An Interview With DJ Nappy: Thugstep Architect

November 22nd, 2010 by di1 · 5 Comments

Nappy 795288 An Interview With DJ Nappy: Thugstep Architect
DJ Nappy at a party in New Brunswick in 2007

Wow, it’s been a minute since I’ve seen or heard anything from Nappy. There was that party in 2007 where I ended up in Jersey after a White T’s White Belts and saw him spin all thugstep at a party in Rutgers the next day and met Khal from RockTheDub. Needless to say the Thugstep Architect is back, thugstep is huge and there is alot more to come. Read on for the interview and some recent thugstep refixes.

5151: Finally!

Nappy: Yeah, right? It’s been a minute.

I think we last posted about you in 2007, so as a reintroduction who is DJ Nappy?

I’m the dude that kidnapped you from Philly and held you hostage in Jersey for 2 days. Sorry about that, by the way.

Haha, that was a crazy couple days. Good times. Were you the first one to coin “thugstep” / do “thugstep” blends? How did that come about?

I know there were a few people that did thugstep blends before me. The dude south3rn on the dubstep forum made some quality stuff right around the time I started, but nobody made 100 refixes in a few months or named it anything besides ‘dubstep refix’ to my knowledge. Who knew it would blow up under that name?

Read on for the rest of the interview.

How do you pick right pieces for each blend? Do you think there are certain lyrics that work better with certain beats and vice versa?

I BPM acapellas to see what will fit. I listen to tracks without a specific acapella in mind, and sort out the 99th percentile. If I get my hands on 1000, beats, I plan on using 10 of them. The softer dubstep tracks usually get mellow rap or r&b vocals, and the harder bits get aggressive acapellas on top. There’s no real formula though. If it sounds off, I trash the project.

What was the reaction that you got when you first started releasing thugstep blends?

From parties? Phenomenal. From the dubstep forum? Hatred. I mean, I understand where they were coming from. “this guy is making a mockery of our genre’ and ‘what if Madonna is on dubstep’ and ‘we don’t want our scene to blow up’ and ‘he never asked permission to use my track’ were all relevant arguements. Now these same people have booking agents, Rusko is producing for Rhianna and Britney Spears, and some of the producers I snagged beats from are paid. A lot of people that hated on the idea and my tactics are supporting dubstep as production for vocals.

Is it still all mixes or do you think there will be original music created?

Snoop Dogg Millionaire, Lil’ Wayne’s ‘Yes’, and a batch of other stuff is original. I’m running out of acapellas that fit, so something’s gotta give. It used to be easier to get vocals than beats, and now that’s completley flipped. I have to track down rappers now and feed them beats. The networking is a bit overwhelming.

Is this one way that you think grime will evolve?

I mean, what’s the difference between grime and thugstep? A UK accent?

What do you think of thugstep now?

I think there’s some hot stuff coming out. We try to sort through stuff we’re sent and post relevant things on www.hoodlummusic.com as much as possible, and everybody that supports the movement is making me more relevant. Diplo and Pharrell doing dubstep tracks is a bit crazy to me though.

Hoodlum Music also includes DJ Cable and Hipnotikk, can you tell us more about that project?

It’s nothing more than a place to support our format. Cable is heavy in the UK grime scene. Hipnotikk is in Atlanta. They have different views and ideas on how thugstep is supposed to sound, and I love both of their stuff. Our individual releases and group projects will land there, but it’s more about thugstep as a market. You can go there every day and find a new thugstep track. Hipnotikk does an extended post every Thursday for ‘Thugstep Thursdays’. There won’t be anything except thugstep and grime on that site anytime in the near future.

Whats up next for Nappy? Any DJ gigs lined up?

I’m booking for the spring now. Chicago and Houston are set. I’m trying to bring Cable for a weekend to hit the east coast… probably run through Princeton and Philly and Baltimore. We’ll see how it all pans out though.

Any last shoutouts?

All the haters: I love you. I wake up thinking of ways to upset you.
Khal, Hipnotikk, Cable, Deadly Habit, Hera, Pat Renton (film), Joe Dantone (photography)… thanks for all the love and support. I do it for you. And 5151 has hosted my ‘Thugstep Mix‘ for the past 3 years… might be time to mix part 2 for you.

B.o.B. – I’ll Be In The Sky (Disc Jockey Nappy vs Girl Unit Thugstep mix