UPDATE: Deadmau5 Responds
DJ Khaled just got himself a new nickname; the King of Cringe. In 2017 there is a lot of mixed emotion about the state of EDM and dance music festivals, but DJ Khaled might just reinvigorate your spirit for DJs at the same time he forces you to question EDC. Many festivals have been trying to incorporate hip-hop acts into the festival, and often times they remind us of why we love DJ sets in the first place. DJ sets have energy and flow and excitement, as opposed to endless mic hogging and playing 30 seconds of a track before stopping it again (well some DJs do this too).
DJ Khaled regained fame through Instagram and Snapchat, so EDC thought it would be awesome to book him a slot at the festival this year and ride that wave of hype. The fact that they would book him is a sign of the strange time dance music finds itself in, but perhaps they learned their lesson. His performance was every bit as cringeworthy as you could ever imagine. He didn’t adapt his schtick at all for the dance music crowd. He dropped into a track for a few seconds, cut it, talked on the mic, yelled out his catchphrases, and that’s about it.
It became a parody of itself and the crowd eventually got so fed up they booed him off stage. To make it even better, Khaled claims his set was sabotaged and they cut his sound unfairly. It’s safe to say that’s the last time you’ll see DJ Khaled on a festival lineup (if they’re smart).