One 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-TRAKI’m still a hip-hop producer. I never put a label on what I can do as a producer or a DJ.
More A-Trak Quotes
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A few guys will get up there with turntables as purists, to play vinyl or whatever.
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I think one of the biggest things that’s changed in terms of the rapport with the crowd is that now crowds come to hear our songs. We’re getting closer and closer to an artist performance.
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I worked with him for years. I still think Kanye [West] is one of the most important people in music in the last ten years.
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The essential component of being a DJ is setting the mood; it’s playing to the context. So that if you’re not able to adapt from one context to another, then you’re not a DJ.
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At 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.
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It’s a good feeling to have something to stand for in any part of your life. It’s like personal integrity.
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I have a radio show on Sirius XM. I put it up as a free download on my Soundcloud and on iTunes. That’s a portal for me once a month, to play songs I know aren’t getting played on that station the rest of the week.
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We 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.
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I 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.
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There’s a lot of producers that are much more technical or gear-skilled than I am. But I have a pure idea of what I like and where I want to go and I follow that.
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When I get up I still check the rap blogs before I check any kind of dance stuff.
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I’m still a hip-hop producer. I never put a label on what I can do as a producer or a DJ.
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I’m one of the few DJs who uses turntables. I’m the only DJ that’s scratching.
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Right 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.
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That was my challenge then, how to make scratching still fun for someone who didn’t necessarily come to hear that. It was fun to develop that technique. And now in dance music – I’m still a hip-hop guy at heart, but I love dance music.
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