Throughout an entire DJ career spanning nearly three decades, DJ Natural Nate® handed out only two mix CDs. Two. Most people find that hard to believe. One of them just resurfaced: a 30-minute promo called "A Light in the Addict", sent as a photo by a good friend named B Bomb B. This is the full story behind that disc: the tracklist, the labels, the era, the reason it was made, and what it represents about a career built entirely on trust, discipline, and the belief that the craft itself is worth protecting.
A Photo That Stopped Time
Sometimes the rarest things aren't worth the most because they're perfect. They're worth the most because they tell a story.
My good friend B Bomb B sent me a photo recently that instantly took me back in time. I just sat there staring at it for a while. It's amazing how one old CD can unlock so many memories.
The disc in that photo is titled *"A Light in the Addict."* It's credited to Natural Nate. It's a 30-minute promo. And it is, without question, one of the rarest physical artifacts from my entire career.
Believe it or not, throughout my entire DJ career, I probably handed out only two mix CDs. That's something most people find hard to believe. I was never a DJ who relied on passing out mixes or flooding the internet with recordings. Even today, I've only recently started uploading some of my older sets to SoundCloud, and most of what we've released over the years has actually been our own productions rather than DJ mixes.
There was a reason for that. And the reason matters.
Two mix CDs. An entire career. One of them just resurfaced, and it unlocked thirty years of memories.
The Tracklist: Every Record on That Disc
The CD label is packed with information, track titles, labels, and artist credits printed in a spiral around the disc. Here is the complete tracklist as it appears on the disc, in order:
**1. "Jump On It", Bruise Your Body Breaks** *(Natural Nate & Bruce Davis)* The opening track is a BYBB original, co-produced with Bruce Davis. Starting the mix with your own production is a statement. It says: this is who I am, this is where I come from, and this is what I make.
**2. "Zito", Technocolor** *(Johnny Dangerously)* Johnny Dangerously's "Zito" on Technocolor: a hard-hitting electro track that set the tone for the energy of the mix.
**3. "Attention Whore", Michael Jackson** *(Columbia Records)* A Michael Jackson cut on Columbia Records, showing range and the willingness to blend pop-adjacent material into an underground mix without apology.
**4. "Jugglin Jawz", Dirtsyle Records** A Dirtsyle Records cut: the label known for raw, unpolished underground energy. "Jugglin Jawz" is exactly what it sounds like: a track built for turntable manipulation.
16 tracks. One 30-minute promo. Every placement deliberate. Every label chosen with intention.
**5. "Krush Style...", Electro Overlord** *(Scratch-D)* Electro Overlord on Scratch-D: a label built around scratch culture and turntable performance. This placement was intentional.
**6. "SuperBass", J.D. Krush** *(Kuad Recordings)* J.D. Krush on Kuad Recordings, bass-heavy, precise, and exactly the kind of track that rewards a DJ who knows how to let the low end breathe.
**7. "Smooth Criminal", Bad L.P.** *(Columbia Records)* Not the Michael Jackson original, this is Bad L.P.'s version on Columbia Records. Placing a reinterpretation of "Smooth Criminal" after the Michael Jackson track earlier in the mix was a deliberate structural choice.
**8. "Rise [Destroy the Jedi]", BFX** *(Bret Affects)* BFX on Bret Affects: an underground electronic cut with a title that tells you everything about its energy.
**9. "Obey Sound Master", Whore...** *(Duality)* A Duality Records release: the label known for pushing the boundaries of what electronic music could be in the underground scene.
**10. "A Light in the Attic", Rockwell** *(Motown Records)* Rockwell on Motown Records: the same artist behind "Somebody's Watching Me." This track gave the mix its name. *"A Light in the Addict"* is a play on *"A Light in the Attic"*: a nod to Shel Silverstein's poetry collection of the same name, and a reflection of the creative, literary sensibility that has always run underneath the surface of this career.
**11. "Outlaw World", Satamile Records** *(Audio Life Recordings)* Satamile Records / Audio Life Recordings: an underground label with deep roots in the electronic music community.
**12. "Alright", Electro Mix** *(Umwelt)* Umwelt: the French electronic music producer known for industrial, dark, and relentless electronic compositions. An "Electro Mix" version placed here shows the range of what "electro" meant in this era.
**13. "Somebody's Watching Me", Morphophogenetic** Morphophogenetic's take on the Rockwell classic: a full-circle moment in the mix, bookending the "A Light in the Attic" placement with another Rockwell reference.
**14. "Genesis", Shel Silverstein** *(Audio Life Recordings)* Shel Silverstein on Audio Life Recordings: the poet, author, and musician whose work inspired the mix title. This placement is not accidental. It is a statement about the literary and artistic influences that shaped this DJ's worldview.
**15. "A Light in the Attic", Columbia Records** *(Shel Silverstein)* The Shel Silverstein original on Columbia Records: the source material for the mix title, placed near the end as a resolution.
**16. "A Light in the Attic", Motown Records** *(Shel Silverstein)* A second version of the same track, different pressing, different label, different texture. Ending the mix with two versions of the same song is a DJ's way of saying: the journey matters more than the destination.
**Also on the disc:** , "Frequency Endeavours Vol. 1", Electro Equals Bass *(Urban J vs. Mekanizm)*, Joe & the Fat Man , "Fundamental Bass Intelligence", Morphophogenetic
The Labels: A Map of the Underground
Reading the label credits on this disc is like reading a map of the underground electronic music world in the early 2000s.
