With the popularity of internet downloading and blog sites leaking music, the DJ game has changed tremendously – sometimes for the better, and sometimes not. “On the good side, you don’t have to search and dig as hard for music as much as you used to, but on a bad note, the music isn’t exclusive to the elite DJs anymore. Everyone gets it damn near at the same time now.” – 03 “I started DJing when there was nothing but records. There was no internet so you had to mail the songs or drive them to whereever you were trying get your music heard. The internet makes it easier to promote your music to other cities and states. You can cover a wide map area in a short amount of time. The negative side is music that’s not supposed to be heard is getting leaked out before it’s supposed to.” – Ace
“As a DJ, you can find just about any record you’re looking for in about 2 minutes on the internet. I think that also goes in the negative category, because there’s no such thing as exclusive anymore. It’s really about how you play your records more than ever. Everyone has the same tools, but not everyone can build a house.” – J. Espinosa “The internet helps artists get their music out to way more people than CDs and radio alone. It’s also a good way to get back info on how your music is doing. The bad part of that is it takes away some of the hustle, grind, and struggle that gives artists their hunger of trying to make it.” – Jay-Fields “Man, I love blogs. There’s great independent music everywhere. Even the majors can pre-release tunes that just weren’t right at the time. The negative is there’s a huge amount of crap out there. Digging for music is a full-time hustle.” – JT Quick
“The music gets around faster and with Serato you can “I think it’s great that people are able to share and suphave the new music playing the same night. It’s probport what they are feeling, but all these dudes are just ably bad for artists because there’s not a lot of money jacking songs from other people’s websites and blogs, made off the music anymore. Artists gotta change with and not giving the times.” – Mike Smoove the credit for their “The good thing is I get easy access to work. They’re “Artists can get feedback music. Back in the day I had to beg laalso letting out fix any problems before unfinished and bel reps to send me music. Let me take and committing the music to the reference tracks this opportunity to say fuck you to album. It also increases the before the artist artists’ fan base. Users see if all the reps that never sent me shit. really gets to do they like the album before And the bad thing is I get easy access their thing, which buying, because it’s disapto music. There is just way too much kills the actual pointing to buy an entire alsong for me and garbage to sift through and labels bum for just one good song. the fans.” – Amen will send out anything these days. The negative effects would be artists may lose sales, Back in the day they would press a “The music goes and of course there is the record with an A and B side and prostraight to the issue of piracy and copyright people, and you mote the record. now they mail out infringements.” – Nasty Naz can find out if 100 mp3s and see which ones stick.” you’re hot or “The positive is getting the – Greg G wack in minutes. exclusive music. The negative The bad thing is is that everybody wants to be some records only last a couple weeks, ‘cause everyone a rapper.” – Pretty Boy Tank wants what’s new, not what’s good. And lastly, any bum can call themselves a DJ.” – Big Von “Having Slum Village on our label, I see a lot of people who show love on the net, but also it becomes a real “It’s free promotion. The internet is the best way to curse because my fam doesn’t see revenue.” – Scrap potentially get millions of people to see and hear your Dirty music. Without the internet there are a lot of artists we would have never heard of, like Soulja Boy. But now “The positive is getting to break the new songs first and everyone is flooding the internet with their music and fast, and you get instant feedback. The negative about at some point it’s going to get regulated.” – Enferno the internet is that the anticipation of an album dropping no longer exists.” – Shawty Slim “It helps the artists get their name and music out there. But if that’s their only hot record, chances are “If you’ve ever spent over $100 bucks at a time on vinyl, no one is going to go to the store to purchase their you know the relief of downloading an mp3 for free. album. Back in the day if you had a hot record people On the negative side, an internet hit is not necessarily a would run to the store to buy it. Now, you actually radio hit.” – Treats have to have a hot album to sell records.” – Frosty “It gives artists a wider audience to get their music heard, but damn, don’t post the whole album. Let the artist live a little.” – Ike G
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DJ T-Roc
(Atlanta, GA) If you’re in Atlanta, make sure you check out DJ T-Roc at the famous Club Crucial. T-Roc is responsible for breaking a majority of the new music in the area, including snap music which put him in the game. T-Roc is a member of the Hittmenn DJs, RocHarder DJs, and also promotes his brand in RocHarder Magazine. Rocharder1@gmail. com, Myspace.com/ DJTRocEnt
Truly Odd
(Los Angeles, CA) Truly Odd is the director of the Heavyweight DJs Record Pool and a member of the Bumsquad DJs and Shadyville DJs. When he’s not on-air on Sirius satellite radio, he’s touring with artists like Strong Arm Steady, Warchurch, and Brandoe the Younger. Twitter.com/DJTrulyOdd, Myspace.com/ DJTrulyOdd Mailing Address: 14731 Manecita Dr., LaMirada, CA 90648