Try Not to Cry Watching Zeds Dead’s Epic Mashup Featuring Nas, Tupac & More: ‘There’s Just Something About Nostalgia’

With the holiday season fully swinging, we are officially in the most sentimental time of year, and Zeds Dead knows it.

As such, the mighty duo is sharing Channel Flipping 2: Only You, an epic mashup of classics by artists including Nas, Talking Heads, The Hollies, The Platters and Dionne Warwick, along with clips from films including The Mask and Midnight Cowboy and commentary by comedian Bill Hicks and the sage Tupac Shakur.

The pair spent more than a year making the six-and-a-half-minute clip. Watch it exclusively on Billboard below.

Altogether, the effect of Channel Flipping 2 is heartstring pulling, with the selections and edits whipping up nostalgia, inspiration and a spirit of purpose. The project comes a year after the release of Zeds Dead’s first Channel Flipping mashup, with this new one also extending the motif of the duo’s excellent March album, Return to the Spectrum of Intergalactic Happiness.

Designed to play like a space-time continuum flattening jukebox, the album’s tracks weave in dialogue from The NeverEnding Story and Scarface along with samples from Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, which are all nestled among the psychedelic bass music.

Below, the duo’s Zachary Rapp-Rovan talks to Billboard about the new mashup, the response to their latest album and why “there’s just something about nostalgia.”

How does Channel Flipping 2: Only You extend the ethos, philosophy and world-building of Return to the Spectrum of Intergalactic Happiness? And why release it now?

It’s all part of the same world so to speak. Over the last few years we’ve been building this concept at our shows of an old television set floating through space that picks up bits and pieces of broadcasts from the last 100 years. It’s also kind of an homage to hip-hop and DJing culture in general. The album and the Channel Flipping series both exist within that world.

As for why release it now? Basically because it’s finally at a place we feel comfortable putting it out. It’s been a while in the making, working on it here and there over a few years. It was started at the same time as the last channel flipping.

It’s been eight months since the release of the album. Do you think fans have really gravitated to and fully understood the concept behind it? What have they told you about it, and what it’s meant to them?

The response has been really amazing from what we can tell! I don’t think it really matters if they think about the concept or not to enjoy it, but most of them probably see it. 

The album and this new video are so nostalgic. What does this nostalgic aspect say about where you’re at as artists and people? Has playing this music on tour hit differently, given the emotional layers?

There’s just something about nostalgia. Its hard to describe, but when you work with samples and cut and manipulate them, sometimes you can end up with some really interesting feelings. Sometimes it’s as if it takes you back to a time you were never a part of but it feels you were, a strange familiarity or something. It’s not something you can make happen every time, but when you hit in it, it’s kind of exciting. It’s not the only thing we love to mess with, but it’s definitely been something we’ve always revered in music I guess you could say.

We had this idea a few years ago to have the person that we sampled playing on the screen at the same time so people could kind of see what’s going on. Most of the time when you’re at a set, you hear a vocal and don’t know where it’s from, but we thought it would be cool to see the original performer if we could find a cool video of it. It adds this extra dimension of emotion sometimes to see that. We’ve just been continuing down that path ever since. 

A darn shame it wasn’t nominated for a dance/electronic Grammy. Were you hoping for a nomination?

We thought it was a longshot, but we submitted anyway, just ’cause why not? We don’t take it as a snub, at the end of the day we’re pretty underground and it would be more of a big surprise if we were nominated. We’re not in this thing for awards — being able to work in music and share it with people is award enough.