Skrillex - "RATATA" (ft Missy Elliott and Mr. Oizo)

Skrillex is back with his first solo album in nearly a decade and injects new life into a Missy Elliott classic on the single "RATATA."

The career of Sonny Moore has been an interesting one. In the early aughts, he rose to fame as the frontman of Warped Tour veterans From First to Last, putting his vocal work over Hot Topic branded "hardcore." He left that band and made his move to electronic music after witnessing a life-changing Daft Punk performance and adopted his new name, Skrillex. As the 2010's dawned, he helped lead the EDM movement in America and with that helped make "bro-step" an unfortunate part of mass music culture. Through a handful of EPs and an album, he rose to the top of his game and became one of the leading figures of the scene. Since then, he's collaborated with Diplo under the name Jack Ü, but over the past few years, he's been rather silent. On January 1, 2023 he tweeted "QFF / DGTC 23" and today, he's back with a new solo album called Quest For Fire. Presumably the follow-up / part-two, Don't Get Too Close, will be imminent. Boasting an impressive guest list, the record is an all-out thrill ride that is perhaps best served for late-night, drug fueled dance epics much like those he's been throwing with his new friends and collaborators Four Tet and Fred again.. and undoubtedly like the one that will take place at Madison Sq Garden tomorrow night when the three DJs unleash total pandemonium at the World's Most Famous Arena. One of the highlights of his new album is a track called "RATATA" which clearly gets its name via Missy Elliott's immortal track "Work It" which receives a healthy serving throughout the song. It's a frenzied, charged-up banger that gives its sample source a brand-new makeover that already feels like an instant hard-hitting dance classic. The beats go hard and Skrillex uses his extreme techniques to their full potential, making for a pounding number that also is guaranteed to be blasting across clubs for the foreseeable future. Reemerging with well-respected producers and making perhaps the best music of his career that still sounds undeniably like himself isn't the move I was expecting from Sonny in 2023, but rarely am I so happy to be so surprised by a musician's grand return.

Quest for Fire is out now!