You probably already read here on County Grind that 12th Planet's End Is Near tour is coming to Fort Lauderdale tonight. The tour kicked off at Miami's Grand Central yesterday. There will likely be a flock of mega-charged fans finding their way north for a double-header.
12th Planet is a music-maker that won't stay out of the limelight for much longer. Besides his immense talent, he's also a pretty swell guy. I know this because he called me the other day (his manager made him) and now we're friends (Facebook counts!).
12th Planet, A.K.A. John Dadzie, has his roots in Los Angeles where he grew up fueled on early electronica. "I always liked house music. I listened to it when I was in middle school like, all day. And my buddies were hardcore and from there, drum and bass, and it's just been a constant progression." He says, "I started MCing for peoples' shows and the people I MCed for started playing my stuff. Then I started getting booked and playing drum and bass."
Not only is Dadzie a master at the controllers, he's an entrepreneur. This shows in the way he slipped himself into the D&B realm of Los Angeles to Smog Records.
"For Smog, my friend Jeremy is from Chicago and he moved out here (Los Angeles) to make something happen and he just wanted to throw a party that was dubstep all night." He noted, "I can think of like four people that even knew what that was." He says of the now hyper-popular genre. "The party ended up being a huge success and from there, it became a record label, a brand, website, bunch of DJs."
Coming off the Mothership tour with Skrillex he's gained a few things. First off, an enourmous fan-base. Secondly, stories to last a lifetime. Oh, and some fresh lingo, "Babies? Thats some shit Skrillex made up. Are people saying that? (laughs) That's dope. It's like, there's nothing fresher than a baby. Right before the Mothership tour we were at some bar and we were all like, 'Yeah that shit is babies!'."
Listening to his songs you can clearly distinguish the D&B roots with creeping crescendos into Skrillex-reminiscent drops that he described as, "Bass heavy punk rock sexy time, because theres alot of energy in the shows and I want people to let it out, have fun. Move around and dance. But dont kill each other! If you want to kill each other keep it to that circle in the back. Let the girls have fun in the front. We gotta bring some sexy back to dubstep."
Just days ago his video "The End Is Near Part 1" dropped. "I like how the video came out," he says, "it's simple eye candy." But does John Dadzie expect the end to be near? "Yeah, maybe not the end of the world but something's about to change. I think it's generally accepted that technology is getting much faster, smaller. Next year we're going to see some crazy shit."
And we can't ignore Ultra Music Festival and Winter Music Conference next month. Last year, Smog teamed up with Miami based BASSHEAD in a versus show, and it's happening again.
When asked if there was a rivalry or competition, he says, "It's not even a versus. All of us are together. All the brands are so involved that night; Smog, BASSHEAD, last year we had Metalheadz in one room. Skrillex had a room, like OWSLA had a room. No rivalry, we're all one. Juan (BASSHEAD) put out my first dubstep release ever."
As for his own set at Ultra, "I've got a video wall, VJ, lighting designer, sound guy. So, it's going to be really loud and really colorful."
Anything fancy, maybe holograms? "Aww shoot, I can't afford that shit. I saw it on TV once. Black Eyed Peas did that (sings "Boom Boom Pow") then they all disappeared into like dust except Fergie. It was the nuttiest thing I've ever seen in my life. I'm going to send you the link. Okay, this is fucking nuts."
Below is the video he sent of the hologram he can't afford. Wait for it. He's not lying, nuttiest thing ever.
