DJ D-Lyfe Interview 2008

Wir trafen Ja Rules DJ während seiner Clubtour durch Deutschland. D-Lyfe kann auf eine lange Liste von Künstlern blicken, mit denen er zusammen gearbeitet hat. Schon früher als DJ von Ginuwine bereiste er die Welt, doch seine eigentlichen Anfänge liegen in New York, der Stadt welche Hip-Hop erfunden und ihn über die ganze Welt verteilt hat. Zusammen mit DJ Irv (Irv Gotti) zog der junge D-Lyfe durch die einzelnen Stadtteile und begeisterte die Massen mit seinem Sound....

DLyfe: Good evening Murder Inc Online, Right now it’s early day, getting dressed about to start a show and I have so many things to tell you. First of all, I have an album coming out called the Ka-fil-ta Fish Lounge. I called it the Ka-fil-ta Fish Lounge because the wording just sounds funny, it sounds sporadic, I know it’s “Jewish Fish” but it’s just to have the name Jewish fish or Ka-fil-ta fish it’s just very rare and it’s gonna be something that’s so exciting. It’s gonna be a mixture of old school artists, new school artists, overseas artists, we’re gonna do R&B we’re gonna do pop, house everything it’s gonna be a mixture of everything.

MIO: Who will you are doing the album with?

DLyfe: That one is gonna be by myself, and that one will hopefully be coming out around the beginning of 2009 but I’m gonna put out a couple of mixtapes with big DJ’s such as Big Mike, I’m gonna do some stuff with Superstar Jay, I don’t know if you know Superstar Jay last year he won the Justo Mixtape Awards and I think he was the newest upcoming hip hop mixtape king and they just crowned him. I’m doing something with DJ Drama I think khaled is gonna get on it for some stuff.
Also within my thing because I have a few things that I’m doing I have this company called Grinding Entertainment, that’s just my whole DJ world and I have my first artist on there, he’s a southern artist and he’s called Adonis Karon, he’s from Streetport Louisiana. He’s like the down south Mase when Mase was hot, u know happy, partying, good stuff. In his seriousness of writing lyrics, his pen is lethal. The first record that we have with him is called “Air it out” and we have a leak of another record that’s called “What She Doin” featuring Young Jeezy and that was produced by my man Camron who did “Upgrade” by Beyonce. That’s gonna be huge, we’re looking to release that, right now I’m just shopping for deals for him we were talking to Bad Boy South, Universal Records as well as Asylum over at Columbia.
Another Project is I have a big big tour coming up with Genuwine, Tyrese and Tank, it’s called “The Ladies Night Tour” and we’re supposed to do that for like 90 dates starting in May, May 21st I think will be my first date and that’s gonna be on a big Cruise boat type thing. It’s supposed to be Genuwine, Jagged edge, Tank, Tyrese, 112 and Joe and Avant I believe, so there’s gonna be a lot of ladies, 20-25000 seaters. So I’m gonna be the intermission DJ for all those acts as well as the official DJ of the tour so I got a mixtape coming out for that as well as a DVD.
Another thing I have going on, which should be dropping in April, that’s me and DJ Desue, he’s one of berlin’s biggest producers, we’re dropping our mixtape and our first artist that we have on there is Harvey Lee and the name of the song is “She don’t love me.” I actually wrote the song, I came up with the concept. Me and Desue produced it together. The concept of the song is about a guy who works on the road and his relationship at home is never the same because he’s always somewhere else and the love that his woman had for him is not the same because he’s hardly there to be touched, so we just go through the converse. That song is also featuring a Street Life artist named Dean and he’s a big artist in Berlin and in Germany. So we’re looking to release that in April/May. And Street Life is also gonna do a DJ tour with me and DJ Desue, we’re probably gonna do about 50-60 dates. I know you’re probably thinking “He’s got so much stuff going on, how can he do 50 dates here 90 dates there, there’s only 365 days in a year” But I’m just wide spreading myself right now, I’ve got dates overseas in Berlin, I’m looking to get to Africa we doing the big Ed Hardy party with the Play Girls and that’s in Budapest in Hungary but as well as that the thing that me and DJ Desue are doing is gonna be sponsored by Ed Hardy, that’s gonna be big. We also gonna drop the DVD/Mixtape, I have one out right now but that’s with a bunch of R&B artists and it’s just interviews, lifestyles and checking into some performances, I’m and acquired partner/executive producer of that.
Also right now I’m also doing my “World Famous DLyfe Show” and we’re putting that in different markets, right now it’s on in Atlanta on 107.9 and in New York I think it’s gonna be on Hot97, London I think it’s gonna be on Choice FM competing with Westwood, so I’m talking with them and I think we’re gonna close on that deal real soon.

