I’m sitting in my sedan in front of Sopranos Pizza on Washington Ave. on South Beach watching a group of pigeons pulverize a slice of pizza on the sidewalk. It’s Sunday morning, in late March and the sun is rising on South Beach. It’s the final day of Miami’s Winter Music Conference.

I’m having déjà vu. Most likely cause I’ve attended this annual dance music marathon, where DJs, producers, artists and their hangers-on come to break new records, network and party, for the past five years. So here I am again to “house music all night long” as the old classic goes. I pick up my ever-present iPod Touch to read a twitter update:

i murdered the living shit out of the winter music conference.

It’s Questlove’s feed. Questlove, the drummer for Def Jam recording artists the Roots, DJ’d a showcase sponsored by Giant Step with MC Yahmeen and DJ Keen One in the Delano Hotel’s Florida Room a few hours ago. I was there. But, already @questlove is tweeting from the Miami airport.

i gotta say. this is the most fun i’ve had at WMC next to my grand debut back in 2000. only difference I took the most risks of my professional career last night.

I’m hungover. Not from alcohol. I didn’t even get a buzz from the $13 vodka and cranberry juice cocktail, more watered down than the pool beside the Delano’s bar. I should have ordered a Corona—only eight bucks and I would have been straight.

lol @ 9 people in this airport following me as i tweet.

A line forms in front of a Cuban grocer, men waiting in front of a service window for coladas, scrambled eggs and sausage. A sidewalk cleaner wrangles a noisy vacuum next to my car disturbing a nearby street bum, who rises in a fog and meanders away. I just realized that I haven’t made it home yet. It’s going to be a really hot day.

oversoldflight delayed 3 hours, overcrowded airport, kids cryin, bumped to coach middle seat: this is all u got for me flight gods? BRING IT

Yesterday evening on the way to the Giant Step party, I was walking up Washington towards Lincoln, made a right turn and headed to Collins and I spotted rapper Fat Joe driving a white Benz. The sun was about to set. The rooms at the Delano are all-white. You’ll know the Delano from the whitewashed building and towering green ivy shrubs hiding the entrance. Giant Step has been doing WMC parties at the Delano for 13 years.

The Delano lobby is legendary, with striking wide-open airy corridors, soaring ceilings, flowing white drapes and cherry-wood floors, weird misshapen disproportioned decorations from days of yore.. I headed straight for the back orchard, with its tall palm trees, hammocks, extremely large white beds, ensconced bungalows, and shiny blue infinity pool. The canopied lemongrass cabanas with wall-mounted plasma TVs gleamed like the sparkling tents on some Polynesian isle. The ivory sand beach was steps away. Nothing like the bungalow hotel LaFlora further south on Collins, which I’d been in a few days before. The only memorable lobby décor there was a lonely bird of paradise in a cylindrical glass vase.

Philadelphia DJ Vikter Duplaix was on poolside, playing reggae, a Supercat tune “Dolly my Baby,” but eventually K’Naan a reedishly thin singer and rapper who wore a very cool black fedora with feather arrived to sing tunes from his recently released Troubadou r. He was so skilled he managed to get the audience to sing along and sound good. He’s often been compared to Wyclef Jean. Dude knows how to write a song. He ran through “Take a Minute,” “Fatima,” and “Wavin Flag” playing a hand drum onstage along with another guy playing djembe. A guitarist and a backup singer were the only other instrumentation onstage, though he brought up Matisyahu, the Jewish reggae singer, later. The two did a tour together in December so they sounded rehearsed. K’naan is going on tour with Damien Marley and Nas soon, and Snoop Dogg.

Questlove played after K’naan, long after dark, around 10, in the Delano’s underground bar The Florida Room, a 1950’s Havana- meets- Harlem speakeasy and piano lounge designed by Lenny Kravitz, with sparkling crystal chandeliers and bronze mirrored ceilings. Long lines to get in endured all night, and I considered myself lucky to get in.

first 50 songs went from dilla to elvis to wayne to johnny mathis to gang starr

Of course there’s a lot of stuff Questlove’s not mentioning. The “123456789101112” song from Sesame Street, the rare Bill Withers, and all the friggin go-go music. Seriously, he unloaded like 45 minutes of Chuck Brown; this was like, early on.

to the pointer sisters to marley to ray charles to cash to zep to tribe to Al to MJ to the dead to elton to NERD to rare dangelo to rare EWF

The only “house” music track he played was Osulande’s “Don’t Change” and that was right off top which he quickly segued into Slick Rick’s “Lodi Dodi.” Halfway through the night he dropped on Eddie Kendricks’s “Girl you need a change of mind” but technically that’s not house music, techno or whatever you wanna call it. It was mostly R & B, reggae, rock, early funk, hip-hop, dancehall and jazz. And I’d agree that his entire set was pretty risky, especially for Winter Music Conference. At one point he tried to segue from a funk track to Thelonius Monk’s “Straight No Chaser” and dancing on the jam-packed floor was on pause. There were a lot of moments like that, where the musical choices were not geared toward keeping people dancing, but, keeping them on their toes. Few people danced during his 15 minutes of obscure Bill Withers, but they were standing, anticipating what track this Philadelphia DJ with the wild afro and ever-present afro pick in his mane was gonna play next. Fun fact: the only track REEEEWIIIIIIINDed was Damian Marley’s “Welcome to Jamrock”.  Six hour non-stop set. And Questlove never sat down. Not once.

the name of the game was VARIETY (dj’s take note) take more creative risks.—ok class done.

Tags: miami, questlove, south beach, the delano hotel, winter music conference, WMC