MCR-T

Berlin based DJ, Rapper, Producer and Club Promoter

MCR-T is the alias of Julian McCarthy, a Berlin-born DJ, producer, rapper and live performer who is one of the key figures in the Live From Earth collective. With German, American and Jamaican roots, he has become one of the most distinctive voices in the city’s underground scene — and one of its hardest to pin down.

His creative background started early. He grew up drawing, doing graffiti, filming and editing skate videos, and eventually studied film and editing. Sound came into the picture around 2015, when he started teaching himself production on Ableton. With Tyler, The Creator as a key influence, he always wanted to work across different styles and formats rather than stay in one lane.

MCR-T · EL GOATY THE SESH GOAT [SESH001]

He started making music under the name MCNZI, producing trap and ghetto-influenced tracks, before pivoting toward harder, faster electronic territory. The name MCR-T came out of that shift, “McCarthy” abbreviated the Jamaican way, no “th” — and with it, the gap between the artist and the person closed completely.

He got onto Live From Earth the old-fashioned way, by persistently spamming everyone at the collective until they listened. His debut EP Kraft on the Live From Earth Klub imprint in 2018 marked the start of something, and he has been building momentum ever since — playing two to three gigs a week globally and racking up over 100 million streams across platforms.

His sound pulls from ghetto-tech, Miami bass, electro and techno, always delivered with a sharp sense of humour and what he calls a “Berliner Schnauze” — that classic Berlin directness, a little rude, a little crude, but never without wit. Live, he regularly jumps on the mic mid-set, turning a DJ performance into something more unpredictable and immediate.

Key tracks include My Barn My Rules with fellow Live From Earth artist horsegiirL, which took off online, and Buurman Uit Berlijn featuring Joost. His 2024 debut album NOT THE SAME ≠ — partly recorded in Miami — is his most complete statement yet, ranging from club tools and Miami bass to more personal, introspective cuts about burnout and the pressures of rapid success. A deluxe edition followed in May 2025, with remixes from DJ Mell G, DJ Gigola, Vieze Asbak and others, alongside a live concert at Kesselhaus in Berlin.

Beyond his solo work he co-runs SESH, a party series with Clara Cuvé, and is a regular collaborator with Live From Earth residents including DJ Gigola and horsegiirL. He has played Berghain, Panorama Bar, and venues from São Paulo to Antwerp, and contributed a remix of CRYME’s “London Boy” to SEVEN’s first anniversary release, SEVEN7001LTD

Fun Fact: SEVEN Label artists Perra Inmunda, MCR-T, CRYME and Pablo Bozzi were until recently all at the same booking agency – Reprise Talent Agency in Berlin. Perra and CRYME have the same booker, the very lovely and amazing Eva Selezneva. Perra and MCR-T are both residents at Live from Earth.