SATURDAY 22 | Few would place Philips, the Dutch appliance maker, among the world’s greatest contributors to global hip-hop culture, but there it most certainly stands. In 1969, Philips released the ‘radio recorder’, a dull grey and matte black plastic audio box with an extendable chrome antennae for the radio and chunky mechanical buttons to record, play, stop, fast-forward and rewind. The boombox was born. “I remember getting my first ghetto blaster as a kid, and using the dual cassette decks to try to make my own mix tapes,” says the Bangkok-based rapper known as Hydro Phonics, a card-carrying medical marijuana-smoker from the US, in a soft southern drawl. The portable boombox moved the party from the living room to the street corner, where rappers and b-boys traded dance moves and beats. It provided the artillery for a generation of freestyle street battles. “Nothing can ever replace that box sitting in the middle of the party and everyone dancing.” These days, Hydro Phonics performs a two-man show under the rubric Ghetto Blasters with regional DJ powerhouse Tech 12. Originally from the UK, Tech 12 claims residencies at Bangkok’s Bed Supper Club and Q-Bar and has worked alongside The Black Eyed Peas, Public Enemy, Grandmaster Flash and Cash Money.
WHO: Hydro Phonics & Tech 12
WHAT: Ghetto Blasters
WHEN: 11pm March 22
WHERE: Pontoon Club, St. 172
WHY: They’re ssssssmokin’