Clinton Sparks
Fall 2007
So tell me about growin' up in Boston.
Growin' up in Boston, what do you wanna know about growin' up in Boston? As a kid? Before I got into music?
Yeah. What led you into a career in music?
What led me into a career in music? You know what, I think I'm starting to attribute my musical influence to my mom. I haven't really said that out loud yet, but I think my mom listening to everything from Hall and Oates to The Commodores was, you know, to whoever. You know, she listened to a lot of music in the house so that...Prince, Michael Jackson, so that, really, I guess, you would say subliminally that's what got music really inside of me. What made me wanna become a DJ? I get that question all the time and the answer is “I don't know” because nobody in Boston was DJ'ing around me and it wasn't, like, the cool thing to do at the time. So I don't even know what made me wanna be a DJ, but I do know that I would listen to music on Top 40 stations when I was a kid and I would hear, like, say Prince “Let's Go Crazy,” but then on the weekend I would hear, like, a version I never heard before, like an extended long version. So you know, that was like, the remixes, but back then, I was a kid, I don't know what that is. I didn't know records came with remixes on 'em. So I would hear that and think “Man I want...” that intrigued me to want to start manipulating music to do what I wanted it to do. So my mom had a dual cassette deck stereo and like a record player on the top. So I would just try to remix songs by, like, pressin' pause and record on one. Say I'd play like “Let's go...,” rewind it, like “Let's go craz...” and then I'd stop, rewind, pause, so then it'd be like “Let's go cray-cray-cray-cray.” Then I'd make the record go “brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr crazy” like, so like, I'd start makin' my own remixes when I was, like, 9 years old. So that's what really got me involved with music and that was my first experimenting with music and becoming a DJ. Then as I was getting older, I kinda taught myself how to DJ on my mother's record player. But then I was also a criminal when I was a kid, so I used to rob houses and I...back in Dorchester...what kid hasn't? (Laughs). But uh...I actually stole equipment when I was like 11, 12 years old. And then I really started DJ'ing in my basement and all the older, like, 17, 18 year old kids used to come over my house and rap when I would DJ and beat box. So that's the...the quick, the quickest answer I can give for how I got started.
Did you ever get caught?
Uh yeah I did get caught in – I lived with my mom in the city, I grew up in the city with my mom, and my dad left me when I was like 4 'cause he was an alcoholic. And so I grew up with a single mom who would work 3 jobs...that's really, you know that's really probably why I got into what I was getting into. Like, I used to rob houses for a living, like not go to school. I'd rob houses. And so finally, I was gonna get sent to juvi or sent to my dad in the suburbs. And that was, I was 15. And my mom sent me with my alcoholic dad in the suburbs.
That must have been an experience.
Yeah because you know, you grew up in the urban community and, you know, you grew up around a lotta black kids and go to black schools. That's one experience of life and then when you move to the suburbs and now you're understanding what white life is like, you know, having two parents, having a nice house, having some money, having, you know, people around monitoring your wrongdoings. I mean everybody does wrongdoings, black, white whatever you are. I mean white kids are out there at keg parties drivin' drunk, black kids are, you know, whatever. My friends, at least, you know, sellin' weed, you know what I mean? So, everybody's doin' somethin' wrong, it's just now I started to experience different sides of the world and being more well-rounded a person and understanding different personalities and cultures.
So would you say you used music as your escape then?
Totally. Yeah, music was definitely, was my own world. Like I was never part of a clique, ever in my life, I was always just me, by myself and I was friends with everybody. And while everybody else was goin' drinking, which I don't do and never did, or people were playing sports or, you know, hanging out and doin' whatever they do, I would go straight home after school everyday watch, you know, MTV Raps or BET Video Soul or Video Vibrations and just, you know, buy records at Strawberries then go home and just, you know, try to make music. Write lyrics and...
So what is it about the hip hop genre that attracts you, out of everything?
I guess it's just where I grew up and it was just what was predominantly around. But growing up I listened to everything from Quiet Riot and Twisted Sister to Run DMC and, you know, Duran Duran and, you know, Prince. Every – like, De La Soul, was like, one of the-one of the, 3 Feet High and Rising was one of the albums that, like, changed my life. You know, and then when it came – but then when it came to, like, Bobby Brown, Keith Sweat, Guy, that type of music is really what made me who I am. And I was living in the city when that came out.
