El Michels Affair was started in early 2001 by Leon Michels, who, at the time was recording steadily for underground, New York based funk label, Soul Fire. Teaming up with his former band mate from the Mighty Imperials, Nick Movshon, the two began to stage recording sessions for hours on end. Both Michels and Movshon had been reared on a strict musical diet of James Brown and the Meters and had begun to widen their horizons with heavy doses of Rock Steady, Dub, Garage Rock, Afro Beat, and 70’s soundtrack records. With all these sounds fresh in their heads, they began to record music that strayed from the usual cookie cutter funk that saturated the genre. The record soon turned into a soundtrack of its own, a reflection of life and music in El Michels Affair’s version of New York City. As the record began to take shape, the band soon expanded into a nine piece live outfit made of fellow New York musicians including members: Toby Pazner, Homer Steinweiss, Sean Solomon, Dave Guy, Aaron Johnson, Thomas Brenneck, and Stuart Douglas Bogie. In 2004, Leon Michels and Jeff Silverman started the Truth & Soul record label and decided to release El Michels Affair’s first long playing record, El Michels Affair: Sounding Out The City. When Scion paired up El Michels Affair and Raekwon for their Metro concert series, the pair hit it off so well they embarked on a tour in late October of 2006 and earlier that year, El Michels Affair went into the studio to cut live interpretations of Wu-Tang classics as part of the “Shaolin Series” on Truth & Soul, which has been a best seller since it’s release in April of 2006.

The latest 12-inch vinyl installment from Scion sees Brooklyn’s El Michels Affair paired up with hip-hop legend Raekwon (of Wu-Tang Clan) for a “live remix” of Raekwon’s song with Pete Rock called “PJs.” Raekwon wrote some new lyrics for the “PJs” track, and El Michels flipped the instrumental with their signature vintage soul sound. Also included on this release are an original El Michels song and a couple interlude/bonus beats. With such great, original artwork and unique tracks, this limited promo 12-inch is golden.