The year was 2003. I was making steady progress in all areas. I made a name in NYC but especially Brooklyn as an exceptional party DJ. Back in those days you usually had different people for the hip hop segments and the reggae segments. I could be the “reggae guy” and play with a hip hop DJ as well as the “hip hop guy” if I played with a reggae sound system and equally rock the crowd. By this time I had been Das Efx’s tour DJ for 4 years and had been around the world with them a few times and parlayed that into doing headlining solo party gigs across the globe. My production reputation was growing as underground white labels I produced were selling out in record stores and I even produced the title track to Das Efx’s 5th album “How We Do”. As a mixtape DJ I was respected because I mixed and transitioned well and always had a few good blends/remixes on my projects. However, I didn’t drop frequently and do quite enough to separate myself from the crowd. That was about to change. With “The 4 Horsemen” I finally turned the corner.
Instead of doing a regular well mixed project with a couple of blends/remixes I decided to make my blends/remixes the focus. I couldn’t compete with the DJ Clues of the world with “exclusives” who were running the game at the time but there were few, if any, that were as creative as me. Instead of a few days as I would do in the past I worked on this mixtape for over a month. With a well flowing mix of mostly blends/remixes that I made and an overall theme “The 4 Horsemen” was my breakout mixtape project. The mixtape websites and my network of mom and pop record stores were steadily reordering. I was even getting calls from new out of town stores because they got the bootleg and wanted to order some from me directly. The hip hop websites were giving it rave reviews. It also got a mention from Kurt Loder on MTV’s Mixtape Monday which greatly helped my visibility and credibility. Shoutout to Shaheim Reid.
Not long after putting out “The 4 Horsemen” Das Efx decided to take a hiatus that would last almost 4 years. It was then that I put down the parties and world tours and approached the mixtape game with a laser focus. I figured out the formula that would work for me and the lane I had to run in. There was no looking back.
#mixtape #blends #remix #mashup #dj #rondevu #nas #2pac #biggie #jayz
