Shake It Up

Don't imagine that Harry “Baauer” Rodrigues is a novelty trap DJ/producer. He refuses to be defined by Harlem Shake, 2013's dormant viral hit that made #1 both in the US and Australia after being treated to unofficial videos (one courtesy of some cheeky Queenslanders), parodies and memes.

Rodrigues had uploaded the tune, produced in his Brooklyn bedroom, to SoundCloud the previous year. Diplo then secured it for Mad Decent. However, Rodrigues never envisaged that Harlem Shake would become a credible pop cultural counterpart to PSY's Gangnam Style. “That kinda happened on a big worldwide scale, while the rest of my shit is a bit more niche and a bit more forward,” he stresses. “So it was nothing I expected to happen, but I'm glad it did. But it's not something I'm trying to embrace. I'm still trying to push towards a more forward, weirder, different sound.” Rodrigues toured Australia clubs last year. “I was blown away!” he admits. “I loved it.”

Rodrigues' connection to Harlem is tenuous. He was (apparently) born in Philadelphia. His father a businessman, he'd live in Germany, the UK and Connecticut before moving to New York City to study audio technology. Rodrigues had dug dance music in his teens, learning to DJ and dabbling in electro-house production. He interned at Drop The Lime's Trouble & Bass stable.

Beyond Harlem Shake, Rodrigues has remixed No Doubt, AlunaGeorge and Disclosure. He likewise linked with feted hip hop producer Just Blaze, co-architect of Jay Z's The Blueprint alongside Kanye West, for another trap banger, Higher, featuring Hova himself. “He's responsible for songs that pretty much shaped my musical world,” Rodrigues says of Blaze. “I was shocked that he was such a normal guy!” Higher surfaced belatedly on the rebooted Priority Records. But, even before to his mainstream breakthrough, Rodrigues signed to Glasgow's LuckyMe, the label founded by Hudson Mohawke and pals. He's currently plotting an LP for them. “I'm basically working on a big project – whether it be an album or just a collection of music.”

Rodrigues does know about drama, and not just legal issues relating to Harlem Shake's uncleared samples. He was sucked into a Twitter beef with Azealia Banks when, professedly ignoring his pleas not to, she posted her version of Harlem Shake. He got it removed from SoundCloud. Yung Rapunxel subsequently accused him of “coccblockin” and called him a “faggoot”. They've since spoken – kinda. “We actually randomly met in a restaurant in Miami, but I'll say there was definitely no resolution.” The exchange was “polite” – “She looked at me and said, 'What's up, funny man?'” – but Banks was soon mocking him again in tweets. “I'll tell you what – she was scary,” Rodrigues laughs nervously. Happily, he's befriended another Harlem rap star in A$AP Rocky. “I've been in the studio with him. We listened to music and we worked on some shit. That's a relationship I'm trying to get going a little more.”