By Jeremy Blacklow
Deadmau5 certainly knows a thing or two about stirring up controversy by slamming his fellow musicians.
The Canadian mouse-headed DJ (real name, Joel Zimmerman), one of the most successful and talented producers in the electronic music world, continued his trend of starting wars with other performers by lashing out at Kanye West. In a new interview for VIBE magazine’s February/March issue, when asked who he’d like to design a show for, he replied: “Anyone other than f-----ng Kanye, I f-----ng hate him.”
It’s unclear what may have caused the beef between the DJ and the rapper. Deadmau5 seemed to make reference to it in a tweet last night though:
Holy crap! LMFAOx21, Jesus, I say some gnarly shit sometimes... Hahahaha... Oh man. I don't even remember that one... Oh well
— deadmau5 (@deadmau5) February 14, 2013
In a cover story in Rolling Stone last June, Deadmau5 slammed two of his very famous DJ/producer peers – David Guetta and Skrillex -- "David Guetta has two iPods and a mixer and he just plays tracks – like, 'Here's one with Akon, check it out!'," he said to the mag. "Even Skrillex [a friend of Zimmerman’s] isn't doing anything too technical. He has a laptop and a MIDI recorder, and he's just playing his s--t.” Deadmau5 was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Dance/Electronic album category for his > album title goes here <, but he lost out to Skrillex.
Last March, Deadmau5 got into a Twitter war of words with Madonna over what he perceived as her condoning of MDNA use during her promotional appearance at the Ultra Music Festival in Miami.
@madonnamdnaday You're a role model to 100's of millions. You have a powerful voice,EDM could use your positive influence, not "molly" talk.
— deadmau5 (@deadmau5) March 27, 2012
Deadmau5 also discusses which rappers he would like to with, and goes into why he hates the term “EDM” (which stands for “Electronic Dance Music”). “Yeah, I just renamed it. I called it ‘Event Driven Marketing.’” Later on in the article, he talks about topics ranging from Swedish House Mafia, to his new fiancée Kat Von D (he announced his engagement to the tattoo artist and reality TV star in December 2012), and how the first person he turns to for advice is Tommy Lee, whom he says has, “been sued more times than anyone I know. It makes my life not feel so fucking bad.”
Deadmau5’s next live headlining gig will be at this year’s Ultra Music Festival in Miami on March 16 and again on March 23.