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Since completing the Hit List V.4 mixtape with DJ Whoo Kid and Shaquille O’Neal in June, DJ Scream has been making new plans with his Hood Rich entertainment team in Atlanta. We took a few moments out of his busy day to find out what he’s up to, how he got to where he is, and how he intends on staying there.
Interview by Dove ~Sheepish Lordess of Chaos~
RadioPlanet.tv: When you began to your position yourself with mixtapes and self-promotion, what were some of the earliest things that set you apart from everybody else?
DJ Scream: I looked at the other people that were doing it and said that I had to do something different. DJ Jelly was really popping, and the whole screw movement with Michael Watts and all of them was going on, for me to stand out from them I’d have to do something that they weren’t doing. I just started doing whatever I wanted to do as far as my playlists and covers, and fortunately the people took to it.
Another thing I tried to do was find the next artists and put underdogs on. A lot of people might try to do CDs and put all the stars on it and songs that’s already out, which is cool as a part of the mixtape element too, but I was try to find what I call my “draft picks” and put them on the CD. Some of the acts I helped were Crime Mob, Trillville, Lil Scrappy, D4L – they would reach back out to me and show me love, and give me what I needed to get to the next level.
RPT: You touched on being individualistic. Do you feel that people cloning each other has hurt the mixtape game?
DJ Scream: I think it’s hurt Hip Hop as a whole, everybody’s trying to be the next so-and-so, nobody’s trying to be the first [to do anything]. You can be a star, but if you’re trying to be Jay-Z, you can’t be bigger than Jay-Z, period. If you trying to be Whoo Kid, you can’t be bigger than Whoo Kid. You might be influenced by these people and inspired, which is a very big part of Hip Hop, but you cant just aspire to be just like them and do everything that they do, because it’s been done already and it’s not gonna excite the people.
RPT: What are some qualities that you look for in artist that would make you want to put them out?
DJ Scream: I like different sounds. Lyrics are cool, but I really just like people who have different sounds and that represent different things. One of the things that attracted me to Shawty Lo was his voice, his swag and his story was a little different than everybody else’s. When everybody else was trashing Soulja Boy, I was on his team, I was f**king with him hard. I did his very first mixtape and I was with him. I liked it because it was fun and different for me, because I was doing street tapes, then I did one with Soulja Boy and the kids started blowing up my Myspace, my email and phone. Just different flavors and voices, different movements and trendsetters.
RPT: Speaking of Soulja Boy, do you feel that there’s a different type of pressure for young artists today compared to back in the day?
DJ Scream: Yeah, and I think it’s because some of the younger artists are coming from the South, and the South has already got pressure. When you’re young, from the South, not 18-years-old yet and making fun music, the next [worst thing] is being young from the South and being a female. [laughs] Unfortunately, some things in the industry make it harder for you to get in the door, and that’s how it is for those young cats. But at the end of the day I don’t agree with [them being held back], because they’re making great party music, and a big part of Hip Hop is partying. Hip Hop did start in the streets, but people forget that the beginning of Hip Hop was partying.
RPT: How do you feel about the criticism these dance records are getting?
DJ Scream: I think we got sour people that don’t want to see others be successful, because they aren’t being successful. In the South, when the West coast and the East coast was running it, we were happy and never haters. Biggie would come down and pack out the Atrium, same thing with Tupac and Snoop Dogg. We embraced them and showed love. People need to take the hater bone out of their body and see that someone is doing something positive and keeping their lights on.
Another thing is a lot of these people talk about what’s real music, but they don’t know the essence of it. Music has always been fun, it can be serious, but for the most part the biggest records in history have always been fun records. Understand the music before you get to criticizing people. Fans are allowed to be critics, but a big problem now is everyone is making music and feeling that they’re better than everything else that’s out, but the people haven’t said that.
We don’t suffer because of the Soulja Boy, “Stanky Legg” [GS Boyz] and “Swag Surfing” [Fast Life Yungstaz] dances, we suffer because people are doing things to make money or following what they saw someone else do. You don’t know what these people went through to get there. A lot of the best artists really worked hard to get to where they got to.
RPT: The same way everyone is a rapper on Myspace, do you find that that too many people want to DJ nowadays?
DJ Scream: If you really like music, I encourage people to try it. DJ, rap, sing, I encourage it. I don’t think there’s too many people, I just don’t think there’s enough serious people. Everybody can’t rap, sing, produce or model. We need entertainment lawyers, and for people to do other things within the industry, so it’s cool. I never did this with the intentions of making it a career, it was just something I was doing for the love and for fun.
I used to do house parties on the east side of Georgia and carry eight crates of records in there. There was no money, it was just something I was doing because I enjoyed doing it. That’s how I begun to know the business as I got older. Of course you gotta do what you do to keep your lights on, but do it because you love it first and then the other stuff usually will fall into place if the people embrace you.
RPT: Do you feel the internet has made some of the beefs bigger than they needed to be, or caused beefs that didn’t need to happen?
DJ Scream: It’s the new media. Media used to be publications and print. You see what the media used to do with the Biggie and ‘Pac East coast versus West coast situation, and now [the pring magazines] aren’t as relevant. The new media is these blogs, the bloggers put up these comments and artists read them, but you can’t take them seriously. You can’t slap them or curse them out. A lot of people blog about me and I get positive and negative. I don’t look at it and get mad, I might take something positive out of it and try to make my product better so that maybe I can get new fans.
It’s hard to find the positivity within the blogs, but try to find the positivity. The answer to your question is that they’ve definitely contributed to the beefs, people going to people’s places of residence with cameras and guns, it’s crazy. [laughs]
RPT: What’s coming up for you, and what moves are you making that you feel might be big for you?
DJ Scream: I’m slowly putting together the Heavy In The Streets album, the brands are Hood Rich and Heavy In The Streets. I just want to be classic, if I can get it to that point and put it out then I’ll be happy, If it doesn’t get to that point then it wont come out. The satellite radio show Hood Rich Radio is on Sirius every week on Wednesday night. My regular radio show is in Atlanta on Hot 107.9, my mixtapes are coming out by the bundles, me and Whoo Kid just did the tape hosted by Shaq.
[I've got] Rich Boy’s official mixtape, Young Buck’s mixtapes, [and] Yo Gotti Cocaine Muzik 3 is one of my biggest projects. I’m still in negotiations with a lot of people. I’ve been hearing rumors about a DJ Scream and Jeezy mixtape and I’m waiting to see if that happens. That’s it – just working and staying down, feeding the streets.
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