DJ Toy Selectah. (courtesy of the artist)

If a librarian got together with a club kid, they might create similarly genre-defiling terms as those coined by Toy Selectah, such as “raverton” and “Mex-more.” Indeed, Toy can methodically trace the development of cumbia in Mexico back to the 1950s. But he can also keep many a dancefloor roiling, as evidenced by his recent sets at Santos and Bushwick’s own Beauty Bar.

The Monterrey, Mexico-bred deejay got his start making beats for the multi-platinum hip hop act Control Machete. Like New York beat smiths who used the funk and soul records of their parents, Toy used the cumbia of previous generations to piece together his sound. Cumbia, like hip hop, was the music of the ghetto. “It was hard at one point to play cumbia in a lot of the clubs in Mexico City because it was feared as ghetto, although now it’s become more trendy.”

It’s always been about more than just cumbia and hip hop though, and in the mid-2000s he did A&R for a Universal Records imprint that focused on Latin urban music generally. It was this depth of knowledge and breadth of interest that led to a close relationship with Diplo. The two met in New York in 2005 when Toy was trying to sign an act that was performing with him. “I heard him playing all this music I liked, so I introduced myself,” he recalls. After handing him a hard drive full of Latin music and showing him around Mexico soon after, the two stayed close in touch.

Like Diplo, his interest in the sounds of the ghetto have now expanded beyond Latino culture and onto the global south, all while incorporating hipster sounds from around the world mixed with tropical and forward-thinking beats. His remixes often genre-hop from reggaeton and cumbia mixed with classic rock and electro house, and even Angolan kuduro and South Asian desi beats. But he manages to do so in a unified manner, creating a cohesive sound. “It’s great to be expanding into all these different genres because you get to be a part of all of them,” he marvels. “It’s progressive.”

Never one to stay still, his sound is constantly exploring new cultures and tempos. “Every year, I’ll put out two or three mixtapes and these usually predict what I will be playing out in the future,” he explains.

Cumbia itself also continues to change, growing into a new sound for a new generation. “This movement of new school cumbia has been going on for 10 years,” he says. “And the new sound which is evolving out of this is ‘tribal guarachero.’ It’s done by young kids in the ghetto, like 15-years-old. It’s the direct result of this past decade of sound, as well as the recent availability of computers and the internet.”

He sees a pattern in this, which he thinks is necessary for musical progression: “You need a foundation, evolution, and then perspective to transcend to the future.”

This fall, Toy plans to release an EP on Diplo’s label, Mad Decent, which will feature Mumdance, Isa GT, and DJ Blass. He also has two singles in the works alongside Mexicans With Guns and J-Wow from Buraka Som Sistema. He was invited to play Beauty Bar by DJ Beto and the DJ duo D’marquesina, who all are part of a monthly party there. You can also catch them this Friday at Downtown Brooklyn’s Club Deity.