Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Primo Subprimo, Roll Call, Suprema, Son Supremo, Role Called Suprima, Son Sun Supremo, Role Suprema Sumo.
Warm Up my Panini, Yeah, my forming Grilly warm her for Nanni.
Yeah, Supremo Ro Suprimo, Supremo Ro.
My name is Fante, DJ dramas, my peoples, the best gangs, the grills, separate but equal.
Man Supremo Ro Supremo, Son Supremo.
My name is Sugar.
Yeah.
I don't need no drama. Yeah, but I do need a DJ. Yeah, fucking you're hired.
Hey, I'm a phendic Supremo, Roll Suprema Son Supremo Roll.
It's lay Yeah, and it's a must.
Yeah.
You know that DJ drama.
Yeah, it was my college crush.
Supremo Supremo, Roll Call Supremo Sobremo.
Roll DJ drama.
Yeah.
You know my mama, she's a white lady. She didn't go to Grady.
Supremo, Roll Supremo, Son Son Supremo, Roll Call Supremo Son so Supremo, Roll Call Suprema Some.
Supremo roll call.
Oh boy, Hi, that was fun. Yeah, So that's the episode. Yeah, see your next go round. All right, Look I will shut up man, all right, So I will say this much.
Back when my band started to tour in nineteen ninety four, I kept receipts of which DJ's were open to us and feeling and supporting us. And of course, you know some cats up in New York, Tony Toka, you know, Tony Touch showed us love. His cat named Blu, the barber who used to do these blends, showed his love. Of course, Philly's own Cosmic keV DJ cash Money. But there was one mixtape in particular that always got run on our tour bus and it just said ildelf on it.
You know, it meant something to me because this is the first time that I'm hearing Malik B and Tariq and Dice for All actually on a mixtape. And we just ran that tape over and over like that was damn near the soundtrack in nineteen ninety four and ninety five on our tour bus. So cut two seven years later, you know, once the route sort of evolve and whatnot, and now we have two tour buses. As I've joked before that there was this Slytherin tour bus in the
Gryffin tour bus. So I'd be on Slytherin, which was Tuik's bus, and you know which was it was always popping on his bus. We were the nerd bus, but you know, his dam was always popping. And it wasn't until like the end of maybe the Phrenology tour, where Tarik's trying to explain to me that every time I hear this little he's trying to explain to me that that's read from Backavilly. It's dramatic, and I'm like, wait, it doesn't make sense. Though it doesn't only because the
thing was is that that mixtape of ninety four. I've never heard someone just devote an entire mixtape to what we called underground or backpack rap or whatever, you know what I mean, which is why the roots couldn't find a real estate on your sens or your not Tony touch, like you know, like yeah, all those like we barely got on them Joins.
I was like, wait a minute, what they're like, yeah, man, he moved to Atlanta and now he's you.
Know, I've always wanted to have this conversation with if you know, it's like we never chopped it up for real. I knew one of these days we were going to have a conversation, so I wanted to save it for here.
I'm glad.
I know We've had a couple of interactions on I g about it, but never like in depth.
This is going.
Yes, this is our first in depth conversation. So ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to Quest Love Supreme. The Master got himself mister thanksgiving. Yes, DJ Drama, thank you, thank you, thank you for having me. Do you those people like always pointing out the Mason Dixon line of year before and afterlife.
No, I don't get tired of nothing because they couldn't never care. So yeah, nothing, nothing tires me when it comes to that. Okay, It's a very important part of the story for myself and for hip hop and for Southern culture. Like in a lot of ways, you know, like what if I would have went to Temple or what if I would have went to NYU, you know what I'm saying.
So the fact that this kid from Philly who literally grew up.
Watching The Roots as his inspiration of wow, you can really do this and DJing for Bahamadiya and you know, my roommate when I got to college was Rubiks whose best friend was taib Kwali and I'm DJing lyricist lounges. And then that kid goes on to be a part of and transform like trap music and movement. Gangster Girls becomes like the most important mixtape series literally of all time, but also how important it was to Southern hip hop culture.
So yeah, it's one of those.
It's one of those like destiny stories to me when you know and when it's told, and like, I've literally been in Atlanta longer than I was in Philly, but those eighteen years of born and raised in Philly. Once from Philly, always from Philly. You know what I'm saying.
So you know, right, when is the last time you said John? I say John all the time.
Here you go, all right the second even even in mean streets, like you know, some of my employees who started interns, like we have signs up like do not come in this John like or in our new building generation now, like there's a big sign of Kobe, or we have like a Philly map on the side, so we still wrap it up.
That's what's up. Of course, like you mentioned on your roll call that YouTube went to clerk. So now from Atlanta. I remember the day.
No, don't don't, I didn't lie.
Me and Nadine used to fight over you all the time, and you.
Know that, let's not do that. Yeah, I thought it was the other way around.
I used to have the I used to still wear the green fatigues from I Goldberg, like when I got discussed, I still had them.
And the locks definitely had the long locks.
So that's why this is the whole interesting thing. And it's funny because the mere he said he would do, he said it was in demand. He would do an Automatic Relaxation mixtape. Again, I just want to say that to everybody who's listening.
Did you hear this?
Contact year older?
That's covered interestingly enough, just even during my most recent tour that I went on, I actually physically got my hands on one the first Automatic Relaxation, which was the first CD which happened to be called it was hip hop lovables like people don't realize, like when I first made Automatic Relaxation, like it was before neo soul was a thing, or like hip hop love songs were like you know, before everybody was like singing, or it was so much melody, so like, you know it was a
hip hop lovables like I named it that because it didn't really exist at the time. And then I just recently got my hands on my actual ill adelph tape.
You know, I do, I do. I should have brought it. Damn, I definitely should have brought it.
I got the Green Cup my home boy from from Philly, Liza across street from my mom D shot to d He found it in his crib and I was like, if you go on my Instagram, I actually show it the tape and then I go and I go and then show my Grammy, like to see where I came from and where I'm at now, how.
It started, how it was going, yeah, how it was going. Yeah. So for you, what was your first musical memory.
