Terry Urban is at the forefront of a generation that wants nothing to do with genre. The New York based DJ’s mashup mixtapes which have paired everything from Jay-Z and Coldplay to The Noisettes and Kanye West have introduced new music to audiences that now want an amalgam in their iPods. Being a fan of Terry’s tapes I had to interview him for An-Mag.com. Here’s what he had to say about Danger Mouse, Downtown Records and his new project “How My Brain Works 3.”

It was a free download so it’s not like I’m making money off of it.

– Terry Urban as told to Kendrick Daye

An-Mag.com: How are you?

Terry Urban: I’m good. I’ve just been working all day. I’m tired now. (Laughs)

An-Mag.com: How did you get your start as a DJ?

TU: My father brought me turntables. And I basically put ‘em in my basement and starting screwing around with the turntables, not knowing anything about Djing whatsoever. From there I went into start doing house parties and clubs.

An-Mag.com: You’ve mixed Santigold with Southern Rap, Lady GaGa with David Bowie, tell me about the process of creating these tapes.

TU: The idea comes up first you know. I mean, obviously like Santigold and the Southern Rappers were the same kinda BPM, and I know Santigold was kinda into South music and one her favorite songs was “Chicken Head.” And like Lady Gaga and David Bowie it’s obvious similarities there. The idea comes first then the beats. It’s a big process of getting Acapellas together and instrumentals and finding what is in key with what. And promo is a huge part of it.

An-Mag.com: You’re doing a lot yourself of the promo right?

TU: I do all promo myself. Usually it starts on me and Mick Boogie’s blog. It starts from there and hopefully reaches to a major blog like Rolling Stone or Fader or Perez Hilton or something like that. What it is it’s a virus that you kinda have to spread. You know what I’m saying? It’s getting your music out there, spreading it and having people want to collect it.

An-Mag.com: The “Southerngold” mixtape caused quite a bit of trouble last year. How was that experience?

TU: I leaked a song with this Cleveland artist named Chip Tha Ripper. I’m originally from Cleavland so, it was one of the original songs on that album. It was supposed to be an extra track, and the only original song on there. It leaked and I think Downtown Records got a hold of it somehow and they released a cease and desist order the day I had planned to release the mixtape. Honestly, Kendrick, I was going to release the mixtape like 10 minutes later after the cease and desist they sent me. So, I kinda backed out for a minute and was like ‘holy shit what am I going to do?’ I called my partner Mick Boogie and talked to him about it and he was like lets write a letter and blog about it. It was a free download so it’s not like I’m making money off of it. I was trying to just put my kinda spin on Santigold and Southern Rappers. It blew out of proportion which was a good thing for me obviously. And it was good publicity for Santigold and Downtown Records. But, the screwed up thing is Gnarls Barkley is own Downtown Records. As far as Danger Mouse is concerned, like c’mon, the only reason why Danger Mouse is who he is today, and I mean obviously he was going to make it big anyway, he’s an absolutely amazing producer, but, I mean let’s be real the way he got into this whole music scene, was “The Grey Album” with Jay-Z and the Beatles. So for them to say that was like ‘okay whatever’. I took it serious and I didn’t take it serious. It was just weird that they would send a cease and desist when one of their major artists is Danger Mouse. I was like CMON that’s kinda ridiculous.

An-Mag.com: Have you heard anything them from them after?

TU: No, um, I think it was good publicity on both our parts. I mean Santigold obviously spoke about it afterwards. Santi was like ‘yo I don’t  know what’s going on, I have no idea about the cease and desist.’ She did speak out about it.

An-Mag.com: With the Jay-Z/Coldplay tape, “Viva La Hova” did you get clerance to use those samples?

TU: No. (Laughs) Jay-Z and Coldplay was Mick’s idea. We usually work together all the time. Mick came up with the idea and we both love Coldplay, we both love Jay-Z and we were just like let’s just sample these. And Jay-Z’s assistant did call us. And they were like you need to send the songs over. The thing is Jay-Z’s Acapellas are out everywhere. It wasn’t like were taking his Acapellas and putting it over stuff and getting money off of it. But we were like what could come of it? Jay-Z could not like it and he can say don’t put this out. And that was my biggest concern. But Jay loved the track that we sent him and it was a go from there. And Chris Martin from Coldplay put it up on his website too. They were absolutely amazed by it. And like I think a month later is when Jay and Coldplay started doing that song together all the time, you know. I forget what the song is called. It was kinda like an ode to “Viva La Hova.” We were stoked and siked about it. It’s been the masterpiece of my mixtapes.

