Ingrosso talks feud with "f*cking douchebag" DJ Sneak

In a year of musical high-points, 2012 has not been without its grudges, too. One of the most outspoken critics of dance music’s ‘commercial’ boom, and its biggest players, has been Chicago house vet DJ Sneak. In March, he turned his attention to the Swedish House Mafia, taking issue with the ‘House’ part of its name.

“It’s a sad thing when the Swedish House Mafia is being paid big money to come to the U.S. to play house music,” Sneak argued in an interview with DJ Mag earlier this year, setting the storm-in-a-teacup in motion. “For the record, they do not play house music.” From there, there was a string of angry exchanges between Sneak and the Swedes – at one end of the ring, the self-appointed house gatekeeper and at the other, the stadium-filling commercial success stories. Then, of course, there was Sneak’s triumphant “TODAY HOUSE MUSIC WINS!!!” post after the trio announced they were calling it quits.

So when inthemix got the SHM’s Sebastian Ingrosso on the phone to talk about the group’s One Last Tour plans last month, we made sure to quiz the Refune Records boss about the war of words that kept sparking up in 2012.

“To be honest with you, [Sneak] is a smart man,” Ingrosso told inthemix. “He just went on us because he gained around 6,900 followers in one week. So that was just a marketing thing. It was a great marketing plan from his side, I must give him that. But I think that he is a fucking douchebag, also.”

Ingrosso also added that he’s perplexed by the sniping. “I’m sorry if we made a hit! What should we do? We just make music for what we feel, that’s why SHM became big in the first place. You had trance guys who made big melodies, but we kind of put that into big room house music. Some techno guys hate on the successful DJs and I’m sorry, but why? For what reason? It’s like, ‘Oh I hate Jay-Z because he is a rapper and he’s so successful.’ How can you hate someone’s music? It’s weird. If you don’t like it, don’t listen to it. Don’t punish yourself!”