 A-Track with Falcons has produced a really great song with performances by Young 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-Track Hi! You're a DJ. You were a five-time? World Champion, yeah DMC World Scratch Champion It wasn't all DMC I started scratching and messing around with DJing at 13 and then at 15 I was world champion and I kept entering more battles and I accumulated five of these world titles I didn't see much sunlight from the age of 13 to 15 We all grew up listening to classic rock and through Beastie Boys and Cypress Hill that was the funnel to get into hip hop I really fell in love with hip hop around 94 with Wu Tang, Biggie, that whole era So I'm listening to hip hop and I'm hearing scratching on records I tried playing the piano and I wasn't very good at it I just didn't feel like my instrument and one day I tried scratching a record on my dad's record player and I discovered and then 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 90s I, on the one hand, was like, oh, let's use the old high-eight 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 hangout 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 the song I hit you up. It was just sort of like, hey, Eli This is your world. Can you help me figure this out? And then you hit me back with the super-duper dream reply of like here's a test cut of like 20 seconds of the secret footage that no one's seen before that I just happened 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, drain 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 y'all 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 is something for everyone for sure and maybe you're referring to what a lot of people will call maybe SoundCloud Rap or just like a certain form of sort of druggy, very free kind of abstract rap but there's that but you can also go and listen to some rap-ity rap too Neo 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 really what I'm getting at I'm sure like anything it's like people being like, you're a DJ, like on the radio DJ contest Now people will be like, oh, you're a rapper, do you sibling and is your name little something? Yeah, that's what I'm saying 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 are like, oh, this work to 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 sheepish sameness I think it really is legitimately that this is a culture and you know, if someone's listening to certain kind of music and then they have aspirations to make that music maybe their first couple records will sound like what they listen to One of the differences between now and the 90s 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 But a lot of the guys that get dismissed now for being samey a year later develop their own identity It's just that the removal of the gatekeepers and everything just being posted on SoundCloud by the way you get to see that development stage You know, another thing that's fascinating by the way is like a lot of the rappers who seem to have basic skills are actually a lot more skilled than 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 over like a distorted 808 And then you can interview one of these guys and he'll be like Oh, but I also have, what's the term? It's not backpack rap, I'm trying to think of the term that's... Lyricist rap? But it's funny, like I saw an interview with XXXTENTACION where he was like, oh, I have like Earl-type raps because Earl Sweatshirt 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 ignorant records is also fully capable of making I'm sure they are So when some of the old heads will just say like Oh, what happened 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 the oldest molecules 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 offshoot imprint that was supposed to be their literally 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 they kept trying to pair us for about 24 hours until I met Yay He was really heavy-headly trying to be like, Samantha, this guy, A-Track, he's a really good DJ He's gonna DJ for you, it's gonna make your show cool and she was like, Dane, I'm a DJ I know DJs, but she didn't really want me to DJ for her And I was just sort of like, wait I think I know your brother and this whole thing And then next thing you know, I met Yay and he was like, you're gonna DJ for me And then as it turns out, we're having this conversation at this whole Rockefeller thing, Shindig And so Dane's also somewhere and Samantha's also somewhere and Kanye and I are talking and we're making our master plan He's like, I'm gonna take you on tour and the crowd's gonna do this and say that Take this guy's number, he's my manager and then Dane 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-Track That's why he's Kanye West I was trying to have you work with A-Track but Kanye West is stealing A-Track from you right now, Samantha It's so damn... And both she and I knew that this Kanye thing was probably best for everyone Oh my God What up, this is A-Track and you're on Uproxx