He's done disco, mixed Afro-funk, Brazilian, and classic rock, and spun at huge venues all over Vegas, L.A., and Vancouver. He's even played dance, Top 40 hits, and '80s tunes for the hipster kids at Santos Party House in New York City. But what DJ Supreme La Rock is best known for is his touch with underground hip-hop and funk. He's celebrating Lumin's birthday and bringing a bit of Seattle soul to the weekly Champion Sound party at Electric Pickle tonight. Crossfade caught up with him by phone earlier this week.
Crossfade: You play it all pretty much. Just for the Electric Pickle, are you gonna stick to soul and funk?
Supreme La Rock: I always like to say whatever I play is funky. No matter what kind of music it is it's funky, but mainly I'm going to stick to the funky stuff [for this show]. I grew up in Seattle and my parents listened to funk music. As a kid I'd always get into their records. It's just always what I listened to.
What kind of funk artists inspire you?
It's a lot of independent things and artists that never really blew up on a major level. There was so much good music but they hardly had enough money to even record and stuff, let alone press the record up. So you find obscure stuff and it's so good and nobody's heard it.
Where do you find your obscure stuff?
I dig everywhere [for it]. One of those spots you'd never guess. I've found like furniture stores with records laying around... and I found an Army strip store once, and got a bunch of records from there. It's crazy.
You have a MySpace, live podcasts, a blog, and a Twitter account that you update regularly, on top of all your shows. How do you find the time to do it all?
I don't sleep [laughs]. Nah, seriously. I hardly sleep at all.
DJ Supreme La Rock, at Champion Sound at Electric Pickle. 2826 N. Miami Ave., Miami. Doors open at 10 p.m., admission is free. Age 21 and up. 305-456-5613; electricpicklemiami.com
-- Christine Borges
