KID606
Apr 1, 2004 12:00 PM, By Ken Taylor
Miguel Depedro (aka Kid606) has been on the vanguard of digital music since he was, well, a kid, chopping up techno, deglossing hip-hop's slick artifice and doing so serious a number on drill 'n' bass that Aphex Twin and Squarepusher ushered in the new millennium nervously looking over their shoulders. It's no shock, then, that Depedro puts as much thought into his music shopping as he does into manipulating beats and processing samples.
“No one's ever brought up the idea of a return policy with digital music,” Depedro ponders in the confines of his Oakland, Calif., bedroom/home studio on this Apple iTunes Music Store shopping spree. “You're buying this eternal thing [whereas] in record stores, obviously, people are going to return records. I remember when I was a kid, Wherehouse had this thing, ‘Buy whatever you want and return it,’ and you could do it up to five times. Buy it, tape it, return it. Buy it, tape it, return it. It's funny when you're younger and you have more time than money.”
That dynamic flipped not too long ago when the Kid — he's still only 24 — became one of electronic music's most sought-after performers and remixers, taking fame and a little fortune in lieu of time spent dubbing heavy-metal bands onto cassette.
More than just his tastes have changed, though: So have his record-shopping habits, as Depedro's digital DJ sets — pitched-up, remixed-on-the-fly, screaming collages of hip-hop, breaks and guilty-pleasure pop — are filtered through Ableton Live, Native Instruments Traktor and Emagic Logic on a pair of Apple PowerBooks. “I do more scouting than I do shopping,” he admits. “I hate to say it, but record stores are basically turning into a place where you hang out and find new stuff, and then you go home and download it. Places that sell digital music, it just doesn't cost a lot to have things in stock because, technically, there is no stock. And record stores always have to — none do — but they try to have whatever anyone wants at any given time. And in theory, you can do that digitally.”
Tigerbeat 6, the label that Kid606 has been running for the past four years, has yet to make its catalog available to digital retailers, however. “I think that, as far as digital music, I'd rather give it away than sell it,” he says, enumerating the costs and hassles associated with digital-rights management. “The Apple Store has a great structure, where the artist gets so much and the labels get so much, but [Apple] has no expenses and they're not trying to make money [from music downloads] — they're trying to sell iPods. If record stores were just trying to sell you coffee and tea, they could sell their records for half price.”
This recording, downloading, business-doing and sleeping environment is one that Depedro rarely gets to leave, save for the odd tour to promote his records, the most recent being Kill Sound Before Sound Kills You (Ipecac, 2003). His next endeavor, though, will happily get him out the house. It's a collaborative project organized by Wall of Sound that brings techno gods to Jamaica's legendary Geejam Studios together with dancehall MCs such as Bounty Killer and Beenie Man to see what type of chemistry they may accidentally concoct. Here, though, Kid606 experiments with the iTunes Store, conducting his research in the form of “riddims,” “remix,” “a cappella” and “booty.”
KELIS WITH PHARRELL WILLIAMS FEAT. PUSHA T
“Milkshake (Remix)” (Star)
Yeah, this is perfect. Everyone loves hearing remixes. Even if it's not as good as the original, it's something different that they're obviously not playing on the radio. It's funny that the lyrics on this song, everyone repeats them, but no one actually knows what they're saying. I've got into so many arguments with people about it.
MINISTRY
“All Day (Remix)” (Sire)
I was a fucking hard-ass heavy-metal kid all about [Ministry's] Land of Rape and Honey and Psalm 69. But when I heard this stuff, I was so kind of evolved musically that I was already into electro and new wave, and I was like, “This stuff's great. This is techno!” This beat's like Aux 88 but without the big [Roland TR-] 808 kick drum. Yeah, I gotta buy that.
MYNISTA
“Venom (A Cappella)” (Warria)
This would sound great with something completely different underneath it, because it's at the tempo where it could be double-time, so you could put it over jungle or anything. [Reads from screen.] “Are you sure you want to buy this song?” Hell, yes. Wouldn't it be funny if you were at a record store, and when you grab your record, the store employee goes, “Are you sure you want to buy this?”
THE NEPTUNES FEAT. BUSTA RHYMES
“Light Your Ass on Fire” (Star)
I thought this was an illegal Busta Rhymes remix 'cause it sounds like Kraftwerk. It's just weird because with The Neptunes, it's like, “Oh, my god, this is so amazing. Who is it? Oh, it's The Neptunes. Oh, this is another shitty Neptunes track.” It sounds like Throbbing Gristle. What it actually is, is The Neptunes trying out something new. It's really amazing 'cause every time The Neptunes try out something new, it's always great, but any time they do something they're already comfortable with, do a rework of themselves, it's not that good.
NO DOUBT
“Hey Baby” (Interscope)
No Doubt and Bounty Killer, that was like guilty pleasure of the whole year. I just wish Bounty Killer was on there more. The funniest thing about this thing I'm doing in Jamaica at Geejam Studios is, I was watching the No Doubt documentary on how they made this album, where they recorded with Sly and Robbie and Bounty Killer, and I was like, “God, I've always wanted to go there. What would it take?” And then the next thing you know, they called. I couldn't believe it. It was totally a dream come true.
THE PRODIGY
“Your Love (Remix)” (Elektra)
Stuff like this that I have on CD, if I want to DJ this, it's almost easier for me to just buy it for a dollar than to dig through my record collection and take the vinyl or CD and rip it. I love this. This shit rocks so hard. The thing that's weird is that you can drop a piano solo like this when you're DJing if you only do it once. The problem is, most DJs playing this play only records that drop in piano solos. You really get away with a lot with being diverse. If you're a hip-hop DJ, you wanna represent that genre, but for me, it's about trying to make things work that don't sound the same.
SPLACK PACK
“Shake That Ass Bitch” (Pandisc)
Okay, let's see what this is. It's a cover of 2 Live Crew. That's fuckin' amazing. This is totally just to have more variations on the original. I can't believe someone went to the effort to reprogram somebody else's track. Yeah, this is amazing. I gotta buy this 'cause you could mix it with the original, and it'd be the end of the song, like, “Oh, wait, that's the same song. No, it's not.” So funny.
US3
“Tukka Yoot's Riddim” (Blue Note)
I remember loving this song. I never knew who did it, though. This is awesome. I never would have found it or looked for it. You know how with riddim records, there are, like, 20 different versions of the same beat? It kinda makes more sense with this 'cause you can just get the ones you want. Jamaica hasn't gotten all iPod-friendly yet. They want it all on 7-inch.
Apple iTunes Store; www.apple.com/itunes
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