MIO: So you’re looking to reach the Funk Flex level?

DLyfe: Exactly but bigger, worldwide, I’m gonna be on over in Berlin on I think Def Jay radio and they’re like a worldwide radio that’s online and as well as that they’re based in Miami and have a real huge deal with all the ocean liners where if you go out to the middle of the ocean they have like 4 radio stations available on the ocean liners and Def Jay Radio is one of those. And we’re also talking to Kiss FM so right now it’s between the two of them, see Desue is Already on Kiss now so it’s either gonna be me and Desue to do it as in the theory of doing the D Lyfe show over there with him or me doing it on my own. But that’s gonna be Street Life Entertainment that’s gonna be the forefront of that. I keep saying Street Life because they’re big promoters over here in Germany and we’re getting ready to go ahead and make like a big collaboration with them and they’ve really taken D Lyfe on 100% with me being a part of street life and we have a few projects coming up that we’re working on right now, like they have a big song coming out that me and Desue are working on right now and we’re gonna have a few artists on that, it’s gonna be like the new self destruction record with every artist that you can imagine on there.

MIO: So are you looking to move more into producing in the future?

Dlyfe: Yeah, Really I’ve been dibbling and dabbling in it, if you don’t know the history, I did a track for Q Tip called “Pad and my Pen” it was on the “Love Movement” album, we went Gold or Platinum in Canada and in the US and UK. That was the last album “A Tribe Called Quest” did together I think they actually went 4x Platinum. I did “Vibrant thing” with Q Tip as a silent producer. I worked heavily on the Ashanti project, I did the Fat Joe/Ja Rule remix for “Buddy” we did that live in Africa, so I’ve been dipping and dabbling for a while now. Right now I’m working on a few things for a Genuwine, Tyrese and Tank’s new albums along with my artist that I was telling you about, Adonis Karon, as well as the “Ka-fil-ta Fish Lounge” joint. I also have a record on that where I try and touch the mic, that’s with me and Bobby Valentino. So I’m just releasing everything that I can in the way of making me a large entity and not just a small unit, I’m glad to have people such as you and whoever else that puts something online letting people know what I’m doing or how I’m trying to do it, I’m for the people.
Me and Glen (head of video department Murder Inc Records) are coming up with a concept “So you wanna be a DJ” and I’m looking for DJs to go ahead and send us in their rosters because we’re gonna move them all into a house in New York and we’re looking for about 13 DJ’s. So there’s a lot of people that are involved in that, DJ Clue, S&S, Funk Master Flex, Puffy like it’s gonna be really huge. Just showing DJ’s a different point of view and I just want their flavour and for them to be them, but just to show them the type of life that I live with the tour DJ'ing and the radio show and party, street DJs and just throwing them through different challenges and see if they can up hold the with hold.

MIO: So how did you hook up with Ja Rule and Murder Inc.

D Lyfe: Oh well I grew up in the same neighbourhood as Ja Rule like I was DJ partners with Irv Gotti and he used to DJ a lot of clubs in the hood. And while he was working on his Mic Geronimo project I was big in the mixtape game and we used to try and get a lot of records out in the Queens area. I had a couple of choice DJs in Queens that were doing parties and that was myself, DJ Ike Love, Grand Master Vick, Irv and he had two students and that was Baby Jay and DJ Turan. So we would be the 7 people running around doing most of the parties. And Ja, I’ve known Ja probably most of my life, just running into him from being in the hood, he lived on that side, I lived on this side but it was all love. So we’ve been together ever since, we’ve always been together. But some of my early projects even before Ja, I used to DJ for Slick Rick, I did stuff for Ed lover, Mario Winans, Genuwine, LL Cool J. I did a lot of artist’s parties, Biggie parties, Big feature parties, it brought a lot to the table especially for Bad Boy’s president Harve Pierre he used to do a lot of parties, they were called “Crazy Joint” and I was one of the DJs along with Clue, we used to do all their parties and stuff like that.

MIO: You’re not renowned to be a mixtape DJ but that’s how you started out, would you consider venturing back into that area?

