STARTING OUT TOURING DIVE VENUES IN THE BACK OF A VAN, AND ENDING UP HEADLINING THE MAIN STAGES OF EDM FESTIVALS, DIM MAK LABEL OWNER AND DJ STEVE AOKI IS THE ACCIDENTAL SUPERSTAR WHO MAY WELL HAVE PAVED THE WAY FOR THOSE FOLLOWING IN HIS FOOTSTEPS...
Words: JOE ROBERTS
Crunk ain’t dead. It’s important to remember that. Sure, it’s been a minute since Bone Crusher was heaving his hulking frame at the bouncers outside of a seedy Atlanta strip club screaming he was never scared, the bass of Lil Jon et al still at an audible thump as the cops get called, but crunk’s still here. It’s no longer a rowdy antithesis to the thoughtful soul of Southern Hip-Hop, but yeah. It’s still here. Take Baauer, for one. His single ‘Harlem Shake’ exploded upon the scene earlier this year, first finding buzz as an unreleased track in Rustie’s arsenal, one he dropped on his stunning Essential mix for UK flagship station Radio 1 in April. It’s easy to see why Rustie would be drawn to such a song. It’s got the sort of pounding basslines the Glaswegian producer loves, with siren-y synth stabs layered with drums that sound tribal, primal even.
It’s a track that was created on a whim, the Brooklyn producer says, one that sprung to life, “Like most of my tracks do. Just throwing out random ideas into Ableton Live. I wanted to hear what it would be like to put a Dutch House synth over a hip-hop beat, and one thing led to another,” he says, speaking over email while prepping for a show. And a fortuitous experiment it was. He started sending the track around completely cold, eventually hearing back from Mad Decent A&R man Paul Devry, who offered to put the song out on the label, founded by the professional genre dilettante and all around EDM wunderkind Diplo. Pitchfork took notice, bestowing ‘Harlem Shake’ with the prestigious ‘Best New Track’ tag, and from here on out it seems that Baauer is destined for great things.
Hip-hop nerd Raised in both London and Connecticut, Baauer’s original goal was to become a turntablist. “I got my first pair of decks when I was 13, and I sucked pretty bad at the whole ‘scratching’ thing,” he says. His dreams of technical wizardry on the level of his early hero DJ QBert were deferred by a DJ friend who played house and got him hooked on beat-matching. It is Baauer’s
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