Las Vegas Weekly

August 20, 2010 · 2 PM

Nightlife Podcast: Chuckie

By Deanna Rilling

DJ/producer Chuckie

Dirty Dutch! No, we’re not insulting Suriname-born, Holland-cultivated DJ/producer Chuckie; his Dirty Dutch music has caught on around the world. Taking a momentary break from whirlwind touring, he caught up with the Weekly last week before heading to Vegas.

You’re going to be playing the Beatport Beach Party at Tao Beach August 22. You’ve been to Vegas before. What do you think of our city?

It’s like Disneyland for adults — I love it. There’s nothing out there like Las Vegas, so I always look forward to going and hanging out there; do the gigs, hang out with my friends in Vegas. I really like doing that.

How did growing up in Suriname influence you musically?

I lived there until the age of seven. Then I moved to Holland. So, when I grew up in Suriname, I grew up with Caribbean music, reggae music, you name it. ... So I grew up with that, and then I moved to Europe, where I actually got in touch with the Western pop music, hip-hop and stuff. So all those styles influenced my early sets, and I was an open-format kind of DJ. ... So I was spinning that, and at a certain point, I was like, “You know what? This house music” — I always played house music in my sets, but I never did full house sets. So I was like, “You know what? This house music is so nuts at this point. It embraces so many different styles of music that I can actually stick around with it.” So I did, and from there I did a hip-hop-influenced record called “Let the Bass Kick,” and that record started my whole international career.

One thing David Guetta said about you is that you are able to mix the hip-hop vibe with house music. How do you feel you’ve been able to embrace that? Was it just the right time, and what’s your key in approaching productions and incorporating those two elements?

I can’t deny I’m a hip-hop head. So I either have to ignore it or just work with it. So I chose the second one. I was like, “You know what? There’s a lot of house music and I like a lot of house music, but if I’m gonna do house music as well, I gotta bring something extra to the tables. Let me mess with this hip-hop stuff in the music.” It kind of worked out because I also like the 808s and the snares and stuff like all the hip-hop records. So I kind of took it to house music the way I wanted it to be and try to have that same swagger in the music. It really worked for me, because I also play for a lot of open-format crowds, but I’m still able to do fully house sets because there’s enough elements that make it interesting for that type of crowd.

What are some of your favorite remixes that you’ve done thusfar?

I would say my favorite remix must be David Guetta featuring Akon “Sexy Chick,” the one I did with Lil Jon.

Chuckie chats about the origin of Dirty Dutch, pigeon attacks, his artist-album progress, charity work with UNICEF and eating 20 flavors of chicken with Lil Jon in Vegas (really!) in the Nocturnal Admissions podcast available for free download here.

Music featured in this podcast from DJ Chuckie Classics available on iTunes.

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