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-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.
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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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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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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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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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.
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There’s a ton of amazing music that’s not getting heard.
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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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It’s always important to me to play something other DJs aren’t playing.
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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.
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I love disco and we sample it a lot for Duck Sauce. For me, that sound is kind of a new manifestation.
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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.
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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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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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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.
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I’ve been doing it since I was prepubescent when I loved to scratch records and play good music. As it happens, you know I sort of fell into the mix. I really feel like I played a role in bringing dance music to America years ago.
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