Krafty Kuts Owes His DJ Career to His Babysitter

With three consecutive "Best DJ" wins and dozens of albums to his name, Krafty Kuts (aka Martin Reeves) is one of the UK's most celebrated DJs. In the latest episode of Crate Diggers, the Brighton DJ sits down with Fuse and tells us he owes a big part of that to his babysitter.

"We used to have a babysitter when I was about 13, 14, and she'd come around with quite a cool record collection," Reeves says. "She once brought over a B.T. Express record, Do It (Til' Your Satisfied), and it has the sample EPMD used [on "So Wat Cha Sayin'"]. I liked all the disco, funk sounds I was hearing. And basically, when I was old enough and had money… I used to spend every penny on starting to collect records, just from my babysitter influencing me with the music she liked. I'd like to thank her and shake her hand, because here I am now living my life for music. It's the most important part of my life, other than my family."

Reeves also opens up about a job-related accident before he became a DJ. "I don’t really share this with many people but I suppose now is the perfect opportunity. I lost my fingers in a really bad accident when I was a wood machinist. I got compensated from the job and I got quite a bit of money." Reeves explains how he took that money, bought a room full of funk and disco records and opened his own record store in Brighton—and that's when the scratching began.

For the full story—and to see Reeves pull out his favorite albums from his massive vinyl stash—watch the Krafty Kuts episode of Crate Diggers above.