Fool’s Gold has built a long history of cultivating some of the most unique artists in music today. Throughout the past several years, the hugely successful indie label is partly responsible for popular acts including Danny Brown, Duck Sauce and even releasing the first Run The Jewels album. It’s one of the best Hip Hop/EDM tastemaker entities today. Founded by A-Trak and Nick Catchdubs, Fool’s Gold expanded into the music festival circuit in 2010 with Fool’s Gold Day Off. Kicking off in New York, it’s expanded to Los Angeles, Miami, Austin and Atlanta. “It’s exciting man and I think it’s still growing,” says A-Trak. “We went from maybe 1,500 people our first year to over 2,000 in each city.”
Despite having dope performances from various legends within Hip Hop, many headlining performances for Fool’s Gold Day Off rested on in-house artists including A-Trak himself and Danny Brown. This year, every city will features various artists representing different local music taste. In A-Trak’s eyes, the real goal is growth. Kicking off in Los Angeles August 29, Action Bronson and Travis Scott will perform at The Shrine Auditorium parking lot. The following week in Atlanta, Awful Records de facto leader Father, Rome Fortune and Bankroll Fresh can connect with fans at the Center Stage Theater. September 4, New York’s edition at The Inlet’s Brooklyn Live include sets from Meek Mill and Flatbush Zombies. Vic Mensa and Flosstradamus will headline September 13 at Mana Wynwood in Miami. Closing out in Austin at Stubb’s, Earl Sweatshirt hits the stage September 19. According to A-Trak, the various lineups reflect Fool’s Gold’s particular way of striking balances in local music taste. “We know that our audience in Miami is a bit more electronic and DJ friendly so that’s where we bring in Laidback Luke and Flosstradamus, we know that our New York audience is more Hip Hop than anyone else, we know the LA audience is very young,” he says. “There are all these subtleties that we’ve picked up on in the last couple years that we’ve been thinking of when we put together lineups.” The Los Angeles edition also means a pop-up shop at FourTwoFour clothing store located within the street fashion mecca of Fairfax.
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Of course, A-Trak will be performing at each Fool’s Gold Day Off. How does he run day to day operations at the while delivering the electric DJ sets he’s known for? “I kind of have no choice,” he says. “I’ve been performing so long there’s always this sort reflex that goes. Even if I’m tired on show day running around doing something else and it’s fifteen minutes before my set, something just gets into me where I have to get into performance mode, and it’s great.” So far, A-Trak counts Young Thug’s appearance at last year’s Fool’s Gold Day Off in Atlanta as a highlight.
Though Brown won’t be performing this year, he’s currently working on his fourth full length album. According to A-Trak, he’s anticipating music from the Detroit spitter. “When Danny records, he goes into this… he makes a bunch of music and then anything he comes up with, he’ll play us a whole bunch of stuff at once,” says A-Trak. For the rest of the Fool’s Gold family, the label recently released an EP from LA-based producer Falcons entitled Terra. The four track project features lead single “Aquafina” featuring Goldlink and Chaz French. Buzzing Atlanta emcee ManMan Savage just released his latest single “Takin’ Shots” on the label as well. A-Trak says that their budgets for the show makes the event impossible on paper and the crew doesn’t make much money. However, everyone from the Fool’s Gold team to artists do it for more noble reasons. “We’re independent and keep the ticket prices low so that means we’re not working with that much money but, we’re fans of the culture and always try to surpass ourselves,” he explains.
Tickets available here.
