Are DJs musicians? Technicians? What do they even do? I mean, except changing your life, raising the roof, and bringing the exact right oontz oontz at 3am. Here’s a great little video essay with legendary DJ A-Trak on what DJs actually do.
Musicians tend to look down on DJs, but please keep an open mind here. Like everything in music there’s more to DJing than meets the eye.
This Insider video features DJ, producer, and founder of Fool’s Gold Records A-Trak, who has been DJing for over 20 years. In 1997 he was the world champion of DJing at age 15 before going on to become Kanye West’stouring DJ and founding his own record label. Beginning in 2017, he’s organized the Goldie Awards, a DJ competition and beat battle for DJs and producers to demonstrate their skills.
In this interview, A-Trak explains that the role of the DJ isn’t just to press a play button. It’s to control the crowd’s energy by selecting the perfect tracks to play at the right time (like designing a set list, only more dynamic).
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