My first musical memory for me is being in Germantown when my dad lived on Ruby Camp Street and the older kids having the younger kids say the.
Roof, the roof, the roof is on fire.
We don't need no water, Let it burn, let it burn it, and they left out motherfucker. Like I vivially remember years later being like, damn, I didn't know they said let the motherfucker burn because they used to say let it burn, Let it Burn. And then I mean, my dad was a big duop guy, so I definitely grew up around like him, playing a lot of the Commodores and the Temptations, and obviously Thriller. Thriller came out eighty three, you know, so I was probably like I was.
I was five when Thriller came out, So that was a big moment. And then another one for me was definitely wanting Adidas because of my Adidas, like I didn't get my parents bought me the wrong ones. They bought me like they didn't buy me stripe. Yeah, I didn't get the three stripes, so they were still a didas though they were Adidas. They were Dias, but they weren't
the street three striped ones. There there was like in Ecker's Drugs, my parents were doing like a they were doing My parents were doing a they were doing a residency in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Anybody from Puerto Rico that remembers, uh.
I think back in eighty six or eighty seven when the DuPont Plaza there was like a battle between the union staff, which I don't know if they were mom connected or whatever.
In the hotel management.
They threatened like, if you don't renegotiate our contract, we're gonna blow this hotel up because we checked out. We had a New Year's gig in Lancaster, PA that night, so we checked out at you know, twelve pm on December thirtieth, flew back to the States and came back home with all these messages like are you guys alive?
For you?
And then we found out that there was an explosion in the DuPont Plaza. I think like eighteen people died or whatever. But the whole point was there was an eckerage drugs across the street. And you know, this is when Adidas made Top ten Adidas the red, blue and green like high top thing, and so they were like we got to top ten a datas but it had four stripes.
There was like the twelve ninety and not case with either.
Yeah, and that's it and that's where right, and that's when like you had to run your shoes down before you got another pair of shoes.
So yeah, just all in seventh grade, I.
Just got laughed at because you know, I got a pleather thriller suit and I got four stripes in my Adidas.
Well, similar, Yeah, I got the wrong I felt like I didn't get the right add this. I'll never forget that, I see, I see.
But for you, when did.
At least turntablism, Like when did that attract you? So for me, I grew when I grew up, you know. I mean, the first like piece of vinyl that I got was this actual, this compilation vinyl was it was called like street Rap and.
Like KTL Records joined or something. It had to be something like that.
I don't remember where where I got it, but and it had like rock box on it and had Roxanne Roxanne utfo K and I remember, like, you know, literally like memorizing Roxanne Roxanne by Utfo and it had a couple of other songs on there. So that was my first actual physical like piece of hip hop vinyl. But around like maybe like ten eleven, I got really into skateboarding, you know, and I was super into skateboarding, and it was all about Thrasher magazine.
It was all about going down to Love Park.
So this is like in middle school for me, And you know, I came up at a time when down in Love Park there started to be this this movement or this group of black skateboarders. So it was it was maybe like seven to eight of us at the time, and you know, shout to my brother Stevie Williams. He was like the youngest of all of us, and he was also the best. Fortunately I was the worst. So what about Chuck Trees was here around back then, I think, so.
He's older though, yeah, he was older and he's still skateboarding and he's still Yeah, we're a little younger, but you know, they used to basically like make fun of me because I could barely land a kickflip and like or even like when we used to like go to Wah Wah and like steal the fucking the jugs of iced teas and everything, and then.
Like when we were skate off, I would always be like behind the cart, never got caught, but I was I was like I was like last when we would try to skate back to love.
So, yeah, I was super into skateboarding.
I think Nickelodeon had like skate TV out or something around the time. And then between eighth grade and ninth grade, I went to the movies to go see Juice and I was just blown away.
I think for a certain age.
Group of us, as DJs like Juice was really really monumental in our careers because you know, and again like in Philly culture, like we always like Philly had the DJ's, New York had the rappers, you know what I'm saying. So you know, I knew early on about cash Money and Miz and Jeff and what have you. So, but it was really Juice that started my fascination with like that's I might want to try that, you know what
I'm saying. Like I dabbled about, you know, with rapping a little bit and never was really that good at it. And then so ninth grade, after seeing Juice, I convinced my mom to buy me a turntable and a mixer, and she did.
It was a belt drive. Originally I got it. Yeah, it was tough. It was tough.
So I originally got like a belt drive turntable and one mixer. I remember was it a Gemini or a technique Gemini? It was a Gemini belt draft. Yeah, it was a Gemini draft.
For those that are wondering drivers, a direct drive.
Bell drive is like you know, yeah exactly. It takes a long time to rev back up, so like a good time without a technique twelve hundred that you wasn't really doing nothing, so but I remember I did, like it was a kid. His name was Ari Forman. I did his alright birthday, you know, all right? Yeah, are stole around. He's like he doesn't. He must be doing production and film and things like that. He did some art for us, like him and tramp and like they
designed so crazy how the world is still connected? His birthday party was my first party, so I remember the first records.
Really, yeah, we went. He went to Central with me.
You and ari a this same age we are.
Yeah, we came in.
I'm older than Ari. I'm way older than you, so by the transit.
By a couple of years. Are so classy, Like I always thought he was like slightly older than me. Yeah, we're in the same class two five. Because he's the one that introduced me to Cosmo. Okay, so good.
So I used to save my lunch money. My mom would give me like five hours every day for lunch. What did your parents don?
What was?
My mom is a teacher. She's in education. She's been in education forever she was. She now has her PhD in education. But when I was in growing up, she would teach in Philadelphia High School. She taught at Alnie, she taught it Overbrook, Yeah, I think those were She went from Alnie to Overbrooks.
So she was at Overbrook when I was essentral.
And my dad used to work for this Quaker organization in Philly called AFSC American Friends Service Committee and then hit part of his job was spending a lot of time in Eastern Europe, so like he used to travel to the USSR at the time, and you know, and then later on he would go to other party parts of Eastern Europe and like, you know, help out like what are known as Gypsies, which pretty much are like, you know, people of European descent, but they almost get
treated as black people over there. And then my dad, you know, both my parents are very politically active growing up. So like my dad used to be in snick student student and coordinating committee.
