Alex Lustig transforms rap beats into ambient soundscapes and is making an Impact

What’s something you’ve learned about working with rappers that people might be surprised to know?

Rap right now is so new, and it's everywhere in pop music. Look at Lil Yachty who made this “happy rap” genre, Lil Uzi does this mumble rap. It’s so fresh. You make a rap beat, give it to a pop singer, it becomes pop, but it’s still a rap beat.

It's also cool to learn from these rappers. They've taught me a lot in ways that I wouldn't have expected. I was in the studio with Skeme, and he would hear things that I wouldn’t, and I like to think that I know my productions the best. He was recording a verse and asked me to move the beat a little bit over, even though it sounded fine. I was sitting there like, “uhh…” thinking that it would be off, but then we played it and it sounded incredible. Such a small detail, but he knew the flow and the timing so well and it made all the difference.

So then you decided to focus on your solo career with the release of your first single ‘Light’. Why that track?

I have probably a million notes on my phone of album titles and concepts. And I always tried to share my ambient beats with rappers I was working with, but no one took them. They always told me, "Man, these are so sick but I have no idea how I'd rap over them." I never had thought about releasing them on my own until it got to the point where I realized I just had to put something out.

I had a track called ‘Voices’ which at that point was a year old which was going to be the one, but I hesitated for some reason. Then, ‘Light’ came and it made more senses. People started picking up on it. It was really the first thing I put out, my SoundCloud was brand new at that point. But it took off and it all started to make sense to me.

Then the EP came out, and it started getting a lot of good reactions. Actually house labels started reaching out to me, which was funny because I’m a rap producer at heart, but there's also not really a genre for me yet. I'd tell them, "I'm happy you're interested, but you have to know that just because this song is 100 BPM, doesn't mean they'll all be like this. The next one might 140 BPM with some rap in there!" I don't want to be limited in any way.

Tell me about the mix you made us.

DJing is still really new to me, but it forces me to be creative. I wanted to show Alex in this mix, but show both what I'm listening to but also how different I want things to sound too. I put rap songs in there that made sense like the Travis Scott interlude, because it represents elements that I put in my music. Bon Iver is in there too though, because he's one of my favorites in the world. It's about the selection in this mix, for sure.

Hear Alex's latest track 'No More' here

Valerie Lee is Mixmag's US Digital Editor. Follow her on Twitter here

Track List:

Alex Lustig 'Light'

Mura Masa 'Know Me Better'

Majid Jordan 'Tea & Coffee'

Odesza 'How Did I Get Here'

Jadu Heart 'Jewl'

Flume 'Trust'

Clams Casino 'All Nite'

A$AP Rocky 'Lvl'

Nosaj Thing 'Safe'

Burial 'Archangel'

Alex Lustig 'Do Wrong'

Travis Scott 'SDP interlude'

Bon Iver '21 Moon Water'

Clams Casino 'I'm God'

Alex Lustig 'Rise'

Tourist 'To Have You Back'

Jack Ü 'Where Are Ü Now'

Cashmere Cat 'Aurora'

Skrillex 'Fire Away'

Burial 'Raver'

Flume 'Innocence'

Four Tet, Jamie xx, Romy 'Seesaw' (Club Version)

Clams Casino '32 Levels'

Jadu Heart 'Meeting Faro'

The Glitch Mob 'Between Two Points'

Slow Magic 'Waited 4 You'

Jacques Greene 'The Look' (Koreless Remix)

Tourist 'U'

Tourist 'For Sarah'

Jamie xx 'The Rest Is Noise'