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Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. All Right, y'alls.

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Speaker 1: In twenty twenty two, we went to Atlanta for a

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Speaker 1: block of tapings and we got to kick it with

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Speaker 1: the one and only DJ Drama. We brought some in

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Speaker 1: Philly history to the atl as. We spoke about his

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Speaker 1: early as days, his love of hip hop, and some

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Speaker 1: of his most recent work. And this was a really

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Speaker 1: really cool conversation, a two parter, and we chatted until

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Speaker 1: the studio and film cruise damn near kicked us out.

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Speaker 1: So shout out to Ti for letting us use the

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Speaker 1: studio formerly Dallas Austin's Lab to shout out to DJ

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Speaker 1: Drama and the whole team.

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Speaker 2: Here is part one of DJ Drama.

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Speaker 3: Primo sub Primo, Roll suprima, subprimo, Roll subprima, Son Supremo,

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Speaker 3: Roll call Suprema, so supremo.

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Speaker 4: Roll Warm up my Pannini, Yeah, on my forming grill,

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Speaker 4: warm her for Nanni.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, or my.

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Speaker 3: Supremo roll Supremo, Supremo role.

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Speaker 4: My name is Fante DJ dramas my peoples, Yeah, the

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Speaker 4: best gangs, the.

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Speaker 1: Grills, Yes, separate but equal.

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Speaker 3: Supremo Supremo, Roll suprima Son Supremo.

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Speaker 2: Roll.

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Speaker 1: My name is sugar.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I don't need no drama.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, but I do need a DJ.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, fucking you're hired. I'm offended.

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Speaker 3: Supremo, Roll Suprema, Son Supremo Roll.

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Speaker 6: It's lay yeah, and it's a must.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 6: You know the DJ drama. Yeah was my college crush.

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Speaker 3: Roll Supremo, Supremo, Roll Suprima, Supremo Roll.

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Speaker 1: Is DJ drama. Yeah.

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Speaker 7: You know my mama, she's a white lady.

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Speaker 5: She didn't go to Grady.

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Speaker 8: Supremo, Roll, Come Supremo, Sun Supremo, Roll Supremo, Sun, Sun Supremo,

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Speaker 8: Roll Supremo Supremo Roll.

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Speaker 1: Oh boy, all right, that was fun. Yeah, so that's

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Speaker 1: the episode. Yeah, see your next go around.

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Speaker 5: All right, look I will shout man. All right, So

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Speaker 5: I will say this much.

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Speaker 1: Back when my band started to tour in nineteen ninety four,

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Speaker 1: I kept receipts of which DJs were open to us

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Speaker 1: in film and supporting us. And of course, you know

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Speaker 1: some cats up in New York, Tony Toka, you know,

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Speaker 1: Tony Touch showed us love. His cat named Blue, the

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Speaker 1: barber who used to do these blends showed us love.

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Speaker 1: Of course, Philly's own cosmic keV DJ cash Money. But

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Speaker 1: there was one mixtape in particular that always got run

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Speaker 1: on our tour bus.

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Speaker 5: And it just said ildelf on it.

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Speaker 1: You know, it meant something to me because this is

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Speaker 1: the first time that I'm hearing Malik B and Tariq

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Speaker 1: and Dice Fraul actually on a mixtape, and we just

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Speaker 1: ran that tape over and like that was damn near

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Speaker 1: the soundtrack in nineteen ninety four and ninety five on

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Speaker 1: our tour bus. So cut two seven years later. You know,

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Speaker 1: once the roots sort of evolve and whatnot. And now

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Speaker 1: we have two tour buses. As I've joked before that

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Speaker 1: there was this Slytherin tour bus in the Gryffindor tour bus.

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Speaker 1: So I'd be on Slytherin, which was Tarik's bus, and

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Speaker 1: you know which was it was always popping on his bus.

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Speaker 1: We were the nerd bus, but you know, his jaw

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Speaker 1: was always popping. And it wasn't until like the end

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Speaker 1: of maybe the Phrenology tour where Tarik's trying to explain

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Speaker 1: to me that every time I hear this little he's

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Speaker 1: trying to explain to me that that's to read from Backenviilly.

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Speaker 1: It's dramatic and I'm like, wait, it doesn't make sense.

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Speaker 1: Though it doesn't only because the thing was is that

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Speaker 1: that mixtape of ninety four. I've never heard someone just

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Speaker 1: devote an entire mixtape to what we called underground or

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Speaker 1: backpack rap or whatever. You know what I mean, which

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Speaker 1: is why the Roots couldn't find a real estate on

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Speaker 1: your sens or your Tony not Tony touched like you know,

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Speaker 1: like yeah, all those like we barely got on them jings.

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Speaker 1: I was like, wait a minute, he what And they're like, yeah, man,

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Speaker 1: he moved to Atlanta and now he's you know, I've

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Speaker 1: always wanted to have this conversation with if you know,

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Speaker 1: it's like, we never chopped it up for real. I

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Speaker 1: knew one of these days we were going to have

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Speaker 1: a conversation, so I wanted to save it for here.

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Speaker 5: I'm glad.

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Speaker 7: I know we've had a couple of interactions on I

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Speaker 7: g about it, but never like in depth.

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Speaker 1: This is Yes, this is our first in depth conversation.

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Speaker 1: So ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to Quest Love Supreme,

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Speaker 1: the Master God himself, mister Thanksgiving, Yes, DJ Drama Man than.

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Speaker 7: You, thank you thank you for having me.

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Speaker 1: Do you get tired of those people like always pointing

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Speaker 1: out the Mason Dixon line of your before and after life?

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Speaker 7: No, I don't get tired of nothing because they could

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Speaker 7: never care. So yeah, nothing, nothing tires me when it

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Speaker 7: comes to that. Okay, it's a very important part of

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Speaker 7: the story for myself and for hip hop and for

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Speaker 7: Southern culture.

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Speaker 5: Like in a lot of ways, you know, like what.

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Speaker 7: If I would have went to Temple or what if

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Speaker 7: I would have went to NYU, you know what I'm saying.

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Speaker 7: So the fact that this kid from Philly who literally

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Speaker 7: grew up watching The Roots as his inspiration of Wow,

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Speaker 7: you can really do this and DJing for Bahamadia and

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Speaker 7: you know, my roommate when I got to college was

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Speaker 7: Rubiks whose best friend was was Taib Kwali and I'm

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Speaker 7: DJing lyricist lounges. And then that kid goes on to

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Speaker 7: be a part of and transform like trap music and movement.

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Speaker 7: Gangster Girls becomes like the most important mixtape series literally

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Speaker 7: of all time, but also how important it was to

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Speaker 7: Southern hip hop culture. So yeah, it's one of those

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Speaker 7: It's one of those like destiny stories to me when

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Speaker 7: you know, and when it's told and like I've literally

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Speaker 7: been in Atlanta longer than I was in Philly, but

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Speaker 7: those eighteen years of born and raised in Philly. Once

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Speaker 7: from Philly, always from Philly.

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Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying.

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Speaker 1: So you know when last time you said John, I

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Speaker 1: say John all the time. There you go, all right

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Speaker 1: the second even even.

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Speaker 7: In mean streets, like you know some of my employees

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Speaker 7: who started interns, like we have signs up like do

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Speaker 7: not come in this John like or in our new

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Speaker 7: building generation now, like there's a big sign of Kobe,

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Speaker 7: or we have like a Philly map on the side,

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Speaker 7: so we still wrap it up.

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Speaker 1: That's what's up. Of course, like you mentioned on your

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Speaker 1: roll call that YouTube went to clerk. So now from Atlanta,

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Speaker 1: I remember the.

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Speaker 6: Day no, don't don't lie. Me and Nadine used to

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Speaker 6: fight over you all the time, and you know that

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Speaker 6: let's not do that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought it was the other the way around.

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Speaker 7: I used to have the I used to still wear

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Speaker 7: the green fatigues from I Goldberg, like when I got discussed,

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Speaker 7: I still had them.

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Speaker 1: And the locks definitely had the long locks.

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Speaker 6: So that's why this is the whole interesting thing. And

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Speaker 6: it's funny because the mere he said he would do,

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Speaker 6: he said, if it was in demand, he would do

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Speaker 6: an Automatic Relaxation mixtape. Again, I just want to say

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Speaker 6: that to everybody who's listening. Did you hear this context?

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Speaker 5: Well?

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Speaker 1: Old right, it's covered interestingly enough.

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Speaker 7: Just even during my most recent tour that I went on,

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Speaker 7: I actually physically got my hands on one the first

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Speaker 7: Automatic Relaxation, which was the first CD which happened to

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Speaker 7: be called it was hip hop lovables, like people don't realize,

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Speaker 7: like when I first made Automatic Relaxation, like it was

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Speaker 7: before neo soul was a thing, or like hip hop

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Speaker 7: love songs were like you know, before everybody was like singing,

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Speaker 7: or it was so much melody, so like, you know,

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Speaker 7: it was a hip hop lovables like I named it

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Speaker 7: that because it didn't really exist at the time. And

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Speaker 7: then I just recently got my hands on my actual

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Speaker 7: ill ADELFH tape with you know thoughts I do, I do?

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Speaker 5: I should have brought it, N I definitely should have

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Speaker 5: brought it.

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Speaker 7: I got the Green carp My home boy from from

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Speaker 7: Philly who lives across street from my mom d shot

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Speaker 7: the DS. He found it in his crib and I

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Speaker 7: was like, if you go on my Instagram, I actually

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Speaker 7: show it the tape and then I go and I

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Speaker 7: go and then show my Grammy, like to see where

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Speaker 7: I came from and where I'm at now.

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Speaker 1: How it started, how it was going, yeah, how I

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Speaker 1: was going. Yeah. So for you, what was your first

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Speaker 1: musical memory.

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Speaker 7: My first musical memory for me is being in Germantown

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Speaker 7: when my dad lived on Ruby Camp Street and the

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Speaker 7: older kids having the younger kids say.

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Speaker 5: The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire.

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Speaker 7: We don't need no water, Let it burn, let it burn,

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Speaker 7: and they left out motherfucker. Like I vially remember years

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Speaker 7: later being like, damn, I didn't know they said let

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Speaker 7: the motherfucker burn because they used to say let.

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Speaker 5: It burn, let it burn.

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Speaker 7: And then I mean, my dad was a big duop guy,

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Speaker 7: so I definitely grew up around like him, playing a

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Speaker 7: lot of the Commodorees and the Temptations, and obviously Thriller.

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Speaker 7: Thriller came out eighty three, you know, so I was

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Speaker 7: probably like I was, I was five when Thriller came out,

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Speaker 7: So that was a big moment. And then another one

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Speaker 7: for me was definitely wanting Adidas because of my Adidas,

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Speaker 7: like I didn't get my parents bought me the wrong ones.

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Speaker 7: They bought me Like they didn't buy meant stripe. Yeah,

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Speaker 7: I didn't get the three stripes. So they were still

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Speaker 7: a Didas though they were Adidas. They were Das, but

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Speaker 7: they weren't the street three striped ones. There was like

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Speaker 7: in Ecker's drugs. My parents were doing like air.

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Speaker 1: They were doing. My parents were doing a they were

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Speaker 1: doing a residency in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Anybody from

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Speaker 1: Puerto Rico that remembers, uh, I think back in eighty

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Speaker 1: six or eighty seven when the DuPont Plaza, there was

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Speaker 1: like a battle between the union staff which I don't

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Speaker 1: know if they were mom connected or whatever, in the

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Speaker 1: hotel management. They threatened like if you don't renegotiate our contract,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna blow this hotel up.

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Speaker 5: Because we checked out.

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Speaker 1: We had a New Year's gig in Lancaster, PA that night,

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Speaker 1: so we checked out at you know, twelve pm on

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Speaker 1: December thirtieth, flew back to the States and came back.

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Speaker 5: Home with all the messages like are you guys alive?

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Speaker 1: For you and then we found out that there was

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Speaker 1: an explosion in the DuPont Plaza. I think like eighteen

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Speaker 1: people died or whatever. But the whole point was there

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Speaker 1: was an eckage drugs across the street. And you know,

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Speaker 1: this is when Adidas made Top ten Adidas, the red,

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Speaker 1: blue and green like high top thing, and so they

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Speaker 1: were like, we got you Top ten Adidas, but it

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Speaker 1: had four stripes. There's like the twelve ninety nine and

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Speaker 1: not case with either.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, and that's and that's where right, and that's when

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Speaker 4: like you had to run your shoes down before you

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Speaker 4: got another pair of shoes.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, just all in seventh grade, I just.

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Speaker 4: Got laughed at because you know, I got a pleathar

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Speaker 4: thriller suit and I got four stripes in my Adidas.

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Speaker 7: Similar, Yeah, I got the wrong I felt like I

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Speaker 7: didn't get the right Adidas.

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Speaker 5: I'll never forget that, I see, I see.

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Speaker 1: But for you, when did at least turntablism, Like when

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Speaker 1: did that attract you?

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Speaker 7: So for me, I grew when I grew up, you know,

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Speaker 7: I mean the first like piece of vinyl that I

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Speaker 7: got was this actual this compilation vinyl was it was

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Speaker 7: called like street.

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Speaker 5: Rap and like KTL Records joined or something. It had

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Speaker 5: to be something like that.

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Speaker 7: I don't remember where where I got it, but and

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Speaker 7: it had like rock box on it and had Roxanne

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Speaker 7: Roxanne Utfo KTL and I remember, like, you know, literally

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Speaker 7: like memorizing Roxanne Roxanne by Utfo and it had a

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Speaker 7: couple of other songs on there. So that was my

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Speaker 7: first actual physical like piece of hip hop vinyl. But

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Speaker 7: around like maybe like ten eleven, I got really into skateboarding,

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Speaker 7: you know, and I was super into skateboarding and it

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Speaker 7: was all about Thrasher magazine. It was all about going

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Speaker 7: down to Love Park. So this is like in middle

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Speaker 7: school for me. And you know, I came up at

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Speaker 7: a time when down in Love Park there started to

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Speaker 7: be this this movement or group of black skateboarders. So

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Speaker 7: it was it was maybe like seven to eight of

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Speaker 7: us at the time, and you know, shout to my

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Speaker 7: brother Stevie Williams. He was like the youngest of all

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Speaker 7: of us, and he was also the best.

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Speaker 5: Fortunately I was the worst. So what about Chuck Trees

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Speaker 5: was here around, I think, so he's older though, Yeah,

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Speaker 5: he was older and he's.

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Speaker 1: Still skateboarding and he's still.

