by SCOTT C

The fact that A-Trak has graduated from five-time turntablism world champion to tour DJ for Kanye West isn’t surprising in the least. As someone who was around to see just how ahead of the game this Montreal turntable prodigy was back in 1997, I’ll tell you that even with all of his accomplishments to date, it’s clear he’s only just getting started.

Taking his cue from the Invisibl Skratch Piklz Turntable TV videos of the late ’90s, A-Trak has concocted Sunglasses Is a Must, a DVD that amazingly documents every last bit of globetrotting that the kid has done since he made us all proud at the ’97 DMCs in Italy. Taking some time away from Kanye and the hectic touring schedule they’ve been maintaining for the last year, A-Trak has been touring with Cosmo Baker and DJ Ayres of the Rub to promote the North American launch of the DVD.

Unlike A-Trak gigs you might have been to before, he’s sidestepping straight scratch routines on this tour, choosing instead to rock proper parties, peppered with wicked DJ sets and the skills that pay the bills. With an upcoming solo album in the works, featuring collaborations with Dipset, Little Brother and Lupe Fiasco, A-Trak continues to build on the success that he’s been blessed with for the past 10 years. Not bad for a 25-year-old dude with styled eyebrows. The Mirror spoke to A-Trak over the phone from a hotel in El Paso, Texas.

Mirror: Man, you have no idea of the amount of emotion that welled up inside me when I saw you talking to Tanya Kim on E-Talk Daily a few weeks back. Never mind Kanye—when you get an audience with perky little Tanya Kim, you know you’ve hit the big time.

A-Trak: (laughs) I’ve actually been on E-Talk a few times, but I’ve never seen myself on E-Talk. I don’t see press or anything about myself because I’m always on the road.

M: Is that like your concerted effort to avoid the tabloids, just in case they’re making shit up about you?

AT: Yeah, right. I haven’t even seen Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, and I’m in the movie! People call me all the time and say I saw you in this, and so and so, but I never get to see any of that stuff.

M: You’ve been on TV and film, and now, with your DVD out, is it fair to say that you’re pretty comfortable in front of the camera, even if there’s no turntables in sight?

AT: I dabble... (laughs). I think I’m getting a little better. Now, when I watch the DVD, I look like I could have been a little more comfortable, but truth be told, all of my armchair narration scenes were recorded at four o’clock in the morning. I don’t know if anybody else can tell, but I can see it. My schedule with Kanye was so crazy that I only had one night to film that whole thing.

B-boy gone playboy

M: So you’re trying to tell me that you could’ve been even more comfortable than with the bathrobe and the glass of cognac that you sport throughout the movie?

AT: Yes! (laughs) I don’t know. Maybe I’m just being critical of myself. Maybe if I’d had one of those rugs made out of a tiger-skin, with the head and everything. I don’t know what else I could’ve done—

M: The next DVD has to be hosted from the hot tub.

AT: Ah ha!

M: You have my permission to write that down.

AT: I just wish I’d had more time to rehearse the stuff in the DVD, but I’m still happy with it.

M: The DVD really made me smile, man. Not only because I was there witnessing the earliest stages of your career, but because you’re a pretty funny guy when it comes right down to it. I pissed myself laughing at the scene with you jet-lagged in the Chinese hotel room, recording incoherent foolishness.

AT: Yeah, that part is definitely one of my top three points in the movie. Some people really like that part, while others really don’t get it at all.

M: That’s because they’ve never had jet lag.

AT: That too, but some people were like, “That part is long. You repeat the same thing for like five minutes. Everything else is good, but that part is long.” All the people I know who have travelled extensively have seen that part of the movie and said, “Thank you.” They know what it’s like to be overseas in a hotel and completely and totally delirious. I was just showing the world what it really feels like sometimes.

Talk about Roc

M: When you watch the DVD, you can see all of the DJs and other people that you became close with during the battle circuits and years of travelling around, but are you still as tight with those guys as you were back then? Do you keep in touch like you used to?

AT: For the most part, yes. Of course, there’s some people that I only keep in touch with periodically, but others that I’m closer to now. Making the DVD made me realize just how fortunate I was to have met some of the people that I did at such a young age. I was meeting people that I really looked up to, and they were taking me into their homes, playing me music, teaching me about records, telling me about the touring experience. A lot of these guys, from Qbert to Peanut Butter Wolf, Roc Raida and the X-Men, have really played a big role in my career. I’m almost at the age now where they were when they met me. I look at it and think, if I met a 15-year-old kid who could really scratch, would I be compelled to encourage them in the same way?

M: You mentioned that the parts with you and Raida and your boy Horse were filmed only a few years ago?

AT: A lot of people don’t know just how long I’ve known Raida, or how tight I am with him, because I’ve never been an associate in a crew with him like I was with Qbert. He’s helped me as much as anybody has, but he always plays the background, and never asks for anything in return.

M: You’re talking about just meeting people and presenting opportunities?

AT: Anytime I went to New York, I could just go over to his crib and jam. He did introduce me to a lot of people, like with the first Audio Research 12-inch. It was him who helped me reach out to Fat Beats in the first place, and even up to the Dipset record I did a few months back, he helped a lot with that too. He’s always putting in good words for me.

Textures and swing

M: Can you tell me a little bit about your upcoming production LP, and how that’s coming together?

AT: It’s cool to see how it’s coming together, because every song is like a little project in itself. I wish I had more time at home to make beats, because it’s pretty hard to do that when you’re on the road travelling every day. I’ll make a batch of beats at home, and then when I travel, I reach out to people while I’m on the road. The production is all scratch-based, but everything isn’t made out of scratching. It’s just what gives the beats their texture and swing. It’s all about building songs, bridging gaps. I want to go in all kinds of different directions, like having Dipset and Little Brother on the same LP and not feel like it’s all over the place.

M: Man, I’m counting on you to have Dipset and Little Brother on the same track!

AT: (laughs) On the same track! That would be that crack, son.

With Cosmo Baker and DJ Ayres, Ghislain Poirier, Abra & X-Wam and Egypto at Club 1234 on Sunday, June 4, 9 p.m., $15

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