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Steve Porter remixes HNIC
Steve Porter remixes HNIC
CBC News
Forty video uploads. More than 22 million hits total. Endless entertainment at YouTube parties.
And you'll never look at Allen Iverson or the Slap Chop guy the same way again.
Yes, we're talking about DJ Steve Porter. And hockey fans can rejoice - he's taking his act to Hockey Night in Canada, starting on Saturday with a special opening to the Toronto Maple Leafs-Montreal Canadiens matchup (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 7 p.m. ET).
If you clicked on this story because you saw his name, you don't need an introduction.
But if you haven't seen his videos yet, do yourself a favour and watch this. We'll wait for you to get back.
Congratulations. You are now approximately the 3,254,297th person to have watched that video. And now you know exactly what Porter is all about : remixing and autotuning clips for dramatic and/or hilarious effect.
Ever since Porter, a widely-touring DJ for years before his YouTube explosion, decided to act on an itch to try "something different" a couple years ago, the internet hasn't been the same.
"I was just experimenting with really corny stuff," he told CBCSports.ca. "Eventually I just started breaking through, making little impacts here and there, released a video called Slap Chop Rap which went really big."
How big? Eleven million YouTube hits big. Mainstream media big. "Dude you gotta see this video" big.
The music-sports shake
Porter, 32, decided to make a sports-themed remix soon after. That's when Press Rap was born.
"With sports especially, more than in most industries, you have so many superstars, so many egos, so much great content, so much action, so much love and passion for one thing," Porter said. "It's more or less taking two awesome things, music and sports, putting it into a blender, shaking it up and having a music-sports shake."
Two years, numerous uploads and a brand new company later, Porter has had the NBA, NFL, and others knocking on his door seeking his remixing talents.
Which brings us to hockey, a sport the Massachusetts native fell in love with after countless hours of using the wraparound trick while playing NHL '93 for the Sega Genesis.
"I watched Bruins hockey on TV, but when I started playing Sega Genesis that's when I really, really started getting hockey fever," Porter said. "I don't know if it's a good thing or bad thing, but I learned so much through playing it on a TV set. I became a huge fan and understood the game so much more."
Now he's set to tackle HNIC, starting with the tradition-rich material of the classic Habs-Leafs rivalry. His take on the matchup will open the CBC Hockey Night broadcast on Saturday.
"I would travel to Canada and watch Hockey Night in Canada on TV when I was in hotels, when I was touring [as a DJ]," Porter said. "And to be able to actually work alongside Hockey Night in Canada ... I couldn't be more excited about it.
"It's an experience I could never imagine undertaking a couple years ago."
And anyone asking the obvious question will like this answer.
"I definitely want to do a Don Cherry remix," Porter said.
"The way he talks - he just lets it fly. He's unchecked," he said. "To me he's like one of the Godfathers of the sport. He can say what he wants to say ... and I think that's why he has great material to work with."
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