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Speaker 7: Yeah, we're a little younger, but you know, they used

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Speaker 7: to basically like make fun of me because I could

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Speaker 7: barely land a kickflip and like or even like when

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Speaker 7: we used to like go to Wah Wah and like

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Speaker 7: steal the fucking the jugs of ice teas and everything,

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Speaker 7: and then like when we were skate off, I would

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Speaker 7: always be like behind, get caught, never got caught, but

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Speaker 7: I was I was like I was like last when

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Speaker 7: we would try to skate back to love. So yeah,

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Speaker 7: I was super into skateboarding. I think Nickelodeon had like

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Speaker 7: skate TV out or something around the time. And then

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Speaker 7: between eighth grade and ninth grade, I went to the

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Speaker 7: movies to go see Juice, and I was just blown away.

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Speaker 7: I think for a certain age group of us as DJs,

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Speaker 7: like Juice was really was really monumental in our careers

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Speaker 7: because you know, and again like in Philly culture, like

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Speaker 7: we always like Philly had the DJs, New York had

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Speaker 7: the rappers, you know what I'm saying. So you know,

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Speaker 7: I knew early on about cash Money and Miz and

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Speaker 7: Jeff and what what have you. So, but it was

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Speaker 7: really Juice that started my fascination with like that's I

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Speaker 7: might want to try that you know what I'm saying.

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Speaker 7: Like I dabbled about, you know, rapping a little bit

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Speaker 7: and never was really that good at it. And then

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Speaker 7: so ninth grade, after seeing Juice, I convinced my mom

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Speaker 7: to buy me a turntable and a mixer, and she did.

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Speaker 7: It was a belt drive. Originally, I got to Yeah,

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Speaker 7: it was tough.

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Speaker 5: It was tough.

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Speaker 7: So I originally got like a belt drive turntable and

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Speaker 7: one mixer. I remember was it a Gemini or a

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Speaker 7: technical a Gemini? It was a Gemini belt draft. It

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Speaker 7: was a Gemini be draft.

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Speaker 4: Those that are wondering drivers a direct drive, they'll drive

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Speaker 4: is like you know, yeah, exactly.

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Speaker 7: It takes a long time to rev back up. So

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Speaker 7: like good time without a technique twelve hundred dot, you

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Speaker 7: wasn't really doing nothing. So but I remember I did.

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Speaker 7: Like it was a kid. His name was Ari Foreman.

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Speaker 7: I did his Ari birthday. You know, all right, ye

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Speaker 7: are still around. He's like he does very much doing

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Speaker 7: production and film and things like that.

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Speaker 4: He did some art for us, like him and Tramp

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Speaker 4: and like they designed so crazy how the world is

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Speaker 4: still connected with his birthday party was my first party.

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Speaker 7: So I remember the first records. Really, Yeah, we went.

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Speaker 7: He went to Central with me.

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Speaker 5: You and Ari are the same age we are, Yeah,

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Speaker 5: we came in.

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Speaker 1: I'm older than Ari. I'm way older than you. So

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Speaker 1: by the transit vehicles by a couple of years. Are

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Speaker 1: so classy. Like I always thought he was like slightly

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Speaker 1: older than me.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, we'll just same class two five.

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Speaker 1: Because he's the one that introduced me to Cosmo.

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Speaker 5: Okay, so good.

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Speaker 7: So I used to save my lunch money. My mom

307
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Speaker 7: would give me like five hours every day for lunch.

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Speaker 7: What did your parents do?

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Speaker 1: Man?

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Speaker 7: What was My mom is a teacher. She's in education.

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Speaker 7: She's been in education forever she was. She now has

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Speaker 7: her PhD in education. But when I was in growing up,

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Speaker 7: she would teach in Philadelphia High School. She taught at Alnie,

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Speaker 7: she taught it Overbrook, Yeah, I think those were She

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Speaker 7: went from Alnie to Overbrooks. So she was at Overbrook

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Speaker 7: when I was essentral And my dad used to work

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Speaker 7: for this Quaker organization in Philly called AFSC American Friends

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Speaker 7: Service Committee and then HIT. Part of his job was

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Speaker 7: spending a lot of time in Eastern Europe. So like

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Speaker 7: he used to travel to the USSR at the time,

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Speaker 7: and you know, and then later on he would go

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Speaker 7: to other part of parts of Eastern Europe and like,

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Speaker 7: you know, help out like what are known as Gypsies,

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Speaker 7: which pretty much are like, you know, people of European descent,

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Speaker 7: but they almost get treated as black people over there.

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Speaker 7: And then my dad, you know, both my parents are

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Speaker 7: very politically active growing up, so like my dad used

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Speaker 7: to be in snick student student and coordinating committee.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, so you know, I grew up going to like.

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Speaker 1: Did you go to Charters school of the Charters? I didn't.

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Speaker 7: I always wanted to go to a charter school category.

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Speaker 7: I wanted to go to Friends Select or GFS or

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00:17:22,040 --> 00:17:25,280
Speaker 7: Penn Charters so bad, like because I knew so many

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Speaker 7: kids that went there. It's funny because I put my

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Speaker 7: daughters into friends schools and they're.

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Speaker 5: Like, oh, Dad, why did you do this to us?

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Speaker 7: And I was like, man, growing up, I wanted to

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Speaker 7: go to a friend school, but I think it might

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Speaker 7: just be a Philly thing. It's Quaker and that's like

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Speaker 7: a pa thing. But I went to public school. Like

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Speaker 7: my parents couldn't afford me to go to those schools,

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Speaker 7: so I went to Mastermin and I went to Central.

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Speaker 7: So I always went to like good academic schools, Like

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Speaker 7: I had good grades in school and.

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Speaker 1: What have you.

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Speaker 7: So, yeah, so I used to go downtown between Arman's,

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Speaker 7: Funkel Mart and Sounds of Market and I would buy

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Speaker 7: my records and I would you know, the first records

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Speaker 7: I bought was like the Who's the Man soundtrack Heavy

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Speaker 7: D was Who's the Man partying bullshit, So.

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Speaker 1: You spend out and cuts in the grooves here this

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Speaker 1: small and its loud, Superba, super ghetto, Redtat, Supercat, Ghetto

353
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Speaker 1: red Hot, Fad Joe Flow Joe. Yeah.

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Speaker 7: You know this was around the time when like in Philly,

355
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Speaker 7: like it was there was the Goats and then there

356
00:18:23,680 --> 00:18:26,040
Speaker 7: was the Square Roots, and you know that was like

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Speaker 7: that was you know, my introduction to like hip hop

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Speaker 7: and DJing, and it was this was all around that era.

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Speaker 1: Well, first of all, you know, even for me, like

360
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Speaker 1: to be a drummer as young as I was, and

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Speaker 1: I would get these catalogs, you sam Ash catalogs whatever,

362
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Speaker 1: drums were like seven thousand bucks, right, And so I

363
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Speaker 1: mean lucky for me, my dad had like access to

364
00:18:55,080 --> 00:18:58,960
Speaker 1: stuff usually like band members that upcumbed to an addiction

365
00:18:59,080 --> 00:19:01,280
Speaker 1: or whatever, and whatever leave the equipment and that's how

366
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Speaker 1: like the inherited drum sets when I was younger, but

367
00:19:04,760 --> 00:19:08,960
Speaker 1: like DJ equipment though, man it's like expensive.

368
00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:12,280
Speaker 5: Were you just on one turntable and one cheap radio shack?

369
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Speaker 1: Drawing like a mixer.

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Speaker 7: For a while, I had the what was the I

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Speaker 7: guess it was a Gemini mixture that had the eight

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Speaker 7: second sampler scratch master.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I had that.

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Speaker 4: Oh my god, how do you know that I had? Well,

375
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Speaker 4: I had access to one, that one that was like

376
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Speaker 4: you were DJ too, No, no, no, I used to

377
00:19:26,840 --> 00:19:30,280
Speaker 4: make beats on it. YEA had the sampler, yes, yeah,

378
00:19:30,760 --> 00:19:32,720
Speaker 4: loop and you had to like turn the thing to

379
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Speaker 4: catch it perfect perfectly and yeah, my finger was like all.

380
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Speaker 5: I remember.

381
00:19:39,600 --> 00:19:43,240
Speaker 7: I used to write my grandparents, my mother's parents, like letters,

382
00:19:43,440 --> 00:19:45,360
Speaker 7: and like when I would get good grades, I would

383
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Speaker 7: like write them letters like hey, I got good grades.

384
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Speaker 5: Like can you get me this?

385
00:19:50,560 --> 00:19:55,000
Speaker 7: And you know, and then you know, my my grandparents

386
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Speaker 7: actually I think we're the ones who bought me my

387
00:19:59,160 --> 00:20:03,240
Speaker 7: technique twelve hund so they bought me my technique twelve hundreds.

388
00:20:03,280 --> 00:20:05,800
Speaker 7: And then I would do little gigs here and there,

389
00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:08,520
Speaker 7: and I think, you know Armands at the time, like

390
00:20:08,840 --> 00:20:10,640
Speaker 7: or not even armands that I think a funkal Mark.

391
00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:13,639
Speaker 7: You know, you could buy speakers weren't like that expensive,

392
00:20:14,040 --> 00:20:16,280
Speaker 7: so you could. I could I bought like maybe like

393
00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:19,200
Speaker 7: you know these big ass wolfers and everything, and it

394
00:20:19,280 --> 00:20:22,480
Speaker 7: might have been like two three hundred bucks four hundred

395
00:20:22,520 --> 00:20:24,679
Speaker 7: dollars for a set, right, and then you would have

396
00:20:24,720 --> 00:20:25,800
Speaker 7: to buy a receiver.

397
00:20:26,680 --> 00:20:27,399
Speaker 5: What else would you need?

398
00:20:27,640 --> 00:20:28,240
Speaker 6: All gift money?

399
00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:30,880
Speaker 5: No job, I didn't have a job, now, this was all.

400
00:20:31,160 --> 00:20:32,200
Speaker 5: This was before a job.

401
00:20:32,440 --> 00:20:35,440
Speaker 7: Yeah, I didn't get a job till like eleven, twelfth grade,

402
00:20:35,840 --> 00:20:37,640
Speaker 7: so yeah, it was all. It was all pretty much

403
00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:42,639
Speaker 7: like get birthday and Christmas type gifts and stuff. But

404
00:20:42,880 --> 00:20:46,399
Speaker 7: you know, lunch money is how I did my record collection.

405
00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:49,119
Speaker 7: And they just starved in school.

406
00:20:49,200 --> 00:20:49,520
Speaker 5: Starve.

407
00:20:49,800 --> 00:20:53,840
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, maybe go across the street from Central and

408
00:20:53,840 --> 00:20:55,600
Speaker 7: go to the pizza spot and maybe get a dollar

409
00:20:55,680 --> 00:20:58,120
Speaker 7: slice or something. But you know, definitely all would save

410
00:20:58,240 --> 00:20:59,760
Speaker 7: up to get my records.

411
00:21:00,320 --> 00:21:04,399
Speaker 1: So were your parents encouraging or did they see this

412
00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:06,760
Speaker 1: as just like a hobby.

413
00:21:06,880 --> 00:21:09,440
Speaker 5: Definitely just saw it as a hobby. Did you see

414
00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:10,760
Speaker 5: this as a career or a hobby?

415
00:21:11,119 --> 00:21:11,359
Speaker 1: You know?

416
00:21:11,840 --> 00:21:16,119
Speaker 7: Interestingly enough, my sister was like as a filmmaker and

417
00:21:16,760 --> 00:21:20,040
Speaker 7: she used to do like make independent films and hence

418
00:21:20,080 --> 00:21:23,800
Speaker 7: how we first met because she brought me to I

419
00:21:23,800 --> 00:21:24,880
Speaker 7: guess it was.

420
00:21:24,880 --> 00:21:26,560
Speaker 5: Was it a temple? It was for the.

421
00:21:26,480 --> 00:21:31,800
Speaker 7: Premiere of Past the Popcorn video, Damn Wow. And there

422
00:21:31,880 --> 00:21:34,240
Speaker 7: was a there was a young lady who used to

423
00:21:34,240 --> 00:21:37,800
Speaker 7: direct videos because she did a three times Dope video.

424
00:21:37,840 --> 00:21:40,760
Speaker 7: I can't remember her name, but my sister was friends

425
00:21:40,800 --> 00:21:43,560
Speaker 7: with her and then, but she's the one that That's

426
00:21:43,560 --> 00:21:46,399
Speaker 7: how I wound up coming to the premiere of Past

427
00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:48,840
Speaker 7: the Popcorn and that was where we originally first met.

428
00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:51,280
Speaker 7: And I like came up to you as a young

429
00:21:51,359 --> 00:21:53,440
Speaker 7: lad and just introduced myself.

430
00:21:53,520 --> 00:21:58,400
Speaker 1: Shout out to Abdul Jackson and Kevin Drer. I forget,

431
00:21:59,040 --> 00:22:01,679
Speaker 1: damn man, you just back on some joints, man. I

432
00:22:01,760 --> 00:22:02,520
Speaker 1: totally forgot.

433
00:22:02,840 --> 00:22:05,960
Speaker 6: Yeah, y'all had a premiere party for that video, right.

434
00:22:07,640 --> 00:22:11,359
Speaker 1: So yeah, like my last my last day at rough House,

435
00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:15,400
Speaker 1: just you know, I just through spaghetti and the Wall

436
00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:18,480
Speaker 1: seven stuck and I just happen to ask Chris Wartz

437
00:22:18,560 --> 00:22:20,920
Speaker 1: right after lunch because I would notice after lunch he'd

438
00:22:20,920 --> 00:22:27,000
Speaker 1: be in a different mind state, and I was just like, hey,

439
00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:29,600
Speaker 1: you know, or he knew about the roots and you know,

440
00:22:29,720 --> 00:22:31,960
Speaker 1: saw some shows or whatever and always wanted like how

441
00:22:31,960 --> 00:22:34,960
Speaker 1: can we get it, you know, an offer, But he

442
00:22:35,119 --> 00:22:38,520
Speaker 1: just he was just that day, he just like, okay,

443
00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:43,399
Speaker 1: how much I was like five thousand, Wow, you'll need

444
00:22:43,440 --> 00:22:47,600
Speaker 1: seven thousands, was like seventy five hundred things. And to

445
00:22:47,680 --> 00:22:49,639
Speaker 1: do organics, no, to do the.

446
00:22:49,640 --> 00:22:53,280
Speaker 4: Past popcorns and we shot past the popcorn on Thanksgiving morning.

447
00:22:53,320 --> 00:22:56,560
Speaker 1: Wow, like yeah, Like shout out to Chris Wartz of

448
00:22:56,640 --> 00:22:57,359
Speaker 1: rough House Record.

