Catching Up With Mark Ronson & His Exclusive FABRICLIVE Promo Mix

It seems silly having to sit and think of an introduction for someone who you’re probably already pretty familiar with, but that’s precisely the reason it’s necessary. Despite what you might think you know there’s probably something under the surface, locked somewhere in the history of Mark Ronson that you don’t really realise. Away from the stage or the studio (or the cover versions of pop songs and horn sections), he made his name as a hip hop DJ in his then home of New York – something he himself admits he’s been spending the time to fall back in love with lately. After the success of his Version covers album, and his two solo records Here Comes The Fuzz and Record Collection there’ll always be a certain measure of pressure from the public’s expectation but he seems positively jovial over a rather tempestuous skype line direct from his studio, happy to discuss his love for hip hop music (something he took one step further, making us an exclusive mix) ahead of the appearance he’ll be making in the Jack Beats Love hosted Room One takeover a week on Friday. Download: Mark Ronson – FABRICLIVE Promo Mix So... what are you up to at the moment? What projects are you working on? I’ve been in the studio, kind of starting work on my next record. I’ve been in with Giggs a bit, I did this record for him called ‘Yes Yes Yes’ which is gonna be his first single off his new album. I’ve really just been making beats again. I don’t really have any interest in anything if it’s not hip hop right now. I guess I’m reverting back to what I know and where I came from. I think there’s just a lot of really good hip hop music about right now. I just came back from this festival tour of Australia and there was a pretty wide range of DJs, from myself to Erol, to Disclosure and Hudson Mohawke, and it felt like you could go through three or four different rooms – through different genres – and you could hear ‘Backstreet Freestyle’ by Kendrick Lamar across all of them. Obviously the tempo works well with the 70bpm shit but at the same time it’s become kind of a pop record in its own weird way and then in my set I just play it in the middle of my hip hop set so I dunno; it just feels like it’s a good time for hip hop right now. I completely agree, with the proliferation of all the trap stuff as well… Yeah, definitely. But it’s so funny to me with the trap stuff, because I understand the word and what it means. Like a year a half ago when I started hearing about it I was like TI and everyone’s been calling it trap for a good like 12 years. It’s just music with 32nd note high hats and its all fucking good. The hip hop purists that wanna cry for hours and say it’s a sacrilege is kind of ridiculous cause all its doing is making sure that hip hop records get played in whatever progressive sets that people are playing at the moment. So this mix you made for us. Has it got any exclusive bits on it? Let me think… uh, no. There’s nothing exclusive on it but it’s all kind of white label shit, stuff that’s not on major release or whatever. Stuff people might not have heard - except obviously for the Alicia Keys record. It’s just bits that I really like. I wouldn’t even say its necessarily anywhere near a taste of what people could expect from my set in the club… it’s just a bunch of my favourite hip hop right now. But it totally makes sense to do that rather than just replicate what could have or would have been done in a club set. It makes it something different. Have you been going out to clubs in the UK at the minute…? The last thing I really went to was the Numbers party at the Oval Space before Christmas, which was pretty great. They obviously have an exciting lineup of DJs and people on the label and I really enjoyed this guy Redinho that played. Then I played this night with Skream and Krystal Klear, just this little Christmas party that they do every year, so like I’ve been playing more than I’ve been going out. I haven’t been to fabric in a while though. I got a lot of history in that place from playing Chibuku very early on and I think it was one of the very first places we played on the Version tour when we didn’t have a drummer yet, so we just had all the beats and I triggered them on a CDJ and then we had the band on top of that. And then the last time I played fabric, I always kind of regret it because I was at the peak of the commercial success of Version and I think I didn’t treat it with the same holiness and sanctitude that you should. It’s a big deal, playing fabric on a Friday night, and I was like ‘I know everyone loves my songs anyway,’ you know? So this time I want to make sure I do something special… Mark Ronson – FABRICLIVE Promo Mix Tracklist: Giggs & Wretch 32 - Titans Joey Bada$$ - Unorthodox (produced by DJ Premier) Talib Kweli - One Two (feat. Jae Millz & Oh No) Wale - Let A Nigga Know ft. Chinx Drugs / Fatz Wu-Block - Bust Shots (feat. Ghostface Killah, Sheek Louch & Inspectah Deck) Wu-Tang Clan - Six Directions of Boxing Ghost Loft - Seconds Alicia Keys - Listen To Your Heart Catch Mark DJing in the Jack Beats Love hosted Room One on Friday 8th February. Tickets and info here.