What was your first DJ experience?
Hm. You mean like professional? My first professional radio job was in '98? I got a 10 city syndicated radio show through Super Radio. And that lasted for, like, 6 months. And then that-that show actually got cancelled. I was one of a couple DJ's that would do that show. So the show got cancelled. Then I became like a...a stunt guy on a big morning show in Boston. A stunt guy's like the guy who goes out on the street and does all the pranks and- and does silly things to make the listeners laugh.
What was your best prank that you pulled?
There's a lotta good ones. One was, I pretended like I had a clip-on tie and I was goin' for a job interview and when I was jumping off the public transportation the doors shut and pulled my tie off. So I went to, like, the business section of Boston, the Financial District, and was begging people to borrow their tie real quick, just to go in for my interview. Like, “Can I please borrow your tie, I gotta wicked interview. It's gonna take me 10 minutes.” So that or, one morning I went trick-or-treating the morning before and I got arrested actually 'cause some lady...I went to some old lady's door and I said “Trick or treat” and she was...she misheard me, called the police and said “He knocked on my door and asked me 'do I wanted a treat?'” (Laughs). Like I was a pervert or something so yeah. There was a lotta cool stuff like that, like, you know, tryin' to convince people to buy me a cup of coffee or like, you know, I'd get girls to get naked for tickets to concerts. Just silly things.
So how did you originate the catchphrase “Get familiar?”
Well when I first got my own real radio show in 2000 on Hot 97.7 in Boston, I...when I was gonna sign on, you know, I- I've always strived to be original and not do what's already been done or what somebody else is doing. So, you know, there's a lotta cliché...hip hop is very cliché, people kinda copy each other and, you know, there's a couple key cliché catchphrases that... “You know what I mean?” “Ya heard?” “You know what I'm sayin'?” Like stuff like that, so I didn't wanna get on and talk like that, I wanted to be something that would be associated with me whenever you hear it so I went in my bedroom and my mind torments me with ideas so I just opened up my notebook and wrote down a bunch of ideas and one of the ideas was “Get familiar” and I felt that made sense for everything: get familiar with me, get familiar with this song, an artist can say “get familiar,” Clinton Sparks, I can say “get familiar with this artist,” it just made sense. So...and it worked, I had my nephew record “Get familiar!” and just started runnin' with that.
So, in your opinion, what are the skills that someone needs to be a great producer?
Producer? Um...just have a good ear for-for music and know the elements of a hit record. I know it's hard to say what makes a hit record but I mean, see I kinda have an upper hand on some people 'cause I do...I play music for a living on radio so I see what works and I know, like all the producers and the elements of a hit record and stuff like that, so it's kinda easy for me to pick up “Yeah, this is gonna work” in the club or on the radio or in the streets, you know, there's different levels of a record working. And, you know, obviously you don't even really have...you don't have to be a musician, you don't have to know scales, you don't have to read music, you know, just have a good ear and know how to, you know, mess around enough with instruments by having a good ear to, you know, make it happen. Make things work.
So how do you, what's the transition between DJ'ing on a radio station to getting, you know, Ludacris to ask you to produce a track for him?
Well no one's...people are just starting to ask me to produce records for them now. Before it was me sayin' “I have a record for you” and they'd be like “Alright, cool, cool” and then I'd never hear from them. So then it kinda came to a point where I chased down Akon and said “I'm not leaving your side till we get this record recorded. I'll go on tour with you for the next 6 weeks and get on this bus.” And he said “Aight, if you're gonna get on the bus.” I jumped on the bus and that was the first real big, like, superstar artist that I wrote and produced a record for. And I, you know, the next record was the Ludacris single that I just did “Down in the Dirty” and that record, he didn't even come do that for me. I- what happened was I called his label, Rick Ross and Bun B, and asked them to send me a cappella verses from them. So then I made a beat around those verses, created a hook, sent it back, and then they're like “Oh my God, this is a hit record. This is incredible, we wanna use it” so, like, I...it's almost like I have to force people and show them, like, “Look, dude, this will work, this is hot” you know what I mean? I'll play a beat to somebody, they don't get it. Then I go and I take their verse from somethin' else, put it on it, make a hook and they're like “Yo, this is incredible.” And I'm like, “Yeah dude, I told you.” Like, they hafta like, sometimes you have to see the whole house built before they can understand how nice it's going to be.
