A-Trak, with Falcons, has produced a really great song with performances by Yung Thug,
and 24 hours.
Hey everybody, my name is Eli Morgan Gessner, and I am the style editor here at Uproxx.
And today, we have the wonderful story of a young Canadian boy who took his OCD and
bad posture, and used it to become one of the greatest DJs of all time.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's my old friend, DJ A-Trak.
Hi.
You're a DJ.
You were, a five time?
World champion, yes.
DMC world scratch champion.
It wasn't all DMC.
I started scratching and messing around with DJ'ing at thirteen, and then at fifteen I
was world champion and I kept entering more battles and I accumulated five of these world
titles.
Fifteen years of age! What a revelation!
I didn't see much sunlight from the age of thirteen
to fifteen.
We all grew up listening to sort of classic rock, and, you know, through like Beastie
Boys and Cypress Hill, that was like the funnel to get into hip hop.
I really fell in love with hip hop around ninety-four with Wutang, Biggie, that whole
era.
So I'm listening to hip hop, right?
And I'm hearing scratching on records.
I tried playing the piano but I wasn't very good at it, or I just, it didn't feel like
my instrument.
And, one day I tried scratching a record on my dad's record player, and I discovered
a knack.
I showed my brother and his friends one day, and they were like yo, what the hell, you
can scratch?
We can't scratch.
What the hell?
And, I started practicing every day, and I would come home after school, practice, have
dinner, do homework, after dinner, and then that was my day, every day.
I had this sort of general idea of making a skate video.
I ended up making the video with them.
The concept, being that because of our relationship, back at Zoo York, in the nineties, I on one
hand, was like oh, let's use the old hi-8 video camera that we shot all the original
Zoo York footage with.
It's the impossible video.
Thug showed up, on time, but there was a lot of hanging out time in the van.
At one point, you opened the door and said, guys we're losing sunlight.
They ran right out.
We did the video.
For this song, I hit you up, it was sort of like hey Eli, this is your world, can you
help me figure this out?
And then, you hit me back with this super duper, dream reply of like, here's a test
cut of like twenty seconds of this secret footage that no-one's seen before, that I
just happen to be digitizing, how about we do that for your video.
And, I still have the camera, and we filmed Thug with that camera.
And I'm reading my email and I'm like, brain explodes.
Okay, okay, okay.
Can I call you Eli?
One thing that me and you have been talking about, and this is the current state of media
and culture and music, which I've been a little bit like, uh, I don't know guys.
It seems like, the idea of we're trying to make something original, has become secondary
to I know ya'll like this so here it is again!
Like, that's kind of where I feel there's a shortcoming in culture.
It's not like, oh, there's clearly Biggie Smalls, and there's clearly Tupac, and there's
clearly De La Soul, and that's clearly Public Enemy.
But you've always been more optimistic about it all.
What I would say is, that, in fact, right now in hip hop, there's something for everyone
for sure.
And maybe you're referring to what a lot of people would call maybe soundcloud rap?
Or just like a certain form of sort of druggie, very free kind of abstract rap?
But there's that, but you can also go and listen to some rappidy rap too.
Neil Soul is back!
Like, there's something for everyone, for sure.
So, I don't know.
And by the way, when you were saying that, you know, maybe that type of rap...
You seem to be hinting that it's less original.
That's not, that's not really what I'm getting at.
And I'm sure like anything, it's like people being like, you're a DJ.
Like, on the radio DJ contest?
Yeah, now people would be like oh you're a rapper, do you sip lean, and is your name
Little something.
But by the way, part of what's cool, even about that scene, is that being weird is celebrated,
and it took hip hop a long time to break through to that.
Then when people were like, oh this worked for that guy?
I'm going to do something quite similar.
But I don't even think people approach it with that much of a sort of cheapish sameness.
I think it really is that legitimately that, this is a culture.
And you know, if someone is listening to a certain kind of music and then they have aspirations
to make that music, maybe their first couple of records will sound like what they listen to.
One of the differences between now and the nineties is that that first song that someone
makes, the whole world gets to hear it, whereas back then you had to get a record deal and
you wouldn't hear it until they honed their skills.
Yeah.
A lot of the guys that get dismissed now for being samey, a year later developed their
own identity.
It's just that the removal of the gatekeepers with everything just being posted onto soundcloud
right away, you get to see that development stage.
And you know what, another thing that's fascinating by the way, is a lot of the rappers who seem
to have basic skills are actually a lot more skilled then they give off the impression,
and they choose to make this kind of rap because there's an immediacy that is super punk-rock
and undeniable.
So, it's funny hearing some of those rappers who might get popular from having a song where
they're just going amasasavasasaamagavasasana, amagadasavanasadada over like a distorted
808.
And then, you can, you can interview one of these guys, and he'll be like, oh but I also
have, oh what's the term...
It's not backpack rap.
I'm trying to think of the term.
Lyricist rap?
But it's funny, like I saw an interview with XXXTentation, where he was like, oh I have
like earl type of raps.
Because earl sweatshirt is, you know, is lyrical.
And then, I've heard those records and it's true.
So, a rapper who might be known for blown out distorted, and kind of make ignorant records
is also fully capable of making rappidy-rap records.
And so when some of the old heads will just say, like oh what happened to the skills.
It's more...
It's deeper than that.
It's a conscious decision to make records that translate in a live setting.
And by the way, live rap is blowing up too.
Let's talk about this.
Me and you both have had the distinction of working with Mr. Kanye West.
Yours was far more successful than mine was, but, he was smart enough to pick you.
Damon at that point in time was starting a sort of off shoot imprint that was supposed to literally
be a rock label.
And, the day before Kanye saw me in London, Damon Dash saw me.
And he wanted me to DJ for Samantha, maybe not knowing that she was actually a DJ as well.
And Dame kept trying to pair us for about twenty four hours until I met Ye.
He was really heavily trying to be like, Samantha, this guy A-Trak, he's a really good DJ.
He's going to DJ for you.
It's going to make your show cool.
And she was like, Dame, I'm a DJ, I know DJs, but she didn't really want me to DJ for her.
And, I was just like, wait, I think I know your brother, and this whole thing.
And then, next thing you know, I met Ye and he was like, you're going to DJ for me.
And then, as it turns out, we're having this conversation at this whole Rockefeller thing
shindig.
And so Dame's also somewhere, and Samantha is also somewhere.
And Kanye and I are making are talking and we're making our master plan.
And he's like, da-da-da, I'm going to take you on tour, and the crowd's going to do this,
and say that, take this guy's number, he's my manager.
And then Dame sees what's going on, and I'll always remember this.
He screams, he goes, Samantha!
You see what's happening?
Kanye is about to hire A-Trak!
That's why he's Kanye West!
I was trying to have you work with A-Trak.
But Kanye West is stealing A-Trak from you right now, Samantha!
It's so Dame.
And both she and I knew that this Kanye thing was probably best for everyone.
What up, this is A-Trak, and you're on Uproxx.