Mad Decent is a record label founded in 2005 out of Los Angeles by founder Thomas Wesley Pentz, better known as Diplo. The label mostly consists of hip-hop infused dance music, but it has also increased the popularity of certain sub-genres such as Moombahton and Baile Funk, sometimes referred to as Miami Bass Music.
Mad Decent Block party is making its rounds once again this year, and the Toronto stop has got us pretty stoked here at Live in Limbo. The festival is unique as every city that it performs in has a different line up. Acts on the tour that unfortunately aren’t playing in Toronto include Cut Copy, Borgore, Die Antwoord, Flosstradomus, Knife Party, T-Pain and many more. But we’re looking at a huge dance party in the fields of the historic Fort York in Toronto, the likes of which we can only compare with last year’s insanity. We can expect to see some bouncy dance tracks out of TJR, Some dirty trap drops from Yellow Claw, and of course some dancehall reggae from the boys in Major Lazer.
TJR is a Melbourne bounce producer out of Connecticut, gaining prominence with his energetic renditions of popular electronic tracks and his shuffle inducing style back in March of 2008 when several of his tracks off his “Bass is the Place” EP climbed the charts on Beatport. Since then, we’ve heard him pump out hit after hit such as “Ass Hypnotized” and “Overdose”, which can be heard in his Miami Ultra set 2015.
Yellow Claw is a Trapstep trio originating from the Netherlands. In addition to traditional trap style the group has also seen success with moombahton, hardstyle, and even dubstep. Yellow Claw recently came to light with their hype track “Kaolo” in 2013, and has since been an influential part of the trap community. In 2014, they started their own record label, Barong Family, in association with Spinnin’ Records, and released their first track entitled “Lick Dat” by Moneyfools.
Artists Diplo, Jillionaire, and Walshy Fire created Major Lazer in 2008. With a diverse and versatile group of musicians, we receive a variety of world sounds and different subgenres, such as moombahton, electro house, and reggae. In their earlier years we experienced tracks like “Hold the Line”, “Keep It Going Louder”, and “Pon de Floor”. These days these explored more international sounds, with their single “Roll the Bass”, and off course their insanely popular collaboration with DJ Snake, “Lean On”.
The festival as a whole is smaller than the marquee ones in Toronto like Veld and Digital Dreams, but much like Diplo’s friend and tour mate Skrillex (creator of the Full Flex Express) he caters to more intense and personal crowds. We all know Diplo could headline major EDM festivals as Major Lazer already gets fairly high billing on mainstream festivals alone. With the great atmosphere Fort York provides being right in the heart of the city almost guarantees the day will be amazing. Let’s just hope there’s no rain so we can all praise the sun.
Don’t miss out on one of the coolest parties of the Summer in Toronto. Get your tickets!
