Slam on the CDJ: The Best DJ Sets of March, 2024

Image via Michael McKinney Independent rap journalists will recommend you new music until their voices give out. Keep it that way by supporting Passion of the Weiss via a subscription to our Patreon. Michael McKinney understands the cultural importance of Kreayshawn’s “Gucci Gucci.” In March, many of the best sets found DJs leaning into specificity. This is often the case, of course, but it felt especially pronounced this time around. Anderson do Paraíso showed off the power of Belo Horizonte’s take on funk carioca; Introspekt zoomed in on the intersection of early dubstep and new-school UK garage; and Sugar Free, Kasra V. and Rey Colino offered up takes on retro-leaning rave nostalgia. M August & J Castillo grabbed their CDJs and flew to Ibiza; elsewhere, TAKAKO outlined a gut-twisting take on techno and noise music. Omagoqa, a gqom trio from Durban, explored a few different takes on the genre’s minimalistic grooves, and Mike Midnight, miscmeg, and Takeo.K took over Melbourne’s Mezzanine for a night of zoned-out trip-hop. Of course, there’s joy in tangling the wires, too. Baptist Goth, a critical figure in Berlin’s contemporary left field, dove deep into liturgical ambience and sky-scraping classical music, and Significant Other dug into...