449
00:22:57,400 --> 00:22:59,720
Speaker 7: And I remember too, my other friends used to be

450
00:22:59,800 --> 00:23:00,960
Speaker 7: cool with Kenyata.

451
00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:03,480
Speaker 5: I used to look up to. Yeah, I used to

452
00:23:03,520 --> 00:23:04,760
Speaker 5: look up to yacht like.

453
00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:08,439
Speaker 7: But but no, it was it was for them, it

454
00:23:08,520 --> 00:23:10,280
Speaker 7: was a hobby. For me, it was still you know,

455
00:23:10,320 --> 00:23:12,360
Speaker 7: I thought I was gonna wind up going to NYU

456
00:23:12,520 --> 00:23:15,400
Speaker 7: and being film school and be a director, like at

457
00:23:15,440 --> 00:23:18,600
Speaker 7: the time, that's that's but I love DJing like it was.

458
00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:19,440
Speaker 5: It was my thing.

459
00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:22,760
Speaker 7: So I definitely had, you know, without even realizing, was

460
00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:25,919
Speaker 7: putting way more time and effort into my DJ career.

461
00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:27,959
Speaker 7: And then you know, I had my stuff in my

462
00:23:28,680 --> 00:23:31,119
Speaker 7: in my room at my mother's house. And then it

463
00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:34,600
Speaker 7: got to a point when the traffic of the friends

464
00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:37,160
Speaker 7: coming over and us trying to make little freestyle tapes

465
00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:39,399
Speaker 7: and everything. She she got fed up because it was

466
00:23:39,440 --> 00:23:42,440
Speaker 7: like ten ten thirty and she was like, yo, it's

467
00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:44,560
Speaker 7: too loud, and so she allowed she let me move

468
00:23:44,600 --> 00:23:48,199
Speaker 7: to the basement and I moved. You know, that was

469
00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:50,520
Speaker 7: my first studio in the basement of my mom's house,

470
00:23:50,560 --> 00:23:52,919
Speaker 7: and we used to be down there, boom bapping all

471
00:23:53,040 --> 00:23:56,200
Speaker 7: day after school every day. And that's where I made

472
00:23:56,359 --> 00:23:59,280
Speaker 7: La Delf and you know, I started. My sister took

473
00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:02,479
Speaker 7: me to New York between ninth and tenth grade and

474
00:24:02,800 --> 00:24:05,240
Speaker 7: we went to Harlem and on one hundred and twenty fifth,

475
00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:07,120
Speaker 7: they still had the vendors and I bought That's when

476
00:24:07,119 --> 00:24:10,440
Speaker 7: I bought my first mixtape, DJs Ands Old School Part Two.

477
00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:12,920
Speaker 7: And the reason why I bought that tape was because

478
00:24:13,359 --> 00:24:15,840
Speaker 7: all the songs that were on there when I would

479
00:24:15,880 --> 00:24:18,920
Speaker 7: go to to the record stores, I couldn't get those

480
00:24:19,040 --> 00:24:21,720
Speaker 7: songs on violin anymore because they were unless they were

481
00:24:21,720 --> 00:24:24,560
Speaker 7: the you know, the bootleg copies and everything. So I

482
00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:26,639
Speaker 7: bought S and S Old School Part two and I

483
00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:30,240
Speaker 7: was just literally blown away, like by that tape by

484
00:24:30,760 --> 00:24:33,520
Speaker 7: S's talk game, like how he was putting records together

485
00:24:34,119 --> 00:24:36,760
Speaker 7: and hence that just really started my fascination with like

486
00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:41,240
Speaker 7: mixtape culture. And then you know, Clue kind of was

487
00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:43,600
Speaker 7: coming up on the scene. And when I would get

488
00:24:43,640 --> 00:24:46,640
Speaker 7: Clue tapes from the Layup and things like I would

489
00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:48,560
Speaker 7: I would feel like when I would go to school,

490
00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:50,560
Speaker 7: I'd be like, oh, y'all don't know about this yet,

491
00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:54,080
Speaker 7: Like y'all don't have this premiere Jay RW remix or

492
00:24:54,320 --> 00:24:57,960
Speaker 7: you know this this new big Ye Grand Pooba Tupac song.

493
00:24:58,119 --> 00:25:00,639
Speaker 7: Like so I would feel ahead of occur then, you know,

494
00:25:00,840 --> 00:25:03,200
Speaker 7: I was just that, you know, and when it came

495
00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:05,960
Speaker 7: to like DJing and like, you know, there were battle DJs,

496
00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:09,879
Speaker 7: there was radio DJs, there was you know, party DJs,

497
00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:12,119
Speaker 7: and there were mixtape DJs, but the mixtape DJ for

498
00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:14,440
Speaker 7: me was always just like larger than life.

499
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:21,360
Speaker 1: So for Philadelphians, the Layup, my current production manager Keith McFee,

500
00:25:22,119 --> 00:25:26,199
Speaker 1: kind of opened kind of like Phillies. I don't know

501
00:25:26,200 --> 00:25:28,240
Speaker 1: if it's the first culture store, but it was like

502
00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:30,600
Speaker 1: the spot where, yeah, it was like the spot where

503
00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:32,720
Speaker 1: you get like what was the first skateboard and get

504
00:25:32,760 --> 00:25:37,520
Speaker 1: like fresh jive or excuse you could get to see. Yeah,

505
00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:43,320
Speaker 1: those Triple Triple five, those hoodies early Echo. It's not

506
00:25:43,359 --> 00:25:46,920
Speaker 1: the hood yeah, those I can't remember. It's the even

507
00:25:46,920 --> 00:25:49,560
Speaker 1: though skateboard pants that are like the big at the bottom.

508
00:25:50,720 --> 00:25:53,600
Speaker 5: Yeah, and the forty waist Johns that were super big.

509
00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:57,080
Speaker 1: Yeah. So that's and that's pretty much like that was

510
00:25:57,160 --> 00:26:00,399
Speaker 1: just like the cultural epicenter. That's where like mixtapes were. Yeah,

511
00:26:00,480 --> 00:26:03,240
Speaker 1: you get cry line, spray paint, you get to catch

512
00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:04,679
Speaker 1: all those things and everything.

513
00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:09,359
Speaker 4: They have the white man Daiki yes with the yeah

514
00:26:09,520 --> 00:26:10,800
Speaker 4: those things.

515
00:26:10,760 --> 00:26:11,960
Speaker 6: You're talking about money.

516
00:26:14,080 --> 00:26:16,280
Speaker 4: Looks like you see like five white boys at lunch

517
00:26:16,280 --> 00:26:17,040
Speaker 4: playing Hackey sacking.

518
00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:18,080
Speaker 5: Yeah.

519
00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:22,560
Speaker 4: I would rock that ship all the time. It never showers,

520
00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:27,720
Speaker 4: so all the fun in the world side of that, Yeah,

521
00:26:27,760 --> 00:26:30,520
Speaker 4: come on. I mean, only the only reason why dudes

522
00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:32,800
Speaker 4: would shower in the twenties is if a woman is

523
00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:36,280
Speaker 4: involved or whatever, like their future partner.

524
00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:40,960
Speaker 6: But you know, come back, come back, come back, come back.

525
00:26:41,119 --> 00:26:45,199
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm coming back anyway. Who is the DJ?

526
00:26:46,080 --> 00:26:48,000
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm trying about rock the bells thing, just like

527
00:26:48,040 --> 00:26:51,520
Speaker 1: Jeff does my cash money thing whatever. But for me,

528
00:26:52,640 --> 00:26:57,119
Speaker 1: I will say that like Cosmic keV is probably the

529
00:26:57,200 --> 00:27:00,360
Speaker 1: sensey DJ that I always have in my head when

530
00:27:00,359 --> 00:27:03,359
Speaker 1: I'm doing a set or whatever, like you're always going

531
00:27:03,400 --> 00:27:07,440
Speaker 1: to emulate someone because like if you're making beats, when

532
00:27:07,480 --> 00:27:09,760
Speaker 1: you get your drum machine, you start to you know,

533
00:27:10,119 --> 00:27:12,120
Speaker 1: all right, let me see if I could do blah

534
00:27:12,160 --> 00:27:14,840
Speaker 1: blah blah blah that sort of thing for you as

535
00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:15,359
Speaker 1: a DJ?

536
00:27:15,680 --> 00:27:17,720
Speaker 5: Who were those DJs? Who was the sense?

537
00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:19,479
Speaker 4: He like, what was the mix that was sort of

538
00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:22,560
Speaker 4: like damn, I gotta well, I.

539
00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:25,800
Speaker 1: Mean, or were you even into turntablism? Oh?

540
00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:28,159
Speaker 7: Absolutely, I was going to tell you, I mean, because

541
00:27:28,240 --> 00:27:30,040
Speaker 7: there was so For me, it was a few.

542
00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:31,480
Speaker 5: I mean definitely.

543
00:27:31,480 --> 00:27:36,360
Speaker 7: Probably first it was DJ Rand because I forgot Yeah,

544
00:27:36,359 --> 00:27:37,200
Speaker 7: because before.

545
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:39,560
Speaker 9: You still spinning, right, he was like with the w

546
00:27:39,720 --> 00:27:43,919
Speaker 9: W Yeah, I'm not sure, shot shot the cosmic Keev. Two,

547
00:27:44,320 --> 00:27:47,879
Speaker 9: he just took me on a superhistory lesson, Like was he.

548
00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:50,800
Speaker 1: Nice about it? keV? Oh yeah, yeah yeah. We talked

549
00:27:50,800 --> 00:27:51,679
Speaker 1: for like two hours or.

550
00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:55,120
Speaker 5: So, gently exchanging nice words.

551
00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:59,000
Speaker 7: We discussed like his relationship with Ran and how things

552
00:27:59,040 --> 00:28:01,360
Speaker 7: came about and how you know it went from Ran

553
00:28:01,440 --> 00:28:04,840
Speaker 7: to keV and you know, but when of course as

554
00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:07,919
Speaker 7: it as a as a youngster, like it was Kobe

555
00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:11,360
Speaker 7: Cob and DJ ran on Radioactive every Friday night. So

556
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:15,399
Speaker 7: you know, people don't really like this is obviously before

557
00:28:15,560 --> 00:28:17,280
Speaker 7: we had you know, you can go and you can

558
00:28:17,320 --> 00:28:20,440
Speaker 7: go on YouTube, Hulu, anything and watch anything hip hop

559
00:28:20,480 --> 00:28:23,280
Speaker 7: you want. Back in the day, we only had certain outlets,

560
00:28:23,320 --> 00:28:25,760
Speaker 7: so you would run home to catch Rahap City or

561
00:28:25,800 --> 00:28:28,600
Speaker 7: Friday night, I would be tuned in to Radioactive to

562
00:28:28,640 --> 00:28:29,240
Speaker 7: hear and so.

563
00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:32,480
Speaker 5: Oh you know who else too? Yeah, yeah, it's fucking

564
00:28:32,560 --> 00:28:40,160
Speaker 5: j Ski. Yeah, oh yeah, talk about Godam because what

565
00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:47,360
Speaker 5: was the station was one O three something, you stupid.

566
00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:53,160
Speaker 6: He came to his birthday party.

567
00:28:51,800 --> 00:28:52,520
Speaker 5: Damn on.

568
00:28:52,600 --> 00:28:55,920
Speaker 7: So on the radio side, it was definitely ran keV

569
00:28:56,120 --> 00:28:59,480
Speaker 7: and Jay Ski and then in Philly for me, it

570
00:28:59,560 --> 00:29:04,920
Speaker 7: was DJ Ghetto and Ghetto was like yes, you know, yeah,

571
00:29:04,920 --> 00:29:08,320
Speaker 7: Ghetto used to be our d m C champion. He

572
00:29:08,360 --> 00:29:10,880
Speaker 7: would he would go up against Rock graded Rest in

573
00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:13,719
Speaker 7: Peace and you know, do his DMC thing and like,

574
00:29:14,120 --> 00:29:16,960
Speaker 7: you know, Ghetto has another cousin named Evil Tracy too,

575
00:29:17,360 --> 00:29:20,280
Speaker 7: but but Ghetto, like Ghetto kind of like you know,

576
00:29:20,880 --> 00:29:23,160
Speaker 7: took me in as a youngster and was trying to

577
00:29:23,240 --> 00:29:25,520
Speaker 7: kind of show me how to really cut and scratch

578
00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:28,160
Speaker 7: and you know, do things on his level. I could

579
00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:31,440
Speaker 7: never get it down to to to that degree. But

580
00:29:32,200 --> 00:29:34,600
Speaker 7: Ghetto definitely like befriended me as a as a young

581
00:29:34,680 --> 00:29:37,360
Speaker 7: DJ too and Philly, so I salute to him. So

582
00:29:37,400 --> 00:29:39,360
Speaker 7: those were the guys that I was around or were

583
00:29:39,400 --> 00:29:42,520
Speaker 7: listening to early on. So when you're in the dramatic era,

584
00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:46,200
Speaker 7: are you do you have a regular residency?

585
00:29:46,600 --> 00:29:47,880
Speaker 5: Are you now? High school?

586
00:29:48,120 --> 00:29:50,200
Speaker 1: So Dances is the first club I ever.

587
00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:51,560
Speaker 5: Dj' at dance?

588
00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:57,640
Speaker 7: It was for Juwan Lee's birthday party. Juan Lee, he's

589
00:29:57,680 --> 00:30:00,760
Speaker 7: the director. He works with Benny Boom. He does a

590
00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:03,479
Speaker 7: lot of stuff now too, my brother to this day.

591
00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:05,120
Speaker 7: I just saw him the other day. But yeah, that

592
00:30:05,240 --> 00:30:09,240
Speaker 7: was my first actual club gig. Was was Juwan's birthday

593
00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:12,000
Speaker 7: party of Dances. This might have been like eleventh grade.

594
00:30:12,080 --> 00:30:13,560
Speaker 7: And then I was just doing like I would get

595
00:30:13,600 --> 00:30:18,080
Speaker 7: hired to do like block parties or like birthday parties

596
00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:21,320
Speaker 7: of you know, kids that I went to school with,

597
00:30:21,520 --> 00:30:24,520
Speaker 7: or you know that I knew around town or what

598
00:30:24,680 --> 00:30:26,840
Speaker 7: have you. And and then you know, we had this

599
00:30:26,960 --> 00:30:30,680
Speaker 7: I remember we had this crew that it was this

600
00:30:30,760 --> 00:30:33,400
Speaker 7: crib off Gerard Avenue that we lived at, and I

601
00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:34,960
Speaker 7: used to do a lot of their functions.

602
00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:36,280
Speaker 5: So you know, I was.