Yeah. So you know, I grew up going to like did you go to charters school one of the charters? I didn't.
I always wanted to go to a charter schoolgory. I wanted to go to Friends Select or GFS or Penn Charters so bad, like because I knew so many kids that went there. It's funny because I put my daughters into friends schools and they're like, oh, Dad, why did you do this to us? And I was like, man, growing up, I wanted to go to a friend school, but I think it might just be a Philly thing.
It's Quaker and that's like a pa thing. But I went to public school, Like my parents couldn't afford me to go to those schools, so I went to Masterman and I went to Central. So I always went to like good academic schools, like I had good grades in school and what have you. So, Yeah, so I used to go downtown between Armand's, Funkel Martin Sounds of Market, and I would buy my records and I would you know, the first records I bought was like the Who's the
Man soundtrack Heavy D was Who's the Man? Partying bullshit inside so you spend out and cuts in the grooves, this moll And Not Loud, Superba, super Ghetto REDT, Supercat, Ghetto Red.
Hot, Fad Joe Flow Joe.
Yeah, and you know it was this was around the time when like when Philly like it was, there was the Goats and then there was the Square Roots, and you know that was like that was you know, my introduction to like hip hop and DJing, and it was this was all around that era.
Well, first of all, you know, even for me, like to be a drummer as young as I was, and I would get these catalogs you say, ash catalogs whatever. Drums were like seven thousand bucks and so I mean lucky for me, my dad had like access to stuff usually like band members that succumbed to an addiction or whatever whatever and leave the equipment. That's how the inherent drum sets when I was younger. But like DJ equipment though,
man it was like expensive. Were you just on one turntable and one cheap radio shack drawing like a mixer.
For a while, I had the what was the I guess it was the Gemini Make sure that had the eight second sampler scratch master.
Yeah, I had that. Oh my god, how do you know that I had?
Well, I had access to one, that one that was like you were DJ too, No, no, no, I used to make beats on it had the sampler, yes, yeah, loop and you had to like turn the thing to catch it it perfectly.
And yeah, my finger was like al.
I remember I used to write my grandparents, my mother's parents like letters, and like when I would get good grades, I would like write them letters like hey, I got good grades, like can you get me this? And you know, and then you know, my grandparents actually I think were the ones who bought me my technique twelve hundreds.
So they bought me my technique twelve hundreds.
And then I would do little gigs here and there, and I think, you know, at armands at the time, like or not even armads that I think a funkal mart.
You know, you could buy speakers weren't like that expensive, so you could.
I could I bought like maybe like you know, these big ass wolfers and everything, and it might have been like two three hundred bucks four hundred dollars for a set, right, and then you would have to buy a receiver.
What else would you do?
All gift money, no job yet.
I didn't have a job. Now this was all. This was before a job.
Yeah, I didn't get a job to like eleven twelfth grade, so yeah, it was all. It was all pretty much like get birthday and Christmas type gifts and stuff. But you know, bunch of money is how I did my record collection. And they just starved in school.
Starves.
Yeah, yeah, maybe go across the street from Central and go to the pizza spot and maybe get a dollar slice or something.
But you know, definitely I would save up to get my records. So were your parents encouraging or did they see this as just like a hobby? Definitely just saw it as a hobby. Did you see this as a career or a hobby?
You know?
Interestingly enough, my sister was like as a filmmaker and she used to do like make independent films. And hence how we first met because she brought me to I guess it was. Was it a temple?
It was?
It was for the premiere of Past the Popcorn video, Damn Wow. And there was a there was a young lady who used to direct videos because she did a three times Dope video. I can't remember her name, but my sister was friends with her and then, but she's the one that That's how I wound up coming to the premiere Past the Popcorn and that was where we originally first met, and I like came up to you as a young lad and just introduced myself.
Shout out to Abdul Jackson and Kevin Dreer.
I forget. Damn man, you just took me back on some joints. Man, I totally forgot.
Yeah, y'all had a premiere party for that video, right.
So yeah, like my last my last day at Roughhouse just you know, I just through spaghetti and the walls even stuck. And I just having to ask Chris Wartz right after lunch because I would notice after lunch he'd be.
In a different mind state.
And I was just like, hey, you know, or he knew about the Roots and you know, saw some shows or whatever and always wanted to like, how can we even get it, you know, an offer? But he just he was just that day, he just like, okay, how much I was like five thousand, Wow, you'll need to have in thousands. It was like seventy five hundreds. And I to do organics, No, to do the past popcorns and we shot past the popcorn on Thanksgiving morning.
Wow, Like yeah, shout out to Chris Warts of rough House Record.
And I remember too, my other friends used to be cool with Kenyata. I used to look up to, Yeah, I used to look up to yacht like but but no, it was it was for them. It was a hobby for me. It was still you know, I thought I was gonna wind up going to NYU and being film school and be a director, like at the time, that's that's but I love DJing like it was, it was my thing. So I definitely had, you know, without even realizing, was putting way more time and effort into my DJ career.
And then you know, I had my stuff in my in my room at my mother's house. And then it got to a point when the traffic of the friends coming over and us trying to make little freestyle tapes and everything. She she got fed up because it was like ten ten thirty and she was like, yo, it's too loud, and so she lot, she let me move to the basement and I moved. You know, that was my first studio in the basement of my mom's house, and we used to be down there boom bapping all
day after school every day. And that's where I made
ladelf and you know, I started. My sister took me to New York between ninth and tenth grade and we went to Harlem and on one hundred and twenty fifth, they still had the vendors and I bought That's when I bought my first mixtape, DJs ands Old School Part two And the reason why I bought that tape was because all the songs that were on there, when I would go to to the record stores, I couldn't get those songs on violin anymore because they were unless they
were the you know, the bootleg copies and everything. So I bought SNS Old School Part two and I was just literally blown away, like by that tape by S's talk game like how he was putting records together and hence that just really started my fascination with like mixtape culture. And then you know, Clue kind of was coming up
on the scene. And when I would get Clue tapes from the layup and things like I would i would feel like when I would go to school, I'd be like, oh, y'all don't know about this yet, Like y'all don't have this premiere Jarew remix or you know this this new
Bigie Grand puba Tupac song. Like so I would feel ahead of the curve, and you know, I was just that, you know, and when it came to like DJing, and like, you know, there were battle DJs, there was radio DJs, there was you know, party DJs, and there were mixtape DJs, but the mixtape DJ for me was always just like larger than life.
