It feels like it was just weeks ago that I was touring the West Coast with DJ Z-Trip, the Phoenix native who became known as king of the mash-ups before turning his back on the subgenre he helped launch. But really, it was 2001, and I was helping lug Z-Trip's massive record crates from airports to hotel rooms to venues, from Anchorage, Alaska (my hometown), where we watched pods of humpback whales migrate through the Cook Inlet, to Portland, Oregon, to San Bernardino, California, where he played between acts like Cypress Hill, Limp Bizkit, and... More >>>