Nice Kicks: Part of your early days touring involved working with Kanye West as his official tour DJ. What do you remember from first meeting Kanye?
A-Trak: I definitely remember when I met him. We met in London. I was doing an in-store performance at a record shop in 2004, just a few weeks after The College Dropout came out. John Legend was doing a bit of a promo run, too. He didn’t even have a record out then, he was just known as the guy playing keyboard with Kanye. John Legend was booked at that same in-store as me, and during the event I did something with a record Kanye produced. I flipped “Get By” by Talib Kweli and I also flipped a Jay Z record. Kanye was there in the corner with a hoody over his face – really just there to support John Legend – but he saw me go up there and do these routines with records that either he produced or his friends did. He really started to flip out. You could just see his eyes light up. As I’m finishing my routine, super randomly, Mos Def walks into the shop. This was a tiny a** shop, like as big as a closet. Everybody started freaking out, a big mob scene started to form around them and Mos and Kanye started freestyling. Kanye’s security ended up escorting him out, but I really wanted to talk to him because I knew that he saw me do this routine with his records and I could tell that there was this potential for some type of working relationship.
So, I had to find him in London after that, which was hilarious. I found out there was a Roc-a-fella press conference the next day. I showed up there with my suitcase on the way to airport because I knew Kanye would be at it. I cornered him as he was walking out and I said, “Yo! I was the DJ from the shop yesterday.” Right there he was like, “Yo! I want you to be my DJ. We’re going on tour with Usher next month.” Then I replied, “OK, cool.” [Laughs] From there on, I was his DJ for about four years.
Nice Kicks: Switching gears back to sneakers, what shoes catch your eye these days?
A-Trak: What’s funny for me with sneakers nowadays is that a lot of the stuff that used to be off limits when I was younger, in the ’80s and early ’90s, is kind of what I find cool now. For a long time, I lived in a paradigm of Jordans or Flights. I still like a lot of Flights, I still think the 180s are incredible, and then I discovered a little bit of the designer high tops. Those can tend to be tacky too, so sometimes you have to be careful. You want to find the ones that people haven’t found out about, you want to find one of the hidden treasures. If anything still interests me in the sneaker world, it’ll be like the shoes that an ’80s hard rock drummer might wear – really choked high tops like the Reebok Blacktops or the Reebok Kamikaze. Even Air Force 2s. I always thought that Air Force 2s were off limits because it was all about the Air Force 1s. They’re really chunky and weird, there’s something almost wrong with them. But in recent years I find them really cool because they’re like the stepchild of Forces [Laughs]. A lot of those scuffed up, tough guy, ’80s high tops are the only sneakers that I find really cool at this point in time because they were sort of the stepchildren of sneaker collectors for so long.
Nice Kicks: While constant travel has influenced you to take to a more lean, efficient approach to fashion, two of your biggest collaborators, Armand Van Helden of Duck Sauce and Cam’ron, are the exact opposite. How would you describe their style?
A-Trak: Armand is the king of weird ’80s high tops, the one’s that you’d recognize but not fully. The same way that he’s a record digger – he has an insane vinyl collection with amazing samples – I feel like that’s his approach to life. He’ll go to flea markets and find all these hilarious things that he takes back to his crib. That’s how he shops for clothes, too. He’ll find these hilarious graphic shirts from the ’80s and stonewashed jeans that happen to look incredible just by digging around the same way he digs for vinyl. You know those metal detectors that people have on the beach? He’s like that with everything in life, he just finds stuff.
Cam’s just on some flashy, Harlem sh*t. He always has been. Cam, I think, does a lot of stuff to turns heads. He kind of rides solo, or obviously with the Dips, but they never really associated with other crews. I think they’re whole thing is that when they touch down, everyone has to notice them. Whether it be the furs or the pink Range or the cape, I think that he hits a lot of taboos. He goes where the stereotypical male isn’t supposed to go, and he does it with so much confidence that he pulls it off. He’s definitely an icon. Now, people are getting tattoos of the Bart Simpson/pink fur Cam’ron image that just came out. He’s very iconic. I think for me, I tend to click with people that have very eccentric personalities. That may just go hand-in-hand with people that are loud dressers, or at least just original dressers.
Nice Kicks: On the music tip, what do you want fans to get out of your latest Duck Sauce project, Quack?
A-Trak: I’d like people to give it a back-to-back listen. All too often in dance music, people approach their albums by thinking of the singles first and just putting filler around it. This is a true album in the traditional sense, with a rhythm, a real flow and a lot of common themes. I want people to listen to it the same way they’d listen to a De La Soul album back in the day. Aside from that, just kick back and maybe unbutton the top button of your pants and laugh a little.
Nice Kicks: Finally, what can you tell fans about your upcoming project with Cam’ron, Federal Reserve?
A-Trak: We’re not really giving out more details yet. People know that it’s been in the works and it’s actually close to completion. “Dipsh*ts,” the single, is going to drop very soon. The video is already out, and then the EP will come a little bit after that. I think it’s better if there’s some element of surprise there. I just appreciate people’s support for the project and the general excitement.
Duck Sauce’s Quack is available now on iTunes. A-Trak is touring the world now, with a list of dates and tickets available here.