And how do you deal with the challenges of different, you know, minds working on one project? How do you deal with all the different creative influences?
I really haven't had to deal with that yet, except for the fact, like, obviously when I wrote the Akon record, I wrote it entirely and then he went in and switched lines to suit, like, his situation. So comin' from a creative point of view it was kinda like “Uhh! I liked the way it was!” you know what I mean? So I'm sure I'll have to deal with that around, like, I just wrote and produced a record for Beyonce and I know she changed a couple lines and words in the song that I'm curious to hear what she did. But I know she definitely changed the title and the title to me was like, what made the song the song. But, you know, she's a hit-making writer herself, so you know, I trust her judgment that she's not gonna, you know, affect the record negatively.
So it went from what to what?
It went...the song was “Inevitably” when I came into it and now she changed it to “Forever to Bleed.”
Do you know when that's comin' out?
It's on her album that comes out next year, 2008.
So you get to be a globetrotter, how did that all come about? When you just start getting requests to go to Australia, I mean...
Well mix tapes...the reason I...the reason I became an international DJ and name is because the mix tape game. I was, like, one of the prominent DJ's in the mixtape game. Rolling Stone and USA Today named me Top 10 DJ in the world, so when it comes to, like, that stuff. So, you know, mix tapes especially in the day of the internet, are a global thing, they just get downloaded, everybody downloads it. So people are familiar with my mix tapes and fortunately, there's enough people that like me and like them that they wanted to come see me smash down a party. Now-now the reputation of being somebody that does come and, you know, really rock a crowd and smash down a party, has got out there, so...
Have you had a favorite place that you've traveled to?
I...so many. People ask me that all the time. I love Hong Kong, I love Toronto, I love Switzerland, I love the UK. I love a lotta places, man, like...Boston I love Boston, love LA. I love a lotta places.
So where do you call home most of the time?
Boston. I live in Boston. Born and raised. Still live there.
Does that ever get hard to deal with – having to commute all over the world?
Yeah. I'm actually for the first time contemplating moving out here to California. Talkin' to my wife, gonna bring her out here in a couple weeks so we can start...she can start gettin' the feel for LA 'cause when you're not out here and you're someone like her, you just think it's fires, earthquakes, mudslides, gang bangs, and like, it's just bad, you know what I mean? Well...shoot I'm not gonna miss the winter. (Laughs). No way. I'm also gonna save money on snow plowin'. So yeah, so I'm definitely looking into movin' to the West Coast. I mean everything I do from the Veg...now we do the Hard Rock every Saturday and I do this every Tuesday and I'll probably be gettin' more involved here in the E! building with other stuff – my radio show and whatnot. So it just makes sense everything that I'm...all my work and everything, I'm makin' money, is basically out here. I just signed a publishing deal with EMI, which is in Santa Monica, you know what I mean? So everything's out here. Doesn't make no sense for me to keep flyin' back and forth, it's a waste of money, it's killin' my body, I'm gonna die.
So what kinda publishing deal you got goin'? A book?
No for music, music publishing. But I do have...I am writing a book. I'm writing a book and it's called..I dunno if I should tell you the title. It's called Never Let Your Man Leave Home With a Loaded Gun: Preventative Maintenance for Women Who Have a Mostly Good Man. (Laughs). I dunno. It's something over the next couple years I'll just keep puttin' in excerpts and then inevitable I'll put the whole thing out. It's gonna be, like, you know a coffee book table...coffee table book.
So with all this traveling and jet-setting, how do you balance your professional life with your family life?
Fortunately my life is the best. She's my best friend, she's very supportive, she understands this is what I wanted to do since I met her. I've known my wife since 1988.
Where'd you meet her?
