ACL Review: DJ Mustard

If you’ve turned on the radio, gone to a club, or simply lived, you’ve heard Los Angeles producer DJ Mustard.

The 26-year-old Dijon McFarlane has been comfortably swimming the mainstream with his bouncy and minimalistic “ratchet music” since 2011. He emerged at ACL using his production of Tyga’s “Rack City” and 2 Chainz’s “I’m Different” as jumping-off points. If not from anything else, you’ve experienced his signature tag – of Compton rapper YG’s voice – at the start of the tracks: "Mustard on the beat, ho!”

To a massive student body on Saturday afternoon at the HomeAway stage, he aimed straight between the eyes of his target audience – apparently frat-boy-aged shirtless heathens and their “woo-hoo” girls. Like anything Mustard does when employing the “DJ” portion of his chosen moniker, he boils down the work to an ultimate bottom line. He simply spins the hits, including the aforementioned tracks, but also tallying other notables like Big Sean’s “I Don’t Fuck With You” and Rihanna smash “Needed Me.”

He also brought out the big guns: Drake’s “Pop Style,” Travis Scott’s “Antidote," and a handful of bro-step bangers, in “wait for it, here comes the drop” rote. What’s highly respectable about Mustard is that he isn’t playing pretend. He knows he’s not a DJ, per se.

Save the knob-turning to, perhaps maybe, equalize levels between tracks, all he’s done is press play. There’s no mixing, or surprises. He understands what people like, and that he’s already good money.

Frankly, that’s all that matters.