Before he was the producer behind era-defining hits, Mark Ronson was a kid chasing sounds through late-night New York – crate-digging, DJing, and learning how different worlds could collide on a dance floor. From underground hip-hop and classic rock to soul, funk, and pop, these five tracks mark the moments where everything shifted, creatively and personally. Together, they tell the story of how Ronson found his voice – and how those influences ultimately fed into Night People, a memoir built on the music, the rooms, and the nights that shaped him...
1. They Reminisce Over You by Pete Rock & CL Smooth
“It's an incredible hip hop song from the early Nineties that really made me fall in love with underground New York hip hop and want to become a DJ.”
2. Back In Black by AC/DC
“That was one of the songs, one of the first times I ever played a rock and roll track in a hip hop club and I could have got a bottle thrown at my head in the booth, but it worked and it really inspired me to just be creative.”
3. All I Do by Stevie Wonder
“This is just something that I DJed so, so many times. In the nineties, it became my signature closing song.”
4. Ooh Wee by Mark Ronson (feat. Ghostface Killah, Nate Dogg, Trife & Saigon)
“This song that I did with Ghostface Killah and Nate Dogg was my first single that ever came out, and it was the first thing that ever got me known in England. I was DJing in New York at that time and coming over and getting to play gigs and clubs in England for the first time.”
5. Rehab by Amy Winehouse
“It was the first song that I ever produced that people really took note of, and that just changed the whole trajectory of my career.”
The Playlist To Soundtrack Your Reading Of Night People
This playlist is Mark Ronson’s Night People in musical form – a loose, lived-in autobiography told through records instead of chapters. These are the songs that echo through late nights in New York, when hip-hop, soul, funk, rock, and club culture bled into one another on sticky dance floors. From golden-age rap anthems and R&B slow burns to disco-era elegance, Prince’s provocation, and Amy Winehouse’s bruised honesty, each track captures a moment, a mood, or a room that shaped Mark’s ear and identity. Play it loud – preferably after dark.
Watch Dua’s full interview with Mark Ronson here, or listen to it as a podcast here.
