The electronic music world has been enamoured with Rustie (Russell Whyte), a Glaswegian producer who, single handedly, upholds the genre aquacrunk, since the launch of his Jagz the Smack EP (Stuff Records) in December 2007. Now signed to the infamous Warp Records, his reputation continues to grow with hiphop/crunk/electronica releases on Scotland’s Stuff Records, Wireblock and Hyperdub.
 
After dabbling in DJing early on, at the end of his teen years, Rustie put his guitar aside and devoted himself entirely to turntables and production software. Whyte, now in his mid-twenties, had a club initiation to techno and was a fan of Juan Atkins, Jeff Mills, Robert Hood and Drexciya, only later getting into grunge and hiphop. The half-joke genre name ‘aquacrunk’ comes, according to the Guardian, from Rustie’s passion for crunk and other new school hiphop hybrids like hyphy that are popular in Scotland and which often use synthetic street textures, and the aquatic techno of Drexciya.
 
The early 00s saw Rustie involved with the LuckyMe collective. LuckyMe / Music.Art.Parties started in Spring 2002 as a project to make hiphop in Glasgow, a place that was ‘not on the map’ for hiphop. The collective ran Ballers Social, the clubnight where Rustie learnt his DJing chops, before evolving into a label in 2007.
 
Rustie’s rise to fame after his debut Jagz The Smack was dizzying. In early 2008, he completed a mix for Mary Anne Hobbs' show before appearing at dubstep's foundation club, >>Forward. He strengthened his reputation through releases on local Glasgow labels like Stuff Records, Wireblock and Dress 2 Sweat and played regularly at The Numbers night at Glasgow's Sub Club, the aquacrunk crucible. 2008 culminated in Rustie’s video game-dub Zig-Zag, which was widely hailed as one of the cornerstones of the ‘new dubstep’, and received a one side only release on Glasgow’s wonky label, Wireblock.
 
Rustie is well known, too, for his accomplished remixes. From the high profile remix of Modeselektor’s “The Black Block”, to Zomby’s “SpliffDUb” remix on Hyperdub. He’s also remixed tracks from Alex smoke, Crookers, and Jamie Lidell. 

 
> www.myspace.com/rustiebeetz
 
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