603
00:30:36,360 --> 00:30:38,680
Speaker 7: I was getting you know, gigs here and there, just

604
00:30:38,720 --> 00:30:40,760
Speaker 7: like around Philly as a as a kid.

605
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:44,160
Speaker 1: Now, as far as your creative output is concern and

606
00:30:44,320 --> 00:30:47,080
Speaker 1: I specifically want to kind of go step by step

607
00:30:47,240 --> 00:30:49,720
Speaker 1: that I'm leading and we got this a lot. So

608
00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:56,640
Speaker 1: for you, are you in the mind state of serve

609
00:30:56,760 --> 00:31:02,400
Speaker 1: my audience or like I met, I'm very selfish with

610
00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:06,360
Speaker 1: my DJ and I do it like I'm like Prince

611
00:31:06,440 --> 00:31:08,240
Speaker 1: doing Darling Nikki. No one cares about the music but

612
00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:11,840
Speaker 1: your self. Yeah. And but I also know that I

613
00:31:12,040 --> 00:31:15,680
Speaker 1: have a shield of protection that will allow me to

614
00:31:15,720 --> 00:31:19,800
Speaker 1: play a mister Rogers song, or I can play the

615
00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:21,880
Speaker 1: number song by the porn of Sisters on Sesame Street

616
00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:22,520
Speaker 1: kind of.

617
00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:24,440
Speaker 5: Get you know, they're like, what the hell is he playing?

618
00:31:24,600 --> 00:31:26,080
Speaker 5: Like yeah, that quest loves so crazy?

619
00:31:26,200 --> 00:31:28,880
Speaker 1: Like I know I can do rogue shit right, and

620
00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:32,160
Speaker 1: you know, and oftentimes the openers are like, yo, man,

621
00:31:32,240 --> 00:31:35,400
Speaker 1: like that was crazy you did that? Because even one time,

622
00:31:35,560 --> 00:31:39,320
Speaker 1: I think Fonte mentioned that someone spun return to Forever

623
00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:41,680
Speaker 1: something it or weather report.

624
00:31:41,800 --> 00:31:43,880
Speaker 4: Yeah it was out of who it was, the Detroit

625
00:31:43,920 --> 00:31:46,360
Speaker 4: It wasn't things Steel perish.

626
00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:50,400
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, okay. Well, he's known for Dared Devil shit.

627
00:31:50,840 --> 00:31:54,320
Speaker 1: But my whole point is that as a DJ, you

628
00:31:54,400 --> 00:31:56,680
Speaker 1: kind of have two choices, which is serve the people

629
00:31:57,720 --> 00:32:03,360
Speaker 1: or established yourself right. So at the time and oftentimes

630
00:32:03,400 --> 00:32:06,840
Speaker 1: like opening DJs have it the hardest because they gotta

631
00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:08,880
Speaker 1: you gotta keep them on the floor.

632
00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:09,400
Speaker 5: You can't.

633
00:32:09,680 --> 00:32:12,000
Speaker 1: I remember once an opening DJ got in trouble. He

634
00:32:12,040 --> 00:32:16,280
Speaker 1: had like an early copy of Brooklyn Zoo, and I

635
00:32:16,280 --> 00:32:19,920
Speaker 1: think that might have been to you know, of course,

636
00:32:20,080 --> 00:32:23,720
Speaker 1: you know it was like the new Woutange, okay, but

637
00:32:24,760 --> 00:32:27,600
Speaker 1: it wasn't. The club owner was like, no, no, you

638
00:32:27,640 --> 00:32:29,800
Speaker 1: know that sort of thing. So for you, were you

639
00:32:30,320 --> 00:32:35,520
Speaker 1: facing any sort of venue structure that would tell you like,

640
00:32:35,720 --> 00:32:37,920
Speaker 1: this is what we want and just play R and

641
00:32:37,960 --> 00:32:40,080
Speaker 1: B or so not in Philly.

642
00:32:40,400 --> 00:32:44,400
Speaker 7: When I was in Philly, I was very stubborn and

643
00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:47,440
Speaker 7: very East Coast with my taste in music and what

644
00:32:47,560 --> 00:32:50,000
Speaker 7: I would play Like I remember I would do parties

645
00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:51,560
Speaker 7: and want to play Doctor Octagon.

646
00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:55,680
Speaker 5: Wow, oh Jesus Christ. Yeah, like that's where I was at,

647
00:32:55,760 --> 00:32:56,320
Speaker 5: Like I want to.

648
00:32:56,560 --> 00:32:57,760
Speaker 1: Try to make blue Flowers work.

649
00:32:58,080 --> 00:33:00,400
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly, I was.

650
00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:02,520
Speaker 7: That's where I That's where I was at in my

651
00:33:02,640 --> 00:33:06,600
Speaker 7: Philly days. And you know, I wanted to play fucking

652
00:33:07,120 --> 00:33:11,280
Speaker 7: Smith and Wesson album cuts and just you know, I

653
00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:16,760
Speaker 7: didn't get to to the stage or era of pleasing

654
00:33:16,840 --> 00:33:20,000
Speaker 7: the crowd or my audience until I moved to Atlanta.

655
00:33:20,080 --> 00:33:21,640
Speaker 7: Atlanta Atlanta did it, and I.

656
00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:23,080
Speaker 1: Don't want to do I don't even want to frame

657
00:33:23,120 --> 00:33:25,600
Speaker 1: it like it's a compromise because I do think that

658
00:33:26,120 --> 00:33:29,160
Speaker 1: you're either going to be an effective DJ yeah, or

659
00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:32,160
Speaker 1: we're going to be a teachable lesson DJ yeah.

660
00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:33,880
Speaker 7: Well I was blessed in my career to be able

661
00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:37,160
Speaker 7: to be that later on because of who I became

662
00:33:37,240 --> 00:33:41,120
Speaker 7: and who I was, so once I became DJ Drama,

663
00:33:41,160 --> 00:33:43,680
Speaker 7: it's like, Okay, when they come to see me, they

664
00:33:43,720 --> 00:33:46,520
Speaker 7: also want to be able to I can, you know,

665
00:33:46,920 --> 00:33:50,160
Speaker 7: introduce them to something or be a little more stubborn.

666
00:33:50,200 --> 00:33:53,880
Speaker 7: But it's really going to Clark Atlanta University and being

667
00:33:53,920 --> 00:33:56,640
Speaker 7: in the AUC for me coming from Philly, where I

668
00:33:56,640 --> 00:33:59,680
Speaker 7: would have people from d C who wanted to hear

669
00:33:59,720 --> 00:34:02,560
Speaker 7: Go Go, I would have, you know, people from the

670
00:34:02,560 --> 00:34:06,000
Speaker 7: West Coast who wanted to hear ship from l A

671
00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:08,520
Speaker 7: or the Bay, or I would have people from Texas

672
00:34:08,560 --> 00:34:11,520
Speaker 7: who wanted to hear screw or what have you saw

673
00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:13,760
Speaker 7: it taught me how to be well rounded.

674
00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:19,320
Speaker 1: Okay, So and that's that's where I was gonna go next.

675
00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:23,480
Speaker 1: You know, the whole I mean, especially now you you

676
00:34:23,680 --> 00:34:28,160
Speaker 1: kind of morphed into your dramas before the age of

677
00:34:28,200 --> 00:34:32,040
Speaker 1: cell phones. So the whole idea of someone put their

678
00:34:32,040 --> 00:34:35,239
Speaker 1: phone on your facing. Yeah, like I hate I'm a

679
00:34:35,320 --> 00:34:38,040
Speaker 1: no request person, gotcha, And that's where my ego gets

680
00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:38,560
Speaker 1: me in trouble.

681
00:34:38,640 --> 00:34:41,359
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm not like that. So you're you're people, You're

682
00:34:41,360 --> 00:34:42,200
Speaker 5: a person of the people.

683
00:34:42,520 --> 00:34:42,839
Speaker 1: I am.

684
00:34:43,239 --> 00:34:47,279
Speaker 4: I'm definitely a person of the peopleol.

685
00:34:45,880 --> 00:34:46,279
Speaker 5: No, no, no, no.

686
00:34:46,480 --> 00:34:49,000
Speaker 7: I like when people like if I go to Vegas

687
00:34:49,080 --> 00:34:52,719
Speaker 7: and it's eight women who keep putting Bad Bunny on

688
00:34:52,760 --> 00:34:55,800
Speaker 7: their phone, I gotta play fucking Bad Bunny.

689
00:34:56,040 --> 00:34:58,560
Speaker 4: Even to this day, you're not offended, Like, motherfucker, I'm

690
00:34:58,640 --> 00:35:01,280
Speaker 4: DJ drama, Like I created stars.

691
00:35:02,440 --> 00:35:05,560
Speaker 5: You don't tell Picasso what the paint see that.

692
00:35:05,480 --> 00:35:09,719
Speaker 4: I got to But that's not that's not the capacity

693
00:35:09,760 --> 00:35:11,120
Speaker 4: he's there to serve that night.

694
00:35:11,160 --> 00:35:11,759
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.

695
00:35:11,840 --> 00:35:14,400
Speaker 7: It's like, yeah, I mean, there's it depends like it

696
00:35:14,480 --> 00:35:17,000
Speaker 7: depends on the gig too, Like if I get it

697
00:35:17,080 --> 00:35:20,759
Speaker 7: like a hipster New York gig for like I did

698
00:35:20,760 --> 00:35:24,279
Speaker 7: something for United Masters and you know that night they

699
00:35:24,360 --> 00:35:27,640
Speaker 7: booked me, Like I know they want to hear drama ship,

700
00:35:27,800 --> 00:35:31,560
Speaker 7: Like I'm gonna play Canon Remix and I'm gonna you know,

701
00:35:31,680 --> 00:35:34,839
Speaker 7: go in and play some Gucci or go here with it.

702
00:35:34,920 --> 00:35:37,520
Speaker 7: But you know, if I'm at my Vegas residency, like

703
00:35:38,440 --> 00:35:39,160
Speaker 7: I'm there to.

704
00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:43,280
Speaker 5: Yeah, like I'm not at.

705
00:35:43,160 --> 00:35:46,719
Speaker 7: The same time, like I'm still trauma, so I'm not

706
00:35:46,800 --> 00:35:48,200
Speaker 7: about to fist pump that thing out.

707
00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:55,600
Speaker 1: Have you ever had a i mean moment or at

708
00:35:55,680 --> 00:35:58,120
Speaker 1: least that was sort of the ship back in twenty fourteen.

709
00:35:58,560 --> 00:36:02,279
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean I've played them records at times like what,

710
00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:05,480
Speaker 7: but that's not the majority of my set. Like I

711
00:36:05,560 --> 00:36:08,319
Speaker 7: know when they booked me, like they want to they

712
00:36:08,360 --> 00:36:10,560
Speaker 7: come there for a certain run. Yeah, people I give

713
00:36:10,600 --> 00:36:13,160
Speaker 7: them like when they when I go even to Vegas,

714
00:36:13,200 --> 00:36:15,279
Speaker 7: like and you know, Vegas has had a transition at

715
00:36:15,360 --> 00:36:18,279
Speaker 7: time where it's become much more hip hop driven than

716
00:36:18,320 --> 00:36:20,120
Speaker 7: it was. But I'm just saying, like when I go

717
00:36:20,160 --> 00:36:23,680
Speaker 7: to gigs, like people want to hear DJ drama, be

718
00:36:23,840 --> 00:36:25,279
Speaker 7: DJ drama, you know what I'm saying.

719
00:36:25,280 --> 00:36:28,880
Speaker 1: So it's like, but is it confusing now at this

720
00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:33,000
Speaker 1: stage in your life where okay, so say and now

721
00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:35,200
Speaker 1: I'm that that I would associate you with like any

722
00:36:35,200 --> 00:36:38,400
Speaker 1: Cannon records. So let's say like Go Crazy, right, which

723
00:36:38,520 --> 00:36:43,920
Speaker 1: came out in two thousand, Yeah, which too old guys.

724
00:36:43,920 --> 00:36:46,160
Speaker 5: To me, I'm still like, oh, that's new rap, even

725
00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:47,320
Speaker 5: though that's.

726
00:36:47,080 --> 00:36:48,000
Speaker 1: Old school right.

727
00:36:48,160 --> 00:36:51,480
Speaker 7: No, no, no, so no, I mean it was confusing now, No,

728
00:36:51,520 --> 00:36:53,200
Speaker 7: not for me, because I go with the times and

729
00:36:53,280 --> 00:36:56,240
Speaker 7: I go like I just got off a tour with whiz.

730
00:36:55,880 --> 00:36:57,320
Speaker 5: And Logic, for instance.

731
00:36:57,680 --> 00:37:00,359
Speaker 7: So but and and the blessing for me as though,

732
00:37:00,480 --> 00:37:03,840
Speaker 7: is that that's not like as much as there is

733
00:37:03,880 --> 00:37:06,600
Speaker 7: an audience that knows me for that. When I get

734
00:37:06,640 --> 00:37:10,279
Speaker 7: on stage at the Wizkallyfan Logic show, I start with

735
00:37:10,280 --> 00:37:12,400
Speaker 7: a tiler to create a record, and then I go

736
00:37:12,440 --> 00:37:14,920
Speaker 7: into a dream. I play stick off the Dreamville tape

737
00:37:15,160 --> 00:37:17,920
Speaker 7: because that's still my shit, like it's still off Gangster Grills.

738
00:37:17,920 --> 00:37:20,120
Speaker 6: That's when DJ dramatic to me kind of enters the

739
00:37:20,120 --> 00:37:20,520
Speaker 6: thing I hate.

740
00:37:20,520 --> 00:37:20,840
Speaker 2: I know you.

741
00:37:21,040 --> 00:37:22,279
Speaker 6: I don't know if you hate when I go DJ

742
00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:25,920
Speaker 6: dramatic or drama, but it's just how I can.

743
00:37:24,880 --> 00:37:25,919
Speaker 1: Knew you when you was a minor.

744
00:37:26,480 --> 00:37:28,239
Speaker 7: But I was drama first though. I mean, it wasn't

745
00:37:28,239 --> 00:37:29,920
Speaker 7: like I was dramatic. I was drama and then I

746
00:37:29,920 --> 00:37:32,319
Speaker 7: tried to change it to dramatic and then I went back.

747
00:37:32,480 --> 00:37:33,239
Speaker 1: So it wasn't like I.

748
00:37:33,200 --> 00:37:36,520
Speaker 5: Was originally DJ dramatic. I was. I was DJ drama first.

