Anyone who has dived deep into the history dubstep knows the name Hatcha. According to the man himself, he pretty much came up with the name some 20+ years ago. Now, other juggernauts like Excision, Zomboy, Skrillex, and Rusko carry the dubstep torch and have turned the genre into a modern day rock & roll. Hatcha is still playing gigs, but perhaps it’s time he hangs up his decks, or otherwise re-examines how he treats others at events.
This past weekend, Hatcha played an afterhours slot at a festival in Florida, which I also attended. His actions throughout Friday night (Saturday in the AM) did not reflect the pressionalism someone whose career I’ve followed or who championed an entire genre that now has its own festivals.
In the beginning the night, he was respectful enough — but as he continued to drink more from his rider as he waited for his set time, he became more relaxed about his unwanted advances and inappropriate actions. Note that many these actions, by themselves, might not warrant a full article such as this. However, all together, they spell a story that is troublesome and worthy retelling.
It began with Hatcha sending a photo a woman who was helping out with the festival, but not ficially working it, to the woman herself Instagram DMs and calling her “princess.” This is while the woman was physically in the room with him. She was not an artist liaison, and had no prior contact to Hatcha before that night, but was acting as such in a reduced capacity as other members festival staff were busy at the time. After telling Hatcha this multiple times, his response was to call her sweetheart and ask her to do the job anyway.
This kind flippant attitude continued throughout the night, and by the time staff was ready to walk him to his set, he was nowhere to be found. When he was finally located, by me and the woman from earlier, he was even more inebriated. In the process telling festival staff we’d found him, he put his arms around my friend and tried to kiss her on the lips as she swiftly turned her head and he got her cheek instead. Later in the same conversation, he took her hand and kissed the top it, as well.
By the time it was his time to play, he went up to the DJ playing before him and tried to kick him f over 20 minutes early by showing him his Instagram followers in an attempt to “outrank” the other DJ. The DJ who was on stage, who was not a confrontational person, decided it was better to just let him take over than to cause a scene. There was no stage manager working the stage. He also refused to get f stage when it was the next DJ’s set time, but eventually, reluctantly, he conceded and hopped f.
When he was told about his actions later in the weekend, he sent an “apology” to the woman he first fended. The tone it is equally flippant and hardly sincere, with generic platitudes like “I] apologise if I upset anyone as someone said I had upset some people.”
Ultimately, it’s not up to us or anyone other than his management or booking agency to decide what should happen to Hatcha as a result his actions this past weekend. However, as a witness to this behavior and a writer for a prominent EDM website, I feel that it is my responsibility to hold Hatcha accountable for his actions and to share his trangressions with others in an attempt to keep him from repeating this behavior.
Our community is only as good as our weakest links, and we’ll do anything we can to either strengthen those links or remove them. Your EDM has reached out to both Hatcha’s management and booking agency and will update this article with their responses.
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