Cosmo Baker

Cosmo Baker
Cosmo Baker
Background information
Birth name	Cosmo Strauss
Also known as	Cosmo Baker
Born	Reno, Nevada, United States
Origin	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Genres	hip hop, Electronic, Electronic dance music, funk, Disco, Soul Music
Occupation(s)	DJ, producer, remixer
Years active	1990–present
Website	[1] [2]

Cosmo Baker is a New York based DJ, music producer, and turntablist.

Baker was born in Reno, Nevada and at two years of age, he moved back to his family's hometown Philadelphia, with his mother and older sister, photographer Zoe Strauss. A lifelong music enthusiast, at the age of 16 he was DJing at many of the city's biggest nightclubs, including Revival, Sugarcube, and Silk City, holding one of the original resident spots alongside King Britt at the legendary Back 2 Basics party. After graduating from high school, Cosmo moved to Brooklyn and began working at Eightball Records. During this time in New York he threw himself into the underground House music scene, surrounding himself with legends such as Frankie Knuckles, Little Louie Vega, David Morales and Armand Van Helden. At the same time, his diverse DJ sets quickly made him a fixture on the downtown scene alongside DJs like Mark Ronson and Stretch Armstrong.

After moving back to Philadelphia in 1996 to continue his college studies, he soon started a party named The Remedy with fellow DJ Rich Medina. Lasting until 2003, this party was at the center of Philadelphia's burgeoning Neo soul community, frequently hosting luminaries of the scene such as The Roots and J Dilla. Bobbito García has called this party "The dopest continuous weekly hip-hop jam in the United States". Also in the early 2000s Baker began traveling to Las Vegas on a weekly basis to spin at his residency at Baby's Nightclub, inside The Hard rock Hotel & Casino.

By 2003, Cosmo had moved back to New York and joined DJ Ayres and DJ Eleven as the third member of the collective known as The Rub: a classics and hip-hop party, as well as a DJ crew and remix collective. The Rub crew was instrumental in helping propel the Mashup craze as well as helping to legitimize the style of "open format" DJing, made most famous by Adam Goldstein aka DJ AM and the Hollertronix crew. "The Rub has gained an avid following for hybridizing genres with the aplomb of a skilled gardener. Like Philadelphia's Hollertronix, the Rub's fans dance to Stevie Wonder, M.O.P., Björk, Justin Timberlake, and Young Jeezy with equal fervor." As a member of The Rub, he has performed at the South By South West festival in Austin, Texas (2006, 2007 & 2008) and the Winter Music Conference in Miami, Florida during the same years. After over 9 years as a member of The Rub, Baker left the group in mid-2012 to pursue solo opportunities.

His DJ sets run the gamut of musical genres, drawing inspiration from everything from Parliament-Funkadelic to EPMD to Neil Young, from obscure disco and soul to the latest Electronic dance music songs. A true "Philly DJ" by pedigree, he bridges the gap between old school legends like DJ Jazzy Jeff and new school heroes like Diplo. "Though I could see him in the booth, I couldn't believe my ears. Franz Ferdinand? The Rapture? Where were the smooth soul jams I dug on his Love Break mix? Once I'd shaken off the initial shock, it started to make sense. Baker rocks the party, and this was how the party needed to be rocked."

Baker frequently performs across The United States and Canada. He has also performed in Brazil, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Denmark, England, Scotland, Germany, France, Spain, Israel, The United Arab Emirates, China, Japan, South Korea and Thailand.

External links

• http://www.montrealmirror.com/2006/042006/music1.html
• http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0420,caramanica,53538,22.html
• http://brooklynradio.net/the-rub
• http://remixmag.com/artists/hiphop_R&B/remix_cosmo_baker/
• http://www.soulstrut.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=crates&Number=904426&page=0&fpart=1