D Lyfe: You know it’s so crazy that you ask that, as soon as I get home I have like twenty projects that I’m working on. I don’t know if you remember J-Kwon who did “Tipsy” but what we’re trying to do is when we do our mixtape tour, me and Desue, is that he come along and host the event and perform his songs, but I’m working on some stuff with him right now. Also my new artist Adonis Karon, I keep mentioning him because he’s like the “new south” he’s like Jay Z, Mase, Nas of the south, he’s real powerful. I have an R&B mixtape coming out, Hip Hop, I got a tape that I’m coming out with Jodeci, this is their twentieth anniversary so their looking to go ahead and get back together as a group and do like a Jodeci album so that’ll be big. I’m doing these other mixtapes called “Don’t Forget about it” another called “What the Fuck Happened to Hip Hop?” and that’s like all the best Hip-Hop songs that you can ever name. I got Twenty coming out to keep it real with y’all like “The Best of Rick Ross” I’ve got a Joe Crack mix CD coming out, I’m calling that “The Crack Chronicles of Fat Joe.” I’ve got a Ja Rule one coming out, I also did the “Ja Rule Live” and we sold a lot of copies of that.

MIO: So you’re looking to get to the Justo’s next year?

D Lyfe: Yeah, Yeah definitely, that’s what we need. So I’m just looking for a lot of artists that I can bridge the gap, so I’m looking over in Germany, Ireland, Africa, Afghanistan, wherever I can get artists I want to put something together, I’m doing this thing called “Spitfest International” and it’s just freestyles of every artist who was and who is. If you had a name or some kind of name we want to get to you. If you can’t get to us, we’re going to bridge that gap so we can get to you. But so far so good, we’re putting it together, I’ve got a nice small team, three man power but, you know, with the strength of the computer that’s forty people.

MIO: You’ve got a project called “D Lyfe loves the kids” would you like to talk about that for a minute?

D Lyfe: Basically what it is, is something that I do in my neighbourhood, unfortunately I hadn’t been able to do it for like two years because I’ve been working super hard on the road but we’re gonna do it real big this time. What I do is I give to unfortunate kids who may not have books or stuff like that and we give nice grab bags and pens and paper and stuff like that so they can have their needed facilities so they can do what they need to do in school.
The reason for the whole thing was that my cousin, her boyfriend and his girlfriend all died in a car accident and when they died, like they were the best kids, there was nothing that they would ever do wrong to anybody, and it was just a horrible mistake. They don’t know if it was a drunk driver or maybe they fell asleep while they were driving but it was a real critical accident. So I asked was there something that I could do? So I put this together for the likes of them, the D Lyfe loves the kids is in memory of them.
What I’m trying to do now is put together a foundation called the “Miss Quinn Foundation” and what we want to do is probably give some type of money or some type of exercises to all of the rest stops in the world. Because the biggest problem is sleeping, teenage drunk driving, accidents kill so many people and it’s really affecting a lot, I know Styles P his brother died from something, Jay Z’s nephew died from one of them so you know it affects everybody, everybody’s human, it affects stars, everybody. So that’s probably going to come in 2009 and my mom is going to be the head shareholder of all that.

MIO: You’ve been on tour for the last month or so, what’s been you highlight so far?

D Lyfe: We were in RIGA!! Oh my God! The woman got naked, butt naked on the stage. I’ve never seen anything like it, in all my years with all sorts of artists I’ve seen all types of stuff. I Q-Tip, the Beastie Boys, I was with Slick Rick and Doug E Fresh, I was with Ashanti at her prom but I have never seen anything like that. I mean she completely got naked. And it was so much pandemonium it was crazy, the adrenaline in the crowd was just crazy. I love it, it’s a great market man. Germany, I love it, I just love the overseas market period because how you bridge the gap is through music. So it’s easy for me to be from Queens, New York, living in the Ghetto, South Jamaica projects or the North side projects and for you to be in Dublin or something and for us to feel the same song in the same way and we can party to it and get energised. I love the market so much and anyway that I can bridge it more or get some of the artists that are even unknown artists that’s on the come up and we could probably put together a real big mixtape so we can get their stuff out there as well. I hate to get off point but that’s what “Spitfest” is all about. It’s about freestyles from every artist’s favourite artists. Even if you’re an artist in your heart, you can be an artist too.

MIO: So what’s the highlight of your career so far?

