Tag Archives: DJ Craze

dB Magazine, Interview, Music, Writing

DJ Craze

Leave a comment

DJ Craze aka Arith Delgado is one of those rare performers who can bridge the gap between various styles of music, and somehow please and impress everybody. He started out playing Miami Bass, a type of hiphop that’s bass heavy and sexually explicit, but received notoriety by spinning hiphop, winning the DMC World Championships three consecutive years, being the only solo artist to do so. He was also part of the Allies with Canadian DJ A-Trak, but lately has been focussing his attention on mixing and producing drum and bass.

He’s also one of the busiest DJs, and I had a very early morning (our time) chat with Delgado as he was driving to the airport to DJ in France. This was just after being in China, Japan, and the UK. “Word! You’re from Adelaide man? I love spinning in Adelaide,” he says when I blearily announce myself. “I really like Australia. I’ve been going since 1999 or 2000, and make sure I go out there every year. The parties are always popping out there!”

I ask him about his recent trip to China, interested to hear how he was received and what he thought of the scene there. “That was my first time to China, and it was dope,” he enthuses. “I was spinning at a jiggy (RnB) club and there were all kinds of people there, and it was hard trying to please everybody at once. I had drum and bass kids in there, I had hiphop kids, and the underground crew, and every time I’d spin one style the other would get mad. So that was kind of difficult, but it was dope because it was my first time in China. But I wasn’t even there for a day, I was there for a couple of hours and had to get on another plane and leave.”

With his departure to France imminent, I had to ask if the star liked travelling. “I like the meeting new people and spinning at different spots but I hate the travelling – the security, the immigration, the waking up early, the hours flying… all that I’m not a big fan of, but really I can’t complain, I’ve got the best job in the world!” he cries. “I’m used to getting on a plane and falling to sleep right away, but if I can stay awake I will always use that time to plan out a set, catch up on stuff, you know?”

As Miami Bass isn’t a music that’s heard too much in Australia, and is often unfairly lumped in the RnB basket, I wondered if he still played it. “I grew up in Miami and of course there’s a big Miami Bass and Freestyle scene. My Brother listened to it, and it was on the radio all the time. Lately, I have been getting bored of everything, but I’ve been listening to [Miami Bass] again, and thinking “man, this is some good shit!”

One of the biggest hiphop and drum and bass DJs getting bored of hiphop and drum and bass? “I’m not bored, I just want to do something else, you know? Mix it up a bit.” Delgado begins to explain. “I get bored of stuff real quick, and with drum and bass it’s not like I’m bored with it, just that lately I’ll hear stuff and think “Meh,” you know? I want to do something else; I can’t stick in the same scene for ever, it’s bad for me” he laughs.

I suspect it’s something to do with his perfectionist nature, and perhaps he feels, and listening to a Craze dnb set will convince anyone, he’s perfected the art of mixing dnb and needs to find a new outlet. This perfectionism stretches to his production, too. He’s only had a few releases of his own out on his own label Cartel, and also on A-Trak’s Audio Research imprint.

“I’m starting to feel a little more comfortable with the music that I make,” he says. “I’m a perfectionist though, so I never feel it’s really ready. I’ll let some people listen to my beats and they’re like “what the fuck you waiting for! You should put this out NOW!” but I always think I could make it better. I kind of hurt myself in that way, I have like a 100 or so beats in my computer and I’m only really feeling four or five, and others are telling me I should get my shit out there because I’m sleeping on a lot of good stuff,” he chuckles.

You can check out Craze’s new album and order his Cartel dnb releases through https://www.beatport.com/

dB Magazine, Music, Review, Writing

Craze – Rugged Saturday Radio

Leave a comment

Rugged Saturday radio is the first CD release by Audio Research, founded by Montreal’s DJ A-Trak, and is designed to showcase the record labels’ unique talents. Mixed by 3 times consecutive winner of the DMC world champion mixing competitions Craze, who also forms part of the Allies with A-trak, with this release we have a true definition of the word “mix”. DJ Craze’s mixing style is magnificent – he adds scratches between records, between chorus’s, between breaks, and they’re not just random, but often feature vocal elements of the previous or up-coming tune.

But not only does this CD act a platform for Craze’s skills as a DJ, but also highlights some of the best hiphop to come out of Canada and the USA. And, once again, it shows that there is more to this kind of music than bling bling and booty. Beginning with a Craze intro that contains the cheeky sample “let’s show you how this rap shit’s ‘sposed to be”, it breaks down into Obscure Disorder’s 2004, a typical lyrical hiphop battle hymn with awesome scratching by A-Trak. A snapshot of the world of hiphop follows with DJ Serious’ Snakes, and the mix continues the serious tone with D-Shade’s Space & Time, Simahlak’s Under Pressure, DJ Serious and Nish Rawks’ Frostbite, and D-Shade vs. D-Styles’ Like that Chall Freestyle.

After this, the tone is made a little lighter with Serious and D-Sisive’s Popped, an awesome rhyme about how they “can’t take it no more; this whole industry is pop”. With lyrics talking about abusing P-Diddy’s limo, and calling bomb threats to Hanson’s tour bus, it’s simple in its rhyme but clever in its reason. Troy Dunnit’s Mindblowin and Obscure Disorder’s Back To The Lab follow, and then the best tracks on the mix come Troy Dunnit’s Not Gangsta and Ill Bill’s Cult Leader. Not Gangsta is surprisingly, not gangster, but is one hell of a tough tune, with phat beats and bassline. Cult Leader is similarly tough, and Craze’s scratching of “cult leader” samples great in its subtlety.

The Grill, by Obscure Disorder is a similar to the Avalanches with it’s 70’s vocal stab, and the mix is rounded off nicely by D-Styles featuring Q-Bert, Babu and Melo-D with the A-Trak Remix of Felonious Funk. The scratching on this track, is needless to say, remarkable, and it’s impossible to tell where the track has scratching and where Craze adds to it. This is a fantastic way to introduce the world to Audio Research– it’s ridiculously sublime the way the scratches interact with the tunes, the way the tunes are weaved into one another, and it shows that hiphop is still alive and well in the States.