So for Philadelphians, the layup my current production manager Keith McFee, kind of opened kind of like Phillies. I don't know if it's the first culture store, but it was like the spot where, yeah, it was like the spot where you get like what was like first skateboard and get like fresh jive yo or excuse you could get to see yeah, those Triple five, those hoodies early Echo. It's not that I was like, yeah, those I can't remember.
It's the even though skateboard pants that are like the big at the bottom yeah forty.
Yeah, and the forty waist Johns that were super big. Yeah.
So that's and that's pretty much like that was just like the cultural epicenter. That's where like mixtapes were you get cry line, spray paint.
You get to catch all those things and everything they have.
The white man.
Yes with the yeah, those things you're talking about.
It looks like you see like five white boys at lunch playing Hackey sacking.
Yeah.
I would rock that ship all the time. It never showers, so all the fun of the world side of the.
Yeah, come on, I mean, only the only reason why dudes would shower in the twenties is if a woman is involved or whatever, like their future partner.
But you know, come back, come back, come back, come back. Yeah, I'm coming back anyway. Who is the DJ?
Okay, I'm trying my rock the bells thing, just like Jeff does my cash money thing whatever. But for me, I will say that like cosmic keV is probably the sensey DJ that I always have in my head when I'm doing a set or whatever, like you're always gonna emulate someone because like if you're making beats, when you get your drum machine, you start to you know, all right, let me see if I could do bloh blah blah blah that sort of.
Thing for you as a DJ? Who were those DJs?
Who was the sensey Like what was the mix that was sort of like damn, I gotta well, I mean, or were you even into turntablism.
Or absolutely I was gonna tell you, I mean, because there was so For me, it was a few. I mean definitely probably first it was DJ Rand because I forgot yeah, because before.
You know, I'm still spinning, right. He was like with the w W. Yeah, I'm not sure that shot shot the cosmic k to. He just took me on a superhistory lesson, Like was he.
Nice about it? keV?
Oh yeah yeah yeah. We talked for like two hours, gently exchanging nice words.
We discussed like his relationship with Ran and how things came about and how you know it went from Ran to keV and you know, but when of course as it as a as a youngster, like it was Kobe Cob and DJ Ran on Radioactive every Friday night. So you know, people don't really like this is obviously before we had you know, you can go and you can go on YouTube, Hulu, anything and watch anything hip hop
you want. Back in the day, we only had certain outlets, so you would run home to catch Rahap City or Friday night I would be tuned in to Radioactive to hear it.
So oh you know who else too?
Yeah?
Yeah it's fucking Jay Ski.
Yeah oh yeah, talk about GOTAM.
Because what was the station was one O three? Yeah something you stupid?
He came to his birthday party.
Damn on.
So on the radio side, it was definitely Ran, keV and Jay Ski and then in Philly for me it was DJ Ghetto and Ghetto was like, yes, you know, yeah, Ghetto used to be our d m C champion. He would he would go up against Rock Raider Rest in Peace and you know, do his DMC thing, and like, you know, Ghetto has another cousin named Evil Tracy too.
But but Ghetto like Ghetto.
Kind of like you know, took me in as a youngster and was trying to kind of show me how to really cut and scratch and you know, do things on his level. I could never get it down to to to that degree, but Ghetto definitely like befriended me as a as a young DJ too, and Philly, so I salute to him. So those were the guys that I was around or were listening to early on. So when you're in the dramatic era, are are you? Do you have a regular residency?
Are you now? High school?
So Dances is the first club I ever.
Dj' at dance.
It was for Juwan Lee's birthday party. Juan Lee, he's the director. He works with Benny Boom. He does a lot of stuff now too, my brother to this day, I just saw him the other day. But yeah, that was my first actual club gig was was Juwan's birthday party of dances.
This might have been like eleventh grade. And then I was just doing like I would.
Get hired to do like block parties or like birthday parties of you know, kids that I went to school with, or you know that I knew around town or what have you.
And and then you know, we had to I remember we had this crew.
That it was this crib off Gerard Avenue that we lived at, and I used to do a lot of their functions. So you know, I was I was getting you know, gigs here and there, just like around Philly as a as a kid.
Now as far as your creative output is concerned, and and then I specifically want to kind of go step by step.
That is why I'm like leaning, there's a lot so for you, are.
You in the mind state of serve my audience or like I, I'm very selfish with my DJing, and I do it like I'm like Prince doing Darling Nikki. No one cares about the music but yourself. Yeah, And but I also know that I have a shield of protection that will allow me to play a mister Rogers song or I can play the number song by the porn of sisters on Sesame Street kind of get you know,
they're like, what the hell is he playing? Like yeah, that quest loves so crazy, Like I know I can do rogue shit, right, and you know, and oftentimes the openers are like, yo, man, like that was crazy you did that? Because even one time, I think Fonte mentioned that someone spun return to Forever something it or weather report.
Yeah it was out of who it was the dy It wasn't things Steel Parish.
Okay, okay, okay, well he's known for dared Devil shit.
But my whole point is that as a DJ, you kind of have two choices, which is serve the people or establish yourself. So at the time and oftentimes, like opening DJs have it the hardest because they gotta you gotta keep them on the floor.
You can't.
I remember once an opening DJ got in trouble. He had like an early copy of Brooklyn Zoo, and I think that might have been too you know, of course, you know it's like, oh the new Woutangelo, Okay, but it wasn't. The club owner was like no, no, you know that sort of thing. So for you, were you facing any sort of venue structure that would tell you like this is what we want and just play R and B or so not in Philly.
When I was in Philly, I was.
Very u burn, very East Coast with my taste in music and what I would play, Like I remember, I would do parties and want to play Doctor Octagon.
