ATLANTA – There are countless names of DJs who have made a massive mark in hip-hop and paved the way for future generations.
WSB Radio spoke to DJ Toomp, DJ Jaycee, DJ MLK and MiAsia Symone about the art of DJing and how it has evolved over the years.
In hip-hop, there are radio DJs, tour DJs, club DJs, mixtape DJs, radio personalities, and others that contribute to the art of DJing.
According to Georgia native DJ MLK, “it is always important to know what you want to do. There is also a structure to follow.”
DJ MLK is a multi-talented veteran DJ in Atlanta, and the official road DJ for Atlanta rap icon T.I.
“If you are a radio DJ, there is a structure because you have a format. When you are on tour, there is a format because if you are touring and DJing for an artist,” he said. “If you are doing hooks and verses, you may do a full song. If you are a mixtape DJ or a club DJ, its raw and uncut, and that was the road I took.”
DJ Jazzy Jeff, DJ Nabs and DJ Greg Street are among the people who paved the way for DJ Jaycee. Growing up in Detroit, DJ Jaycee says he learned about records and mixing records at an early age.
“My mother once said, ‘Before I started walking, I always gravitated towards the record player,” said DJ Jaycee.
DJ Jaycee says he has the “utmost respect” for DJ Greg Street for not only helping him early in his career, but for paving the way for future generations.
“Greg once told me, ‘If you start off your show with something that is unfamiliar, the listener will turn it down and if they go to Hot [Hot 97.5 at the time] and they play something jamming and that is familiar, they are going to stay there.’ Commercial radio is a different beast from college and community radio.”
From September 2000-2011, DJ Jaycee was Atlanta rap icon Ludacris’ official DJ.
The relationship between a DJ and an artist is paramount in the music industry, according to according to MiAsia Symone, a prominent radio personality at Hot 107.9 and entrepreneur in Atlanta.
“DJs have always played a major part in breaking an artist,” Symone told WSB Radio. “It changed over time with social media and now, TikTok can break an artist. At the end of the day, the DJ still needs to spin the music.”
She got her first start in the music industry in Atlanta as a blogger for DJ Holiday. Her passion for music came from her father.
“He really loved music,” she said. “He was always playing Tupac, Ice Cube, NWA. I got my ear from him.”
While Symone said artists still respect DJ’s, she said DJs are “the most underpaid in the industry.”
“The average DJ on a club night can make anywhere from $75-250 a night,” she said. “From a whole night of being there, five or six hours, that’s not enough for them to make a living. DJs are significant when it comes to music.”
DJ Jaycee said he initially did not get paid when he first started working at V-103.
“The mixers were not getting paid from radio stations at that time,” he continued. “The way you got notoriety, you were mixing live and spinning live on the radio. There were club owners and promoters listening and if you were rocking on the radio, they would book you. I did not get a check from V-103 the first two years working there.”
Iconic Atlanta DJ and Grammy Award-winning producer DJ Toomp says having a great ear for music, reading the crowd, and building a rapport with an artist are key elements of DJing.
“One thing about DJing now and the way it has evolved is it started off how dope you are as far as skills, artistry, how good you are at scratching,” he said. “There’s a lot of elements such as how good you are at reading a crowd, playing the right records at the right time.”
Some of the greatest artist and DJ duos include DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince, DJ Who Kid and 50 Cent, DJ Green Lantern and 50 Cent, DJ T. Lewis and Lil Wayne, DJ Jaycee and Ludacris, DJ Ace and Jeezy. T.I. has worked with several great DJs including DJ Drama, DJ Toomp, and DJ MLK.
When it comes to great DJ and artist duos in hip-hop, Symone said “DJ T. Lewis and Lil Wayne are a duo who comes to mind.”
“I like DJ Boof, who is Nicki Minaj’s DJ,” she continued. “I like DJ Holiday and DJ Bluetooth. DJ Misses is a really good one. Princess Cut and Suga Shaye. Female DJs need more recognition in Atlanta as well. They can spin with the best of them.”
Symone said she used to throw parties in her dorm when she was a student at Georgia State University and has a “really good ear for music.”
“From a hosting standpoint, once you find a DJ that you can bounce off of and go back and forth with and have fun, it creates the vibe and energy needed,” she said.
DJ Jaycee says maintaining a good rapport and trust is key between an artist and DJ.
“The artist and DJ relationship is very important,” DJ Jaycee said. “You always want to keep a good rapport with the artists you work with. Part of that is you must always be prepared. You don’t just go up on stage and press play on records.”
Playing records at the right time whether you are at a club or at a show is “key.”
“You get to see the timing,” DJ Toomp. “If a song is slow, you get to speed it up and slow it down.”
DJ Toomp produced dozens of hits for artists including T.I, Ludacris, Jeezy, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Lil Wayne and more.
“As far as putting an album together, you can tell a story on this song, put an intro on this one,” DJ Toomp added. So now, we are on the third song, and we are going to get the fans jamming and get them moving for a while, then we are going to slow it down. Some of the best albums take you on a journey. Some songs are laid back that you can chill to, some make you want to get up and dance. Some make you feel a certain way and make you want to work out. That plays a major part in just the songs we choose.”
DJ Jaycee says is grateful he gets to do what he loves for a living.
“They say when you love your job, it does not feel like work,” he said.
“Music is a way of life,” Symone said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a janitor or working at a radio station, or if you work a desk job, even when you go to sports games, you see how it impacts the culture and everybody.”
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