In middle school. So I...we've been together since '93 and then, you know, we broke up for a year in like '97, then we've been together. Like she, so she's, I mean her, this is the greatest thing I've ever heard anyone say and this is something she says and I always tell people about this. She says “Who am I to get in the way of somebody living out there dreams? Like, there's no better thing than to watch your best friend's dreams come true and you get to sit and watch it happen.” You know what I mean? So...like even when I say that, like, it makes me get that tingling feeling in my nose that you wanna cry? Yeah, she's the best.
And what's your son's name?
Jack.
How old is he?
He'll be 4 in April. He's the best too.
I see you've got the new tattoo.
Yeah (laughs). I was never...I always wanted to get a tattoo but I never wanted to commit...it's such a big commitment, and I always thought it was cool when I seen dads, like, honor their son and get a tattoo, so like, that's why I did it. I got a big portrait on my arm.
So you moved from radioing to television. Did you ever get nervous on camera? Do you get nervous on camera?
Uh yeah, I get...I'm a super nervous all the time so...even before I'm about to DJ I get nervous. You wouldn't know that unless I'm telling you right now, but seeing me you wouldn't know, but yeah I'm always nervous.
Would you say you have any aspirations for acting given that you're nervous on camera? I mean appearing in Luda's video and...
Yeah the Akon video was more acting though. Luda's your typical hip hop, like, girls, just flossin', nice cars, but...yeah definitely now just being out here in LA a lot, now kinda toying with the idea. There's actually a pretty good chance I'll have a small, tiny role in the new Mark Wahlberg movie called “The Fighter” which shoots in Boston next September. And like I'm in talks of doing something on Entourage next season too.
Do you have any dream collaborations?
Not dream. There's nobody that I dream to 'cause I just like to work with anybody that's creative and open-minded 'cause I'm very experimental in the studio and I love to do stuff and make people do things that they typically probably wouldn't do or that you wouldn't right off the bat say “Hey this sounds like this person would do that.” So I'd love to work with, like, a Kanye West. Like rock bands, I'd like to work with some bands. Fuse that together.
Do you have any, like, things that you wanna do in your career that you haven't done yet that you're looking forward to?
I'm doin' everything! I wake up every morning and think “How can my life get any better?” So everything that I've ever wanted to do, I'm doing or in the process of doing.
Is there a particular place you see yourself in that clichéd 10 year position?
Honestly, yeah. I hope that I've made enough money that I don't have to break my ass and fly all over the world and I can be at my son's every single baseball game he has and anytime we wanna go to Disney, I don't have to answer to nobody, my businesses are running by themselves and I can say “I'm gonna be gone for two weeks.” That's all I care about, I'm not...I don't care to be...I don't have to have 50 million dollars, I don't have to, you know, I'm just more as long as me and family are financially stable and happy, that's all that matters to me.
Your son's a baseball player, do you want him to play for the Sox?
Yeah of course. What white guy from Boston doesn't want their son to play for the Red Sox? (Laughs).
Is it hard being away from all the games?
No, I don't really have time to watch it. I love the Red Sox, but not so much that I stop what I'm doin' to watch it. I'm not gettin' paid to watch it.
So do you have any advice for people who, just in general, or people who would like to follow in your footsteps?
Be original. Don't copy the trends. If you don't feel like your ideas are good enough, take somebody else's idea and make it better.
In your limited free time, what do you do? What are your hobbies?
Hang out with my wife and son.
Any favorite plane activities to get you through?
Yeah, we love to go out to dinner and sometimes we'll go to hotels for the night and go swimming and go to dinner and just hang out.
What are your plans to get you on this plane for Australia? What are you gonna occupy yourself with?
Some sleep hopefully. Hopefully I'll get some...it's hard for me to sleep on flights but I'll probably write some songs. Stuff like that.
Is it hard for you to get away from music at all?
No, it's always in my mind, yeah. So like, obviously I have ideas for all types of things so...I definitely have to write 2 songs on that flight 'cause I have to send them to my engineer so he can have these guys reference them while I'm gone.
Describe yourself in 3 words.
Motivated. Disciplined. I wanna say hardworking, but that's kinda cliché. Creative? Loyal? Good-lookin'? (Laughs).