An-Mag.com: Out of all the mixtapes you’ve done would you say that’s your favorite one?

TU: It’s not my favorite one, but for everyone else it seems to be the favorite one, the most popular one. It was on MTV, for the exposure and for the concept and for how much fans I’ve got from it, that’s obviously why I love it, but it’s not my favorite one.

An-Mag.com: Artistically which one is your favorite one?

TU: I don’t know. I do a series called “How My Brain Works.” There’s volume one and there’s volume two. Volume three comes out the end of January or the beginning of February. I’m not sure yet. I have a whole new website, so I’m going to release it with the website. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the “How My Brain Works” series, but it’s kinda like Girl Talk, but less ADD. It’s all different genres of music, like you’ll hear Gucci Mane with The Police and like Lil’ Wayne with Led Zepplin. The new one I can’t even begin to tell you how much different shit is on that. I got Iron Maiden with Chris Brown, like it’s a bunch of stuff. Everything’s not on key all the time but I like doing it. I don’t give a shit what fans think, like this is my mixtape for myself. That’s what I would say is my favorite. The “How My Brain Works” series.

An-Mag.com: Do you think mixtapes like yours hurt the artist or help them in terms of publicity?

TU: Back in the day I think it definitely hurt the artist. As far as when albums would leak, people like Drama and Mick Boogie and Kay Slay and all these guys they would just put ‘em out on a mixtape and boom people would buy ‘em and obviously what happened with Drama that was a huge hit on mixtapes and that stopped a lot of people buying mixtapes and concept mixtapes. But now obviously albums leak constantly all the time. Songs leak before an albums even done. It’s a whole different game. Before I think it would definitely hurt, but now I think it’s a good thing.  Like Lil’ Wayne’s “No Ceilings” was completely huge, obviously he doesn’t get sales off that, but it’s a huge mixtape. Look at Drake. Obviously that’s a prime example of how mixtapes can help an artist. I’m known as a Hip-hop mixtape artist, but I do, do other stuff, like Santigold and Lady GaGa and pop stuff. The thing is a lot of people that hear my music they don’t know these groups like Phoenix or Vampire Weekend or MGMT like indie rock bands like that. I think it helps out. People from the UK knew who the Noisettes were but when we put that tape out nobody knew who the Noisettes were and now all of sudden. Boom. It’s great. It’s a whole different way for people to reach different people that normally wouldn’t listen to indie rock.

An-Mag.com: Would you say genre is dead?

TU: Oh yeah, totally. I mean everybody’s crossed that line. Hip-hop artists are crossing that line. Indie rock artists are crossing that line. That line has completely vanished in the fan. MGMT is doing stuff with Kid Cudi. Lil’ Wayne is doing stuff with Metal bands. The genres are completely gone now. I mean obviously you still have genres like Electro and Hip-Hop but as far as artists being scared to cross over c’mon there’s no risk there anymore. I mean people are doing whatever the hell they want to do. And it’s because all these younger people are coming up. They grew up on everything. Back in the day when I grew up it was either you grew up on Metal, Punk, R&B, Hip-hop those were the major categories. Now it’s everything. And if you did, when I grew up, if you did listen to music you were shy to tell your friends, ‘yo I’m listening to Run DMC and I’m listening to Metallica’.

An-Mag.com: What’s next for you?

TU: Like I said before, the website, I’m trying to make it easier for people to look up my music online. Also, “How My Brain Works 3” is coming out. I’m focusing more on Djing now, out and about in clubs, I’ve already reached an artist with mixtapes, but I’m trying to reach more in the clubs now. I want to be an A.M. or like a Steve Aoki, I want to reach people in the club. I DJ now in New York, I’m going from Atlanta to Hawaii to Cleavland but I want to get more buzz and stuff.

For everything Terry Urban click here. www.terryurban.net