12th Planet and Protohype Collaborate On EDM for People With ADD

There are some collaborations that come about so naturally the chemistry is almost cosmic. That's pretty much how John Dadzie (a.k.a. 12th Planet) felt when he began working with up-and-coming bass artist Protohype on the ideas that would become their forthcoming, untitled EP. While Max Hype (Protohype's real name) may already be well-known as Datsik's protégé, Dadzie describes their relationship as a sibling bond. “We met and had so much in common on some real shit,” the producer says. “I could actually hang out with him on the real, so that's why I say he's my little brother.”

The two have teamed up to create what they are calling transition music, a genre-breaking set of tracks that will revolutionize bass music.

In a time when so many EDM artists are transitioning from their original genres to today's harder sounds, it seems more and more DJs are fusing together sounds and making their own edits to songs to appeal to large crowds at the major festivals and club nights. “Before, you could only play one genre, and now, no one even cares what you play as long as they get crunk,” says Dadzie, who started as a drum-and-bass DJ under the moniker Infiltrata in the early 2000s.

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After the LA native moved to OC to start Imperial Recordings with DJ Lith, Dadzie switched to dubstep in 2006 and helped to form SMOG Records shortly after; he has since been dubbed the American dubstep king. He began his DJ career after dropping out of college and living off the $1 menu at fast-food joints. “It's a dream [come true] to live off your craft, to be able to make music and provide a future for yourself,” says Dadzie. “There are some dudes who are in this shit because they just want to be seen, but what I noticed about Protohype was that he was like, 'Naw, man, I'm trying to live, bro,' and we want to love what we do to live.”

That hunger made Arizona's Hype thirsty for a sustainable DJ career, and as soon as he thought his music was worthy, he began filling USB sticks and getting them into the hands of his idols. “I remember one show in particular [when] I went [backstage] with a grip of USB sticks, and I got them to fucking Datsik, Rusko and all of these guys. After that, I just got emails back,” he says.

This memory reminds Dadzie of the CDs of his music he created when he was still trying to make it. Now, after almost a decade filled with numerous collaborations, sold-out shows and gigs all over the world, he's still getting inspired by such young artists as Hype. “I was like, 'Oh, dude, the kid just wants to get it,' so I was like, 'All right, let's get it,'” Dadzie says.

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The duo has created something that's beyond the realm of dubstep. “A transition record is a record that goes from one beat per minute to another beat per minute, so every song changes genres,” Dadzie says. “It starts in one genre and ends in a different genre but it's the same song.”

He and Hype are hoping to express the power of interchanging beats per minute within a song by creating these originals and using all of their influences from hip-hop, dubstep, drumstep, drum and bass, and house music.

“I feel like the group of people who are listening to electronic music today have music ADD,” says Hype. “They can't stay with one genre, so we are trying to put a face to that.”

They joke about naming the EP Adderall, but regardless of what it's called, they're hopeful their take on EDM catches on and more artists take this cross-genre boundary leap. “Everyone is doing transitions; they're just not making it,” says Dadzie. “They are making edits and shit, but we are making original songs that are transitions.”

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