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Growin' up in Boston, what do you wanna know about growin' up in Boston? As a kid? Before I got into music?
Yeah. What led you into a career in music?
What led me into a career in music? You know what, I think I'm starting to attribute my musical influence to my mom. I haven't really said that out loud yet, but I think my mom listening to everything from Hall and Oates to The Commodores was, you know, to whoever. You know, she listened to a lot of music in the house so that...Prince, Michael Jackson, so that, really, I guess, you would say subliminally that's what got music really inside of me. What made me wanna become a DJ? I get that question all the time and the answer is “I don't know” because nobody in Boston was DJ'ing around me and it wasn't, like, the cool thing to do at the time. So I don't even know what made me wanna be a DJ, but I do know that I would listen to music on Top 40 stations when I was a kid and I would hear, like, say Prince “Let's Go Crazy,” but then on the weekend I would hear, like, a version I never heard before, like an extended long version. So you know, that was like, the remixes, but back then, I was a kid, I don't know what that is. I didn't know records came with remixes on 'em. So I would hear that and think “Man I want...” that intrigued me to want to start manipulating music to do what I wanted it to do. So my mom had a dual cassette deck stereo and like a record player on the top. So I would just try to remix songs by, like, pressin' pause and record on one. Say I'd play like “Let's go...,” rewind it, like “Let's go craz...” and then I'd stop, rewind, pause, so then it'd be like “Let's go cray-cray-cray-cray.” Then I'd make the record go “brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr crazy” like, so like, I'd start makin' my own remixes when I was, like, 9 years old. So that's what really got me involved with music and that was my first experimenting with music and becoming a DJ. Then as I was getting older, I kinda taught myself how to DJ on my mother's record player. But then I was also a criminal when I was a kid, so I used to rob houses and I...back in Dorchester...what kid hasn't? (Laughs). But uh...I actually stole equipment when I was like 11, 12 years old. And then I really started DJ'ing in my basement and all the older, like, 17, 18 year old kids used to come over my house and rap when I would DJ and beat box. So that's the...the quick, the quickest answer I can give for how I got started.
Did you ever get caught?
Uh yeah I did get caught in – I lived with my mom in the city, I grew up in the city with my mom, and my dad left me when I was like 4 'cause he was an alcoholic. And so I grew up with a single mom who would work 3 jobs...that's really, you know that's really probably why I got into what I was getting into. Like, I used to rob houses for a living, like not go to school. I'd rob houses. And so finally, I was gonna get sent to juvi or sent to my dad in the suburbs. And that was, I was 15. And my mom sent me with my alcoholic dad in the suburbs.
That must have been an experience.
Yeah because you know, you grew up in the urban community and, you know, you grew up around a lotta black kids and go to black schools. That's one experience of life and then when you move to the suburbs and now you're understanding what white life is like, you know, having two parents, having a nice house, having some money, having, you know, people around monitoring your wrongdoings. I mean everybody does wrongdoings, black, white whatever you are. I mean white kids are out there at keg parties drivin' drunk, black kids are, you know, whatever. My friends, at least, you know, sellin' weed, you know what I mean? So, everybody's doin' somethin' wrong, it's just now I started to experience different sides of the world and being more well-rounded a person and understanding different personalities and cultures.
So would you say you used music as your escape then?
Totally. Yeah, music was definitely, was my own world. Like I was never part of a clique, ever in my life, I was always just me, by myself and I was friends with everybody. And while everybody else was goin' drinking, which I don't do and never did, or people were playing sports or, you know, hanging out and doin' whatever they do, I would go straight home after school everyday watch, you know, MTV Raps or BET Video Soul or Video Vibrations and just, you know, buy records at Strawberries then go home and just, you know, try to make music. Write lyrics and...
So what is it about the hip hop genre that attracts you, out of everything?
I guess it's just where I grew up and it was just what was predominantly around. But growing up I listened to everything from Quiet Riot and Twisted Sister to Run DMC and, you know, Duran Duran and, you know, Prince. Every – like, De La Soul, was like, one of the-one of the, 3 Feet High and Rising was one of the albums that, like, changed my life. You know, and then when it came – but then when it came to, like, Bobby Brown, Keith Sweat, Guy, that type of music is really what made me who I am. And I was living in the city when that came out.
