Written for New Wave Magazine Issue XIV
Heralded as one of the most influential, important and legendary minds in hip-hop, DJ Drama has lived the life that a DJ could only dream of. With his first glimpse of becoming a DJ at the age of 13 after having seen Juice in the cinema to buying his first mixtape from a street vendor in New York, he eventually got his own set of turntables and went on to move from his hometown of Philadelphia for his studies, playing all around Atlanta whilst at university. Eventually turning to producing too, Drama overran the noughties after connecting with T.I and created the first ever Gangsta Grillz mixtape, igniting a revolution that made him the most sought-after producer and DJ of the 2000s and 2010s. Amongst endless collaborations that are still being churned out today with rappers who are eager for the Gangsta Grillz treatment, and the birth of Atlantic Records sublabel Generation Now, DJ Drama signed two of the most successful artists today, Lil Uzi Vert and Jack Harlow and helped produce the Grammy-winning album Call Me If You Get Lost by Tyler, The Creator. Graduating from bring a fan, a student, a dreamer to then being a part of the culture is what has made DJ Drama’s journey to greatness so authentically special, as well as consistently going against the grain of what people told him was right.
CREATIVE DIRECTION Derrick Odafi ( @esco_boomin )
PRODUCER Hassan Gazali ( @niftysoawesome )
PHOTOGRAPHY Ede Dugdale ( @ededugdale )
STYLIST Sidney Korboe ( @sidneykor ) // ( @manfitteruk)
MUA Jacinta Ruscillo ( @jacintamakeupartist )
Hey DJ Drama! It’s been a while since you’ve been in the UK. What brings you back to London after so long?
DJ Drama: Yeah, it's been close to ten years. Last time I was here, I did a Boiler Room gig where I played with Mark Ronson and Giggs. Now, I’ve come over to just feel the energy, soak in some of the songs and check out the bands. The UK sound is really thriving right now and definitely touching in the States. It’s been a while since I’ve worked with a UK artist, so I’m very willing to come over here and put a project together.
Yeah, the UK scene is evolving rapidly, and people are making moves early in their careers. But I’d like to go far back into your early days of DJ Drama and talk about where you started. We know that you began your journey as a DJ for T.I back in the day, could you share a little about what propelled you to have a career in music?
DJ Drama: I started to DJ when I was around 13 and going into high school. I went to the movies to see ‘Juice’ with 2Pac and Omar Epps and I was pretty much fascinated by Omar Epps’ character DJ Q. I think that was the first time I had ever seen a DJ on the big screen, and it just seemed really cool and like something I wanted to try. I convinced my mom to get me a turntable and mixer and then my grandparents bought me my other turntable. When I was in high school, in the summer between ninth and tenth grade, I went on a trip to New York with my sister. We went to Harlem and then in them days on 125th Street, they used to have a lot of vendors that sold a little bit of everything. I bought my first mixtape, and it was DJ SNS Old School Pt. 2, and I was just fascinated. I remember listening to that mixtape that whole summer and I knew it from front to back. So, that really began my fascination with mixtape culture. Around this time, I had heard of a DJ named Clue and he was getting all of these excusive records, and I was going to school feeling like I was ahead of the curve and knew songs before other people were familiar with them. I was DJing all throughout high school and chose to go to college in Atlanta because I took a trip to Atlanta with my pa and the energy was different. I had never really seen a city with so many young black people or people of colour that were doing some really cool and amazing things and from so many different walks of life. So, because I thought that I was going to want to wind up in New York, my goal was to live in Brooklyn and be part of Brownstone and walk down the streets in my Timbos. But I wound up in Atlanta and it was the ultimate experience to go to a HBCU, historically black university. In the late 90s when I was there it was just awesome. I met my best friends and business partners like DJ Sense, Don Cannon, Leighton Morrison, and we were all into our music in our own ways. It was a cool place to be, in the AUC [Atlanta University Centre]. In those days, everybody would come through campus when they came through Atlanta. Jay-Z was on campus, Nas, Outkast, 50 Cent… you name it. As a DJ, I was just doing parties all the time because there were so many opportunities. There were parties to fraternities to sororities and I was just in a very strong hustler mentality. I was making mixtapes in college and just hustling and grinding and when I got out of school, I never really got a job and would just make tapes or at that time CDs and I would go to various colleges throughout the city and set up my own table to sell my mixtapes. I had something for everybody like reggae tapes, East Coast tapes, Southside tapes, neo-soul tapes and people would ask “who’s DJ Drama?” and I would say “I don’t know I just work for the guy; I’ve never met him.” The first person to ever call me was Tip’s [T.I] manager and business partner Jason Jeter. Around 2000, I graduated, and he was like “Yo, I got this new artist called T.I, I want you to bring him to the crib to freestyle.” So, Tip spits a freestyle and at the end he says, “I’m king of the South”. Those were around the times that I actually created Gangsta Grillz as a new mixtape series and it just started out as a compilation of all the hottest songs in the South, like most mixtapes of that time. I was following trends and things that we’re going on and as mixtapes we’re evolving and started to become mini albums, I believe I applied an up North, East Coast formula in mixtapes to Southern music and it was different, fresh and exciting. And it just worked. Next thing you know, Gangsta Grillz was the hottest thing in the streets. I’m doing my thing and Tip is becoming who he’s becoming. Just off of me studying hip-hop, I knew that if I became Tip’s DJ, it was an opportunity for me to be attached to an artist on the rise as well as create my own brand whether I’m looking at Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeff, Eric B and Rakim, Run DMC, Whoo Kid and 50 Cent or Eminem and Green Lantern. So, this was Tip and DJ Drama, the hottest thing smoking.
As you were talking about that intersection between what was going on in New York and the up-and-coming Atlanta scene, Atlanta is now a huge part of the industry. There was Outkast but in your time you had Jeezy and T.I who were going to be rivalling New York. So, what was it like living in Atlanta knowing about that scene and having experience with New York and the tapes?
DJ Drama: It was dope because of my background, I grew up really loving and appreciating lyricists and a certain type of rap. In those years, I really felt like the A [Atlanta] was poppin’, it was definitely known as a party city and Freaknik had already came and went so everybody knew to come to the A, and it was known for rap. But outside of Outkast and Dungeon Family, it wasn’t really looked at for lyrical content or a certain type of artist. So, when Tip, Jeezy and Killer Mike we’re on the rise, what I wanted to do with Gangsta Grillz was really put emphasis on that n*ggas in Atlanta and in the South can really rap like this and are real spitters. So, that was my emphasis on how I approached the tapes and being the epicentre of what was going on. Playing my role that was watching the movement take place and come together. At this time, Tip was introducing trap music to the game and Jeezy was in the game, on the rise. For me, between the two of those guys, the one who was being compared to being the Jay-Z of the South or about to become the hottest in the game, being attached to him [Tip] and then to break Jeezy on Gangsta Grillz where my platform was the first time people hear of this artist because of my brand, put me in a great position in hip-hop and one that I had always dreamed of. I had been DJing since ’92 so when ‘04/’05 came around I felt like it was really paying off and I had put all this work in and now I’m here. I made it to the league already and now it’s time to ball. So, yeah it was that kind of energy. I was in my early 20s, just getting into the game and it was exciting, really. To be acknowledged by people that I had grew up being fans of like, running into Busta Rhymes and him knowing who I am and saluting me or getting phone calls from Snoop or Diddy. I went from being a fan, a student and a dreamer to a part of the culture. It was a really dope feeling.
Off the back of that, you've got some really amazing collaborations as well, especially with your most recent release I’M REALLY LIKE THAT. And even before that, you've had Tyler, The Creator, Nipsey Hussle, Westside Gunn, Lil Wayne, Future, 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg... Were there any really significant moments that came from working with them at all?
DJ Drama: I would say Wayne was really significant. The connection that me and Wayne had, and our bodies of work was a transitional period where he was going from being known as the kid on ‘Bling Bling’ to the best rapper alive. And Dedication, outside of the Carter albums, was where a lot of people realised that this n*gga is barred up. I did Dedication a couple of months after Trap or Die, and I remember feeling like ‘what am I going to do next?’ after doing Trap or Die but Dedication was just incredible. Me and Wayne have a really strong history, working relationship and just friendship. He’s one of one so to be a part of his career and to think about how many times I hear him in my life and what Dedication means to people and their memories of growing up listening to it, it’s really important. To me, Dedication 2 is the perfect mixtape. And I remember just wanting to make my tapes kind of different and one of the things I did was use my professionalism as an interviewer. I would write out a script for him as though I was doing an interview and would ask him mad questions like ‘what do you like to watch on TV?’ Or ‘give me a story on road?’. That’s how we came up with ‘SportsCenter’ because his response was that his favourite thing to watch on TV was sports. You know, ESPN, Around The Horn and then we went into that ‘SportsCenter’ record and I was just asking questions like ‘are you going to sign to Roc-A-Fella’ or ‘are you going to retire from rap?’. At that time, he wasn’t doing a lot of interviews so people we’re getting their information from the skits on Dedication.