749
00:37:36,600 --> 00:37:38,560
Speaker 6: But you okay, I'll accept that. But you know, when

750
00:37:38,560 --> 00:37:40,960
Speaker 6: I say dramatic, it's also like to an era, a

751
00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:43,680
Speaker 6: time when you did have a certain lane that you

752
00:37:43,760 --> 00:37:45,760
Speaker 6: were in that you have yeah left sin.

753
00:37:45,760 --> 00:37:47,759
Speaker 5: Well what happened was it? I didn't know.

754
00:37:48,040 --> 00:37:50,719
Speaker 7: I mean, like as much as much as I was

755
00:37:50,719 --> 00:37:54,680
Speaker 7: putting into gangster grills, I was putting into automatic relaxation,

756
00:37:54,960 --> 00:37:56,480
Speaker 7: one just took off from the other.

757
00:37:56,480 --> 00:37:56,680
Speaker 5: Third.

758
00:37:56,760 --> 00:37:59,680
Speaker 1: Okay, so let me ask you when you decided to

759
00:37:59,719 --> 00:38:05,360
Speaker 1: go to Lark University yep, Park Atlanta. And I assume

760
00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:09,520
Speaker 1: that you're transporting your your equipment with you yep.

761
00:38:09,719 --> 00:38:10,800
Speaker 5: So, and that's.

762
00:38:10,640 --> 00:38:14,399
Speaker 4: Important, Like you already know that in your dorm that

763
00:38:14,440 --> 00:38:17,839
Speaker 4: your big ass speakers and your records and your turntables

764
00:38:18,160 --> 00:38:20,080
Speaker 4: had to come with me, are coming with you?

765
00:38:20,120 --> 00:38:22,960
Speaker 1: Okay, absolutely no question without it. Were your parents like

766
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:25,040
Speaker 1: what the hell are you doing? Like you're in a dorm?

767
00:38:25,120 --> 00:38:28,560
Speaker 7: They you know, I mean by that point, I was

768
00:38:28,600 --> 00:38:32,480
Speaker 7: already like kind of you know, they had they it

769
00:38:32,600 --> 00:38:35,440
Speaker 7: was clear that I was on a certain path, and

770
00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:38,839
Speaker 7: I was, you know, this DJ thing was to happen

771
00:38:38,920 --> 00:38:41,799
Speaker 7: in college, not just some high school thing. And yeah,

772
00:38:41,800 --> 00:38:43,400
Speaker 7: I don't yeah, I don't know if they knew. I

773
00:38:43,440 --> 00:38:46,319
Speaker 7: mean clearly they didn't see this happening. Like you know,

774
00:38:46,440 --> 00:38:48,960
Speaker 7: I mean my mom even after school, was concerned about

775
00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:51,799
Speaker 7: me getting a real quote unquote real job. But yeah,

776
00:38:51,800 --> 00:38:53,359
Speaker 7: I mean when I got to school, like it was,

777
00:38:53,560 --> 00:38:56,319
Speaker 7: you know, I brought my Philly hustle with me. Like

778
00:38:56,680 --> 00:38:59,400
Speaker 7: like I will tell you, like freshman year, when everybody

779
00:38:59,480 --> 00:39:03,240
Speaker 7: was freaking doubt, I bought a bunch of T shirts

780
00:39:03,480 --> 00:39:05,560
Speaker 7: from this guy named Moot, and I was hustling T

781
00:39:05,680 --> 00:39:06,600
Speaker 7: shirts during Freaknink.

782
00:39:06,680 --> 00:39:08,080
Speaker 5: Like I didn't partake in none of the.

783
00:39:08,040 --> 00:39:11,560
Speaker 7: Activities like or I would set up on campus on

784
00:39:11,880 --> 00:39:14,480
Speaker 7: we had these green trash cans and I had this

785
00:39:14,560 --> 00:39:17,760
Speaker 7: little yellow radio, and I would like hustle my mixtapes

786
00:39:17,760 --> 00:39:18,600
Speaker 7: in between classes.

787
00:39:18,680 --> 00:39:22,600
Speaker 1: So how did you find an outlet to establish yourself

788
00:39:22,600 --> 00:39:23,160
Speaker 1: in Atlanta?

789
00:39:23,719 --> 00:39:26,239
Speaker 7: Well, I mean the outlet was the AUC. It was

790
00:39:26,280 --> 00:39:28,040
Speaker 7: our world. I mean, there was enough.

791
00:39:28,080 --> 00:39:28,960
Speaker 1: And market at Marcos.

792
00:39:28,960 --> 00:39:30,319
Speaker 5: You feel like working at Marcos too?

793
00:39:30,400 --> 00:39:32,760
Speaker 1: Was I mean Marco's people. I didn't go to college.

794
00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:33,640
Speaker 1: You see the.

795
00:39:33,680 --> 00:39:38,359
Speaker 7: Atlanta University Atlanta University Center, so that's Clark Atlanta, that's

796
00:39:38,560 --> 00:39:41,680
Speaker 7: Morris Brown at the time, that's Morehouse and Spellman. So

797
00:39:41,719 --> 00:39:45,919
Speaker 7: you literally have four historically black colleges and universities right

798
00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:52,680
Speaker 7: in one epicenter. So there's multitudes of parties and gigs available.

799
00:39:53,080 --> 00:39:55,640
Speaker 7: So I was did you try to find your flock

800
00:39:56,120 --> 00:39:58,200
Speaker 7: or no, I can't, or were you like, okay, where

801
00:39:58,200 --> 00:40:01,840
Speaker 7: did they endo down here? It just happened naturally, because

802
00:40:01,880 --> 00:40:05,200
Speaker 7: you know, as you start doing gigs, I mean you realize.

803
00:40:04,800 --> 00:40:06,719
Speaker 5: Oh, I got to people from everywhere.

804
00:40:06,760 --> 00:40:09,560
Speaker 7: So you know, I learned very early on and I

805
00:40:09,560 --> 00:40:12,479
Speaker 7: shot to my man DJ Sense and since is also

806
00:40:12,520 --> 00:40:15,560
Speaker 7: from Philly, we met freshman year and he kind of

807
00:40:15,640 --> 00:40:18,880
Speaker 7: was a little more commercially driven than I was at

808
00:40:18,880 --> 00:40:21,880
Speaker 7: the time, Like I was real backpack rap and he

809
00:40:22,080 --> 00:40:25,319
Speaker 7: was like bad boy, you know what I'm saying. So

810
00:40:25,520 --> 00:40:28,719
Speaker 7: us doing gigs together, he kind of helped influence and

811
00:40:28,760 --> 00:40:31,239
Speaker 7: inspire me to get you know, he yelled at me

812
00:40:31,239 --> 00:40:33,360
Speaker 7: one time I cut the Benjamin's off too early.

813
00:40:33,680 --> 00:40:34,839
Speaker 5: Oh WoT a gig.

814
00:40:34,920 --> 00:40:36,960
Speaker 7: He was like, bro, like, you can't cut it off

815
00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:38,560
Speaker 7: at this part, and he was right, you know what

816
00:40:38,560 --> 00:40:42,080
Speaker 7: I'm saying. So us doing gigs together, I kind of

817
00:40:42,239 --> 00:40:45,279
Speaker 7: got more into my commercial bag. And you know, because

818
00:40:45,320 --> 00:40:47,080
Speaker 7: I still even when I was in school, when I

819
00:40:47,120 --> 00:40:50,320
Speaker 7: was doing these college gigs, I was still DJing lyricist lounges.

820
00:40:50,600 --> 00:40:54,680
Speaker 7: I was still at yin Yang Cafe doing poet you

821
00:40:55,760 --> 00:40:57,520
Speaker 7: know what I mean, Like I was, I was still

822
00:40:57,520 --> 00:40:58,320
Speaker 7: into that world.

823
00:40:58,320 --> 00:41:01,359
Speaker 1: So I was I was bouncing between worlds in a way.

824
00:41:01,520 --> 00:41:07,520
Speaker 1: Who was the DJ down here that was your oh

825
00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:11,280
Speaker 1: shit or your kaiser? So it's a coffee mug, slow

826
00:41:11,400 --> 00:41:15,760
Speaker 1: drop realization thing that this is some next shit.

827
00:41:15,640 --> 00:41:18,240
Speaker 7: Down here that I have to First it was DJ Nabs.

828
00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:23,640
Speaker 7: Nabs was the ultimate. I mean, he was on the radio,

829
00:41:23,880 --> 00:41:28,000
Speaker 7: he was on television, he was he had Kai He

830
00:41:28,040 --> 00:41:31,000
Speaker 7: had Nabs in a lab at club kaya Sunday night,

831
00:41:31,160 --> 00:41:35,360
Speaker 7: which was just the ultimate experience. And then I think

832
00:41:35,480 --> 00:41:40,000
Speaker 7: for me it probably was DJ Mars. Mars also at

833
00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:42,640
Speaker 7: the time was you know, he used to be on

834
00:41:42,760 --> 00:41:45,040
Speaker 7: he had a bet gig, so he was doing what

835
00:41:45,120 --> 00:41:47,280
Speaker 7: was that show called It was one of them shows

836
00:41:47,640 --> 00:41:50,600
Speaker 7: Mars was on the radio. You know, he was on

837
00:41:50,719 --> 00:41:54,279
Speaker 7: every day and he was in the club. So he

838
00:41:54,480 --> 00:41:58,000
Speaker 7: was like one of you know, one of those like

839
00:41:58,160 --> 00:42:01,279
Speaker 7: the guys that we looked towards, just like damn, that's

840
00:42:01,320 --> 00:42:05,560
Speaker 7: the next level. So and he It's funny because I

841
00:42:05,600 --> 00:42:07,360
Speaker 7: did the same thing with you too. I know you

842
00:42:07,360 --> 00:42:09,640
Speaker 7: don't remember this, but I used to like write for

843
00:42:09,719 --> 00:42:14,319
Speaker 7: this like little magazine or like little zine, and I

844
00:42:14,360 --> 00:42:17,600
Speaker 7: went and did an interview with Mars. That's how I

845
00:42:18,280 --> 00:42:21,000
Speaker 7: like got I introduced myself to him. I went to

846
00:42:21,040 --> 00:42:24,200
Speaker 7: go interview him at the station and then I handed

847
00:42:24,280 --> 00:42:26,680
Speaker 7: him one of my mixtapes and he was like, Yo,

848
00:42:26,760 --> 00:42:30,319
Speaker 7: this shit's hot. And oddly enough, when you guys came

849
00:42:30,360 --> 00:42:32,799
Speaker 7: to Atlanta one time, I did the same thing with you.

850
00:42:33,120 --> 00:42:35,520
Speaker 7: I was, I did an interview with you for the magazine.

851
00:42:35,719 --> 00:42:38,560
Speaker 7: And that was how I first found out about Dyla

852
00:42:38,640 --> 00:42:40,719
Speaker 7: because this was the era where you were dial it

853
00:42:40,760 --> 00:42:43,040
Speaker 7: out and you were just you told me, like, yo,

854
00:42:43,120 --> 00:42:45,360
Speaker 7: all we do is listen to slum Village and this

855
00:42:45,520 --> 00:42:49,440
Speaker 7: is mid late nineties and everything, and yeah, so I

856
00:42:49,480 --> 00:42:51,880
Speaker 7: would kind of, you know, wiggle my way in however

857
00:42:52,080 --> 00:42:54,880
Speaker 7: whatever to you know, get my name out there or

858
00:42:54,880 --> 00:43:05,000
Speaker 7: get my tapes in people's hands.

859
00:43:01,200 --> 00:43:04,680
Speaker 1: Like I feel like Atlanta really found itself with what

860
00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:09,239
Speaker 1: I organized noise and now casting all this established absolutely so.

861
00:43:09,719 --> 00:43:12,120
Speaker 1: But the thing is is that I didn't call it

862
00:43:12,160 --> 00:43:14,759
Speaker 1: anything like I know, like New Orleans's bounce and there's

863
00:43:14,760 --> 00:43:21,640
Speaker 1: bass music in Miami. But what was Atlanta's culture before trap?

864
00:43:22,239 --> 00:43:24,920
Speaker 1: Like does first of all, does Atlanta own what we

865
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:25,720
Speaker 1: know as trap?

866
00:43:25,840 --> 00:43:31,239
Speaker 5: Absolutely so? What was before the BC era of that?

867
00:43:32,040 --> 00:43:34,600
Speaker 7: It was Dungeon family. I mean, so you think I

868
00:43:34,640 --> 00:43:38,120
Speaker 7: moved here in ninety six? Ninety six El Adelph Half

869
00:43:38,120 --> 00:43:41,960
Speaker 7: Life came out, ninety six at Aliens came out, Luddy Waters,

870
00:43:42,040 --> 00:43:46,120
Speaker 7: right Man, Muddy Waters came out, Reasonable Mob Deep second

871
00:43:46,120 --> 00:43:48,920
Speaker 7: album came out on Hell on Earth came out.

872
00:43:48,920 --> 00:43:51,959
Speaker 1: Score And I have and I have an elevator's question

873
00:43:52,000 --> 00:43:54,839
Speaker 1: to ask you because I came right when elevators kind

874
00:43:54,880 --> 00:43:55,120
Speaker 1: of hit.

875
00:43:55,680 --> 00:43:58,319
Speaker 5: Okay, so let me ask you something, all right?

876
00:43:58,360 --> 00:44:02,040
Speaker 4: And why is elevators like my new Latin quarters so many?

877
00:44:02,560 --> 00:44:03,439
Speaker 5: We can go so much.

878
00:44:03,520 --> 00:44:07,239
Speaker 1: I gotta talk, I want to say, like, so just

879
00:44:07,280 --> 00:44:10,279
Speaker 1: while we're here, all right. So when we asked, you know,

880
00:44:10,560 --> 00:44:15,960
Speaker 1: LA read and organized noise, my thing was I would

881
00:44:16,040 --> 00:44:18,360
Speaker 1: ask them, why would they take such a risk with

882
00:44:18,680 --> 00:44:20,640
Speaker 1: the sonic choice of elevators.

883
00:44:20,719 --> 00:44:23,520
Speaker 5: Yes, it's a masterpiece of a song, but who knew

884
00:44:23,560 --> 00:44:24,000
Speaker 5: at the time.

885
00:44:24,200 --> 00:44:26,719
Speaker 1: I was just like, yo, who would ever put like

886
00:44:26,760 --> 00:44:30,160
Speaker 1: a song that's like eighty six bpms which was very

887
00:44:30,160 --> 00:44:33,120
Speaker 1: slow at the time compared to what was hitting. And

888
00:44:34,080 --> 00:44:36,200
Speaker 1: it was just everything about that song was just like

889
00:44:37,280 --> 00:44:39,160
Speaker 1: it was a risk. It was a hell mary throw

890
00:44:39,239 --> 00:44:42,480
Speaker 1: that got caught and you know, Organized Noise explained that.

