I’m one of the few DJs who uses turntables. I’m the only DJ that’s scratching.
A-TRAKI’m one of the few DJs who uses turntables. I’m the only DJ that’s scratching.
A-TRAKAt festivals you kind of have to play the game a bit and you have to play a lot of the big bangers but it’s to me it’s extra gratifying to be able to play the non-bangers and make it work. Because that’s still the craft of the DJ, I think.
A-TRAKA few guys will get up there with turntables as purists, to play vinyl or whatever.
A-TRAKWhen I get up I still check the rap blogs before I check any kind of dance stuff.
A-TRAKIt’s always important to me to play something other DJs aren’t playing.
A-TRAKAt the end of the day, Fool’s Gold is a label that, when I hear something I like, I try to grab it for the label. There’s a ton of great music coming out.
A-TRAKI’m still a hip-hop producer. I never put a label on what I can do as a producer or a DJ.
A-TRAKI think whether dance music had exploded in America, I still would’ve been a DJ a long time. This is my first love.
A-TRAKWe have to wake up early and make songs everyday. I run my record label. You work at hours where your body isn’t designed to work. But it’s fun.
A-TRAKThere’s a ton of amazing music that’s not getting heard.
A-TRAKI worked with him for years. I still think Kanye [West] is one of the most important people in music in the last ten years.
A-TRAKOne thing that I learned in recent years from working more with other people is this idea that part of a producer’s job is to make people comfortable and confident.
A-TRAKIt’s a good feeling to have something to stand for in any part of your life. It’s like personal integrity.
A-TRAKRight now it feels like we’re playing a role, like me and a couple of my friends, in where popular culture is going. That’s a very rare thing in a person’s life to be able to be a part of that. It’s a responsibility I take seriously.
A-TRAKThere are things I like, there are things I strongly dislike. In my DJ sets and in my production I just gravitate towards what I like.
A-TRAKI was a bit of an outsider in the hip-hop world because I was a scratch kid and people weren’t necessarily trying to hear that all the time.
A-TRAK