What was your first DJ experience?
Hm. You mean like professional? My first professional radio job was in '98? I got a 10 city syndicated radio show through Super Radio. And that lasted for, like, 6 months. And then that-that show actually got cancelled. I was one of a couple DJ's that would do that show. So the show got cancelled. Then I became like a...a stunt guy on a big morning show in Boston. A stunt guy's like the guy who goes out on the street and does all the pranks and- and does silly things to make the listeners laugh.
What was your best prank that you pulled?
There's a lotta good ones. One was, I pretended like I had a clip-on tie and I was goin' for a job interview and when I was jumping off the public transportation the doors shut and pulled my tie off. So I went to, like, the business section of Boston, the Financial District, and was begging people to borrow their tie real quick, just to go in for my interview. Like, “Can I please borrow your tie, I gotta wicked interview. It's gonna take me 10 minutes.” So that or, one morning I went trick-or-treating the morning before and I got arrested actually 'cause some lady...I went to some old lady's door and I said “Trick or treat” and she was...she misheard me, called the police and said “He knocked on my door and asked me 'do I wanted a treat?'” (Laughs). Like I was a pervert or something so yeah. There was a lotta cool stuff like that, like, you know, tryin' to convince people to buy me a cup of coffee or like, you know, I'd get girls to get naked for tickets to concerts. Just silly things.
So how did you originate the catchphrase “Get familiar?”
Well when I first got my own real radio show in 2000 on Hot 97.7 in Boston, I...when I was gonna sign on, you know, I- I've always strived to be original and not do what's already been done or what somebody else is doing. So, you know, there's a lotta cliché...hip hop is very cliché, people kinda copy each other and, you know, there's a couple key cliché catchphrases that... “You know what I mean?” “Ya heard?” “You know what I'm sayin'?” Like stuff like that, so I didn't wanna get on and talk like that, I wanted to be something that would be associated with me whenever you hear it so I went in my bedroom and my mind torments me with ideas so I just opened up my notebook and wrote down a bunch of ideas and one of the ideas was “Get familiar” and I felt that made sense for everything: get familiar with me, get familiar with this song, an artist can say “get familiar,” Clinton Sparks, I can say “get familiar with this artist,” it just made sense. So...and it worked, I had my nephew record “Get familiar!” and just started runnin' with that.
So, in your opinion, what are the skills that someone needs to be a great producer?
Producer? Um...just have a good ear for-for music and know the elements of a hit record. I know it's hard to say what makes a hit record but I mean, see I kinda have an upper hand on some people 'cause I do...I play music for a living on radio so I see what works and I know, like all the producers and the elements of a hit record and stuff like that, so it's kinda easy for me to pick up “Yeah, this is gonna work” in the club or on the radio or in the streets, you know, there's different levels of a record working. And, you know, obviously you don't even really have...you don't have to be a musician, you don't have to know scales, you don't have to read music, you know, just have a good ear and know how to, you know, mess around enough with instruments by having a good ear to, you know, make it happen. Make things work.
So how do you, what's the transition between DJ'ing on a radio station to getting, you know, Ludacris to ask you to produce a track for him?
Well no one's...people are just starting to ask me to produce records for them now. Before it was me sayin' “I have a record for you” and they'd be like “Alright, cool, cool” and then I'd never hear from them. So then it kinda came to a point where I chased down Akon and said “I'm not leaving your side till we get this record recorded. I'll go on tour with you for the next 6 weeks and get on this bus.” And he said “Aight, if you're gonna get on the bus.” I jumped on the bus and that was the first real big, like, superstar artist that I wrote and produced a record for. And I, you know, the next record was the Ludacris single that I just did “Down in the Dirty” and that record, he didn't even come do that for me. I- what happened was I called his label, Rick Ross and Bun B, and asked them to send me a cappella verses from them. So then I made a beat around those verses, created a hook, sent it back, and then they're like “Oh my God, this is a hit record. This is incredible, we wanna use it” so, like, I...it's almost like I have to force people and show them, like, “Look, dude, this will work, this is hot” you know what I mean? I'll play a beat to somebody, they don't get it. Then I go and I take their verse from somethin' else, put it on it, make a hook and they're like “Yo, this is incredible.” And I'm like, “Yeah dude, I told you.” Like, they hafta like, sometimes you have to see the whole house built before they can understand how nice it's going to be.