891
00:44:42,640 --> 00:44:44,680
Speaker 1: You know, they leaked the first and of course La

892
00:44:44,760 --> 00:44:47,799
Speaker 1: Re really wanted atl Is to come out first. They

893
00:44:47,880 --> 00:44:49,640
Speaker 1: put it, they took it to the radio station and

894
00:44:49,760 --> 00:44:52,879
Speaker 1: just and forced it right right and then but as

895
00:44:52,920 --> 00:44:58,280
Speaker 1: a DJ, like, could you explain to me the effect

896
00:44:58,320 --> 00:45:02,560
Speaker 1: that that song had or just at the time, like.

897
00:45:02,760 --> 00:45:03,960
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean it was Atlanta.

898
00:45:04,080 --> 00:45:08,680
Speaker 7: So again, there was when when when at Aliens dropped,

899
00:45:08,960 --> 00:45:13,759
Speaker 7: just you know, the the pride and the the sonics

900
00:45:13,760 --> 00:45:17,120
Speaker 7: and the creativity of that album. You know, Southern playlistic

901
00:45:17,680 --> 00:45:20,680
Speaker 7: was already a thing, right, and then eighty Aliens came

902
00:45:20,719 --> 00:45:23,880
Speaker 7: and it was like, oh, these these boys is different,

903
00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:26,520
Speaker 7: you know. I mean that was the era when three

904
00:45:26,560 --> 00:45:29,360
Speaker 7: thousand was walking around with the turbine and you know,

905
00:45:30,080 --> 00:45:32,799
Speaker 7: Goodie Mob had you know, dropped and everything. So it

906
00:45:32,840 --> 00:45:35,719
Speaker 7: was like, I just think the pride and you know,

907
00:45:35,920 --> 00:45:41,000
Speaker 7: I hear stories about before Outcasts about how you would

908
00:45:41,040 --> 00:45:43,799
Speaker 7: go to certain clubs in Atlanta like Warehouse and things,

909
00:45:43,800 --> 00:45:46,080
Speaker 7: and people would almost want to kind of act like

910
00:45:46,120 --> 00:45:48,719
Speaker 7: they were from New York, you know, and then he

911
00:45:48,880 --> 00:45:51,640
Speaker 7: just said, yeah, they just said that, And then it

912
00:45:51,680 --> 00:45:55,080
Speaker 7: was Outcast that was almost brought that pride out where

913
00:45:55,120 --> 00:45:58,480
Speaker 7: it made people in Atlanta feel proud to be from

914
00:45:58,560 --> 00:45:59,760
Speaker 7: Atlanta or in the South.

915
00:46:00,120 --> 00:46:00,319
Speaker 1: Yeah.

916
00:46:00,760 --> 00:46:03,879
Speaker 5: So yeah, So before the trap era, you.

917
00:46:03,840 --> 00:46:09,680
Speaker 7: Know, Atlanta was was defined by Dungeon family, by so

918
00:46:09,680 --> 00:46:13,640
Speaker 7: so deaf and you know, by the Face records, and

919
00:46:13,920 --> 00:46:17,000
Speaker 7: that was that was the you know, the the trifecta

920
00:46:17,160 --> 00:46:18,120
Speaker 7: of what Atlanta was.

921
00:46:18,400 --> 00:46:22,920
Speaker 1: So when you are down here, at what point the

922
00:46:23,040 --> 00:46:27,200
Speaker 1: cast of characters that were known as the Affiliates, how

923
00:46:27,239 --> 00:46:30,080
Speaker 1: are they amalgamating themselves in your life?

924
00:46:30,120 --> 00:46:30,200
Speaker 2: Like?

925
00:46:30,239 --> 00:46:32,600
Speaker 1: Are you meeting them now this point?

926
00:46:32,880 --> 00:46:37,360
Speaker 7: So I met DJ Sence literally the first day I

927
00:46:37,440 --> 00:46:41,400
Speaker 7: get to school in Clark, Atlanta, agat in. We go

928
00:46:41,560 --> 00:46:45,920
Speaker 7: to the dorm to Brawley Hall and my room number

929
00:46:46,120 --> 00:46:50,960
Speaker 7: was two one five, crazy, right, And and then somebody

930
00:46:51,040 --> 00:46:53,319
Speaker 7: told sense, Hey, you know there's a DJ on the

931
00:46:53,320 --> 00:46:57,120
Speaker 7: second floor from Philly, and he had told he told

932
00:46:57,160 --> 00:46:59,880
Speaker 7: me it kind of already heard about me in Philly. Like,

933
00:47:00,080 --> 00:47:03,320
Speaker 7: you know, it's crazy to think I had a little buzz,

934
00:47:03,360 --> 00:47:05,560
Speaker 7: but he had, you know, he knew about me.

935
00:47:05,600 --> 00:47:07,120
Speaker 5: So we like battled it.

936
00:47:07,360 --> 00:47:09,799
Speaker 7: We battled in my room, like the first first day

937
00:47:09,840 --> 00:47:11,680
Speaker 7: we met, just kind of going back and forth on

938
00:47:11,719 --> 00:47:14,680
Speaker 7: the turntables, cutting the scratch and and then you know,

939
00:47:14,760 --> 00:47:17,960
Speaker 7: we were doing parties together and we were, you know,

940
00:47:18,160 --> 00:47:21,560
Speaker 7: like a dynamic duo and just you know, people would

941
00:47:21,719 --> 00:47:23,960
Speaker 7: book me or book him and we would go together

942
00:47:24,080 --> 00:47:26,239
Speaker 7: and we would do all the parties. And then my

943
00:47:26,360 --> 00:47:30,959
Speaker 7: next year, this tall, lanky kid gets on campus and

944
00:47:31,040 --> 00:47:33,359
Speaker 7: like he had heard about me, and he kind of

945
00:47:33,440 --> 00:47:35,640
Speaker 7: was like, Yo, my name is Donny Brasco, I'm from

946
00:47:35,680 --> 00:47:38,319
Speaker 7: Philly and I'm a DJ. I make beats. And I

947
00:47:38,400 --> 00:47:40,480
Speaker 7: was kind of you know Kyle. You know, him and

948
00:47:40,560 --> 00:47:42,759
Speaker 7: Kyle went to school together. So Kyle kind of like

949
00:47:43,480 --> 00:47:45,839
Speaker 7: put a sour taste in my mouth early on, like

950
00:47:46,160 --> 00:47:47,879
Speaker 7: that that canon was a nut.

951
00:47:48,120 --> 00:47:48,520
Speaker 1: Kyle is.

952
00:47:48,880 --> 00:47:50,120
Speaker 5: Kyle was part of Tyree.

953
00:47:50,640 --> 00:47:54,399
Speaker 6: It was a whole crew of Philly dudess. It was Dame,

954
00:47:54,600 --> 00:47:57,120
Speaker 6: Dame Carolina.

955
00:47:57,360 --> 00:48:01,080
Speaker 7: Yeah, it was Chris, Chris and Italy, it was Dame.

956
00:48:01,280 --> 00:48:04,719
Speaker 7: It was me since and I had like my school crew,

957
00:48:04,760 --> 00:48:08,080
Speaker 7: and then I had like my Rubik's Jack's and you know,

958
00:48:08,200 --> 00:48:10,239
Speaker 7: my my hip hop my Binker's Crew.

959
00:48:10,640 --> 00:48:14,040
Speaker 5: But rest in peace to my brother Jack's.

960
00:48:14,280 --> 00:48:17,279
Speaker 7: But so so finally Cannon wound up giving me a

961
00:48:17,320 --> 00:48:19,719
Speaker 7: beat CD and I went home and I listened to

962
00:48:19,760 --> 00:48:22,440
Speaker 7: it and I was like, Yo, this shit is fucking fire.

963
00:48:23,120 --> 00:48:25,920
Speaker 7: So next day I see him on campus, I'm like, yo, yo,

964
00:48:26,200 --> 00:48:28,080
Speaker 7: I've listened to your beat tape. That's just hard, like

965
00:48:28,520 --> 00:48:31,200
Speaker 7: you know, come through the crib. So it went from

966
00:48:31,200 --> 00:48:33,799
Speaker 7: Me and Sense to me Sensing Cannon, and then we

967
00:48:33,800 --> 00:48:36,239
Speaker 7: were just the three of us were like, you know,

968
00:48:36,920 --> 00:48:40,960
Speaker 7: damn near inseparable, like while we were in school and

969
00:48:41,080 --> 00:48:43,640
Speaker 7: we would do a bunch of gigs together or just

970
00:48:43,719 --> 00:48:46,600
Speaker 7: support each other, or you know, when I was selling tapes,

971
00:48:46,840 --> 00:48:49,680
Speaker 7: like Cannon and Sence would make their tapes and I would,

972
00:48:49,680 --> 00:48:53,319
Speaker 7: you know, I would sell them all and we would

973
00:48:53,360 --> 00:48:56,560
Speaker 7: just do events together. But the way the Affiliates came

974
00:48:56,600 --> 00:48:59,480
Speaker 7: about is because there was a crew called the super Friends,

975
00:48:59,560 --> 00:49:02,120
Speaker 7: which was DJ Mars, DJ Trauma.

976
00:49:03,640 --> 00:49:04,000
Speaker 2: Uh.

977
00:49:04,160 --> 00:49:05,600
Speaker 5: It was a cowboy, was in there.

978
00:49:06,440 --> 00:49:10,319
Speaker 7: Fahrenheit shot him was super Friends and they made us

979
00:49:10,440 --> 00:49:12,800
Speaker 7: part they We were like the youngest of the crew

980
00:49:13,160 --> 00:49:15,080
Speaker 7: and they you know, invited us in.

981
00:49:15,000 --> 00:49:19,160
Speaker 1: And DJ Trauma that is currently okay, and you know, it.

982
00:49:19,040 --> 00:49:20,600
Speaker 7: Was you know, that was one of the reasons why

983
00:49:20,719 --> 00:49:23,000
Speaker 7: I tried to change my name to Dramatic. It's because

984
00:49:23,000 --> 00:49:29,080
Speaker 7: of Trauma because Trauma and his name is Tire at

985
00:49:29,120 --> 00:49:30,880
Speaker 7: the time, and he was on the radio and he

986
00:49:30,960 --> 00:49:33,279
Speaker 7: was on fire, and it was like everywhere I would

987
00:49:33,360 --> 00:49:35,680
Speaker 7: go and try to say I'm DJ Drama, They'd be

988
00:49:35,760 --> 00:49:39,080
Speaker 7: like Trauma and I'd be like, no, Trauma, and it

989
00:49:39,239 --> 00:49:40,759
Speaker 7: just used to frustrate.

990
00:49:40,320 --> 00:49:42,879
Speaker 5: Me, like like, man, I'm about to just change my name.

991
00:49:43,200 --> 00:49:46,080
Speaker 7: And Mars, you know, interestingly enough was like, yo, don't

992
00:49:46,160 --> 00:49:49,000
Speaker 7: change your name for nobody. And Trauma was his best friend,

993
00:49:49,360 --> 00:49:51,799
Speaker 7: but he, you know, he said, you don't change your

994
00:49:51,840 --> 00:49:54,640
Speaker 7: name for nobody, Like if that's your name, that's your name.

995
00:49:55,080 --> 00:49:57,480
Speaker 7: So we were part of the super Friends and we

996
00:49:57,480 --> 00:50:00,360
Speaker 7: were really trying to be focused, like on mixtape and

997
00:50:00,480 --> 00:50:04,319
Speaker 7: super Friends were very party driven and we kind of

998
00:50:04,760 --> 00:50:07,919
Speaker 7: we went through a little disagreement at the time. As

999
00:50:07,960 --> 00:50:11,040
Speaker 7: my memory serves me, Jacob York offered the super Friends

1000
00:50:11,680 --> 00:50:14,680
Speaker 7: opportunity to do an album, and we were kind of already,

1001
00:50:14,840 --> 00:50:17,200
Speaker 7: you know, feeling a certain type of way because you know,

1002
00:50:17,320 --> 00:50:19,400
Speaker 7: we weren't like they were getting all the gigs, and

1003
00:50:19,480 --> 00:50:20,680
Speaker 7: you know, we were trying to make our name.

1004
00:50:20,719 --> 00:50:22,279
Speaker 5: We couldn't get no sponsorship for the.

1005
00:50:22,200 --> 00:50:24,799
Speaker 7: Mixtapes because they were getting on a sponsorship for the

1006
00:50:24,840 --> 00:50:27,520
Speaker 7: parties and everything. And they were like, Yo, if we

1007
00:50:27,560 --> 00:50:29,759
Speaker 7: do an album, let's call it Gangster Grills because that's

1008
00:50:29,760 --> 00:50:32,319
Speaker 7: the strongest brand out of all of us. And I

1009
00:50:32,400 --> 00:50:34,680
Speaker 7: was like, I don't know, I don't want to call

1010
00:50:34,920 --> 00:50:37,160
Speaker 7: the super Friends album Gangster Grills, Like that's my shit.

1011
00:50:37,600 --> 00:50:40,440
Speaker 1: So they basically, wait, when did you morphine you gangster Grills?

1012
00:50:40,920 --> 00:50:41,200
Speaker 5: I was.

1013
00:50:41,360 --> 00:50:44,560
Speaker 7: I started Gangster Grills in two thousand, so by like

1014
00:50:45,360 --> 00:50:48,560
Speaker 7: three oh four had become a thing like where it was.

1015
00:50:49,040 --> 00:50:51,600
Speaker 7: You know, I little John was the first person.

1016
00:50:51,360 --> 00:50:51,960
Speaker 5: To host it.

1017
00:50:52,400 --> 00:50:55,719
Speaker 7: So I used his voice on Gangster Grills four and

1018
00:50:55,760 --> 00:50:58,279
Speaker 7: it was still just like a compilation at the time,

1019
00:50:58,880 --> 00:51:01,239
Speaker 7: and you know, I did like Gangster Girls five, and

1020
00:51:01,600 --> 00:51:03,560
Speaker 7: I just kept using John's voice.

1021
00:51:04,080 --> 00:51:07,719
Speaker 1: Right, how did you? So, how do you approach an artist?

