Until recently, seeing top-tier turntablists in the same sphere as their big-money hiphop contemporaries was about as likely as seeing Ghostface in a tight T-shirt and trucker hat. You weren't gonna see Qbert in the 50 Cent video, and Rob Swift wasn't going to be lacing any beats for albums by Fabolous or Juvenile.

Besides the endorsements, titles, and notoriety, DMC contenders weren't breaking out of the turntablist ghetto. Usually, the DJs most associated with today's big-name rappers are the Whoo Kids, the Clues, the Kay Slays; mix-tape DJs who are far more skilled at using their two-ways to get exclusive cuts from G-Unit or Young Jeezy than they are at blending records.

These days, however, a select few champ Technics technicians can be found blessing platinum MCs with that fire, and hitting the road with the 106 & Park set. Case in point: one Alain Macklovitch, AKA DJ A-Trak. Now most famously known as Kanye West's DJ, A-Trak is a world-champeen wax wrangler who can be found on MTV giving pounds to Usher, collaborating with the Diplomats, and bringing the kind of skill that's usually marginalized to the underground instead of to sold-out stadiums.

On A-Trak's new DVD, Sunglasses Is a Must, the Montreal native chronicles his career as a world-class DJ through alarmingly comprehensive video footage (and his own brand of Canadian-ass tongue-in-cheek narration), documenting his meteoric rise through the ranks. A 13-year-old "Trizzy Womack" purchased his first pair of Technics 1200s with his bar mitzvah money back in 1995. He slavishly devoted himself to practicing, studying scratch videotapes, and watching his big brother Dave flex on the wheels. Just two years later, A-Trak was crowned DMC World Champion, and inducted into the world-famous Invisbl Skratch Piklz, alongside scratch legends like Qbert, Shortkut, and Mix Master Mike—not a bad distinction for a sophomore in high school.

With his newfound celebrity and an all-star affiliation, Trak quickly became one of turntablism's hungriest young phenoms. When ISP eventually disbanded, A-Trak and Florida's DJ Craze started a new super crew known as the Allies, and immediately proceeded to burn the circuit up all over again. At the ripe old age of 18, after becoming the first DJ to win all three major DJ titles (ITF, Vestax, and DMC) and the first DJ to win a whopping five world championships, A-Trak retired from battling.

Since then, Trak has focused his attention back on Audio Research, the hiphop label he founded with his brother (now known as Dave1 of the Zapp-inspired, Vice Records synth-pop act Chromeo). Audio Research put out several hiphop records in English and French, including the group Obscure Disorder, which claimed A-Trak as a member. Now free of the battle circuit—and homeroom—Trizzle also toured the globe, terrorizing tone arms worldwide with his revolutionary routines. Not merely content to be one of its finest practitioners, A-Trak is indeed a true pioneer in the field of turntablism. The very idea of turntable-as-instrument has been furthered by Trak, who developed his own written notation system to describe the "notes" played by a turntablist.

After hearing A-Trak at an in-store performance in London, the inimitable Mr. West immediately snapped up the 23-year-old to be his DJ and brought him out on his Touch the Sky tour. Having released several highly sought-after break records (among them Gangsta Breaks and Enter Ralph Wiggum), Young Trizzy has ventured into straight-up hiphop production. Two of his standout cuts, GLC's dreamy, twinkling "Chi-Town State of Mind" and the turbulently funky, Dip Set–featured "Don't Fool with the Dips" showcase a choppy, bugged pastiche style that Trak clearly owes to his turntablist pedigree; the instrumentals don't sound produced as much as hand-collaged by some kind of crackbrained octopus. This heady, sample-based approach is the direct antithesis of the synthesized production favored by many current producers, such as that of his former Allies crewmate Develop (producer of joints for Juelz Santana and Lil Wayne), but right in line with the Louis Vuitton Don's old-soul vinyl revival.

Currently working on his own album and making tracks for high-profile clients, A-Trak is further developing this groundbreaking style and bringing the DJ's innovative sensibility back to rap music, where it's long been out of the limelight. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Thank God for Canadians.

hiphop@thestranger.com