Sarah Chrosniak - The DJ
Odds are if you ran into Sarah Chrosniak on the street, you'd never guess she was a member of Nashville's most ribald rap group, The Billy Goats. Known professionally as DJ Eticut, Chrosniak is petite, soft-spoken and unassuming, the exact opposite of what you'd expect after listening to the Goats' rabble-rousing 2009 debut There's No U in Team, much less what you'd expect from a contemporary hip-hop DJ.
In a scene full of dudes totally impressed with the sound of their own name, Eticut skips the brazen self-promotion and desperate cries for attention that define so much of DJ culture in the 21st century. She's not seeking celebrity through playing other people's records and she's not about to shout over said records, but she'll cut 'em, scratch 'em and flip 'em like it's nobody's business — and we'll be damned if that's not a welcome relief.
The North Carolina native first popped up on our radar sometime last decade when she was a constant presence in the hip-hop underground. Always around, fliers in hand for the biggest underground shows rolling through town as the street team coordinator for Dimensions of Sound, Chrosniak was also putting together open mic nights at Murfreesboro's Liquid Smoke and the back porch at Cafe Coco.
For those keeping score at home, those were the same nights where locals Wick-It and Kidsmeal honed their skills before blowing up with their Mashville residency — the same open mics that served as an incubator for MCs like Bobby Exodus, Spoken Nerd and her Billy Goats collaborator MC 24/7. And though they may have not garnered much attention outside of participants and a tight-knit group of fans, those nights laid the groundwork for this city's ongoing hip-hop renaissance, helping create an environment where artistic experimentation was not just encouraged, but expected. Chrosniak was handling the business side without exploiting the opportunity to push her own career.
So when we first got word that Eticut had started a group with Murfreesboro rapper 24/7 and recovering indie rocker MC Iller, it was tough to contain our excitement — what kind of mess this motley crew would make was more than a little mysterious. What we got was a group who channels the good-time melodic vibes of golden-age hip-hop without slavish adherence to the orthodoxy and self-righteousness that has defined most of the backpack scene over the last decade. And while Chrosniak can't be blamed for the self-deprecating lyrical bent, she can be praised for the tight beats and fresh scratches that evoke classic party jams from folks like Pete Rock, Premiere and the late, lamented J Dilla. You just might not know it if you saw her walking down the street. —SEAN MALONEY
Photographed by Eric England at her Murfreesboro home.
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