Cut Chemist (born Lucas Macfadden) has helped redefine the role of the DJ in modern music through his work with Jurassic 5 and Ozomatli. He has a history of taking turntablism and crate-digging culture into more experimental territory. His solo works bridge underground hip-hop, global music exploration, and avant-garde composition. In his music you will find influences from all over the Globe as well as from different parts of time. His travels to Cuba, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Spain, Italy, France, Japan and beyond have directly affected how and what he performs. His latest release "Simetachin" is an Ethiopian, Afrobeat-Electronic song, sung by Derib Zenebe; which speaks to the wide array of genres Cut Chemist gets involved in. When touring, his performances range from raging festival sets to intimate sit-down listening sessions; each one with an intention of connecting with his audience through music like it's a conversation.
Despite the fact that Lucas MacFadden made his musical debut about half a decade or so before the internet became a major part of life for a hell of a lot of people on this planet, Cut Chemist is a great signifier of the way music tastes are changing in day by day. Thanks to the instant access that the internet allows us we’re becoming far more open minded about the music we listen to. As a result musical “tribes” and people defining themselves by the music that they listen to are slowly becoming a thing of the past.
It’s now reasonable to assume that the folks that you see wearing Beatles t shirts quite possibly listen to Slayer as much as they listen to Kendrick Lamar and, as it is in the case of Cut Chemist, the musician famous for playing hip hop has successfully dabbled in ska-punk and bossa nova as well. His origins come from the L.A based group Unity Committee, who joined with another group, Rebels of Rhythm to form legendary rap group Jurassic 5. MacFadden served as the groups producer, helming every album of theirs save one, leaving the group in 2006 but returning to the fold when they reunited in 2013.
While being a prolific and experienced DJ, it was during his time in Jurassic 5 that he was introduced to remixing, a skill he was developing alongside his peers DJ Shadow and Liquid Liquid, he has since done work for the likes of Roots Manuva and Jem. Just before the turn of the century he joined the Latin funk band Ozomatli as their turntablist during his downtime from his main band, but by the mid 2000’s he’d completely struck out on his own, releasing his debut solo record “The Audience's Listening”. This was the kind of record that took three and a half years to make, with one of those years alone spent clearing the sheer amount of samples on it.
The album was a massive critical success and since then he’s branched out into acting, with bit parts in Juno, Up In The Air and Jennifer’s Body. In June 2007 He also headlined a concert with DJ Shadow at the Hollywood Bowl, making them the first turntablists to ever do so and has generally become one of the most well respected names in the DJ community. He knows as well as anyone how to put on an amazing live show as well, so he’s one to be seen as soon as possible.
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