When DJ A-Trak returns to Chicago on May 5th as part of his Magic 8-Ball Tour, it will be a makeshift homecoming for the Montreal born and NYC based DJ who has some serious Chicago ties. “It’s funny, a lot of people think I’m from Chicago,” the DJ, producer, and co-owner of Fool’s Gold records says with a laugh. “I’ve worked with so many people from Chicago between Kanye and GLC, Cool Kids, Kid Sister, Flosstraduamus, Lupe, there’s a lot of people and artists from Chicago that I worked really tightly with. It’s not rare that people come to me and say , ‘wait, you’re not from Chicago?!? I thought you were from there.'”
A-Trak spent a few years as the official tour DJ for Kanye West, and almost by obligation, many in Chicago Hip Hop took him in as one of their own. It was during his time as Kanye’s DJ that the former child prodigy, and DMC champion began to see DJing beyond turntablism, beats, and rhymes. He gravitated towards party rocking, towards higher BPM’s, and without knowing it fell into a movement in the mid ’00’s that saw European electronic music hit the states on a large scale. A-Trak was at the forefront of the movement, and through his label, Fool’s Gold, created a bridge between Hip Hop and electronic music, giving genre bending artists a home in the process. In lieu of his upcoming trip to the Windy City, I spoke with A-Trak about his evolution from DMC Champion to all around world-class DJ, his latest signee Danny Brown, the new Duck Sauce album and more…