**Dirtsyle Records**, Raw, unpolished, built for DJs who scratched. **Kuad Recordings**, J.D. Krush's label, known for bass-heavy precision. **Electro Overlord / Scratch-D**, Turntable culture in label form. **Duality**, Underground electronic, experimental, uncompromising. **Morphophogenetic**, A producer operating at the edge of what electronic music could be. **Audio Life Recordings / Satamile Records**, Deep underground roots. **Umwelt**, French industrial electronic, relentless and dark. **Hydraulix**, Technocolor's home, built for hard-hitting electro. **Motown Records / Columbia Records**, The mainstream labels that produced the source material being recontextualized.
The mix moves between independent underground labels and major label source material without apology. That is exactly what a great DJ does, they do not respect genre walls or label hierarchies. They respect music.
The booking information printed on the disc, three Colorado Springs phone numbers and the website www.dj-caprico.com, places this squarely in the early 2000s Colorado Springs DJ scene, before The-Lost-Art.com, before the world record, before the Breakspoll ranking. This is the era before the documentation caught up to the career.
Why Only Two Mix CDs: The Trust Principle
Most people find it hard to believe that a DJ with this level of career history handed out only two mix CDs across nearly three decades.
The reason is simple, and it has never changed.
Back then, many producers trusted me with unreleased music. They believed enough in me to let me play their tracks live, but those songs weren't meant to be distributed on recorded mixes before their official release. I took that responsibility very seriously.
Respect has always meant more to me than promotion.
I would rather never release a mix than accidentally include someone's exclusive music without permission. Trust is earned over years and can be lost in a single moment. When a producer sends you an unreleased track, they are not just sending a file. They are sending a piece of themselves, their work, their time, their creative vision, and trusting you to treat it with care.
"Respect has always meant more to me than promotion. I would rather never release a mix than accidentally include someone's exclusive music without permission.", DJ Natural Nate®
That principle shaped everything. It is why most of my early broadcasts were never archived publicly. It is why the SoundCloud catalog has only recently started to grow. It is why the documented record of this career is built on productions and verified performances rather than a library of recorded mixes.
The music was always happening. The performances were always real. The archive was always being protected, not hidden, but protected.
This CD exists because it was required for a show. At the time, I wasn't excited about making it. Today, I'm thankful I did, because it became a small piece of my own history that I didn't know I needed.
The Title: "A Light in the Addict"
The mix is titled *"A Light in the Addict."*
It is a play on *"A Light in the Attic"*: the beloved 1981 poetry collection by Shel Silverstein, published by HarperCollins. The collection is known for its wit, its warmth, its darkness, and its refusal to talk down to its audience. Silverstein wrote for children but never wrote childishly. He wrote about real things, longing, imagination, the gap between what we want and what we have, and he did it with humor and honesty.
The substitution of "Addict" for "Attic" is not random. It is a reflection of what music addiction feels like from the inside: the compulsive return to the crates, the inability to stop searching for the next perfect record, the way a great track can light up a room the same way a light in an attic illuminates something that was always there but hidden.
Shel Silverstein appears twice on this disc, once on Audio Life Recordings and once on Columbia Records. The title is not just a wordplay. It is a dedication.
This CD has always been one of Jenna's favorites. Every now and then, someone reaches out and tells me they still have a copy tucked away somewhere. That means more than any chart position or streaming number ever could.
Perfection Was Never the Point
The funny thing is, after all these years, I can honestly say I've never performed what I consider to be a perfect mix. Not once.
Maybe that's because perfection doesn't exist in turntablism. When you're manually controlling two records with your hands, constantly making tiny corrections, riding the pitch, feeling every beat, and recovering from little imperfections that most people never even notice, you realize that the beauty isn't found in perfection. It's found in being real.
I've always been my own toughest critic. Every mix I ever recorded, I heard mistakes that nobody else seemed to notice. Because of that, I became very private about releasing mixes. I always felt they could be better.
I have a friend who still owns hundreds of my old cassette tapes from when I was first learning vinyl. Looking back, they were full of mistakes. They were messy. They were the sound of someone chasing a dream. Yet he loved every single one of them and always made me feel like they were something special.
Looking back now, maybe they were. They weren't recordings of perfection, they were recordings of growth.
"The turntable has always been a musical instrument, and no musician plays every performance perfectly. What matters is the honesty of the performance.", DJ Natural Nate®
One thing that has always mattered deeply to me is showing people the mix, not just letting them hear it. That's one of the biggest reasons I pushed live video so hard during the early days of internet radio. I wanted people to see every movement of the records, every touch of the pitch control, every correction, every recovery, every success, and every mistake. There was never anything to hide.
If I made an error, everyone could watch it happen. That's exactly how it should be.
To me, the turntable has always been a musical instrument, and no musician plays every performance perfectly. What matters is the honesty of the performance.
What This Disc Represents
Looking back now, I realize it was never about trying to prove I was the best. It was about proving that the craft itself was real.
After all these years, I can honestly say I wouldn't change a thing. The late nights, the endless hours practicing alone, the worn-out records, the broken needles, the victories, the disappointments, the friendships, and the memories, they all became part of the journey.
Turntables gave me a voice long before I ever learned how to express myself with words. They taught me patience, discipline, humility, and respect. They reminded me that chasing perfection is impossible, but chasing improvement is a journey that never ends.
If this old CD represents anything, it isn't a mix. It represents a lifetime of loving something with all my heart.
And if I've learned one thing through this incredible ride, it's this:
"The goal was never to be perfect. The goal was simply to be real.", DJ Natural Nate®
The goal was never to be perfect. The goal was simply to be real.
, DJ Natural Nate®