D Lyfe: Um, the highlight of my career? Getting to DJ for artists such as Slick Rick. The first time that I DJ’d for him, a good friend of mine, Benny, was his A&R so he was doing all the music for him. So I was telling him “Ok he’s got a good record, the record is dope but you need to put Outkast on there, Raekwon, you gotta mix it up.” And so silently on me saying what I said that became that Slick Rick album “The Ruler’s back” which went double platinum for him on the come back. We did the Soul Train Awards or BET Awards and we performed with Run DMC, Jam Master Jay, EPMD, all at The House of Blues and that was like the biggest moment for me to do. I had Slick Rick and Doug E Fresh on the stage together that was history. So that was one of my highlights.
Another highlight moment was Ashanti. To see a young girl come from Glenn Clove, New York on a record that everybody knows – Biggie “Give me one more Chance” – flipped and for her to make it like the women’s theme song was preposterous. We were doing four shows a day some times, we stayed on jets, we were ridiculous, that was when Murder Inc. was at it’s complete height of everything, now that was pandemonium.
Another one as well, just growing up as a kid and loving the art of music, and doing it, knowing that even thought the world is changing right now and it’s going to southern music. I’m not saying anything wrong with south music, I live in Atlanta now. So I think it’s cool but I think that it could have a bit more morals to it so there’s no more like “Get up, Get up bitch, Shut up, Fuck you.” That’s cool but how do I like my little nephew or my niece, she’s Three years old, talkin about “Get up, Get up Bitch, shut up” That doesn’t sound good. If they bring more morals to the music it would be great, I mean it’s great for what it is but it pays the bills so that’s what I gotta spin.

MIO: Do you think that hip hop is dead?

D Lyfe: Wow, I always knew I’d get this question and I always don’t know what I was gonna say. The biggest thing about “Hip Hop is dead” I’m not gonna say it’s dead I’m just going to say that people don’t put as much into it as they used to. Before it would take somebody to sit down and to listen to the beat and vibe with it for a while or walk with it for a while to write the perfect words to make the perfect song. Right now, you’ll listen to a beat for three minutes and you’ll say “we can make a hip hop beat right now.” Let’s do it [D Lyfe starts banging various objects off a table making a beat] “You got a Black hat on and it look real nice, look real nice, look real nice” Your turn?

MIO: [Laughs] No that’s cool

D Lyfe: You see before, it was more of a thinking process and I don’t feel like that’s going into it anymore it’s like “well I’ve got a good beat, a good hook, I’m happy let’s go!” So, It’s not dead because someone is buying it but we came into a lot of things that’s just different in life, period. That computer, that downloading, it kinda really crashed the market, we’re not selling. The number one record on the billboard charts, sold 69,000 records, come on. The number one record sold 69,000 records? On Billboard charts? You tell me something’s gone wrong.

MIO: And Soulja Boy is number one.

D Lyfe: Soulja Boys is number one “Yeah trick Yeah brrrrrr” I don’t know but right now they’re saying that’s the music of the youth and this is what we’re bringing our youth into, so what are they going to teach their kids?

MIO: Do you thing that there’s room for longevity for up and coming rappers or do you think that it’s all going to be “one hit wonders?” Will there be another Jay Z?

D Lyfe: I think that we lost that whole longevity of one hit wonders, Ludacris is the last one. Because if you look at it, who came after Luda?

MIO: 50?

D Lyfe: Oh yeah, 50 got longevity and that’s it. But besides New York, it’s Ludacris. I don’t know nobody else…..Game? Joe Buddens, they don’t like him no more, they don’t want to hear what he has to say. But my biggest thing is I think we have to go back to is, something everybody can’t download, the streets. We gotta make those ill mixtapes we gotta keep it going. We gotta pump new life into it, if we ain’t pumping new life into it it’s no good. That’s why I’m really getting back into the mixtape game heavy, and I’m dropping twenty of them immediately. You got a billion records that come out every day and the only records that you can hear are the records that are mainstream on the radio or the ones that are on tv. And not every record that made, makes it, you got great R&B artists that people sign and that they’re giving play to and that nobody really knows about their shit. And that’s crazy because I be listening to people’s albums and I’m like “Yo, they don’t play that?” That guy Dream got a good album, who else? Chingy’s joint was alright, Rich Boy they only gave him “Throw some D’s on it” but he did kinda good man. But it’s like you only know the ones that they play and if you don’t have the album then you’ll never know.

MIO: You’re only as good as your first single

D Lyfe: Exactly, and that’s the scariness of it because society makes it that way and now we don’t have a judge of what we need to do and how we need to do it. But yeah, Ludacris I think.

MIO: Thanks For everything, Anything else you wanna say to the people over at MIO?

 

 

 

Links:

DJ D-Lyfe online

DJ Desue online