Wow, oh Jesus Christ. Yeah, like that's where I was at. Like I would try to make blue Flowers. Yeah, exactly like I was.
That's where. That's where I was at in my Philly days.
And you know, I wanted to play fucking Smith and Wesson album cuts and just you know, I didn't get to to the stage or era of pleasing the crowd or my audience until I moved to Atlanta.
Atlanta Atlanta did it.
And I don't want to do I don't even want to frame it like it's a compromise, because I do think that you're either going to be an effective DJ, yeah, or we're going to be a teachable lesson DJ.
Yeah.
Well, I was blessed in my career to be able to be that later on because of who I became and who I was. So once I became DJ Drama, it's like, Okay, when they come to see me, they also want to be able to I can, you know, introduce them to something or be a little more stubborn.
But it's really going to Clarkland University and being in the AUC for me coming from Philly, where I would have people from d C who wanted to hear Go Go, I would have, you know, people from the West Coast who wanted to hear ship from La or the Bay, or I would have people from Texas who wanted to hear screw or what have you.
So it taught me how to be well rounded.
Okay, So and that's.
That's where I was going to go next.
You know the whole I mean, especially now you you kind of morphed into your dramaus before the age of cell phones. So the whole idea of someone the phone on your face. Yeah, like, I hate I'm a no request person, gotcha. And that's where my ego gets me in trouble.
Yeah, I'm not like that. So you're you're people. You're a person of the people. I am for your person and people.
No, no, no, no.
I like when people like if I go to Vegas and it's eight women who keep putting bad Bunny on their phone, I gotta play fucking bad Bunny.
Even to this day, you're not offended. Like, motherfucker, I'm DJ Drama like I created stars. You don't tell Picasso what the paint? See that I got a but that's not that's not the capacity he's there to serve that night. You know what I'm saying.
It's like, yeah, I mean there's it depends like it depends on the gig too, like if I get it like a hipster New York gig for like I did something for United Masters and you know, at that night they booked me, like I know they want to hear drama ship, Like I'm gonna play Canon Remix and I'm gonna you know, go in and play some Gucci or
go here with it. But you know, if I'm at my Vegas residency, like I'm there to Vegas, yeah, like I'm not at the same Like I'm still trauma, so I'm not about to fist pump that thing out.
Have you ever had a.
I mean moment or at least that was sort of the ship back in twenty fourteen.
Yeah, I mean I've played those records at times like what but that's not the majority of my set, Like I know when they booked me like they want to they come there for certain right, Yeah, people give them like when they when I go even to Vegas, like and you know, Vegas has had a transition at time where it's become much more hip hop driven than it was. But I'm just saying, like when I go to gigs, like people want to hear DJ drama, be DJ drama.
You know what I'm saying.
So it's like, but is it confusing now at this stage in your life where Okay, so say and now I'm that that I would associate you with like any canon records. So let's say like Go Crazy, right, which came out in two Yeah, which to guy. To me, I'm still like, oh that's new rap even though that's old school right.
No, no, no, so no, I mean I was confusing now, No, not for me.
Because I go with the times that I go, Like I just got off a tour with Wiz and Logic, for instance. So but and the blessing for me is though, is that that's not like as much as there is an audience that knows me for that. When I get on stage at the Whiz Khalifan Logic show, I start with a tiler to create a record, and then I go into a dream I play stick off the Dreamfield tape because that's still my ship, like it's still off a gangster grills.
That's when DJ dramatic to me kind of enters the thing I hate. I know you, I don't know if you hate when I go DJ dramatic or drama, but it's just.
How I can when you was a man, but I was drama first though. I mean, it wasn't like I was dramatic. I was drama and then I tried to change it to dramatic and then I went back. So it wasn't like I was originally DJ dramatic.
I was.
I was DJ drama first.
But you okay, I'll accept that. But you know, when I say dramatic, it's also like to an era, a time when you did have a certain lane you were in that.
You have, Well, what happened was it?
I didn't know.
I mean, like, as much as much as I was putting into gangster girls, I was putting into automatic relaxation.
One just took off from the other.
Okay, So let me ask you when you decided to go to Clark University Yep, Clark Atlanta, and I assume that you're transporting your your equipment with you, so that's important, Like you already know that in your dorm that your big ass speakers and your records and your turntables had to come with me, are coming with you? Okay, absolutely no question without it. Were your parents like what the hell are you doing? Like you're in a dorm?
They you know, I mean by that point, I was already like kind of you know, they had they it was clear that I was on a certain path, and I was, you know, this DJ thing was.
Going to happen in college, not just some high school thing.
And yeah, I don't Yeah, I don't know if they knew. I mean, clearly they didn't see this happening, like you know, I mean my mom even after school, was concerned about me getting a real quote unquote real job.
But yeah, I mean when I got to school, like it was, you know, I brought my Philly hustle with me.
Like like I will tell you, like freshman year, when everybody was freak nicked out, I bought a bunch of T shirts from this guy named Moot, and I was hustling T shirts during freaknik Like I didn't partake in none of the activities like or I would set up on campus on we had these green trash cans and I had this little yellow radio, and I would like hustle my mixtapes in between classes.
So how did you find an outlet to establish yourself in Atlanta?
Well, I mean outlet was the AUC. It was our world. I mean there was enough and.
Market at Marcos. You feel like working at Marco's too, was?
I mean Marco's people hadn't go to college.
You see the Atlanta University Atlanta University Center, so that's Clark Atlanta, that's Morris Brown at the time, that's more House of Spellman. So you literally have four story black colleges and universities right and one epicenter. So there's multitudes of parties and gigs available.
So I was did you try to find your flock or no, I can't, Or were you like, okay, what are they endo down here?
It just happened naturally, because you know, as you start doing gigs, I mean you realize, oh, I got it people from everywhere. So you know, I learned very early on and I shot to my man DJ Sense and since is also from Philly, we met freshman year, and he kind of was a little more commercially driven than I was at the time, Like I was real backpack wrap and he was like bad boy.
You know what I'm saying.