We know that you worked with Nipsey Hussle as well. Do you ever get emotional listening to ‘Never Die’ from 2012?
DJ Drama: All. The. Time. It's a very potent and powerful record. Nipsey is probably one of the few artists in the game that I really considered a real friend. I hold him very dearly in my heart as a lot of people do. He's just rare breed, and to have been a part of Crenshaw and to have been a part of that movement, it was somewhat similar to Wayne in the sense that it was a very transitional period. Nipsey having a cult fan base to making Crenshaw is when people realised that this was hot.
Rather than being more regional, it was more global.
DJ Drama: Absolutely. And the $100 mixtape, the $1000 mixtape sent shockwaves to the game. When he did that, he had a vision and his campaign. When I was in L.A, me and Leighton went to go eat and we ran into him at a restaurant. We had been talking for some years about working together and he was like, ‘yeah actually, I’ve been working on something, I’ve got this idea and it’ll be perfect.’ And that’s really how Crenshawcame about. When he came to Atlanta, he set up in my studio and I introduced him to Thug. He did a lot of recording there and he really loved the studio and was like, ‘I’m going to set one of these up in L.A’. He was just a solid individual and great guy. I was really proud of him for where he took his career.
You've been in the game for such a long time, you've seen how it works. You have your own brand and Generation Now too. By viewing how the music industry has evolved over the years, how do you adapt to these changes as a DJ and a producer?
DJ Drama: I would say the best way to adapt for me is organically, or naturally. I think that when I look at my career or where I’ve taken it, it’s kind of just happened in that way organically and naturally. Just a good progression and evolution to come from being a mixtape DJ to a label owner or an executive. A lot of my skill set and expertise on what I’m doing now came from what I was doing in the streets and what I was doing with mixtapes like artist development and cultivating artists and their discovery. That’s what mixtapes are and that’s what mixtape DJ’s are. So, when I was making the earlier Gangsta Grillz and introducing new artists and putting rappers on, it was kind of setting me up for the next phase and then going onto being an A&R at Atlantic and starting Generation Now, signing some of the biggest rap acts in the game. And more recently what’s happened with this Gangsta Grillz resurgence with Westside Gunn, with Tyler [the Creator], with Dreamville, Kid Cudi… it’s really dope because a lot of that came from artists wanting somewhat of a nostalgic feel and wanting to reach back in to get that feel of what they grew up with like what Tyler used to love or what Westside Gunn was loving and now they reach out and turn their projects into Gangsta Grillz and have me doing what I do on their music. It almost introduces me to a new audience like people who listen to Tyler and wondering why this man is screaming all over the song. [laughs] One thing that I would say that’s really dope about my career is what people know me for and some people know me for Gangsta Grillz and working with Wayne or Jeezy and some people know me from Lil Uzi Vert or Jack Harlow or Tyler. It’s been a hell of a journey.
And speaking of that as well, you've seen every generation or era of music evolution from the mixtape era to actual tapes, to CDs and people rapping on other people’s beats, the DatPiff era and things like that. What stays consistent through time through these changes of how people listen to music?
DJ Drama: Honestly, authenticity. That’s what’s been constant. I think that the love for new sounds and movements, the curation is always there but in a different way. And that’s what us as DJs, blogs or playlists are. Curation is a way for people to find out about new things so that’s why people want to hear a mixtape or check out DatPiff or go to a playlist to discover. To find something new that they might not already be into and to add it into their collection, phone or CD book. That’s been consistent throughout the years from the early mixtape days through to streaming.
In those different eras, was there ever a time where you thought ‘Okay, it’s time to make a transition?’ Like, now it’s time to put Gangsta Grillz on DatPiff or that now is the time to start working with artists on streaming and doing albums?
