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.
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
-
-
That’s what a DJ is at the end of the day – someone who leads where the music goes. The only thing that’s changed is that in America, people have woken up in the last few years and realized it.
A-TRAK -
A few guys will get up there with turntables as purists, to play vinyl or whatever.
A-TRAK -
I’m not even a trained producer. I just keep following my ear and working on stuff until it sounds the way I like it.
A-TRAK -
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.
A-TRAK -
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.
A-TRAK -
At 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-TRAK -
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.
A-TRAK -
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.
A-TRAK -
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-TRAK -
My ears are open to all sorts of stuff. I appreciate some of the big electro house guys.I love their music but I also like a lot of the stuff coming out of the U.K. Future garage stuff. A lot of stuff like that.
A-TRAK -
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.
A-TRAK -
There 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-TRAK -
I’m one of the few DJs who uses turntables. I’m the only DJ that’s scratching.
A-TRAK -
When I get up I still check the rap blogs before I check any kind of dance stuff.
A-TRAK -
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.
A-TRAK