Révolu (left), The Contro1freak (right)
“I’m the music outlet for anime,” exclaims Darius Hoyte, a disc jockey from Brooklyn.
Darius isn’t just a DJ though — he’s much more than that. He’s also known as Squanto the Hypeman — emcee and coordinator for Bare Canvas Sounds. But most of all, he’s known as The Contro1freak. How he got the name, is quite obvious honestly. Someone once said to him, “Why you gotta act like you control everything?” As you can see, the name stuck.
When he first started DJing, he played “straight anime music.” He did dabble into mainstream genres like rap, hip hop and dancehall, but he felt weird about playing them, mostly because of his faith.
“Contro1freak” goes hand in hand with the style of music he DJs. Although the music is heavily influenced by anime culture, there are different genres within — and he has many. Recently, he’s been experimenting with future funk, drum n bass, edm, disco house, just to name a few. Darius, or The Contro1freak, knows that anime music is not that popular in New York City, specifically. As a place that’s very diversified, he believes that anime music should have their share in the big city. “It makes no sense that in the biggest city in the world there is absolutely no outlet or movement for anime music to flourish.” He decided to fill this void – with the introduction of the Anime Dance Music movement
Fortunately enough, The Control1freak is fairly known in the anime community in New York City, but he wants to make the public aware of anime music culture — that it exists, and that it’s good. “The culture is here, but the music isn’t.” And he knows that he can fix that.
Contro1freak is a person that shows respect to many people that’s in the community. Everyone gets a shoutout with him — from Kenneth Rage and Ory of the Senpai Project, to his fellow ADM DJs Révolu, Kurono, Skyboxx and Kagroosiv, to the anime news outlet GoBoiano; there’s too many to list. He knows people and groups like them are about the culture and community. Anime conventions and events re their meeting place, and that’s where they play.
The Contro1freak is starting to get recognition around the area, but has a goal of playing at huge conventions like Otakon and Katsucon on the east coast, and Anime Expo on the west coast. Most of all, however, he has a true love for music and he art of DJing. “I know for a fact that I will be DJing until the day I die” he predicted when asked about his future.
When ever the topic about the perception of the type of music comes up, anybody that knows The Contro1freak knows that he’s not ashamed of DJing anime dance music. “In the past, I got ridiculed heavily. Many people would say to me, “You DJ anime music? Oh, that’s cute!” or “Fucking weeaboo.” I used to get angry But now? I don’t care. This is what I want to do, and this is what I will do.”
Darius calls himself the music outlet or the “plug” because he is always on top of getting the newest tunes for any genre of music, especially in the anime community. His goal with Anime Dance Music or ADM, where everything music is connected to anime, is for him and the people he DJs to lift up the anime scene musically in New York City. With The Control1freak, anything is possible. His passion for DJing, the music, the culture, and the anime, in his opinion, will help make it happen. “The most important thing you have to do… You have to dig” Contro1freak says. So dig!
Ebony Anderson-Brown, Editor in Chief
Check out his latest mix, a e s t h e t i c snowfall, now on SoundCloud.