Interview with Blaqstarr, artist, DJ and producer for M.I.A. and Rye Rye - July 26, 2010

“I’m stopping saying that I make songs, I’d just say I make experiences and these experiences I’m about to share with the world are totally cosmic.”

Having picked up a few good vibrations in 1966 the Beach Boys were duly inspired to compose a deathless pop classic. Now DJ, artist, producer and enigma Charles ‘Blaqstarr’ Smith is using vibrational forces to help fashion his musical exploits, but will the results provoke as many excitations?

Mortal ears and eyes were first drawn to the Blaqstarr in the clubs of Baltimore in the early 2000s where his pioneering ‘black roq music’ drew an ardent local following. Excited attentions about the young starr soon spread beyond the city limits, not least due to DJ/producer Diplo, who released the acclaimed ‘Supastarr’ EP, and M.I.A. (US Top 5, UK Top 20) who snagged him as a regular collaborator. Now with his M.I.A. co-write ‘XXXO’ riding the UK Top 40, Blaqstarr is poised to unleash his own solo career under the flag of M.I.A.’s N.E.E.T. label, and in promising deep, cosmic things, expectations are high ...