So us doing gigs together, he kind of helped influence and inspire me to get you know. He yelled at me one time I cut the Benjamin's off too early, oh lot a gig.
He was like, bro, like, you can't cut it off at this part.
And he was right, you know what I'm saying, So us doing gigs together, I kind of got more into my commercial bag. And you know, because I still even when I was in school, when I was doing these college gigs, I was still DJing lyricist lounges. I was still at yin Yang cafe, you know what I mean, Like I was, I was still into that world.
So I was. I was bouncing between worlds in a way.
Who was the DJ down here that was your oh shit or your kaiser. So it's a coffee mug, slow drop realization thing that this is some next shit down here that I.
Have to first.
There was DJ Nabs. Nabs was the ultimate. I mean, he was on the radio, he was on television, he was he had Kai, He had Nabs in a lab at club kaya Sunday night, which was just the ultimate experience. And then I think for me it probably was DJ Mars. Mars also at the time was you know, he used to be on he had to be t gigs, so he was doing what was that show called It was one of them shows.
Mars was on the radio, you know, he was on every day, and he was in the club.
So he was like one of you know, one of those like the guys that we looked towards as like, damn, that's the next level. So and he It's funny because I did the same thing with you too. I know you don't remember this, but I used to like write for this like little magazine or like little zine, and I went and did an interview with Mars. That's how I like got I introduced myself to him. I went to go interview him at the station and then I handed him one of my mixtapes and he was like, Yo,
this shit's hot. And oddly enough, when you guys came to Atlanta one time, I did the same thing with you. I was I did an interview with you for the magazine and That was how I first found out about Dyla, because this was the era where you were dial it out and you were just you told me, like, yo, all we do was listening to slum Village and this is mid late nineties and everything, and yeah, so I
would kind of, you know, wiggle my way in. However, whatever to you know, get my name out there or get my tapes in people's hands.
Like I feel like Atlanta really found itself with what I organized Noise and now casting all this established absolutely so. But the thing is is that I didn't call it anything like I know, like New Orleans's bounce and there's bass music in Miami.
But what was.
Atlanta's culture before trap? Like does first of all, does Atlanta own what we know as trap?
Absolutely so?
What was before the BC era of that? It was Dungeon Family. I mean, so you think I moved here in ninety six? Ninety six El Adelph Half Life came out, ninety six, at Aliens came out, Luddy Waters, Right Man, Luddy Waters came out, Reasonable Mob Deep second album came out on Ner Hell on Earth came out Score And I have and I have an elevator's question to ask you because I came right when elevators kind of hit.
Okay, so let me ask you something, all right, And why is elevators like my new Latin quarters.
So many treasures, we can go so much. I gotta talk, I want to say, like, so just while we're here, all right.
So when we asked you know, La Read and Organized Noise, my thing was I would ask them why would they take such a risk with the sonic choice of elevators. Yes, it's a masterpiece of a song, but but who knew at the time. I was just like, yo, who would ever put like a song that's like eighty six bpms which was very slow at the time compared to what was hitting. And it was just everything about that song was just like it was a risk. It was a
hell mary throw that got caught. And you know, Organized Noise explained that, you know, they leaked the first and of course La, we really wanted Atlans to come out there first.
They put it, they took it to the radio station and just like it forced it right right.
And then but as a DJ, like, could you explain to me the effect that that song had on or just at the time, like, yeah, I mean it was Atlanta, so Again, there was when when when at Aliens dropped, just you know, the the pride and the the sonics and the creativity of that album.
You know, Southern playlistic was already a thing, right, and then at Aliens came and it was like, oh, these these boys is different, you know. I mean that was the era when three thousand was walking around with the turbine and you know, Goodie Mob had you know, dropped and everything.
So it was like, I just think the.
Pride and you know, I hear stories about before Outcasts about how you would go to certain clubs in Atlanta like Warehouse and and people would almost want to kind of act like they were from New York, you know, and then he.
Just said, yeah, they just said that.
And then it was Outcast that was almost brought that pride out where it made people in Atlanta feel proud to be from Atlanta or from the South, you know what I'm saying. So yeah, so before the Trap era, you know, Atlanta was was defined by Dungeon family, by so so deaf and you know, by the Face records, and that was that was the you know, the the trifecta of what Atlanta was.
So when you are down here. At what point the cast of characters that were known as the Affiliates, how are they amalcalmating themselves in your life?
Like are you meeting them now this point?
So I met DJ Sence literally the first day I get to school in Clark, Atlanta, AGAT. We go to the dorm to Brawley Hall and my room number was two one five, crazy right, And and then somebody told sense, hey, you know there's a DJ on the second floor from Philly, and he had told he told me it kind of already heard about me in Philly. Like, you know, it's crazy to think I had a little buzz, but he had, you know, he knew about me.
So we like battled. We battled in my room, like the.
First first day we met, just kind of going back and forth on the turntables, cutting the scratching. And then you know, we were doing parties together and we were you know, like a dynamic duo and just you know, people would book me or book him, or we would go together and we would do all the parties. And then my next year, this tall, lanky kid gets on campus and like he had heard about me, and he kind of was like, Yo, my name's Donny Brasco.
I'm from Philly and I'm a DJ. I make beats.
And I was kind of you know Kyle, you know him and Kyle went to school together, so Kyle kind of like would have sour taste in my mouth early on, like that that Cannon was a.
Nut Kyle, Kyle was part of.
It was a whole crew of Philly dudes. As it was Dame Dame.
North Carolina.
Yeah, it was Chris, Chris and Eily, it was Dame.
It was me Since and I had like my school crew, and then I had like my Rubik's Jack's and you know, my hip hop, my Binkers Crew, but.
Rest in peace to my brother Jack's.
But so so finally Cannon woud up giving me a beat CD and I went home and I listened to it and I was like, yo, this ship is fucking fire. So next day I see him on campus, I'm like, yo, yo, I've listened to your beat tape. That's it's hard, like
you know, come through the cribs. So it went from me and Since to me Since and Cannon, and then we were just the three of us were like you know, damn there inseparable, like doing while we were in school, and we would do a bunch of gigs together just support each other, or you know, when I was selling tapes, like Cannon and Sense would make their tapes and I would, you know, I would sell them all and we would just do events together.
