Gramatik

Denis Jašarević, better known for his stage name Gramatik, is an electronic artist from Portorož, Slovenia. His current genre falls under a mixture of hip-hop, glitch, electro, and dubstep.

Early life

Jašarević’s love for music began at an early age of three, when his mother would catch him listening to American funk, jazz, soul and blues from his older sister’s cassette tapes. As he got older, he was entranced by the hip-hop culture and listened to artists such as DJ Premier, Guru, Rza and Dr. Dre.

By the time he was 13, Jašarević had already started producing his first hip-hop beats on an early PC. He later began sharing his tracks through the online music store Beatport, which helped him create his following throughout the U.S. and Europe. Beatport was Jašarević’s gateway to emerging as an electronic artist and landing his first agent in the United States, Hunter Williams.

Career

After Jašarević signed with his new agency, he moved to New York and released his first hip-hop album, Street Bangerz Vol. 1, in 2008. This album was on Beatport's Top 100 Chill Out chart for six months. In an interview with Britt Chester, Jašarević said, "But homie, I didn't even expect the album to sell one track on Beatport, nothing else was sold on beatport except techno and house. When I dropped my stuff and it started selling, I was really surprised, since I'd never seen that boom-bap goodness sell on Beatport. So when it sold, I was like 'Wow!' These were some hip-hop beats, but it was labelled 'Chill Out' on Beatport".