1022
00:51:07,760 --> 00:51:09,799
Speaker 1: Because for a lot of the artists that weren't Gangster

1023
00:51:09,880 --> 00:51:13,399
Speaker 1: Grills mixtape. Like, as an outsider, I didn't know none

1024
00:51:13,440 --> 00:51:16,160
Speaker 1: of those people. So you know, I'm hearing TI for

1025
00:51:16,200 --> 00:51:18,319
Speaker 1: the first time right here, Like everyone that you put

1026
00:51:18,360 --> 00:51:23,839
Speaker 1: on Jesus GZ and all those six even like really

1027
00:51:23,880 --> 00:51:25,759
Speaker 1: the first time I really paid attention to Wayne and

1028
00:51:25,760 --> 00:51:30,000
Speaker 1: all that stuff is really on Gangster Grill, So like,

1029
00:51:30,239 --> 00:51:31,040
Speaker 1: how are you.

1030
00:51:32,600 --> 00:51:36,719
Speaker 4: Propositioning them and approaching them to do these things? Each

1031
00:51:36,760 --> 00:51:39,080
Speaker 4: situation is differents in a way.

1032
00:51:39,160 --> 00:51:42,160
Speaker 7: But like Little John was since was working at the

1033
00:51:42,200 --> 00:51:46,400
Speaker 7: station and Circe and Little John were partners in b

1034
00:51:46,520 --> 00:51:48,839
Speaker 7: and me and John used to be up there all

1035
00:51:48,880 --> 00:51:51,840
Speaker 7: the time, and you know, John was He's one of

1036
00:51:51,880 --> 00:51:54,440
Speaker 7: the most down to earth, humble guys in the world.

1037
00:51:54,560 --> 00:51:56,400
Speaker 5: And I literally just asked them.

1038
00:51:56,760 --> 00:51:58,279
Speaker 7: You know, this was a time when I was paying

1039
00:51:58,280 --> 00:51:59,960
Speaker 7: attention to what was going on on the East Coach

1040
00:52:00,640 --> 00:52:03,600
Speaker 7: and I asked him, like, yo, would you host a

1041
00:52:03,640 --> 00:52:05,360
Speaker 7: mixtape for me? And he was like sure, and he

1042
00:52:05,400 --> 00:52:08,240
Speaker 7: came to my crib in the fourth Ward and hence

1043
00:52:08,280 --> 00:52:11,440
Speaker 7: the Gangster Grizzils Drop was born, and you know, he.

1044
00:52:11,480 --> 00:52:12,400
Speaker 5: Hosted the tape.

1045
00:52:12,760 --> 00:52:17,000
Speaker 7: Jason Jeter is the first person to ever call me.

1046
00:52:18,160 --> 00:52:20,560
Speaker 7: He got my number off the back of a mixtape

1047
00:52:20,680 --> 00:52:23,160
Speaker 7: from the barber shop. Now think about this. I get

1048
00:52:23,200 --> 00:52:27,600
Speaker 7: a thousand DMS a day about artists trying to get on.

1049
00:52:28,040 --> 00:52:31,800
Speaker 7: The first phone call I ever got was from Jason Jeter,

1050
00:52:31,840 --> 00:52:33,959
Speaker 7: and he was like, Hey, my name is Jason Jeter.

1051
00:52:34,160 --> 00:52:37,880
Speaker 7: I have this new artist signed to LaFace. We have

1052
00:52:37,920 --> 00:52:40,920
Speaker 7: a song with Beanie Seagull called two Blocks nine. I

1053
00:52:40,920 --> 00:52:42,719
Speaker 7: got one of your mixtapes. I want to bring him

1054
00:52:42,719 --> 00:52:44,080
Speaker 7: through to freestyle on one.

1055
00:52:44,000 --> 00:52:44,560
Speaker 5: Of your tapes.

1056
00:52:44,600 --> 00:52:47,440
Speaker 1: And I was like, all right, sure, cool whatever, soight

1057
00:52:47,480 --> 00:52:49,440
Speaker 1: I've seen you don't know, never.

1058
00:52:49,280 --> 00:52:53,040
Speaker 7: Met Tip, never, wasn't even familiar with the two Glocks

1059
00:52:53,120 --> 00:52:56,240
Speaker 7: nine record yet. So he literally comes to the crib

1060
00:52:56,480 --> 00:52:59,879
Speaker 7: Jeter and Tip super shy and quiet at the time.

1061
00:53:00,560 --> 00:53:03,200
Speaker 7: You know, I had my equipment in like where the

1062
00:53:03,280 --> 00:53:05,879
Speaker 7: laundry room would be. He comes in there, I pick

1063
00:53:05,920 --> 00:53:08,400
Speaker 7: a beat. I picked it for the fan beat the

1064
00:53:08,480 --> 00:53:11,960
Speaker 7: Rockefeller with the one with a mill and everybody on it,

1065
00:53:12,080 --> 00:53:14,480
Speaker 7: and he freestyled on that and at the end of

1066
00:53:14,480 --> 00:53:16,920
Speaker 7: the freestyle he said, you know, King of the South.

1067
00:53:17,080 --> 00:53:20,799
Speaker 7: And I remember once him and Jeter left, I went

1068
00:53:20,840 --> 00:53:22,839
Speaker 7: the sense like, yo, this nigga said he's the King

1069
00:53:22,880 --> 00:53:27,200
Speaker 7: of the South, like he's tripping like. So that was

1070
00:53:27,239 --> 00:53:30,239
Speaker 7: literally our introduction. And then you know, Jeter was also

1071
00:53:30,280 --> 00:53:34,240
Speaker 7: from Jersey, so he was paying attention to my mixtape

1072
00:53:34,280 --> 00:53:36,520
Speaker 7: Grind and what I was doing, and they were kind

1073
00:53:36,520 --> 00:53:39,239
Speaker 7: of you know, once things didn't work out between them

1074
00:53:39,239 --> 00:53:41,799
Speaker 7: and La Reid, they got on their mixtape Grind. So

1075
00:53:41,800 --> 00:53:43,719
Speaker 7: we were kind of both coming up at the same time.

1076
00:53:44,200 --> 00:53:47,720
Speaker 7: Where I lived on Glenn Iris, Coach K lived around

1077
00:53:47,719 --> 00:53:48,480
Speaker 7: the corner from me.

1078
00:53:48,600 --> 00:53:51,080
Speaker 1: Ah, okay, we got cool with Coach K.

1079
00:53:52,000 --> 00:53:54,879
Speaker 7: He had this group called Jadis, who Bobby creek Water

1080
00:53:55,000 --> 00:53:55,680
Speaker 7: was a part of who.

1081
00:53:55,640 --> 00:53:57,360
Speaker 5: Later outside to Shady.

1082
00:53:57,440 --> 00:53:59,960
Speaker 7: That was Coach K's first group, and then he also

1083
00:54:00,080 --> 00:54:03,520
Speaker 7: used to work for Alan Henderson and Hindu when Alan

1084
00:54:03,560 --> 00:54:04,200
Speaker 7: Henderson had.

1085
00:54:04,080 --> 00:54:04,800
Speaker 1: A record label.

1086
00:54:05,080 --> 00:54:07,200
Speaker 7: But we got cool with Coach K and then he

1087
00:54:07,360 --> 00:54:10,640
Speaker 7: told me, like, yo, I got this this artist from making.

1088
00:54:10,719 --> 00:54:14,279
Speaker 5: His name is Gez and he had an album out.

1089
00:54:14,560 --> 00:54:16,440
Speaker 7: The first album they put out was called Come Shop

1090
00:54:16,440 --> 00:54:19,560
Speaker 7: with Me and then Jeez I would Coach would bring

1091
00:54:19,640 --> 00:54:22,799
Speaker 7: g Z over and I would make show CDs for Jez.

1092
00:54:23,160 --> 00:54:25,200
Speaker 7: I would charge them like one hundred dollars and he

1093
00:54:25,239 --> 00:54:28,000
Speaker 7: would come and I would he would just he he

1094
00:54:28,120 --> 00:54:31,040
Speaker 7: was doing shows and making and I would like make CD.

1095
00:54:31,160 --> 00:54:33,879
Speaker 7: He would take instrumentals whatever instrumentals were hot at the time,

1096
00:54:34,560 --> 00:54:35,520
Speaker 7: and I would just make.

1097
00:54:35,480 --> 00:54:37,800
Speaker 5: Him a little like show CDs to put together.

1098
00:54:38,320 --> 00:54:41,360
Speaker 7: As Gangster Grills was becoming a thing, so then I

1099
00:54:41,400 --> 00:54:46,040
Speaker 7: did like John Tape then like I think Scrappy hosted one.

1100
00:54:46,800 --> 00:54:49,680
Speaker 7: Then Jeter called me and was like, yo, I've been

1101
00:54:49,680 --> 00:54:52,480
Speaker 7: listening to the tapes. I got this idea, let's do

1102
00:54:52,560 --> 00:54:56,400
Speaker 7: an all TI and PSC Gangster Grills. And I was like,

1103
00:54:56,480 --> 00:54:59,359
Speaker 7: bet you know. And at the time, I'm I'm just

1104
00:54:59,600 --> 00:55:01,840
Speaker 7: fast NATed by Green Lantern and who Kid and what

1105
00:55:02,000 --> 00:55:05,040
Speaker 7: Fifth is doing and what they're doing, and so Jeter

1106
00:55:05,400 --> 00:55:07,839
Speaker 7: and Tip gave me the opportunity to do the type

1107
00:55:07,840 --> 00:55:09,239
Speaker 7: of mixtape that I wanted to do.

1108
00:55:09,320 --> 00:55:13,000
Speaker 1: So you felt because I'm just amazed that your amount

1109
00:55:13,000 --> 00:55:15,239
Speaker 1: of faith it's so weird, like I need to have

1110
00:55:15,280 --> 00:55:20,680
Speaker 1: this conversation because I'm such a no now no or

1111
00:55:20,760 --> 00:55:23,560
Speaker 1: who going to be there? Who are going to be there?

1112
00:55:23,680 --> 00:55:25,560
Speaker 5: Like that sort of thing and get me out of

1113
00:55:25,560 --> 00:55:26,200
Speaker 5: this or whatever.

1114
00:55:26,719 --> 00:55:30,440
Speaker 1: But it seems to me that your the key to

1115
00:55:30,480 --> 00:55:34,000
Speaker 1: your success is the word yes, absolutely, yes, and absolutely

1116
00:55:35,239 --> 00:55:39,359
Speaker 1: I give when I go outside, I give my number

1117
00:55:39,400 --> 00:55:40,800
Speaker 1: to everybody. Wow.

1118
00:55:41,000 --> 00:55:42,720
Speaker 7: The worst thing that I can do is not answer

1119
00:55:42,719 --> 00:55:45,799
Speaker 7: it's right, because I think about that all the time.

1120
00:55:45,840 --> 00:55:49,080
Speaker 5: What if I would have told Jeter no? Wow? So

1121
00:55:49,640 --> 00:55:52,200
Speaker 5: now I think about all the news I've told the Jeters.

1122
00:55:51,920 --> 00:55:52,399
Speaker 1: In my life.

1123
00:55:52,440 --> 00:55:54,279
Speaker 7: Now, don't they don't get me wrong, I've you know,

1124
00:55:54,400 --> 00:55:55,960
Speaker 7: I mean, I've missed out on some things.

1125
00:55:56,040 --> 00:55:58,920
Speaker 4: Have you Have you passed up on a moment that, like,

1126
00:55:59,120 --> 00:56:01,200
Speaker 4: damn I could have had blah blah blah.

1127
00:56:01,719 --> 00:56:04,600
Speaker 5: Of course name three three notable.

1128
00:56:05,600 --> 00:56:07,360
Speaker 1: You probably worked with them since, but at least like

1129
00:56:07,400 --> 00:56:09,520
Speaker 1: you could at least introduce them to the world or whatever.

1130
00:56:09,640 --> 00:56:09,839
Speaker 5: I mean.

1131
00:56:09,880 --> 00:56:12,560
Speaker 7: I've said this before, but Drake definitely wanted a Gangster

1132
00:56:12,640 --> 00:56:15,759
Speaker 7: Grills very early on, all right, for sure.

1133
00:56:15,800 --> 00:56:18,000
Speaker 1: And you didn't know about him or it was just

1134
00:56:18,000 --> 00:56:20,359
Speaker 1: like you were too busy or it was I just

1135
00:56:20,480 --> 00:56:21,680
Speaker 1: it didn't happen, you know.

1136
00:56:21,719 --> 00:56:23,480
Speaker 7: I mean he went he because I mean he did

1137
00:56:23,520 --> 00:56:27,880
Speaker 7: a Southern Smalls tape like DJ Smalls, So at the

1138
00:56:27,920 --> 00:56:30,560
Speaker 7: time there was there was Southern smoking, it was Gangster Grills.

1139
00:56:30,600 --> 00:56:33,920
Speaker 7: So so, and then Bumby was a very early believer.

1140
00:56:34,480 --> 00:56:36,719
Speaker 7: So then I did the tip. I did the Tip

1141
00:56:36,760 --> 00:56:38,920
Speaker 7: Gangster Grills and that just like took off in the

1142
00:56:38,920 --> 00:56:41,920
Speaker 7: streets and it was like, you know, Tip was on fire,

1143
00:56:42,360 --> 00:56:46,120
Speaker 7: Gangster Grills was becoming a thing, and you know that's

1144
00:56:46,320 --> 00:56:48,200
Speaker 7: that was the soundtrack of the streets in Atlanta and

1145
00:56:48,280 --> 00:56:51,560
Speaker 7: the t I PSC meets Gangster Grills, And then I

1146
00:56:51,600 --> 00:56:54,799
Speaker 7: did a tape for Bun and then I did a

1147
00:56:54,840 --> 00:56:58,240
Speaker 7: Gangster Grills party and I had like I had it.

1148
00:56:58,239 --> 00:56:58,640
Speaker 5: It was in.

1149
00:56:58,600 --> 00:57:02,600
Speaker 7: Buckhead and I think Tip hosted, bone Crusher hosted.

1150
00:57:02,719 --> 00:57:03,840
Speaker 5: I think David Banny.

1151
00:57:03,920 --> 00:57:05,960
Speaker 7: Yeah, I did a tape with David Banner, bone Crusher

1152
00:57:05,960 --> 00:57:08,360
Speaker 7: host and I was against girls like seven and was

1153
00:57:08,400 --> 00:57:10,920
Speaker 7: like that that was insane. That was a big one.

1154
00:57:11,040 --> 00:57:13,120
Speaker 7: But it was still a compilation at the time. So

1155
00:57:13,200 --> 00:57:16,680
Speaker 7: then coaching Jez took me out. They wanted to take

1156
00:57:16,680 --> 00:57:18,360
Speaker 7: me to lunch one day, so they took me to

1157
00:57:18,360 --> 00:57:21,400
Speaker 7: the spot called Harry and Sons and Jez tells me, Yo,

1158
00:57:21,480 --> 00:57:22,320
Speaker 7: I was at your party.