But the way the Affiliates came.
About is because there was a crew called the super Friends, which was DJ Mars, DJ Trauma. Uh, there was a cowboy was in there. Fahrenheit shot him was super Friends and they made us part. They We were like the youngest of the crew and they you know, invited us in and DJ Trauma that is currently okay, and you know, it was you know, that was one of the reasons
why I tried to change my name to Dramatic. It's because of Trauma, because Trauma and his name is Tiri had at the time, and he was on the radio and he was on fire, and it was like everywhere I would go and try to say I'm DJ Drama, They'd be like Trauma and I'd be like, no, Trauma, and it just used to frustrate me, like like, man,
I'm about to just change my name. And Mar you know, interestingly enough was like yo, don't change your name for nobody, and Trauma was his best friend, but he, you know, he said, you know, don't change your name for nobody, Like, if that's your name, that's your name. So we were part of the super Friends and we were really trying to be focused, like on mixtapes, and super Friends were very party driven and we kind of we went through
a little disagreement at the time. As my memory serves me, Jacob York offered the super Friends opportunity to do an album, and we were kind of already, you know, feeling a certain type of way because you know, we weren't like they were getting all the gigs, and you know, we were trying to make our name. We couldn't get no sponsorship for the mixtapes because they were getting on a
sponsorship for the parties and everything. And they were like, Yo, if we do an album, let's call it Gangster Grills because that's the strongest brand out of all of us. And I was like, I don't know, I don't want to call the super Friends album Gangster Grills, Like that's my shit. So they basically, wait, when did you morphins you gangster grills? I was I started Gangster Grills in two thousand, so by like three oh four had become a thing like where it was. You know, I Little
John was the first person to host it. So I used his voice on Gangster Grills four and it was still just like a compilation at the time. And you know I did like Gangster Girls five, and I just kept using John's voice, Right, how did you So how do you.
Approach an artist?
Because for a lot of the artists that were in Gangster Grills mixtape, like as an outsider, I didn't know none of those people. So you know, I'm hearing TI for the first time right here, like everyone that you put on Jesus Travi GZ and all those six even like really the first time I really paid attention to Wayne and all that stuff is really on Gangster Grill. So, like, how are you propositioning them and approaching them to do these things? Each situation is difference in a way.
But like Little John was since was working at the station and and Circe and Little John were partners in BMME and John used to be up there all the time. And you know John, he's one of the most down to earth, humble guys in the world.
And I literally just asked him.
You know, this was the time when I was paying attention to what was going on on the East Coast, and I asked him, like, yo, would you host a mixtape for me? And he was like sure, and he came to my crib in the fourth Ward and hence the Gangster Grizzils Drop was born, and you know he hosted the tape. Jason Jeter is the first person to ever call me. He got my number off the back of a mixtape from the barbershop. Now think about this. I get a thousand DMS a day about artists trying
to get on. The first phone call I ever got was from Jason Jeter and he was like, Hey, my name is Jason Jeter. I have this new artist signed to LaFace. We have a song with Beanie Siegual called two Blocks nine. I got one of your mixtapes. I want to bring him through to freestyle all on one of your tapes. And I was like all right, sure, cool whatever. So I seen you don't know, never met Tip never, wasn't even familiar with the two Glocks, not a record yet. So he literally comes to the crib.
Jeter and Tip super shy and quiet at the time. You know, I had my equipment in like where the laundry room would be. He comes in there, I pick a beat. I picked the for the fan beat, the Rockefeller Ye with the one with a mill and everybody on it, and he freestyled on that and at the end of the freestyle he said, you know, King of the South. And I remember once him and Jeter left, I went the sense like, yo, this nigga said, he's the King of the South, like he's tripping like. So
that was literally our introduction. And then you know, Jeter was also from Jersey, so he was paying attention to my mixtape Grind and what I was doing, and they were kind of you know, once things didn't work out between them and La Reid, they got on their mixtape Grind.
So we were kind of both coming up at the same time.
Where I lived on Glenn Iris, Coach K lived around the corner from me.
Ah okay, we got cool with Coach K.
He had this group called Jadis, who Bobby Creek Order was a part of who later outside to Shady. That was Coach K's first group, and then he also used to work for Alan Henderson in Hindu when Alan Henderson had a record label, but we got cool with Coach K and then he told me like, yo, I got this this artist from making. His name is g Z and he had an album out. The first album they put out was called Come Shop with Me and then Jeez. I would Coach would bring g Z over and I
would make show CDs for Jez. I would charge them like one hundred dollars and he would come and I would He would just he would he was doing shows and making and I would like make CD. He would take instrumentals, whatever instrumentals were hot at the time, and I would just make him a little like show CDs to put together. As Gangster Girls was becoming a thing. So then I did like John tape then like I think Scrappy hosted one. Then Jeter called me and was like, yo,
I've been listening to the tapes. I got this idea, let's do an all t I and PSC Gangster Grills.
And I was like, bet, you know.
And at the time, I'm I'm just fascinated by Green Lantern and who Kid and what Fifth is doing and what they're doing, and so Jeter and Tip gave me the opportunity to do the type of mixtape that I wanted to do.
So you felt, because I'm just amazed that your amount of faith. It's so weird, like I need to have this conversation because I'm such a no now no, or who going to be there? Who are going to be there? Like that sort of thing and get me out of this or whatever. But it seems to me that your the key to your success is the word yes, absolutely yes, and absolutely give.
When I go outside, I give my number to everybody. Wow.
The worst thing that I can do is not answer. It's not right because I think about that all the time. What if I would have told Jeter no, Wow? So now I think about all the news I've told the Jeters in my life now, don't they Don't get me wrong, I've you know, I mean, I've missed out on some things.
Have you?
Yeah?
Have you passed up on a moment that, like, damn I could have had? Blah blah blah. Of course name three three notable You probably worked with them since, but at least like you could at least introduce them to the world or whatever.
I mean.
