Most of you all know DJ AM passed away yesterday. It’s a sad event when anyone dies let alone a trailblazer for a particular scene. What I found most amazing about all this is how far the DJ as a figure in today’s society has come.
The general North American public really never cared about or heard of any DJs until DJ AM. Yeah, maybe it was because he dated Nicole Richie and then almost died in a plane crash with Travis Barker (another celebrity), but that’s sadly how our society works. What was important was he had skill to back up his fame. Whether you loved him or hated him as a DJ, you have to recognize how much he did to bring the DJ to the collective conscious of a people that still seemed skeptical of club music that actually makes you dance (was 1970s disco really THAT bad?).
The DJ is still a relatively new phenomenon to people but it seems that with the attention his passing in garnering, DJs may have become the new rockstar (what other type of person would inspire the Palms to black out letters to spell their name in tribute). It’s hard not to draw comparisons to Kurt Cobain’s suicide. We will have to wait and see if it becomes mythic lore like the aforementioned death but regardless a person very important to our scene and music in general has left us.
Diplo spoke about his passing on his labels blog today and I think it sums up everything nicely:
“im sure that AM had to go day in and day out and negotiate all the music we appreciate for mass consumption, he had good nights and just ok ones..
but he wasnt a radio DJ or a programmer or part of a label . he was a straight up Djs dj, he picked his tracks to play out and had THE STYLE that defines our whole generation like it or not …and even if you didnt like his style (which ranged form deep top 40 to deepest old school hip hop to deepest hipster indy rock.. he would come to your party and do what u do better than you (he did it to me coupla times) he would put tracks out there before they were acceptable and he was always adapting to whatever was goin on.. not because he had to… but because he loved music. ..he was definitely a peoples champ
and in a world that doesnt really seem to care about you – promotors, fareweather friends, rich assholes, alcholics, trendsters…. AM carved a whole pie out of it and built a giant empire that little of you even know about. He never ever ever didnt have time to talk to one of his dj homies, each and every one of the small wannabes like me still spoke to him still weekly. How many people do u know DJ wedding partys for billionaires, arenas for Jay z, and djs for roctakons shitty basment party in manhattan for free and then 20 k the next night.. each day he was still asking me for new music and tellin me how the wierdest of my tracks were starting to pick up momentum….. but.. i never knew how long it would last.
Djs have a ceiling, and Am lived on the roof. he sometimes would tell me a bit about his reservations in passing about his lifestyle and i feel like its a loveless place we all live in (DJs). but i dont think We will ever see another person built for it like AM.. he was THE Michael Jackson of this shit. so it really worries me a bit that hes gone , cause hes the only that i thought understood it all… he was a sweetheart and tried his damnest to be the best at it and still be the best at being himself”
Below is the latest song that he was part of. A hard dance remix he did along with another figurehead Steve Aoki. Don’t feel bad for dancing, he probably would have wanted everyone to.
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DOWNLOAD: Autoerotique – Gladiator (Steve Aoki & Dj AM Remix)
** Maybe the first part of the lore… his last update on Twitter… “New york, new york. Big city of dreams, but everything in new york aint always what it seems.” **
