DJ A-TRAK REMEMBERS ROC-RAIDA

“Raida went further than just making time to hang out with me, though. I can’t even count the number of times he went out of his way to help me with my endeavors. In 1997 a few months after my DMC victory, my brother and I founded a record label called Audio Research in the prime of the indie hip hop revival. The Rawkus era. Remember when Company Flow’s vinyl said “Independent as fuck and loving it”? We ate that stuff up, and in that world the New York-based distributor Fat Beats was the powerhouse. Coming out of Montreal, Dave and I quickly got disillusioned by the politics of the Toronto-centered Canadian record industry. Dave’s plan was to go straight to the source and get a P&D deal with Fat Beats. It worked and, to my knowledge, we were the first Canadian label to do so, a point of great pride for us. How did we get Fat Beats’ attention in the first place? Roc Raida. Yes, Raida called Rich King and told him to listen to that demo that A-Trak sent. He liked what he heard and the rest was history. Nine years later when I wanted to make a song with Dipset and was growing weary of dealing with their multiple managers, I went to Raida and once again he made it happen.”

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