Montreal's own DJ A-Trak boasts a decade long career in turntablism, winning his first of five world championship DJ battles at the age of 15. After a chance meeting with Kanye West in London, A-trak became Ye's tour DJ, working the crowds in Usher's "Truth" tour and West's "Touch the Sky" tour. With cuts to his credit on Common's Be album (he provided the scratches on "Chi City" and "Go"), a homegrown label Audio Research Records to co-run, and the upcoming releases of an album, a mixtape and a behind the scenes- DJ tell all DVD Sunglasses Is A Must in 2006, DJ A-Trak is indeed a player to watch.

Having first stepped behind the wheels of steel at age 13, A-Trak had plenty of opportunity to prepare to face stadium sized Hip-Hop audiences; but after joining Usher and Kanye West on tour in 2004, A-Trak found himself staring into an audience he'd never met before - arenas brimming full of adolescent girls-- not exactly the turntable savvy listener he was accustomed to.

"It was actually a challenge for me to figure out a way to show these crowds what turntablism is about without going over their heads. The first couple of shows I did on the Kanye and Usher tour last year, Kanye wanted to give me a solo. All I had was the solo I had from my own show, but the stuff was so technical I had to adjust. It was routines that I'd been performing for an audience that was used to battles. Usher's audience was not even really aware that you can grab two records and change them by playing them together. I had to grab records the crowds might know. I've always been sort of a purist where I don't want to sell myself short and do something I wouldn't do normally. I didn't want to feel like a dummy." So what was A-Trak's secret weapon? "Ciara's first record "Goodies","A-Trak says.

Urb Magazine put A-Trak on it's November cover, alongside fellow deejays, Kaskade and Tommie Sunshine, under the headline "Almighty DJ." Despite this mighty title and the star-studded company he keeps, A-Trak remains remarkably grounded, naming his brother, fellow producer Dave One as a source of inspiration.

"I feel like I can learn off of everybody out there. From my brother, who I work very closely with, he's been my main source of feedback since I started, also working with Kanye I learned a lot from him. When you feel like you work hard and you do a lot of juggling, meeting somebody like Kanye whose output is huge and who gets so much done easily and is never satisfied and has a higher standard, that is inspiring. Examples to me are anybody that I see that does a DJ set that I enjoy or anyone that makes beats that I'm into, even if it's some sh*t outside the Hip-Hop sh*t like DJ Shadow or RJD2 that paved the way for some of what I strive to do myself," A-Trak says.

Outside of the five world championships, honorary Invisibl Skratch Piklz membership (alongside legends DJ Qbert and Mix Master Mike) and years of reigning the battle scene with DJ Craze and the rest of The Allies DJ crew, A-Trak continues to strive forward in his career. While appearances with Kanye have given him an even wider audience, he has his sights set on making crowds move to sounds of his own design.

"There is a bit of a stigma that I have to fight, because if I'm trying to come out with some new sh*t now, it's good that people already know my name, but they already think they know what I'm going to come out with. People may assume I'm going to do that same kinda scratch stuff I was doing 5 years ago. In my mind I want people to hear the new sh*t extra hard. I kinda have to fight the box that people might have put me in a few years ago. Everyone wants to discover the new artist and even if I've never done an album, I'm still not considered a new artist," A-Trak explains.

Years of videotaped battle routines have been combined with footage from A-Trak's world travels and backstage antics to create Sunglasses Is A Must, A-Trak's tell-all DVD, which is scheduled to be released on February 21^st.

"Making the DVD stemmed from me wanting to let people know that I'm more than just the '97 DMC Championship routine that I'm known for. I had so many newer routines I wanted people to see," A-Trak explains.

With comprehensive video footage available on the DVD and a thorough tour diary on his website www.djatrak.com, A-Trak has made a huge effort to document his musical journey, but says he has little interest in film and photography, explaining that the footage exists largely due to a trend in the scratch DJ community.

"Sometimes it's an effort that you have to make, a camera can kill the mood a little bit, but soon you start realizing how much you can get out of it when you have it documented. Video taping yourself was a trend in the scratch DJ world a couple years ago. There really used to be a scratch world with kids in every city watching the same videos and CD's of each other. It sounds so odd when you describe it, but me and the rest of my boys all had our cameras," A-Trak explains.

A-Trak plans to tour to promote Sunglasses Is A Must after returning from Europe, Australia and New Zealand with Kanye West. Additionally, he has recorded songs with Dipset and GLC to include on an album he plans to release late in the year.

"The threat with guest appearances is that sometimes it can make an album sound like a compilation. I am trying to stay away from that whole look. I make all my beats out of scratching. All my music is scratch based, that doesn't mean you hear scratch solos, but I don't really use a sampler, I control everything off my records. Using that specific sound I try to keep my presence felt throughout the album. I'm getting MC's to feature on about half the songs, but the other half is instrumental, and even the songs that have guest MC's have a scratch sample here and a change up there, so it's not a generic producer sound."

While he uses his own brand of scratch production to create his audio masterpiece A-Trak remains mindful to avoid the obvious choices audiences might expect from a turntablist.

"Even with the choice of guests, one of my main concerns is to break the conception of what to associate a scratch DJ with. A lot of people associate a turntablist/scratch DJ with abstract/backpack. The song with Dipset was purposely the first song I leaked, because I really want to bridge certain gaps in the music scene. Now I'm not going to make an album that sounds like "Laffy Taffy" from beginning to end. All the stuff I'm talking about I don't want it to sound forced. I want it to sound natural but I don't want to stick to people's pre-conceptions about what goes with what. That's what deejaying is all about, mixing what goes with what. And that's what DJ sets are for, bringing back the creativity a little more."

DJ A-Trak's Playography

Projects

Sunglasses Is A Must DVD release - (Feb. 21^st) A-Trak's coming up in the DJ-world tell all - includes battle footage and behind the scenes/backstage footage.

"Touch the Sky- International Tour"- In Europe throughout Feb and March. Opening for U2 in Australia and New Zealand, late March

Sunglasses Is A Must- North American tour

Drive Slow Mixtape w/ GLC - (Jan.12) includes A-Trak produced track "Chi State of Mind" also on GLC's May release

A-Trak's album (late 2006)- featuring Dipset, Little Brother, Lupe Fiasco, and the G.O.O.D Music family

"Oh No You Didn't" Live Mix CD - French label Disque Trimur (mid Jan)

Watchlist

GLC- Chicago MC/ G.O.O.D Music artist featured on Kanye West's College Dropout and Late Registration albums

Chromeo- Brother Dave One's band, NY/Montreal

Lupe Fiasco

Audio Research Records- Record label founded by A-Trak and Dave One

The Rub DJ's - going on the Sunglasses Is A Must tour

Quote of the Year

"Keep it moving."