Real Rad Magazine : Summer Quarterly 2015

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INTERVIEW by CALLIE DEE PHOTOS AND LAYOUT BY TLIT • TRANSCRIBED BY AMANDA VIOLET RAVOTTI I have always been a huge fan of the DJ Culture, even before I knew there was a culture to be a fan of. In the last few years, I have gone through DJ 101 as a talent buyer and promoter. I was blessed enough to have the help of some local musical connoisseurs/investors to bring DJ Qbert to Dallas, in November 2014 at the Crown and Harp, and then again in June of 2015 for the Dr. Octagon show with DJ Qbert & Kool Keith at Trees with featuring sets from The Bodega Brovas, Playdough + Sean P, Ronnie Blaze, Pudge, Ritchy Flo, Stu Brootal, and Ghetto[box]. Both times, DJ Qbert felt more like a normal guy rather than a 3 time World Champion DJ. Even then, reaching out to Qbert on Twitter to get an interview felt like a long shot. I was pleasantly surprised that not only did he respond, but he agreed to do it. I set up a time to talk to this World Renowned and Innovative DJ, and to be honest, it was more like talking to a homie than a celebrity. We talked about his start as a DJ, whether or not the DMC asked him to quit competing, and at the end, he turned the interview around and started asking my beliefs as far as Astrology and Religion were concerned. I’m not gonna lie, when I hung up the phone I SCREAMED in excitement! This has definitely been one of my favorite interviews I’ve ever conducted from one of my favorite artists to bring through Dallas. Thank you Tru Skool Kollective for helping me bring him to Dallas both occasions and Real Rad Records for giving me a reason to not only get his digits (SCORE!) but record an amazing interview with an amazing human being. Enjoy! - Callie Dee
What is the background on you? So you graduated from high school in 87’ in San Francisco and you started playing records at 15, which was in 1985- which was the dawn of hip hop. What was the state of hip hop when you first fell in love with it? It was just coming to the bay; there were a lot of break-dancers and a lot of poppers. We were heavily into popping out here before breaking. I’ve seen a lot of popping in the early 80s and breaking came in a little later in 85’ when I started because of the movie Beat Street. They didn’t have any rap on the radio at all at the time. You had to listen to these weird radio stations from LA. You would have to get really lucky to get that signal and get those radio stations. It only had a one mile radius sometimes. It’s kind of a community radio station and once in a blue moon the wind would blow the radio waves over the hill and you could hear that radio station and it would be magic. You started playing records at 15, what were some of the records that you remember first having at that age? Rappers Delight was my first hip hop record but I got that early in 78 or 79. Then I was always collecting records since then like Planet Rock and Kraftwerks stuff. I mostly concentrated on more electronic-like stuff back then because I didn’t know all the names of all the great rappers and rap groups back then. Ice-T was out here, that was back in 85 but then a year after that Rakim and Eric B and Kool Moe Dee and Kool G Rap came and that was the shit right there. How did you meet Mix Master Mike? I met Mix Master Mike because he was DJing at a party and my friend was saying to check him out, at a Quinceanera. He was just scratching and, It just blew me away and I started following him everywhere and that’s how I got to know him. So how did the whole concept of the Skratch Piklz come about? There were other DJ groups but none of them that did it as far as you did with using each table as an instrument. How did ya’ll come about that concept? Well jump five years later, Apollo and Mix Master Mike sort of had a DJ routine together where they were doing a turntable band thing with the two of them. They were remixing Peter Piper on two turntables, two DJs. If you watch the DMC competition of ‘92 where we’re doing that routine. You can see them doing their routine and I was kind of filling in the blank spots. That’s how that started, it turned into a band thing when I came on board and it expanded when I got into the group. I started scratching the drums. Apollo scratched different sounds and Mike scratched different sounds. Then we were like, wow we’ve turned into a band now. We all switched, I would play drums and Apollo could play drums or Mike too. After four bars I would play the baseline and Mike would grab a chicken or Apollo would grab a frog. You could play anything on the turntables and switch at any time. So you’re a three time world champion with some of these guys and four time USA champion because you won the USA by yourself. So there’s this rumor that they asked you to quit competing, is that true? They were probably just joking around. They wanted you to give someone else another shot, right? I don’t know, they were just fooling around. They told us to be judges and we are like, ok cool. That’s a huge accomplishment, being able to win the world DMC 3 times in a row, so congrats on that. DJ QBert & Mix Master Mike -’95
Page 1 and 2: QBERT THE STUDENT • THE MASTER MO
Page 3 and 4: WELCOME TO OUR SECOND VOLUME OF THE
Page 5 and 6: SWELTERING NEW MUSIC FOR YOUR EARS.
Page 7: Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton: This Is Sto
Page 10 and 11: NBA Jerseys: Yeah, remember Jerseys
Page 12 and 13: movies such as Wolf of Wall Street,
Page 14: ARTIST SPOTLIGHT JEROD ALEXANDER DA
Page 21 and 22: I do natal charts myself; I have a
Page 23 and 24: sucks and 5 percent of it doesn’t
Page 25 and 26: great concept. I try to draw from t
Page 27 and 28: You are on the internet practically
Page 30 and 31: The next giant of the streaming wor
Page 32 and 33: The worst part of Prime, though, 1
Page 34 and 35: PERSONAL BRANDING 101 By Jamall Ant
Page 36 and 37: The 4-Step Personal Branding Proces
Page 38 and 39: Real Rad R E C O R D S WE ARE ALWAY

Real Rad Magazine : Summer Quarterly 2015

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