Biography
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Born
3 June 1976 (age 47)
DJ Raff was for a time one of the most important collaborators and advisors on the Chilean hip-hop circuit. But his decision to stand up for his own work led him not only to electronic composition as such, but also to a fabulous international projection.
Raff (Rafael Pérez) founded the group Frecuencia Rebelde in 1992, and was a member of the band La Pozze Latina for two years. After a long time working in partnership with Solo di Medina, he took his first major solo step when he released his first album at the end of 2006. Since then, his work has expanded abroad with residencies for years in Barcelona and London. "Half machine, half man" is how Raff chooses to define his compositions.
The initial references of this musician and producer who prefers to define himself as "a DJ and beatmaker" coincide with those of other Chilean hip-hop artists of his generation: the film Beat Street, breakdancing, and the records of American bands such as Beastie Boys, N.W.A. and Public Enemy. It was precisely a T-shirt of the latter group that got him talking to a schoolmate of his, Francisco Libuy, with whom he formed La Frecuencia Rebelde in 1992.
Together they learned to work their first bases; first, with just a double cassette player and an old turntable. They recorded an independent demo (Peor que animales, 1993) and took their band to a well-publicised debut, with the album La Frecuencia Rebelde (1999), which Raff produced in its entirety.
Curiosity has been a fundamental guide to his learning, the musician said in an interview: "I always liked to experiment… with turntables I got stuck, and my parents suffered the consequences of my experimentation: for a long time I was forbidden to play any electronic equipment in the house, because they were all bad or open".
But La Frecuencia Rebelde was far from being his only project during the 1990s. Between 1995 and 1997, the musician joined La Pozze Latina, and accepted various commissions to accompany bands such as Los Tetas, Chancho en Piedra, LaFloripondio, Bitman & Roban, Los Mismos, Los Mox! and Tiro de Gracia live and in the studio, as well as performances by singer Nicole.
With Tiro de Gracia, Raff performed in Argentina, Peru, Colombia and Spain. He collaborated on their first demos, and later on their album Decisión (1999). His commissions have been, basically, for remixes, recording scratches and studio production. But the musician has also toured the country several times to offer DJ sets.
Raff has been an unprejudiced musician. In an interview, he himself explained that "I'm too restless musically, and what I want and think, changes in a moment. I like to set goals and experiment. For me, any project I'm presented with is always a challenge". Towards the end of 2006, and after two years of preparation, he presented the instrumental album Raffolution, his solo debut. He promoted it first in Chile and then got six concert dates in Barcelona, Spain (October, 2006). The next couple of years would be followed by shows in New York, Miami and several dates in Mexico. When the musician decided to make the album available for download on the internet, more than thirty thousand people were interested.
It was a period of attractive commissions that also included his participation in that year's version of the SUE festival, which he attended as part of the Chancho en Piedra team and shortly before the Beastie Boys' performance on the same stage. Since then, the Chilean's geographic trail has been growing wider and wider. The EP Travelling Partners (2008) was the result of this nomadism: songs worked on in different cities around the world, made available to his fans for free online download.
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