DJ Rankin (sometimes misspelled DJ Ranking) is a young DJ and music producer from Scotland, who, as a teen in 2004, gained notoriety for a series of bootleg dance music mixes he produced and uploaded to the Internet.
DJ Rankin is best known for producing music by mixing multiple songs together at a fast tempo, with high-pitched “chipmunk” vocals layered on top, often clashing with the underlying arrangement, and his ubiquitous catch phrase “DJ Rankin in the mix, mutha f**ker” thrown in for good measure. While it doesn’t seem like a recipe for musical success, DJ Rankin’s manic mash-up style caught on with young listeners, especially in Scotland, Whales, and Northern England. Controversy soon followed his initial success, however, as some listeners began to suspect that DJ Rankin was attempting to pass off his work as original compositions, rather than remixes of other artists’ work. Fueling the outrage were internet postings by Rankin’s young fans, who believed the music was his original work and who were very vocal in their support of him. Rankin himself claims that he never attempted to take credit for writing the songs he was mixing, only for creating the mixes themselves.
Despite all the controversy, the popularity of DJ Rankin’s music has continued to grow, fueled by its energy and eccentricity combined with the explosion of teen social networking on the internet and peer-to-peer file-sharing. Due to the continued popularity of his early work, many listeners still believe that Rankin lacks any technical or musical skill whatsoever. In fact, as time passed, Rankin improved his mixing skills, producing much more polished mixes that managed to still retain his sound and style. Adding to the confusion and misperceptions surrounding Rankin’s abilities were impostors, who began releasing their mixes on the internet under DJ Rankin’s name to increase the exposure. These DJ Rankin “fakes” varied wildly in quality.
Today, DJ Rankin is working on an album of all original material. There have apparently been delays in the production due to studio difficulties, the nature of which have fueled countless rumors. Another hot rumor topic is that DJ Rankin has been sued by one or more artists whose music he has used in his mixes. Rankin has denied being the target of any lawsuits regarding his mixes.