Thursday Throwback! Dee-Lite: Groove is in the Heart (1990)

So what we have here is an obvious classic, not only in terms of this being a breakthrough for Dee-Lite, but also for rapper Q-Tip, just beginning to embark on his long career both as a solo rapper and with A Tribe Called Quest. Still getting full rotation on the radio and in the club today (even via tons of bastardized baltimore club remixes), this tune hasn’t aged a bit! It’s only fitting I post this classic this week, as I just spotted a nice gem on ebay the other day: Dee-Lite front man DJ Dimitri’s Roland TR-909 drum machine! Not only has he been the sole owner of this timeless piece of kit for almost two decades, but it’s also a professionally modded 909, with extra sets of knobs on the sides to give greater amounts of control to the claps, snares and hats. There’s more flexibility now built in for the kick and snare CV outs, so you can use this thing to sidechain it’s output with pretty much anything you want! A very nice find, the auction ends in 2 days, and trust me, it ain’t gonna sell for cheap.

Ebay listing of DJ Dimitri’s Roland 909