House Rules ft Keyzuz
Baddest DJ running the game in Accra, DJ Keyzuz turned the house upside on House Rules.
An intense mix and a super dope interview, from a turn table queen.
Vibe here :
Where are you right now? Describe your surroundings. What do you see? What do you hear?
It’s 2:30am in my bedroom studio, probably the time of day I’m most awake. Shout out to insomnia (some of us actually depend on it to be productive). I see music…or rather representations of music for me, speakers, equipment, etc. I hear Gantz’ Spry Sinister coming through my speakers.
What was going through your head as you were making this mix?
This is actually a live set from a gig I played a couple months ago, which is how I get most of the stuff I put out. For some reason I prefer recording live sets to actually making a mix at home because there’s a certain magic in playing live that I don’t feel when I consciously decide to make a mix. For one, I’m in a totally different head space when I’m in front of a crowd and I’m a lot more spontaneous. So I record all my live sets, and leave them for a while, then go back to listen in maybe a month or more when I’ve totally forgotten what that set sounded like. Then I get to listen to it from a totally different perspective, almost like it was made by someone else and try to deconstruct the mix as it plays; like if I hear a particularly interesting portion I try to figure out what I was doing with the song or what samples are being layered in there etc. So to answer your question, I don’t think I remember what was going through my head. I think I was just having fun at that gig.
What do you imagine people doing as they listen to this mix.
I have no idea how other people would react to this but I imagine if they were like me and really into this kind of music, they’d be doing some work, vibing to this through some good speakers or headphones, getting lost in the bass and then probably midway through the mix, abandon the work and have a solo rave. LOL Just saying..cos it’s definitely what I’d do.
Describe your mix.
I think if there was ever an accurate way to describe my personality, this mix would be it because it starts off quite laid back and almost dark and then if you stick around long enough, the energy creeps in and builds up till it gets really hype and quite fun which is definitely the easiest way to describe who I am.
What’s your favourite 90’s jam?
Fam! How does anyone have a favorite 90’s jam? Everything made in the 90’s was a jam! (Okay maybe not everything). But if I had to mention one just for the sake of answering the question I would say Erykah Badu’s On & On.
Someone wants to venture into DJing, what’s the best software or app you’d recommend?
To be quite honest there is no “best software” out there. I know there’s been this Traktor vs Serato rivalry that’s been going on for a bit but ultimately everyone’s got what they prefer based on what they do. You could use Virtual DJ, Serato, Traktor, Rekordbox or even Ableton. You just need to figure out what would suit your needs based on what kind of DJ or performer you want to be.
These companies all have their priorities with regards to the kinds of DJs they want to cater to and I figured out quite early that Native Instruments, which makes Traktor, was making both software and hardware that catered to people like me who are heavy on sampling and live remixing, basically the cross between a DJ and a Producer so I sort of just gravitated towards Traktor and I haven’t looked back (yet). But I think one of the most important things after you’ve settled on software is to get hardware (within your budget) that is either made by the same company or by a third party but is really tightly integrated with the software because that makes a world of difference in terms of user experience.
What was your first experience with music? Describe the moment and the feeling.
I don’t quite remember my first experience with music in general because I might have been too young to remember but I definitely remember the first time I made the decision to be a DJ and that was at some College event. I’d been interested in music my whole life up to that point…like I was that person who would always find myself too close to the speakers at any event but I never really gave DJ’ing a thought until then. It was this come-to-Jesus moment where I saw the DJ play and something just clicked, like “yo why ain’t you doing this? You’re basically listening to music all the time anyway…plus this looks easy AF” lol.. of course it’s definitely not easy it but what’s kept me going till date is getting to play the kind of music that I love in front of other people. For me that’s therapy.
If you could be any animal in the world, what would you be and why?
I’ve always loved the idea of the Phoenix! Because apart from being almost immortal and getting constantly reborn from their ashes (which is lit!), the phoenix represents vision and looking beyond the present and I can definitely relate to that.
What’s the last thing you watched on TV and why?
Hidden Figures because who doesn’t want to see 3 Black Girls kick ass at NASA? Even if it was way back in 1962. Shoutout to Taraji man! She killed that role!
TrackList
TroyBoi – Grimey
Skream – Fields Of Emotion
Benny Page ft Assasin – Champion Sound (Mungo’s Hifi Remix)
Biggs – Booyeh (Bailo Beatz WTF Remix)
Magnetic Man ft P Money – Anthemic
Kahn – Abattoir
Benga & Coki – Night (Doctor Jeep Warehouse Mix)
Jus Now & T. Williams ft Dread MC – Y.E.A.H.
Fis-T – Night Hunter
Apalow – The Mitten
Skream – Auto-Dub / Fur Elise (KEYZUZ Re-work)
Im Cwazy – Fur Elise
Calvin Harris & Disciples – How Deep Is Your Love (DJ Snake Remix)
Moksi – The Dopest (Cesqeaux Remix)
The Chainsmokers Ft. Daya – Don’t Let Me Down (Spag Heddy Remix)
Major Lazer – Pon De Floor (Ookay Remix)
Jay-Z ft. Kanye West & Rihanna – Run This Town (Onderkoffer Trap Remix)
Flowdan – No Gyal Tune
Jay-Z & Kanye West – Niggas in Paris (Onderkoffer ‘Trapped in Paris’ Remix)
Missy Elliott – WTF (Vincent Remix)
Bromley – Burn Down (feat.Grove & Dread MC)
Daft Punk – Work Is Never Over (Diplo Remix) / Jake Sgarlato & Ranidu – Bollywood
Eve ft. Gwen Stefani – Let Me Blow Ya Mind (Artistic Raw Bootleg)
Choppa Dunks x Snappy Jit – Shut It Down
Cajmere – Perculator (Major Lazer Percumajor)
Beyoncé – Run The World (Girls)
Major Lazer – Pon De Floorr
Check out more of Keyzuz’ sound:
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