DJ Genius {Interview}

With his highly anticipated EP Virtuoso set to drop on 12.12.12, GroundSounds got the exclusive digs on the man behind it all, DJ Genius.

GS: For the music lovers out there who don’t know you, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself?

I am a DJ. I started out Dj’ing profesionally back in ’05 in college.  I ventured out into the music and entertainment a lot during that time.  After college I started taking the DJ craft to the next level, more specifically the mixtape level.  Over the past couple of years I’ve done a lot of mixtapes with a lot of prominent hip hop artists coming out of Atlanta, so with that I kind of gained a name for myself.  I started gaining a little buzz around the DJ Genius brand.  Right now I’m moving into the next stage of my career, which is transitioning from the “mixtape DJ” to the DJ artist/A&R type spot.  Really putting the records together, really bringing all the artists together, putting them together with producers and putting the Genius stamp of approval on it.  Putting hit records together, really putting “Genius records” together and now I’m at a point where I have an EP of all those records with all the artists I’ve been working with being released in December.

GS: What made you start DJ’ing?  Is there anyone that directly influenced you?

Well I grew up in Jamaica, I would go to the parties and loved seeing how the DJs would control the crowd, how they were rocking the crowd and pretty much created an experience.  Unfortunately I was too poor in Jamaica to purchase any DJ equipment. (laughs) So when I came to America I started getting into computers, between the ages of 12 and 17 I was just into computers and technical stuff, and I came across software that allowed me to DJ on the computer without all the expensive equipment.  So I started DJ’ing house parties for my high school and for different schools, but I was doing it on the computer and people would come up to me and say “man, we never really seen anyone DJ’ing off a computer” and this was back in 02-03, so it was just my niche.  It started from when I was a kid and seeing the guys in Jamaica and evolving in the computers and technical field

GS: Who are some of the artists you’ve had the pleasure of working with so far? Any favorites? 

Man, the list goes on but I have worked with 2 Chainz early in his career, Travis Porter early in their career.  I’m actually with Street Executives which is the management company of 2 Chainz and Travis Porter. In the early days of 2 Chainz career when we were breaking him in Atlanta, I was really working with him closely.  I have tapes with both of them.  Really in the early stages of Waka Flocka’s career also.  Right around the time “O Let’s Do it” single came out.  He’s also on the upcoming EP.  I’ve worked with Gorilla Zoe.  Verse Simmonds and I go back and he also has a track on the upcoming EP.  I would say I have worked with 60% of all the hip hop artists that have came up in the Atlanta circuit in the last 3 years, I’ve had a hand in, have worked with them, or have influenced their career.

GS: Anyone you’d like to work with?

If I could work with anybody out of Atlanta, it would be Andre 3000 definitely.  I would love to get in the studio and work with that man.  Future is a pretty good artist and I haven’t really worked a lot with his career but I really like how he puts records together, his creativity.  It would be him and Rocko.  I really want to work with them to pull something together.

GS: You’ve got a pretty nice catalog of mixtapes on lifemixtapes.com, how did you start putting those together? What made you want to transition from mixtape DJ’ing to more of an Artist DJ?

Once you start DJ’ing in the club you start hearing the music and in my creative mind I wanted to be closer to where the music originated.  So music comes from the studio and goes to the DJ or mixtapes or an album and then the DJ plays goes to the general public, and I wanted to start helping artists choose what could go in the club or work in club, or what direction they should really go with their music to get a better response.  So while I was DJ’ing, I was really wanting to be in the studio and tell artists not to do this because that was whack (laughs).  So I just really started contacting the artist, starting contacting indie artists like, “Let’s do a mixtape”.  Another big advantage I had that made it an easier transition was the technical side.  I always had the expertise in software, the pro tools, the live, and I had access and was able to learn the software to engineer those mixtapes. Which made it a lot easier.  I think that’s a barrier for a lot of DJs, not knowing the software to put it together and just a creative process.   I just had the software expertise and I just had a creative quest to get closer to where the music was originating.

GS: You have a new project, Virtuoso, dropping on 12.12.12, what can we expect from this tape that we haven’t heard in previous tapes?

First of all, you can expect something that is completely different.  There is a New Atlanta movement going on, I have a couple of artists that are mainstreaming the Atlanta movement; Scotty ATL, Sy Ari the Kid, I’ve got them featured on there just making that dope New Atlanta music. I also reached out to the Old Atlanta to get them a part of it.  I’ve got Gorilla Zoe on there, Shawty Lo on there.  Pretty much those transition artists, that put out hits a couple years ago.   I reached out to Verse Simmonds, he’s like one of the really prominent male R&B artists coming out of Atlanta right now, so I had to get him on there.  We got some dope tracks on there.  Waka came through and dropped some completely different for the EP, not from his regular style.  It’s a nice variety of New Atlanta and Old Atlanta meshing together along with some really dope, dope, dope type artists.  I got something for everybody on there and it’s a big variety.  When we put it all together, if you know me it depicts my life and kind of tells you a lot about my thought process, so there’s definitely a deeper meaning there.

GS: What is the New Atlanta Movement?

I feel like Atlanta is going back to the feel good type and telling a story at the same time.  Just fun music with a lot of lyrical content.

GS: What can we expect from DJ Genius in the future?  Any exclusive updates you want to give Groundsounds.com?

Just look forward to a lot big records.  I’ve been getting a lot of calls from a lot of big artists outside of Atlanta, a lot of artists that are really established in the game.  Expect some new big records in 2013.  I’m going full fledged in the artist DJ, so you’ll see a lot more Genius records coming.  Watch BET, I’ll be making a TV appearance.  A lot deals might be signed, record label contracts, but who knows if I’m going to commit to somebody.  Just stay watching the movement.

Virtuoso drops 12.12.12 on livemixtapes.com.