When Hurricane Ike came, we thought it wasn’t going to be too big. But it turned out to be a real big storm. I stuck it out; I stayed in my house. [When] I woke up the next morning it had rained all in my house. I had to leave my house; they’re still working on my house now. I went to Dallas for a little while to chill out with my family, cause I’m originally from Dallas. I went there to chill at my parents’ house and a couple friends’ houses, and I stayed there for a week. I came back [to Houston] and the city was in turmoil. The storm itself was cool, but after it passed we had no electricity for a week and a half. No clubs were open, so there was no work for [any DJs]. I depend on working at the clubs. I work seven days a week, getting money everyday; that week, I ended up getting no money everyday. It took a toll on me, but it was a good thing I had some money saved up. Artists like Trae and Slim Thug were out there themselves giving ice and free food away. The GO DJs donated to a foundation that was giving stuff away. It was tough out here, you know. People downplayed it. All those Dallas people were like, “Aw, man, it wasn’t that bad.” But when you came back and saw all the turmoil, all the struggling, man, trees were all over the street. You couldn’t even go down the streets. People were jammed up; traffic was a mess because there were no streetlights. It was worse than what people thought. It felt like we had just gone through a war.
DJ Hi-C
City: Houston, TX WebsiTE: myspace.com/djhic Affiliations: Go DJs, Core DJs, Atlantic Records, Rap-A-Lot Records 3 Songs In Current Rotation: Gorilla Zoe f/ Lil Wayne “Lost,” Scarface “High Powered,” C-Murder f/ Magic & Snoop DogG “Down 4 My Niggaz”
44 // OZONE MAG
I stayed in contact with all the GO DJs to make sure they were straight. A couple of the DJs needed a generator for their house to run the power. So the GO DJs got generators for the DJs that needed it. It took a while to get back intact. The first night back at the club it was off the chain because everybody was tired of sitting in the house. They were ready to get out and hear this music. It’s getting back to normal right now. [Musically], I think [Houston] needs to come out with some new faces. Everybody knows Slim Thug, [Lil] Keke, Trae, Scarface and all of them. They’re still hot, but we have a lot of new talent here that just hasn’t gotten the chance to be heard outside of Houston. My job as the head of the GO DJs here in Houston is to help the crew grow outside of Houston. We’ve got DJs in Louisiana, California, a couple in Atlanta, and San Diego. That’s how I’m going to help these new artists, by introducing their music to GO DJs [around the country] so we can be heard other places. Sometimes people are afraid to take a chance on a new artists, but GO DJs aren’t afraid to break new artists. That’s my whole motivation behind the GO DJs; to break new music. That’s how I think we’re gonna be able to get Houston back on the map like it needs to be.