Headphone Highlights: Baauer
Born and raised in Connecticut, Baauer has turned East Coast bass music upside down with his trademark mix of stylings that nod to Hackney, Atlanta, Glasgow and New Orleans respectively. While many seem keen to put him in the trap category, Baauer has a more reasonable explanation for the kind of highly effective bangers he churns out on quality imprints like LuckyMe or Mad Decent’s Jeffrees: “It’s hip hop born from the internet”. Here, he opens his record crate for a peek into some of his influences and favourites. You can listen to the audio version of this over at RBMA Radio.
There’s not really any kind of theme to my list. It’s pretty much a list of songs that have inspired me, some of my favourite tunes to listen to and some tracks I love to play when I’m DJing.
This first tune is by myself, it just came out on LuckyMe Records. It represents kind of the style I like to go for, so that’s why I opened up with it. Kind of super weird, a little bit funny, but also really good for the dancefloor.
Madvillain “Accordian” (Stones Throw)
This is one of my favourite hip hop tracks of all time. Madvillainy, the album it’s from, is my favourite hip hop album of all time. So, I had to include this one to show what inspired me. I was inspired by Madlib just because, I don’t know, I can’t even say. The way he put together a beat, it’s like a piece of art. It’s just so amazing, it blew my mind. The sounds he uses, how the whole beat comes together, so I always love to listen to it. But I couldn’t really explain why, exactly.
Hudson Mohawke “Thunder Bay” (Warp)
This is a tune that inspired me a lot, dance music-wise. It’s one that I really like to play when I’m DJing, too. The way he uses horns and stuff, like a really organic sound, is definitely really inspirational to me. I love to use organic sounds in my tunes.
Ghostface Killah “The Champ” (Def Jam)
Ghostface Killah from New York City, one of my favourite rappers and definitely a guy, again, who inspired me in a huge way. This tune is just really high energy and uses a lot of samples. Yeah, just one of my favourite tracks.
Wu-Tang Clan “Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing Ta F’ Wit” (Loud)
On that same Wu-Tang New York City tip, this is maybe my favourite Wu-Tang song. And, I keep saying this, but another huge inspiration, and someone I love to listen to. Wu-Tang Clan, 36 Chambers, one of my favourite albums of all time. It’s just another thing that kind of shaped my taste in hip hop, my idea of what I think is cool. Like, this grungy, weird sound. I think I was maybe 14 or 15 when I first heard the album. I was living in Connecticut, which is, I don’t know if you know, but there’s not a lot of Wu-Tang being listened to in Connecticut [laughs]. It’s a lot of Maroon 5 and Dave Matthews Band. But all my friends, we all listen to Wu-Tang and MF Doom and stuff, and it was different and really cool. So, that’s why I like to listen to it.
CZ “Doing What I Do” (unknown)
This one is a little bit of a switch-up. This kid CZ is from Boston, I think he’s about 20 years old, maybe younger, I’m not sure. But he sent me some beats and they’re just awesome. They’re great for the dancefloor, but they’re also really well crafted. It’s not just a banging beat. They’re kind of reminiscent of Wu-Tang, New York City hip hop, but they also thump on the dancefloor, so this one “Doing What I Do” is one of my favourites from him.
Flying Lotus “Tea Leaf Dancers” (Red Bull Music Academy / Warp)
I’m a huge Flying Lotus fan, another guy I’ve listened to for a long time. And this track is one of the first I listened to that really put me on to him. I love his production on it. He uses this compression, and it’s really compressed, and I’ve never heard that type of thing before, and that little technique alone is something I used a lot after listening to this song.
This, as an album, Untrue, I just listen to it and I couldn’t even function after. I just had to lay down and stare at the wall. Like it blew my mind that hard. So, I had to put a song in there from that album just because it’s one of the most incredible albums I’ve ever heard, and this, I guess, is the leading track off of it.
Three 6 Mafia “Stay Fly” (Columbia)
Switching up the vibe a little bit is “Stay High/Stay Fly”. As far as the Southern hip hop sound, this is one of the first that inspired me, caught my attention. And I listened to it about a million, bajillion times. It’s just one of my favourite hip hop tracks ever. First of all the sampling, I love the sample, I love the verses, I love the style of rapping. The key features is something I still really like today, you know, stay high, just like partying, whatever. I love it, it’s great.
To continue with the Southern theme, an artist called Lady. I don’t even know if you can play this, I guess you can, but it’s very rude. I love female rappers from the South. I just love their style. I guess their style differs a lot, but there seems to be a general sass and super confidence, and I would love to get Lady to rap on one of my tracks. She’s probably my favourite female rapper, so I wanted to put one of her tracks on there.
The style, the sounds that came out of [TNGHT] is just crazy. It definitely inspired me and pushed me to try weirder stuff. Especially on this track “Bugg’n”. Not only the sounds, but the rhythms and stuff, and the timing of when it comes in is really, like… it’s super different. And shows real vision, so I really love it. Very stripped down, and that’s a style that I really like, too, stripped down, minimal, but banging.
And that’s what I was going for when I made this track, which is called “Swerve”. And it’s also on the same record that has “Dum Dum”. Yeah, ballsy. That’s definitely the word I would use for it, too. Definitely inspired, partly, by “Bugg’n”. Just stripped down, strange sounds that maybe make you think a little bit. You’re like, ‘What is that? It’s weird,’ but like trying to bass and bang in it as possible.
Moqui Marbles “Vampire” (Wigwam)
When I was in high school in Connecticut, I took German class as my language – you can choose French, Spanish or German. I chose German. And my teacher’s nephew, she explained to the class, was in a rap group from Germany called Moqui Marbles. And she gave us the album to listen to because it’s kind of good to hear some German through a different medium, through rapping, and I really liked it a lot. I thought it was really cool. And one track I remember in particular was “Vampire”. I’ve heard that maybe they were kind of wack, but you know, I don’t care. I thought it was awesome, and I still kind of do [laughs].