DJ Drama: After the raid happened where I got locked up for mixtapes, I was noticing that everything was kind of moving online and a lot of the mixtape hustle wasn’t what it was where us as DJs were selling mixtapes. Mixtapes were always like a secret society; we didn’t really talk about selling them. Back in the day, it was for “promotional use only”. So, when DatPiff came along, we looked at them like the bad guys because they were giving away free downloads of mixtapes, and it was kind of knocking our hustle. As things transitioned, sites like LiveMixtapes and DatPiff would come to me to work. So, I tell people I probably made more money in that era than I made in the streets off the websites. From there, I noticed around ’14, ’15, ’16 that I was doing less mixtapes. From every month I would do five tapes every six weeks to four, to three, to two, to one tape and then it was like okay, now I’m doing one tape every two months, so I was like, alright this thing is slowing down so it’s time to pivot. It kind of happened organically because around that time when I was working at Atlantic, we founded Generation Now, and we signed Uzi and as I was noticing it, were already building the blocks to this over here.
It's like it was meant to happen, like that was already in the pipeline. Co-founding Generation Now was such a significant step in your career as well. Was it just authenticity and a new sound that you were looking for when you signed Lil Uzi Vert and Jack Harlow or was there something else that you saw in them where you knew they we’re going to be big? Like ‘I’m gonna make you a star’.
DJ Drama: I mean, I feel like the star was in them, you know? I don’t know if I could necessarily make someone a star, someone either has it or they don’t. And I could tell that they had it very early on. Uzi was saying that he was a rockstar from the moment I met him, and Jack was saying that he wanted to be one of the greats from the moment I met him. They both were similar to my own career in a way of kind of going against the grain. When I think about me being this kid from Philly who moved to Atlanta who changes and is a part of southern rap culture in the mid 2000s, people would tell me what I was doing with Gangsta Grillz like ‘n*ggas don’t want to hear that’ they don’t want to hear all that talking and freestyles in the music. That’s not what the southern fanbase wants to hear and I did the exact opposite of what people told me would work and it worked. Similar to Uzi being this artist from Philly going against the grain of what [Beanie] Sigel was, what State Property was or what Meek [Mill] was, he was melodic and had the purple dreads and he wasn’t the standard of what Philly rap was known for and I loved that. Jack Harlow was a white rapper from Kentucky, people told me ‘I don’t know if this is going to work’. Because I’m so used to going against the grain and making things work that people don’t see, it was almost like there’s a part of me that enjoys being the underdog in a sense. People not seeing my vision at first and then being able to be like ‘I told you so!’
You must have played a mentorship role during that time with those artists as well in their early years. So how do you approach mentoring new artists?
DJ Drama: Every artist is different, and every relationship is different. Between myself, Cannon and Lake, we know how to play our positions and our roles within the artists’ careers and lives. Wit Uzi, a lot of the mentoring came from Cannon and with Jack, a lot of the mentoring came from me. Cannon is the sound and the production, Lake is helping put together and is incredibly business savvy and I’m the bullhorn, running them around screaming their names everywhere I go. I’m taking them to Sway [Calloway] doing interviews and dropping their names. It’s dope how our company and how we move is set up.
We wanted to talk about Drake and Future as well. You might have the second ever Drake and Future song. Seeing where they've gone in their careers, how important is it for you to always have foresight?
DJ Drama: It's everything, that's why I'm here. It comes from mixtapes, and I’ve always been addicted to new s*it. Being ahead of the curve and being that same kid that would love to come to school and have the new Clue tape or be up on Biggie Smalls before everyone was a Biggie fan. It’s the same person that is still into curation and having foresight. Some of it is about being in the right place at the right time and I’ve been incredibly blessed just being in the mix and having gotten to a lot of these artists at a certain point in their careers before they became these global superstars. It’s really dope to have worked with the people thar I’ve worked with. When I think about my repertoire, my resumé it’s insane!
We wanted to know more about the Gangsta Grillz resurgence and how it touches into your more recent work such as Tyler, the Creator’s Call Me If You Get Lost which won a Grammy but also D-Daywith Dreamville. Do you think old school mixtape culture is coming back and people want to hear skits and things true to the culture?
