The love affair between hip-hop and dance music has been going on for a very long time but recently it’s been rekindled in a big way, and a lot of the credit for this goes to Alain “A-Trak” Macklovich. After earning his credentials in the rap world by winning the prestigious DMC DJ tournament and spending time manning the decks for Kanye, Macklovich fell hard into the resurgent rave scene, and much of his work since then—as a DJ, producer, and co-owner of the well-regarded Fool’s Gold record label—has been directed at hybridizing the two. He’s been doing quite a good job of it, and even if he hadn’t had anything to do with putting out Crookers’ world-tilting remix of Kid Cudi’s “Day ‘n’ Night” he’d still probably have been given whatever the Ibiza equivalent is of a knighthood. Mike Perry’s work (alongside partner Slack Kevorkian) in the DJ/production duo Supreme Cuts is perhaps less accessible than Macklovich’s, but its combination of smooth R&B and glitchy dance beats seems to come from a similar interest in blurring genre lines. Their debut album, Whispers in the Dark, is due sometime this spring. In anticipation of A-Trak’s set this Friday at the Mid we paired the two up by phone. —Miles Raymer
