I've been doing it since I was prepubescent when I loved to scratch records and play good music. As it happens, you know I sort of fell into the mix. I really feel like I played a role in bringing dance music to America years ago.

When you know what you like and what you want and you're able to nudge things in the right direction, that's more profitable than ever, because there's so much information out there. Everything's saturated. Tastemaker is probably the most overused word, but I still think it's important.

I was a bit of an outsider in the hip-hop world because I was a scratch kid and people weren't necessarily trying to hear that all the time.

One thing that I learned in recent years from working more with other people is this idea that part of a producer's job is to make people comfortable and confident.

When I get up I still check the rap blogs before I check any kind of dance stuff.

I worked with him for years. I still think Kanye [West] is one of the most important people in music in the last ten years.

There are things I like, there are things I strongly dislike. In my DJ sets and in my production I just gravitate towards what I like.