Keeping it Strong

From Issue #5 of Foundation Magazine

WORDS: Giselle Sanabria

After deep introspection during a trip to Australia at the end of 1999, he cleared his mind and reaffirmed to himself he wanted to devote everything in his life to music. Since then, that’s precisely what this Southern California native has been doing, and his achievements are “spinning” out of control.

Since the new millennium, he has created a name of his own in the mixtape game. And then some. Today DJ Strong, a LA resident in his late 20s, is not only a DJ but also founder of his record label company Strong House Records, founder and owner of the clothing line P’s & G’s, founder of the retail clothing store Hip Hop West on Pico, and co-founder of HipHopWest.com, just to name some of his accomplishments in the industry. The Justo’s Award winner is making it all, and making it good. “Everything I have done I learned it all on my own. I never had a mentor, no one taught me. I grabbed a few books and read as much as I could, but really I just learned putting out records. The mixtapes threw me into that spotlight and allowed me to do creatively and business-wise what I wanted to do. That brought me to where I am right now and it turned into a bigger thing,” says Strong.

DJ Strong helped pioneer a nationally recognized West Coast mixtape scene, but the ride was a bumpy one, especially playing the music to a non-West Coast audience. “There are West Coast fans everywhere, worldwide, but when you have a dominant scene like the South and NY you are going to get some resistance from people wanting to hear a new artist from the West.” However, he did it. DJ Strong became one of the top DJs of the West Coast, doing big projects with artists like Ice Cube and various other MCs, yet still looking out for the upcoming artists. “I was still pushing the West when no one was really concerned with what the West Coast had to say. I was putting out project after project.” DJ Strong provides an outlet for freestyle, fresh music, and new artists; and he confirms that audiences can recognize a lot of MCs who they initially heard on a DJ Strong mixtape. He was the first to put out a mixtape for Sheik Shoes, Lil’ Tone, Tri-Star, and the official mixtape of the Dogg Pound. He also released the first mixtape hosted by Kurupt and the list of his projects which have been heard around the world, continues.

“I like a dark sound, a gangsta sound. When I got into mixtapes and started creating them back in 2000, I really wanted to make them more like a movie so when you listen to them you can kind of lose your mind rather than just be like a mix in the club.” His flow is what characterizes his mixes; and to get a real taste of what he really does, the mixtape Palm Trees & Gangstas is the perfect example.

But the mixtape game is not only about a DJ mixing style. It is a big industry whose rules had changed over the years. DJ Strong states that it used to be powerful, and people used to be honest, but now all of that is in the past. “Creatively it is still there, but it’s really hard because once the DJ Drama thing happened and the internet keeps getting bigger and bigger, more people are concentrating in marketing now. CDs are becoming a lost art and pretty soon they are going to die. So there’s not really a game right now it’s just strictly a promotional tool. And I don’t think anyone should stop doing it because artists are still getting a lot out of the mixtapes buzz, but as far as the mixtape game, it is completely different from how it was a year and half or two years ago.”

Although other DJs agree that the new technology is negatively affecting the mixtape game and state that everyone can be a DJ nowadays, Strong mentions that there a million ways to mix. “A DJ at a party has the same music as you do, the only difference is really in your name, how you mix it, and the crowd you can bring. Serato didn’t make that. All I can do at the end of the day is just do quality stuff, market and promote myself as big as possible and just trying to make my own name like I have always being doing.”

And he sure is and he is keeping it strong. The upcoming projects for DJ Strong include a mixtape with Whoo Kid, 40 Glocc, 50 Cent, Tri-Star and one called P’s & G’s Radio Volume 1. He is also working with new artists like Perfecto and Kartoon, who is signed to Ruff Riders and with whom he released the street album The 1st Driveby. In addition, he is launching The Palm Trees & Gangstas Radio Program. So stay tuned for the upcoming DJ Strong albums and mixtapes to hit the streets, because he isn’t only wanting to reach a bigger audience, he is reaching a bigger audience. And he is coming on Strong-er than ever.

1 Comment to “DJ Strong West”

1. cool — Sunday May 25, 2008 @ 4:21 pm
   

   cool

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