 The developers behind the upcoming DJ Hero sequel previewed the game's soundtrack during a private industry mixer last Thursday (October 7) in Hollywood, allowing media and others to take in the game's exclusive remixes and demo the game before its October 19th drop date.
DJ Hero 2 features 105 speaker-blaring tracks and club-shaking anthems from over 100 of the biggest artists in pop, hip-hop and dance genres.
And, they enlisted some of the top DJs -- including RZA, Diplo, DJ Shadow, DJ Jazzy Jeff, DJ Z-Trip, DJ Qbert, and Scratch Perverts to name a few -- to put together mixes for the game's performance and battle modes.
World-renowned DJ and label owner, A-Trak, played host for the event, and spoke to us about the upcoming title and the two mixes he created for the on-disc soundtrack.
"I'm glad I was able to get onto this game. It's an interesting project and a game that I think reaches a lot of people. When I saw the first one, I was like 'I wanna get on this for sure,' " A-Trak told BallerStatus.com, before admitted he's not much of a gamer. "I don't have video games at home."
(Check out the photos from the private event right here  )
A-Trak was the first DJ to win all three major DJ competition titles (DMC, ITF and Vestax), and was the first to win five World Championships. For DJ Hero 2, he contributed two mixes -- including a mash-up for Naughty By Nature's "O.P.P." and Jackson 5's "ABC", and remix of Justice's classic "D.A.N.C.E. (Beat Juggle)".
According to the DJ, it's a different kind of a job than he's used to, but he made it work and feels his mixes fit into the game quite well.
"Something you gotta remember, when you're making this mix, you gotta keep in mind that someone is actually gonna performing it. So, something has to always be going on," A-Trak said of the tracks his mixed for DJ Hero 2. "It's super A-D-D, like every bar or two, there has to be something. When I was making music for the game, I could never let it ride. It had to always be either some samples coming in, or some scratches, or the beat dropping in and out. It's just always something, so when you're actually playing it, you always have something to do on the controllers."
As far as his choice of selections, the DJ said his mash-up mix of "O.P.P" and "ABC" -- for the game's battle mode -- was his fave, and created the mix in a different way from what your typical DJ Battle would consist of.
After taking his time when the songs, he says he cut up the vocals, messed with the different elements of the tracks' samples, and came up with a mix he was happy with and that would fit into the game's battle element.
"I didn't wanna do your super-obvious, like, one dude calling the other dude out, scratch-off type thing because I figured everyone would do that," A-Trak explained. "I was listening to the acapella for both songs, and there was all these little parts they were like, kinda, almost like taunting. So I cut it up in a way that lent itself to the battle thing."
Other mash-ups and remixes from the game include the RZA's mix of Grandmaster Flash's "The Message" and LL's "Can't Life Without My Radio," DJ Shadow's mix of Jeezy's "Put On" with Shadow's own "Enuff (Remix)", and Diplo's mix of Major Lazer's "Pon De Floor" with "Harold Faltermeyer's "Axel X."
In all, there are 83 original, exclusive mixes for the game.
As far as the game play itself, A-Trak admitted that it didn't feel like actual DJing very much, but stated that he probably shouldn't, because if it did, it'd probably only appeal to a select group instead of the masses.
"It really doesn't feel anything like DJing (laughs). I don't think that's the point. I understand the decision with that," A-Trak told us. "At the end of the day, I think they could've made a game that's really, you know, the same feel as DJing, but that would be just to make the real DJs happy. I don't think that's the target consumer. I think this is for everybody.
"This is for your average gamer or music lover who wants to kinda like fantasize to be a DJ for a little while. I remember being at the office and telling them like 'If someone messes up, they should make them mess up even more, like make everything like a train wreck and go totally off-beat and unlistenable.' But apparently, when they do tests, getting people to try out the game, I think if its possible to mess up too bad, people get discouraged (laughs). No one wants to hear a bad mix. It never goes really wrong, just the sound drops off if you mess up."
DJ Hero 2 will hit stores October 19. You can pre-order your copy now at Amazon.com.
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