1. A-Trak came to prominence in the late 2000s as an international club DJ and remix artist, known for incorporating highly technical turntable skills and scratching into his genre-spanning work.
47 Facts About A-Trak
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A-Trak is president of the record label Fool's Gold, which was founded in 2007, and is credited for developing the careers of artists such as Kid Cudi, Danny Brown, and Flosstradamus.
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A-Trak was named one of the 50 Most Important People in EDM by Rolling Stone and has been called the Global Ambassador of DJ Culture, appearing on the covers of Billboard and Complex magazines.
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A-Trak's mother Lison, was a professional translator of Moroccan Jewish decent, while his father Elliot Macklovitch was a professor of linguistics and machine language researcher of Ashkenazi Jewish decent.
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A-Trak began his interest in music around the age of ten, listening to Beastie Boys, Cypress Hill, and other early 1990s hip hop artists on cassettes his brother would bring home.
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A-Trak rapidly rose to prominence when he won the DMC World DJ Championship in 1997 at the age of 15, making him the youngest and first Canadian winner of the competition.
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A-Trak, who had been involved in the Montreal turntable and hip hop scene for a year or so at this point, was hailed by the international community as a highly technical and accomplished turntablist during the height of the scratch DJing in the 1990s.
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A-Trak was the first DJ to win all three major DJ competition titles, as well as the first DJ to win five World Championships.
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A-Trak gave a lecture about it at the Skratchcon 2000 conference and published an article in Tablist Magazine.
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A-Trak was an honorary member of the pioneering, and now defunct, DJ crew Invisibl Skratch Piklz.
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A-Trak was a member of the DJ crew The Allies alongside frequent collaborator DJ Craze, as well as DVLP, Infamous, Spictakular, and J-Smoke; they released an album D-Day in 2000.
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A-Trak deejayed at clubs and festivals and released DJ mixes.
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In Spring 2006, A-Trak embarked on his first headline tour, titled the Sunglasses Is A Must Tour.
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A-Trak recorded scratches on West's second and third studio albums Late Registration and Graduation and was an influence on the overall sound of the latter.
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In 2012, A-Trak was featured on the cover of Billboard Magazine alongside Diplo and Skrillex; during this period he appeared on the covers of other magazines including URB, BPM, and Status.
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A-Trak released the original singles "Say Whoa" on the French label Kitsune.
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In 2009, A-Trak released his full-length album DJ mix Infinity + 1.
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On June 8,2010, A-Trak released his wildly successful remix of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' track "Heads Will Roll", which was featured on the Project X soundtrack.
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In February 2013, A-Trak released the video for his "Piss Test" remix off of the Fool's Gold album.
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In 2008, A-Trak played a series of high-profile music festivals including Coachella and Glastonbury.
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A-Trak had sets at Primavera Sound, Lollapalooza, and Parklife in Australia the following year.
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A-Trak headlined his 10,000LB Hamburger Tour and a series of Bacardi B-Live sets.
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In February 2010, it was announced that A-Trak would perform live shows with Travis Barker, who had previously worked with their mutual friend, the late DJ AM.
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A-Trak has said he does not make a salary from the label and instead says its most important function for him is as a creative conduit.
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Since 2010, A-Trak has been performing at Fool's Gold's Day Off events, which occur about four times a year.
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In 2011, A-Trak launched Fool's Gold Radio on the SiriusXM station Electric Area.
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Also, in 2011, A-Trak opened a shop named Fool's Gold in Williamsburg.
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In 2009, A-Trak collaborated with Armand Van Helden to form a disco house production duo under the name Duck Sauce.
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A-Trak is the largest record promotion pool in the US and serves the open-format DJ community with curated music from worldwide labels.
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A-Trak is an investor and minority partner in Montreal-based imprint SAINTWOODS, which operates venues, a marketing agency and a clothing line.
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In January 2014, A-Trak teamed up with Cadillac in a campaign to introduce their new logo and the 2015 ATS Coup.
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On November 25,2014, A-Trak released his Push EP, featuring his single "Push",.
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A-Trak received much publicity and released a string of singles in 2015.
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A-Trak was featured on Zhu's 2015 EP Genesis Series for his track "As Crazy as It Is" and was featured on Disclosure's Magnets [The Remixes] EP, for his remix of "Magnets".
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A-Trak was featured on the 2016 Fool's Gold Records compilation album Fool's Gold Presents: Night Shift, for his song "Only One" with Ookay.
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On May 3,2016, A-Trak premiered his single "Parallel Lines" on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 Radio show.
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A-Trak embarked on an Australian Tour with fellow producer What So Not on June 30,2016.
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A-Trak was featured on tracks by Calvin Harris and The Cool Kids.
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In 2019, A-Trak released two singles, the disco-house track "Work It Out" in April and the Loods collaboration "What Can I Do" later that year, as well as a handful of VIP reworks on his recent A-Trak Bootleg Series, an informal collection of free releases he's made for his DJ sets.
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A-Trak's label began growing and his duties for it with it.
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A-Trak helped to found a new DJ award in 2017 called the Goldie Awards.
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A-Trak's hope is to create a new forum for DJ battles and contemporary scratch DJing.
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The annual awards competition takes place in New York every year and A-Trak is an integral part of the affair.
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A-Trak was the first artist to ever endorse Serato and influenced many other DJs to use the software.
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A-Trak is known for merging the sounds of rap and electronic music through his remix work, his 2007 CD Dirty South Dance, his production for Kid Sister and Lupe Fiasco, and his remixes for electronic artists including MSTRKRFT and Boys Noize.
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A-Trak was the 1999 YTV Achievement Awards Special Performance winner.
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In 2017, A-Trak was nominated for DJ of the Year at the Electronic Music Awards.