If you’ve heard Bassnectar‘s Don’t Hate the 808 from a few months back, you may recognize the name, Lafa Taylor. Just like the hop-hop influenced tune, Lafa is mix of hip-hop MC and rave inspiration.
Lafa Taylor is a rapper who has been raving since the days where getting to the party meant hopping from checkpoint, to checkpoint, all the way to the warehouse. During high-school, Lafa drifted between his “Hip-hop crew” – making beats and spitting flows, and his “DJ crew”, buying and mixing records live. 
His ability to bring wide stylistic influences into his art has developed over the years and his sound is beginning to make the rounds. His forte for crossover has garnered the attention of the likes of Beats Antique, Emancipator, and Shpongle. In just a week, Lafa will be hitting road with the forementioned on the 16 day Creature Carnival tour. We recently had the chance to sit down with Mr. Taylor who gave us more insight into his recent success and unique influences
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Lafa Taylor counts the rise in popularity in Trap as the point where he began to realize his potential in EDM saying,
“It all just naturally happened with my sound. Where music originated for me made it natural to want to merge the two, as I’ve always wanted.”
As opposed to pursuing trap as his main focus, Lafa believes that his style is best served… blended,
“These days, with electronic music, so much of it is blended…. The only challenge for me, is that it would be easier for the average fan to stay in tune with me, or like all of my music, if I did one style of something. Since I do a lot of different stuff, I find that some people will love or hate something.”
To be fair, this has also been a blessing for Lafa Taylor.
“I feel fortunate enough to have a live background, and be able to rock a crowd with a microphone. I find that sets me apart from the oversaturated ‘DJ’ market.”
Though he has been a D.I.Y. artist, taking the reins for his own career from day one, he noted the importance of the people and team around him as an increasingly important and supportive part of the equation. Though he reported that it had been difficult for him to relinquish control, he reaffirmed that he could not be where he is now without the support of his crew. Go Team Work!
To round things off, we discovered that Lafa has been living and making music out of a green-energy home/studio combo bus that he built. The bus also serves as transportation to festivals where it serves as what we can only assume as the most baller way to camp in the history of festies.
For more information about the Creature Carnival tour, check out their website here.
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