1159
00:57:23,160 --> 00:57:23,360
Speaker 5: Yo.

1160
00:57:23,400 --> 00:57:25,200
Speaker 7: I don't know how much you know, but the streets

1161
00:57:25,240 --> 00:57:28,280
Speaker 7: like fuck with you, you know. And I'm like, We're like,

1162
00:57:28,320 --> 00:57:30,040
Speaker 7: you know, I'm I'm in the streets something.

1163
00:57:30,080 --> 00:57:30,840
Speaker 1: We're not aware of this.

1164
00:57:31,200 --> 00:57:32,160
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm very unaware.

1165
00:57:32,280 --> 00:57:34,880
Speaker 7: Like when he his his version, his what his streets

1166
00:57:34,880 --> 00:57:36,160
Speaker 7: are wasn't what my streets were.

1167
00:57:36,200 --> 00:57:38,680
Speaker 1: Like my streets were in Atlanta.

1168
00:57:39,000 --> 00:57:42,080
Speaker 7: Yeah, well I was familiar, you know what I'm saying,

1169
00:57:42,080 --> 00:57:46,000
Speaker 7: because I was doing parties for like BMF and things

1170
00:57:46,000 --> 00:57:47,720
Speaker 7: of that nature. But the streets for me were like

1171
00:57:48,040 --> 00:57:51,600
Speaker 7: going to the flea market and selling boxes of CDs.

1172
00:57:51,720 --> 00:57:54,680
Speaker 7: You know, you're not going to Bankhead or I'm going anywhere,

1173
00:57:54,840 --> 00:57:57,760
Speaker 7: or I'm going anywhere that they sell CDs. I'm going,

1174
00:57:58,320 --> 00:58:00,880
Speaker 7: but I'm not, you know, in the street. Yeah, I'm

1175
00:58:00,960 --> 00:58:04,520
Speaker 7: selling the mixed tapes. I'm not selling nothing but mixtapes, right,

1176
00:58:05,240 --> 00:58:08,280
Speaker 7: you know. Yeah, So then you know, Jez tells me like, yo,

1177
00:58:08,720 --> 00:58:10,920
Speaker 7: when Meat goes to campus, that's where he goes and

1178
00:58:10,960 --> 00:58:14,160
Speaker 7: gets his gangster Girls from. Like he's listening to your

1179
00:58:14,200 --> 00:58:16,680
Speaker 7: ship and he's like, listen, I got this vision, like

1180
00:58:17,120 --> 00:58:19,040
Speaker 7: I want to do a Gangster Girls with you, Like

1181
00:58:19,160 --> 00:58:20,960
Speaker 7: he had it all mapped out, and I was.

1182
00:58:21,320 --> 00:58:22,640
Speaker 5: I was listening, like no doubt.

1183
00:58:22,840 --> 00:58:25,640
Speaker 7: But at the time I had never done a tape

1184
00:58:25,640 --> 00:58:28,960
Speaker 7: with somebody who wasn't known yet, And that was the

1185
00:58:28,960 --> 00:58:30,720
Speaker 7: first time I got paid for a tape. They gave

1186
00:58:30,760 --> 00:58:34,760
Speaker 7: me a thousand dollars and we did the tape. It

1187
00:58:34,760 --> 00:58:36,880
Speaker 7: was called Streets Is Watching. It was damn it was.

1188
00:58:36,920 --> 00:58:41,400
Speaker 1: Really changed my life with just ten bills, right, what

1189
00:58:41,440 --> 00:58:41,840
Speaker 1: the fuck?

1190
00:58:41,920 --> 00:58:43,360
Speaker 5: Why did we go to you back then?

1191
00:58:44,160 --> 00:58:45,040
Speaker 1: Had a thousand bucks.

1192
00:58:46,000 --> 00:58:47,760
Speaker 5: He paid me a thousand dollars to do the tape.

1193
00:58:47,760 --> 00:58:48,720
Speaker 6: It was already working good.

1194
00:58:48,960 --> 00:58:51,160
Speaker 5: Yeah, you was like, what are we talking about? Like

1195
00:58:51,440 --> 00:58:52,040
Speaker 5: fifth record?

1196
00:58:52,160 --> 00:58:54,240
Speaker 1: Yeah? How many Grammy you have?

1197
00:58:54,760 --> 00:58:55,080
Speaker 2: Yeah?

1198
00:58:55,160 --> 00:58:55,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, come on.

1199
00:58:56,640 --> 00:58:58,439
Speaker 5: We still to this day.

1200
00:58:58,520 --> 00:59:02,040
Speaker 4: We it's almost like we like someone took us to

1201
00:59:02,080 --> 00:59:04,600
Speaker 4: the front of the bank line on a Friday. Yeah, yeah,

1202
00:59:04,640 --> 00:59:07,240
Speaker 4: and I got we gotta go back.

1203
00:59:07,080 --> 00:59:11,160
Speaker 1: To Baltic Avenue and Mediterranean Avenue and Oriental Avenue, like

1204
00:59:11,240 --> 00:59:14,240
Speaker 1: we got park Place and all that stuff. But we

1205
00:59:14,320 --> 00:59:18,040
Speaker 1: realized that there's an early gap that we skipped and

1206
00:59:18,960 --> 00:59:21,560
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter like I could have forty two oscars.

1207
00:59:21,960 --> 00:59:24,400
Speaker 5: We have to scratch that itch with black people.

1208
00:59:24,760 --> 00:59:27,040
Speaker 6: It ain't never did. Like the conferences and stuff like

1209
00:59:27,080 --> 00:59:29,920
Speaker 6: the HOWD how to be down Jack to Rappa Impact.

1210
00:59:30,280 --> 00:59:32,120
Speaker 1: We wanted to, but you know, Geffen wouldn't have it,

1211
00:59:32,280 --> 00:59:35,560
Speaker 1: so anyway, so go go so then yeah, so originally

1212
00:59:35,640 --> 00:59:37,960
Speaker 1: the tape was called G's Up, but that was the

1213
00:59:38,040 --> 00:59:40,400
Speaker 1: name of Scrappy's group at the time, so we changed

1214
00:59:40,400 --> 00:59:41,360
Speaker 1: the streets Is Watching.

1215
00:59:41,840 --> 00:59:45,560
Speaker 7: So when I did streets Is Watching again, Gangster Grills

1216
00:59:45,640 --> 00:59:47,760
Speaker 7: was a bigger brand than Young Jeezy at the time.

1217
00:59:47,840 --> 00:59:51,320
Speaker 7: So we put the tape out, and we put it

1218
00:59:51,360 --> 00:59:55,120
Speaker 7: out around Birthday bash Era, and you know, within a

1219
00:59:55,120 --> 00:59:58,040
Speaker 7: couple of months, I mean I remember the first person

1220
00:59:58,080 --> 01:00:00,000
Speaker 7: ever telling me my man Jay who does Raw Report,

1221
01:00:00,160 --> 01:00:02,760
Speaker 7: who wound up doing the DVD with GZ for Trapp

1222
01:00:02,800 --> 01:00:05,560
Speaker 7: or Die. But I was on Glenn Iris with my

1223
01:00:05,640 --> 01:00:07,640
Speaker 7: dad and he drove. He was driving by and he

1224
01:00:07,720 --> 01:00:10,960
Speaker 7: was like, Yo, that JEZ tape. That's the best Gangster

1225
01:00:11,000 --> 01:00:13,480
Speaker 7: Grills you've ever done. And I'm like, we're I just

1226
01:00:13,480 --> 01:00:14,960
Speaker 7: told JZ this other day and I was like, We're

1227
01:00:15,040 --> 01:00:18,040
Speaker 7: the new nigga. Like because I'm tied out, you know

1228
01:00:18,040 --> 01:00:21,120
Speaker 7: what I'm saying, Like Tip the King, Like I'm on

1229
01:00:21,240 --> 01:00:24,120
Speaker 7: fire with Tip and he's like, Yo, the JEZ tape,

1230
01:00:24,160 --> 01:00:27,880
Speaker 7: Like that shit hits different. So, you know, a couple

1231
01:00:27,880 --> 01:00:30,320
Speaker 7: of months in Coach k Is like drawm, you gotta

1232
01:00:30,400 --> 01:00:32,160
Speaker 7: come on the roll with us, like you got to

1233
01:00:32,200 --> 01:00:36,000
Speaker 7: see what's going on. Like they're doing this word for word.

1234
01:00:36,080 --> 01:00:37,280
Speaker 7: There's one thing you're skipping that.

1235
01:00:37,400 --> 01:00:42,400
Speaker 1: Gotta know this as far as the marketing and the distribution, Yeah,

1236
01:00:42,600 --> 01:00:44,920
Speaker 1: is there only one place to get this? Because how

1237
01:00:45,040 --> 01:00:46,880
Speaker 1: is Tariq Well, I mean, I guess, y'all, I don't

1238
01:00:46,880 --> 01:00:48,040
Speaker 1: know how.

1239
01:00:48,160 --> 01:00:53,280
Speaker 7: So really, thankfully the bootleggers were like taking my ship

1240
01:00:53,320 --> 01:00:54,040
Speaker 7: to the next level.

1241
01:00:54,080 --> 01:00:56,120
Speaker 1: They were doing a lot of legwork for me. So

1242
01:00:56,160 --> 01:00:57,480
Speaker 1: you didn't know that you were national.

1243
01:00:57,880 --> 01:01:01,480
Speaker 7: No, I went I when Gangster Girls seven came out.

1244
01:01:01,760 --> 01:01:04,200
Speaker 7: I wound up finding out where the bootleg spot was,

1245
01:01:04,240 --> 01:01:05,400
Speaker 7: and this was around the time.

1246
01:01:05,520 --> 01:01:06,840
Speaker 5: No I'm sorry, it was Gangs Girl six.

1247
01:01:07,000 --> 01:01:09,800
Speaker 7: It was against Girl six, but it was fifty cent

1248
01:01:09,840 --> 01:01:11,840
Speaker 7: get Richard dot Try and had just came out. We

1249
01:01:11,880 --> 01:01:15,800
Speaker 7: wound up finding out where the bootlegs spot were in

1250
01:01:15,880 --> 01:01:18,680
Speaker 7: the West End, and we went there and I literally

1251
01:01:18,760 --> 01:01:21,880
Speaker 7: saw as many Gangster Girl sixes as I did get

1252
01:01:22,000 --> 01:01:24,960
Speaker 7: Richard Doe trying bootlegs, and I was like, I was

1253
01:01:25,000 --> 01:01:27,760
Speaker 7: like fascined. I was like, oh my god, this is amazing.

1254
01:01:28,160 --> 01:01:30,560
Speaker 7: Not thinking damn, like I'm not really making a lot

1255
01:01:30,560 --> 01:01:32,400
Speaker 7: of money, but these niggas is making a lot of

1256
01:01:32,400 --> 01:01:34,560
Speaker 7: money off my shit. But it's a mixtape, so it

1257
01:01:34,600 --> 01:01:36,400
Speaker 7: was for me, it was a you know, it was

1258
01:01:36,440 --> 01:01:38,600
Speaker 7: a calling, like, I mean, it was my calling car like,

1259
01:01:38,640 --> 01:01:41,560
Speaker 7: so I was just excited and I was moving around

1260
01:01:41,600 --> 01:01:43,760
Speaker 7: like I would. I would come to Canal Street in

1261
01:01:43,840 --> 01:01:45,480
Speaker 7: New York and I would, you know, even at a

1262
01:01:45,480 --> 01:01:47,360
Speaker 7: time when they were telling me like, nah, we don't

1263
01:01:47,360 --> 01:01:50,400
Speaker 7: really check for South mixtapes, I would just be like, listen,

1264
01:01:50,760 --> 01:01:55,360
Speaker 7: take this, it's all yours, like you know, and let

1265
01:01:55,400 --> 01:01:57,160
Speaker 7: me know how it does. And I would call back

1266
01:01:57,560 --> 01:01:59,320
Speaker 7: a couple of weeks months later and they'd be like, yo,

1267
01:01:59,600 --> 01:02:01,560
Speaker 7: send us more So, when.

1268
01:02:01,440 --> 01:02:03,479
Speaker 6: Did death start? Is that like after six from the Jump?

1269
01:02:03,560 --> 01:02:05,120
Speaker 6: Or is that like that was that was.

1270
01:02:05,160 --> 01:02:06,040
Speaker 1: All around the time.

1271
01:02:06,120 --> 01:02:08,960
Speaker 7: It was all around that time, around six, around the

1272
01:02:09,360 --> 01:02:12,600
Speaker 7: by the time Trapper Died came out, Gangster Grills was

1273
01:02:12,640 --> 01:02:15,480
Speaker 7: a thing, so it was like I didn't go anywhere

1274
01:02:15,520 --> 01:02:17,320
Speaker 7: in the country. I was on tour with TI at

1275
01:02:17,320 --> 01:02:19,360
Speaker 7: the time, and I was hearing my shit come out

1276
01:02:19,360 --> 01:02:21,560
Speaker 7: of every car. And then I was like, damn, what

1277
01:02:21,600 --> 01:02:24,320
Speaker 7: I'm gonna do next? And the next tape I did

1278
01:02:24,400 --> 01:02:25,000
Speaker 7: was Dedication.

1279
01:02:27,600 --> 01:02:30,520
Speaker 6: Okay, y'all, So that's gonna conclude part one of our

1280
01:02:30,560 --> 01:02:33,200
Speaker 6: conversation with DJ Drama. But wait a minute, you need

1281
01:02:33,240 --> 01:02:35,720
Speaker 6: to stay tuned for part two, Well, we speak to

1282
01:02:35,760 --> 01:02:39,640
Speaker 6: Drama about making mixtape classics with Lil Wayne, his evolution

1283
01:02:39,760 --> 01:02:43,200
Speaker 6: from making those tapes to platinum hits, and why he

1284
01:02:43,400 --> 01:02:47,360
Speaker 6: is so proud about working with Fonte and Little Brother

1285
01:02:47,440 --> 01:02:49,760
Speaker 6: on Separate but Equal. Oh y'all don't want to miss

1286
01:02:49,760 --> 01:02:50,400
Speaker 6: that conversation.

1287
01:02:50,520 --> 01:02:51,959
Speaker 5: It gets deep and so good.

1288
01:02:52,360 --> 01:02:56,200
Speaker 6: But listen, stay tuned because we got more with my family.

1289
01:02:56,480 --> 01:02:59,600
Speaker 6: Repens c Au All Day, DJ Drama.

1290
01:03:01,120 --> 01:03:07,040
Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. For more

1291
01:03:07,080 --> 01:03:11,560
Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

1292
01:03:11,600 --> 01:03:13,240
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.