mentioning names

Some people are content with making one record just to say they did it. You always hear stories about a singer or an MC that cut a single, or an album, and then they drop out the music scene all together to become a teacher or a lawyer. The music industry isn't for everybody.

By the ‘80s hip hop started to get more recognition with the success of groups like Run DMC but radio still wasn't supporting it fully. You heard it mostly on rap radio show like Mr Magic's (R.I.P.), Rap Attack or Red Alert which mostly aired on Friday and Saturday nights. R’n’B dominated commercial radio until the Biggie, Puffy, Jay-Z era of the late 90's. Now hip hop is all you hear on the radio and mostly bad stuff. It’s all a commercial mess now.

A lot of the record labels featured here are indies – Emergency, VOP, Jay Jay, Saturn etc. Was it a conscious decision to choose independent records or coincidental? Were they difficult to license?

They are difficult and sometimes impossible to license. The focus of this comp was definitely more on the indie side of things.

There is a heavy disco influence on the LP – War & Mtume for example. Were the big disco clubs still going in NY at the time?

Club culture never died in NY. Of course, disco died but house music took its place. The big super club culture that existed in NY from the ‘70s to the late ‘90s is almost non existent now. It's more about smaller venues and boutique lounges now. But you can still hear quality disco and boogie music in certain spots.

The LA boogie sound at the time is quiet different – more synth-based and a little faster. Why was this? Did people in NY check it?

Black music has always been a regional thing. That's what makes it diverse and interesting. There's deep Ohio funk which sounds different from Texas funk which differs from NY funk.

You can also hear the difference between west coast hip hop, dirty south and east coast. When the Motown sound was huge in the late 60s you could distinguish it from the Philly soul of Gamble and Huff. It's always been this way. Did NY check for LA boogie? Of course, but obviously some records work better in their own areas. You had groups like Shalamar and Lakeside that got burn in NY, while New York artists like D Train and Vaughan Mason were played in LA. But, there's a lot of classic boogie records from LA that people in NY don't know and vice versa.

NY electro seemed in many ways to come from nowhere – was it influenced by these sounds or was it more Kraftwerk etc?

Nothing comes from nowhere. It's impossible. Electro and even Detroit techno was very funky in their beginning stages and it all started with Kraftwerk in my opinion. ‘Numbers’ inspired ‘Planet Rock’ which inspired the whole electric boogaloo movement in LA and the bass movement in Miami as well.

It was huge! I think the electronic music of the 80s was inevitable because of how technology changed music. With the use of drum machines, midi synthesizers, sequencers etc, electro was bound to happen, but ‘Numbers’ really changed the game. Both disco and hip hop DJs embraced that record hardcore. I bought the 45 in 1981 when it came out and it got major play on radio. It was everywhere.

There is a big boogie revival at the moment with a lot of new sounds (Dam Funk etc) and interest in the 80s joints. You’ve been around to see a few revivals so what do you think the next one will be – new jack swing, boom bap?

I doubt highly that new jack swing will make a come back. It was just too much of a fad and that style of production was hard to copy. Teddy Riley really had that on lockdown. I think the next movement will be digging for early house records from Chicago and New York. They're becoming super rare already and it's the next wave of black music that will appeal to modern boogie lovers because of the synths and drum machines.

I already have friends that used to be hardcore hip hop heads, funk, soul, jazz collectors, and are now into modern soul and modern funk, but curious about house music.

As for boom bap, I still consider what I make boom bap. I live it. The only way it will make a major come back is if the biggest artists in the world reclaim it and make it big again. Otherwise, it will remain underground forever.

Anything else you want to plug?

Jigmastas 2010. Peace

'DJ Spinna presents The Boogie Back: Post Disco Jams' is on BBE.