dj smallz Another thing I wanted to do was showcase all the talent in different cities of Florida. I don’t like when people think of Florida and they only think of one city. That’s disrespectful to me. I wanted to rejuvenate the Florida movement. Khaled and Rick Ross are doing their thing in Miami; Plies is doing his thing in Fort Myers; Treal is doing their thing in Orlando. I wanted to call all the troops to battle and put Florida back on the map. It’s been a long time since Florida has had a stamp in the Southern Hip Hop music industry. I have a certain power as a Florida DJ. I’m a national DJ but I’m a Florida DJ first. “Gunshine State” is a statement. Actually, Treal signed to Universal Republic and Haitian Fresh signed to Sak Pase/Universal right after the record came out. Universal hit me about that and then hit Wyclef. There’s a couple of other artists that are about to sign off of that song.
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J Smallz, creator of the Southern Smoke and Fear Factor mixtape series, recently made history with the release of “Welcome to the Gunshine State.” The record, which features 30 of Florida’s finest artists, was produced, arranged and marketed by Smallz himself. How is the “Gunshine State” record doing? The “Gunshine State” record was really crazy. It took about two months to put it together from start to finish. I produced the record. That was the first record that I displayed my production skills on. Coming up into the game, I was naturally a percussionist. I studied drums; I can tune and read music; I can play the xylophone and the drum set. I’m gifted musically. I’ve been working on beats for the last two years but it wasn’t something I wanted to come out the gate with. I wanted to brand Southern Smoke and DJ Smallz before I branded that element and my skills. What was the purpose behind the record? One of the main priorities and goals was to unite Florida. That was a really hard thing to do. When you do your research in Florida, you notice that a lot of artists in different counties don’t do records together. I don’t know if it’s an ego situation or an affiliation situation, but it’s a problem. People aren’t supporting each other. 12 | OZONE
Where can people hear the song? You can download the record for free on www.DJSmallz.com. We’re also giving away a free ringtone of the hook. The record is on a bunch of mixtapes. If you haven’t heard it, go to your local mixtape DJ and check it out. Your promotions company is pretty successful. What are your plans for selling beats? I have SouthPromo.com which is my marketing company. We’re doing something totally different that no DJ has ever done. We’re doing a Southern Smoke college tour for various Homecomings this fall. We started that in Gainesville and it’s a 9 city tour. As far as the production side, that’s something I’m working on. The Game just took two records for his Black Wall Street compilation. He put UGK on one of the records. I’m shopping records to Grand Hustle, Slip N Slide, that sort of thing. Look out for my production game to be real serious. What mixtapes are you working on? I’m working on a Southern Smoke album. Shout out to all the DJs doing albums – Khaled, Drama, Felli Fel. The Southern Smoke album is going to raise the bar for DJ albums. We’ve got a different set up and marketing plan. It’s an album that’s never been done before. It has crazy, twisted concepts. It’s scheduled to drop in the summer of 2008. It’s strictly a Southern album. Everybody from the legends to the up-and-comers is on this thing. I’m going to leak the single around New Years. // Words by Ms. Rivercity // Photo by Terrence Tyson