I've said this before, but Drake definitely wanted a gangster grills very early on, all right, for sure, and you didn't know about him, or it was just like you were too busy or it was I just it didn't happen, you know. I mean he wentn't he because I mean he did a Southern Smalls tape like DJ Smalls, So at the time there was there was Southern smoking.
It was Gangster Grills. So so, and then Bumby was a very early believer. So then I did the Tip.
I did the Tip Gangster Grills and that just like took off in the streets and it was like, you know, Tip was on fire, Gangster Grills was coming to thing, and you know that's that was the soundtrack of the streets in Atlanta and the t I P.
S C Meets Gangster Girls.
And then I did a tape for Bun and then I did a Gangster Grills party and I had like I had it. It was in Buckhead and I think Tip hosted, Bone Crusher hosted, I think David Banny. Yeah, I did a tape with David Banner, bone Crusher host and I was Gangst Girls like seven and was like that that was insane. That was a big one. But it was still a compilation at the time. So then
coaching Jeezy took me out. They wanted to take me to lunch one day, so they took me to the spot called Harry and Sons and Jez tells me, Yo, I was at your party.
Yo.
I don't know how much you know, but the streets like fuck with you, you know. And I'm like, We're like, you know, I'm I'm in the streets something.
We're aware of this.
Yeah, I'm very unaware. Like when he his his.
Version, his what his streets are wasn't what my streets were, Like my streets were.
Yeah, well I was familiar, you know what I'm saying, because I was doing par parties for like BMF and things of that nature. But the streets for me were like going to the flea market and selling boxes of CDs. You know, you're not going to Bankhead or I'm going anywhere or I'm going anywhere that they sell CDs. I'm going, but I'm not, you know, in the streets. Yeah, I'm selling the mixtapes. I'm not selling nothing but mixtapes, right,
you know. Yeah, So then you know, Jez tells me, like, yo, when Meach goes to campus, that's where he goes and gets his Gangster Girls from like he's listening to your ship and he's like, listen, I got this vision, like I want to do a Gangster Girls with you.
Like he had it all mapped out and I was to I was listening like no doubt.
But at the time I had never done a tape with somebody who wasn't known yet, and that was the first time I got paid for a tape. They gave me a thousand dollars and we did the tape. It was called Streets Is Watching.
It was damn it changed my life with just tenills, Right, what the fuck?
Why don't we go to you back then had a thousand bucks. Hey faved me a thousand dollars to do to tape. It was already working good.
Yeah.
You was like, what are we talking about?
Fifth record?
Yeah?
How many you have?
Yeah?
Yeah, we still to this day.
We it's almost like we cut like someone took us to the front of the bank line on a Friday.
Yeah, and I got we gotta go back to Baltic.
Avenue and Mediterranean Avenue and Oriental Avenue, like we got park Place and all that stuff. But we realized that there's an early gap that we skipped and it doesn't matter, like I could have forty two oscars.
We have to scratch that itch with black people.
They never did like the conferences and stuff like the how how to be down Jack to wrap the impact.
We wanted to, but you know GEFFN wouldn't have that, so anyway, so go go.
So then yeah, So originally the tape was called G's Up, but that was the name of Scrappy's group at the time, so we changed the Streets Is Watching. So when I did Streets His Watch, and again, Gangster Grills was a bigger brand than Young Gez at the time. So we put the tape out and we put it out around Birthday bash Era, and you know, within a couple of months. I mean, I remember the first person ever teld me my man Jay who does Raw Report, who wound up doing the DVD with Giz for Trapp or Die.
But I was on Glen Iris with my dad and he drove. He was driving by and he was like, Yo, that JEZ tape.
That's the best Gangster Grills You've ever done. And I'm like, we're I just told JZ this other day and I was like, we're the new nigga like because I'm tied out, you know what I'm saying, Like Tip the King, like I'm on fire with Tip and he's like, yo, the Jez tape like that shit hits different. So you know, a couple months in Coach k is like, drawm you gotta come on the road with us, like you gotta see what's going on.
Like they're doing this word for word. There's one thing you're skipping that gotta knew this.
As far as the marketing and the distribution, Yeah, is there only one place to get this?
Because how is Tariq Well, I mean, I guess, y'all, I don't know how.
So really, thankfully the bootleggers were like taking my ship to the next level.
They were doing a lot of legwork for me. So you didn't know that you were national.
No I went I when Gangster Girl seven came out, I wound up finding out where the bootleg spot was. And this was around the time. No I'm sorry, it was gangst Girl six. It was against Girl six, but it was fifty cent get Richard dot Trying had just came out. We wound up finding out where the bootlegs spot were in the West End. And we went there and I literally saw as many Gangster Girl sixes as I did get Richard Doe trying bootlegs, and I was like, I was like fascined. I was like, oh my god,
this is amazing. Not thinking damn, like I'm not really making a lot of money, but these niggas is making a lot of money.
Off my ship. But it's a mixtape.
So it was for me, it was a you know, it was a calling, like I mean, it was my calling car like, so I was just excited and I was moving around like I would. I would come to Canal Street in New York and I would, you know, even at a time when they were telling me like, nah, we don't really check for South mixtapes, I would just be like, listen, take this, it's all yours, like you know,
and let me know how it does. And I would call back a couple of weeks months later and they'd be like, yo, send us some more.
So when did death start?
Is that like after six that from the jump or is that like that was.
It was all around the time.
It was all around that time, around six around by the time Trapper Died came out. Gangster Grills was a thing. So it was like I didn't go anywhere in the country. I was on tour with TI at the time, and I was hearing my shit come out of every car. And then I was like, damn, what I'm gonna do next? And the next tape I did was Dedication.
Okay, y'all, So that's gonna conclude part one of our conversation with DJ Drama, But wait a minute, you need to stay tuned for part two. Well, we speak to Drama about making mixtape classics with Lil Wayne, his evolution from making those tapes to platinum hits, and why he is I'm so proud about working with Fonte and Little Brother on Separate But people, oh, y'all don't want to miss that conversation.
It gets deep and so good.
But listen, stay tuned because we got more with my family repens c Au all Day. DJ Drama, Much.
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