John Dadzie, also known as electronic music producer and DJ 12th Planet, sat in a small, dingy room down a hallway from The Rialto Theatre’s green room. He observed that this was a prime location for an interview, that the rectangular room’s “impulse response [was] awesome.”

Even before he took the stage, he was already into the UA spirit.
“Go Wildcats, although one of the members on the Smog City Tour is a Sun Devil, and he will hate the fact that I actually said that,” Dadzie said, referring to Protohype, a fellow DJ/producer who played immediately before Dadzie’s set.

Halfway through his performance on Friday, though, Protohype made the bold declaration to the Tucson crowd that he hailed from ASU. He was met with an unsurprising flurry of boos and middle fingers, but after claiming that he just wanted to party and be a Wildcat for a night, he won over the begrudging crowd.

It was a night of thudding beats and blaring bass music as the hard hitters of Dadzie’s Smog Records took over The Rialto on Friday night for the Smog City Tour. Doors opened at 9 p.m. and concertgoers were first greeted by opening act Steady. After Steady came SPL, then Antiserum, then Protohype and then, at 12:45 a.m., 12th Planet himself took over to close out.

At the end of the last decade, dubstep exploded into the mainstream. The subgenre is not simply relevant to mainstream music, but also to mainstream culture.

“Between the years of 2010 and 2014, we’ve seen dubstep infiltrate major corporate marketing,” Dadzie said. “We’ve seen commercials, we’ve seen Super Bowl commercials, we’ve seen major fashion shows be dedicated to that kind of sound.”

Back before Dadzie even became 12th Planet (he produced drums and bass under the alias “Infiltrata” until roughly 2006), dubstep was decidedly niche.

“It’s really cool to see the progression,” Dadzie said. “From what I remember [of] dubstep … [it was] just 90 people in the club and 80 of them are dudes, and all of them are producers. To go from that to neon-wearing motherfuckers at the rave and cowboy Clydesdale boots, furry boots — there’s nothing wrong with that.”
The outfits that Dadzie alludes to are now a staple of any electronic music show, and Friday’s performance proved no different. The most colorful concertgoer was a young man decked out in a rainbow of Kandi (bracelets made out of beads) with an orange mask made out of beads and red and orange fur pants that made him look like a spray-painted Chewbacca.

Having produced and DJ’d music professionally for 15 years, Dadzie has been a witness to the perpetual ebb and flow of dance music. He cited 1996-2000 as the real “coming out party” for electronic dance music, and said he notices similarities between then and now.

“I think it really got embraced by the youth and college culture starting then, and even more so now, especially fraternities that are on college campuses,” Dadzie said. “Since 2010, 2009, this is the first time we’ve seen fraternities embrace rave culture.”

Around 1:50 a.m. on Saturday, 12th Planet concluded his set and has left the stage. Some of the audience members began a “one more song” chant, and, despite someone on crew trying to cut them off, Dadzie leapt back on stage and blasted Doctor P’s remix of the Tetris theme. When the bass dropped, Dadzie launched himself into the crowd, a crowd that might not have been as large several years ago.

“I do not have an opinion whether or not EDM is mainstream,” Dadzie said. “I root for the success of all of the people who are in the culture and that are pushing the music, pushing the boundaries.”