We had the opportunity to ask our boy DJ Craze a few questions about his recent touring as Kanye West’s dj, his new label concept, and the real reason he stopped playing Drum & Bass.

DJ Craze Interview:

Media Contender:
Some people may not know you or what you have accomplished in your career as a dj, can you please list some of your titles and awards?

DJ Craze:
Yeah mang…. What up my name is DJ Craze…I’ve won many battles in my career but I’m known mostly for being the only dude on the planet to have won the DMC title 3 years in a row.

Media Contender:
You have been touring with Kanye West this year. How did that come about?

DJ Craze:
Early on this year A-trak had suggested that he might step down from being Kanyes tour dj and had asked me if I would be interested in taking over and I said HELL YEAH!!! I can’t thank the homie enough. It’s been an amazing experience so far. Kanye is a very inspiring dude.

Media Contender:
You are a world champion dj, you have toured the world successfully on your own for years, you have pretty much done it all as a dj, can you tell us about why you decided to tour with Kanye at this point in your career?

DJ Craze:
I decided to tour with Kanye because I would’ve been a moron not to haha. Naw but for real, like you said I’ve toured the world many times over and this was just one more thing to add to my accomplishments. I also wanted to experience what it’s like to be on the biggest hip hop tour of the year.

Media Contender:
You played Drum & Bass for the last 5 years, many thought you were going to make huge impact on the genre and elevate it to new heights. Why did you stop playing D&B?

DJ Craze:
OH GOD THAT QUESTION….hahaha. Here’s the scoop: Ever since I got into dnb it was an uphill battle for me. I only got into dnb cause I loved the music. None of my boys liked dnb so I was basically on my own. I didn’t know anything about the dnb scene and the politics of it. I never understood why it was soo hard getting tunes. I had come from the hip hop world where labels like Def Jam and Bad Boy were giving away the new new shit to djs cause they wanted everybody playing they s@#t. It’s not like that in dnb for whatever reason but that constant struggle to get fresh new tunes and making sure that they are ok to play got real old to me. That’s the way it’s been in dnb for years. I started feeling bitter and bummed out that I had to basically beg for tunes. I’ve always thought that if you’re not happy in any situation you should get out of it and that’s exactly what I did. I’m aware that I left alot of my fans puzzled but once again I had to focus on what makes me happy.

Media Contender:
There are rumors floating around that you were playing “dirty dubs”. Can you shed some light on that?

DJ Craze:
Of course. Here comes the shocker…… I did play a “dirty dub” once in my career because I honestly didn’t know I couldn’t play it. That was my first year being in the dnb scene and like I mentioned before I didn’t know the “rules and regulations of the dnb scene”. A certain dj who will remain nameless gave me a cd with a bunch of tunes. I had been working with him in the studio and asked him if I could get some tunes. Since he was one of the biggest djs at the time I thought it was ok to play these tunes. I was wrong. The person who made the tune that I played let me know it wasn’t ok to play the tune and I apologized for my mistake. Because of that incident I made sure everything I played from that moment on was ok to play. That’s another reason why I stopped spinning dnb…..I couldn’t compete with being billed with the likes of Andy C, Hype, Friction etc. who always had the freshest dubs and me being worried if it was ok playing tunes that I got the previous month.

Media Contender:
You were approached a couple years ago by System Recordings to do a mix cd. Why did this get pulled and not get full release?

DJ Craze:
It was called Miami Heat. I had finished the mix and was getting ready to tour the cd. As soon as the cd got released label heads starting hitting me up about not getting licensing fees. System blamed it all on my old management to try and deflect the responsibility. After the cd was “pulled”, they were still shipping it out under “miscellaneous”. Needless to say the labels didn’t get their money and everybody was looking at me, I simply had no control over that part. That’s another reason why I stopped spinning dnb.

Media Contender:
By looking at your recent tracklisting, we can see what your into musically at the moment. Tell us about the new label project and what you see yourself doing with music in the next 2 years.

DJ Craze:
Right now me and Kill The Noise are working on starting a new label called SLOW ROAST (we got the idea from Klevers myspace ;)). It’s basically gonna be an outlet for his and my music. I’m a big Kill The Noise fan so when he brought the idea up I was all in. I can’t honestly tell you what I see myself doing in the next two years cause I’m constantly switching up my flow. Music keeps changing all the time and I can’t help but change with it.

Media Contender:
If you could pick 5 producers to make an all bass music album with, who would they be?

DJ Craze:
1) Magic Mike 2) Timbaland 3) Switch 4) Rusko 5) Dillinja
- one from every genre that I like.

Media Contender:
Thanks for taking the time out for us Craze. Is there anyone you want to shout out?

DJ Craze:
Big up Danny United, D-nyce, Kill The Noise, Klever, A-trak, LUSHUS and to all my fans.

Here is a mix Craze released today, its looking like we can expect something fresh from him every month or so, and we are really happy about that.

TO DOWNLOAD CLICK DJ CRAZE DIARY

Tracklisting
1. BUSTA RHYMES – I GOT BASS!!!
2. MISSY MIST – GETTING BASS
3. HERVE – CHEAP THRILLS (AVH RMX)
4. MACHINES DON’T CARE – BEAT BANG
5. TITTSWORTH – W.T.F feat. KID SISTER & PASE ROCK
6. SINDEN – HARDCORE GIRLS feat. RYE RYE
7. A-TRAK – SAY WHOA (CRAZE RMX)
8. MACHINES DON’T CARE – DROP IT TO THE FLOOR
9. BLAQSTARR – HANDZ UP (NADASTROM RMX)
10. PROXY – DANCE IN DARK
11. LEON JEAN MARIE – BRING IT ON (JACK BEATS RMX)
12. HERVE – ROLL WITH THE WINNERS FEAT. A-TRAK & CADENCE WEAPON
13. LIL WAYNE – A MILLI (NADASTROM RMX)
14. LELE – BREAKFAST (KILL THE NOISE RMX)
15. KILL THE NOISE – HEY YOU (RMX)
16. RYE RYE – WASSUP (CROOKERS RMX)

Website: DJCraze.com, DJ Craze Myspace