Here at Flea Market Funk, black gold doesn’t only refer to vinyl, it also refers to coffee. I have been heavily into coffee, not the freeze dried stale stuff, but the independent coffee companies that have been roasting great beans, for close to 15 years (and recently got an espresso machine which is constantly going). Maybe it’s the act of grinding the beans and making it in a French Press that reminds me so much of the process of listening to a record that draws me to this liquid. Taking the record out of the cover, then the sleeve, then putting it on the turntable is just like grinding the beans, making all the necessary preparations to the press, boiling the filtered water, watching the coffee bloom, stirring, then waiting that 3 additional minutes for the press to be ready. To make good coffee, it’s a process. To listen to a record, it’s a process. I love both vinyl and coffee just as much as I love the process that goes into both. I perform both on a daily basis, and well who doesn’t want to drink some good coffee, write, and have King Tubby’s African Love Dub in the background on the turntable? As of late I have been drinking some really excellent medium bodied, fruity roasts from companies like Verve Coffee Roasters, Bird Rock, and my local shop finally got in some whole bean Intelligentsia coffee that I have been tearing through. I knew that there was a connection with this roaster and of all people, Madlib. He connected and collaborated with them a minute ago for their Madlib Espresso, and Adult Swim was there to capture it on video. Now Fiddy might have his Vitamin Water, Dre might have his Beats by Dre headphones and Diddy might have Ciroc, but who can say they have their own espresso roast? It could only be Madlib. If you are a fan of his music, you can maybe visualize how he can release efforts like The Last Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble by doing “6 shots of espresso a day” as he says. Now we know where he gets all his energy. This is a collaboration we love, even though we may have slept on it originally. If you have any coffee recommendations for the Flea Market Funk French Press, feel free to pass them on. Cheers.

Check out the video here.

Keep Diggin’! (and keep drinkin’ good coffee)