It’s kind of incredible what can come from the right combination of talent, ambition and music production software. In the case of Kaytranada, it’s lead to building the kind of career that it could quite easily take a decade to cultivate in the space of four short years. He’s not the first to have this kind of rise and he’s surely not going to be the last, but few people have seemed more likely to be able to maintain this kind of profile. His is a kind of quiet success, that happens almost by accident but in his capable hands, could be the making of an entire career.
Kaytranada’s career began at the age of 14, when he took up DJ-ing for the first time. his brother Louis-Phillipe introduced him to his first set of music software, Fruityloops. He then translated his lifelong passion for Hip-Hop and R&B into creating music, and once he learned the basics of how to use the software he was totally addicted. However, it wasn’t until he posted a remix of Janet Jackson’s 1993 classic “If” onto the internet that he started making waves. He made the track, went to bed, and woke up the following morning to find it had been played 50’000 times on his Soundcloud page.
Granted, everyone gets their fifteen minutes of fame these days, and a lot of people luck out on a track they put on the internet. Kaytranada was different, and the key difference that he had was in how incredibly prolific he is. In the four years that he’s been making music professionally, first under the name Kaytradamus before changing it in 2012, he’s been responsible for sixteen E.P and single releases bolstered by countless remixes. Everyone from Danny Brown to TLC to Common has had the Kaytranada treatment and it was his skill with a remix that got him a slot producing a track on the last Mobb Deep album, 2014’s “The Infamous Mobb Deep”.
You don’t need to be a fortune teller to know that this is an artist set for great things. This is an artist whose mastery of producing and DJ-ing has come before his twenty third birthday, given time and experience, he’s only going to get better from here. Highly recommended.
Seeing Kaytranada perform live was like no DJ I’ve seen before. From the moment he came out to his desk, he was in complete control of the audience, and had everyone following his every command. He would say dance, we’d all dance, he would say stop and sing and that’s what we did. It was an incredible unified atmosphere to experience great music in, and some of his mixes were simply phenomenal. Sometimes I find listening to DJs a little monotonous, but with Kaytranada, it’s great that he blends elements of electronic, hip hop, R&B and dance into one genre.
His DJ decks were vast, and watching him spinning and scratching for almost 2 hours was incredible. The sheer concentration that it takes looks remarkable, and Kaytranada kept his energy up from start to finish. I loved especially that he had a microphone, and was rapping on top of his mixes, as well as shouting out to us in the audience to get us involved in the music.
He played a selection of tracks, from his really early days of Kaytra DaMouse, through to his new single Leave Me Along. When he played his TLC Creep remix, everyone went crazy and was dancing around the venue like mad. It was a great atmosphere, and he’s a very talented DJ, definitely one to see live.
yazhow
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