In 2004 Disaster was 20 years-old when he was recruited by Grand Hustle as an engineer for three T.I. albums. Since then he has gone on to work with Young Jeezy and Lil Wayne and release electro-infused remixes of rap under a variety of pseudonyms (Heroes & Villains, MeganFoxxx, Quadrant). In 2010, the DJ started a party called Heavy with the goal to play any and all music of a certain “hard, powerful, raging energy” including dubstep, dirty bass, trap, and punk. “I would go out and notice that other DJs were doing the same exact thing,” he says. “We would see clubs full of kids of different backgrounds — half the crowd was black and half was white — we’d see them go totally crazy and start a mosh pit to dubstep, and then to Waka, back-to-back.” Burn One remembers these parties as well. “You’d be listening to this dubstep track and then he would throw a Gucci a capella on top. It was trippy, really trippy, but I liked it.”
And then there was the time that Gucci Mane made an appearance himself. “We’re all a tight-knit community,” Disaster explains. “Lil Jon, Pill, Big Boi, Yelawolf — they would come by when they were in town to hang out and hear new music. Some of them performed or partied with us, they loved it.” As for Gucci’s visit, Disaster recalls when the rapper freestyled in the middle of one such party in 2010. “Gucci was hanging out one of the times he got out [of jail],” says Disaster. “Everyone was having a good time and Gucci was really feeling the [dubstep track] that was playing and jumped on the mic for a verse.”
-I investigated the Internet-borne hashtag genre “trap rave” for Stereogum. Daniel Disaster, Burn One, and Lunice chimed in along the way.
