I’m still a hip-hop producer. I never put a label on what I can do as a producer or a DJ.
A-TRAKThat’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.
More A-Trak Quotes
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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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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’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.
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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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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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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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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 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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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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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’m one of the few DJs who uses turntables. I’m the only DJ that’s scratching.
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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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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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A few guys will get up there with turntables as purists, to play vinyl or whatever.
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There’s a ton of amazing music that’s not getting heard.
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