DJ Drama: I would hope so. Obviously, artists want to hear it because if they didn’t then they wouldn’t call me. I assume that their fan base wants to hear it too. It’s the nostalgic feel, it’s a resurgence. J. Cole has Cam’ron spitting on his album or Westside Gunn has ‘Damn Son, Where’d You Find This?!’ Tyler reached out and got me and it’s just that nostalgic feel of early mixtape culture. What I think is that when streaming became the go to and took the place of websites, the word mixtape got list with the word EP and album and just became a word when people were scared to call something their album. I come from an era where a mixtape is a mixtape, and it has a DJ on it, and you hear the bells, whistles and skits. And that was missing for a long time so now with this resurgence and people reaching out wanting to do Gangsta Grillz projects, they want to have that sound and mixtape feel instead of it just being a word that’s so loosely thrown around.
Is there any artist that you would really love to do a Gangsta Grillz mixtape with?
DJ Drama: There's an abundance. I say all the time that I always I love working with new artists. I thrive off that. But you know, I would love to do one with Brent Faiyaz, Black Thought… I was talking to Nippa the other day about working together. I’ve built my name from being a part of movements so working with new artists and discovery is always fun for me.
What’s the relationship between, In My Mind: The Prequel with Pharrell and Call Me If You Get Lostby Tyler?
DJ Drama: I don't think there would be a Call Me If You Get Lost if there wasn't an In My Mind: The Prequel. Tyler was incredibly inspired by that project and that project means a lot to a lot of people. When Pharrell got a Gangsta Grillz, there were a lot of kids that were fans of both Pharrell and Gangsta Grillz that were super excited to see where the worlds mesh or collide. And Pharrell did a lot for the brand and the way that tape was perceived or how its culturally loved, it’s literally Pharrell’s one and only mixtape that he’s ever done so it’s a very special project. There’s a lot of influence on Call Me If You Get Lost and one of me and Tyler’s earliest conversations was based off of his love for that project. I don't know if you guys saw this but after we did Call Me If You Get Lost, Tyler retweeted a tweet from like 2011 or something where he said ‘I want to make a Gangsta Grillz so f*cking bad’ [laughs]
Especially with this era of the mixtape resurgence, this could also be recognised as the era of the DJ. DJs are now taking more of a centre stage at festivals and parties and they’re becoming more of the main event where people are actively looking for what the vibe of the event will be when we go. Has the DJ community always been strong, especially where you grew up and where you from?
DJ Drama: I think so. It's had its times and if it wasn't for people like Flex and Clue, Kid Capri and Jazzy Jeff, I wouldn’t be here. They really laid the blueprint for what I was able to accomplish. Listening to those guys make albums, I probably wouldn’t have ever thought of making an album as a DJ if it wasn’t for them. I think the DJ throughout the 50 years of hip-hop has always been culturally important. Hip-hop started because of the DJ and the DJ used to be the star before the MC, the MC was there to back the DJ up. I think through the years, MCs and rappers have become the forefront, but the DJ has always played a dominant role. I think if you look to any era or generation, you have a good handful of DJs that are really helping push the culture forward and inspiring the next era of DJs to become future superstars.
Speaking of that as well, on the Dreamville project you said, ‘every time you hear my voice, I’m thinking Mount Rushmore’. Who’s your Mount Rushmore of DJ’s?
DJ Drama: I'm gonna say Jam Master Jay, Jazzy Jeff, Funkmaster Flex and Kid Capri.
For this issue, we're focusing on the theme of resistance. So, how would you apply the definition of that to your everyday?
DJ Drama: I think for me, it’s to be able to believe in yourself and go against what is already accepted or what people think is working. Be ready to resist against that feeling of wanting to accept that and be able to be like ‘f*ck that!’ I think hip-hop has been built on things that people didn’t see coming. Me being where I’m from, moving to Atlanta and being a part of southern trap music or one of biggest rap artists of all time being a skinny kid from Canada or one of the best rappers of all time being a short guy with long dreads from New Orleans… There’s just so many moments in hip-hop where people went against the grain and were resistant and shocked the world. I think that’s it. That’s important to do so many times. Who would have thought this white kid from Kentucky would be the hottest in the game? When we met Jack, he literally looked like Napoleon Dynamite and how he’s a f*cking sex symbol. Stay on the course and stay resistant and you can do it too.
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