And how do you deal with the challenges of different, you know, minds working on one project? How do you deal with all the different creative influences?
I really haven't had to deal with that yet, except for the fact, like, obviously when I wrote the Akon record, I wrote it entirely and then he went in and switched lines to suit, like, his situation. So comin' from a creative point of view it was kinda like “Uhh! I liked the way it was!” you know what I mean? So I'm sure I'll have to deal with that around, like, I just wrote and produced a record for Beyonce and I know she changed a couple lines and words in the song that I'm curious to hear what she did. But I know she definitely changed the title and the title to me was like, what made the song the song. But, you know, she's a hit-making writer herself, so you know, I trust her judgment that she's not gonna, you know, affect the record negatively.
So it went from what to what?
It went...the song was “Inevitably” when I came into it and now she changed it to “Forever to Bleed.”
Do you know when that's comin' out?
It's on her album that comes out next year, 2008.
So you get to be a globetrotter, how did that all come about? When you just start getting requests to go to Australia, I mean...
Well mix tapes...the reason I...the reason I became an international DJ and name is because the mix tape game. I was, like, one of the prominent DJ's in the mixtape game. Rolling Stone and USA Today named me Top 10 DJ in the world, so when it comes to, like, that stuff. So, you know, mix tapes especially in the day of the internet, are a global thing, they just get downloaded, everybody downloads it. So people are familiar with my mix tapes and fortunately, there's enough people that like me and like them that they wanted to come see me smash down a party. Now-now the reputation of being somebody that does come and, you know, really rock a crowd and smash down a party, has got out there, so...
Have you had a favorite place that you've traveled to?
I...so many. People ask me that all the time. I love Hong Kong, I love Toronto, I love Switzerland, I love the UK. I love a lotta places, man, like...Boston I love Boston, love LA. I love a lotta places.
So where do you call home most of the time?
Boston. I live in Boston. Born and raised. Still live there.
Does that ever get hard to deal with – having to commute all over the world?
Yeah. I'm actually for the first time contemplating moving out here to California. Talkin' to my wife, gonna bring her out here in a couple weeks so we can start...she can start gettin' the feel for LA 'cause when you're not out here and you're someone like her, you just think it's fires, earthquakes, mudslides, gang bangs, and like, it's just bad, you know what I mean? Well...shoot I'm not gonna miss the winter. (Laughs). No way. I'm also gonna save money on snow plowin'. So yeah, so I'm definitely looking into movin' to the West Coast. I mean everything I do from the Veg...now we do the Hard Rock every Saturday and I do this every Tuesday and I'll probably be gettin' more involved here in the E! building with other stuff – my radio show and whatnot. So it just makes sense everything that I'm...all my work and everything, I'm makin' money, is basically out here. I just signed a publishing deal with EMI, which is in Santa Monica, you know what I mean? So everything's out here. Doesn't make no sense for me to keep flyin' back and forth, it's a waste of money, it's killin' my body, I'm gonna die.
So what kinda publishing deal you got goin'? A book?
No for music, music publishing. But I do have...I am writing a book. I'm writing a book and it's called..I dunno if I should tell you the title. It's called Never Let Your Man Leave Home With a Loaded Gun: Preventative Maintenance for Women Who Have a Mostly Good Man. (Laughs). I dunno. It's something over the next couple years I'll just keep puttin' in excerpts and then inevitable I'll put the whole thing out. It's gonna be, like, you know a coffee book table...coffee table book.
So with all this traveling and jet-setting, how do you balance your professional life with your family life?
Fortunately my life is the best. She's my best friend, she's very supportive, she understands this is what I wanted to do since I met her. I've known my wife since 1988.
Where'd you meet her?
In middle school. So I...we've been together since '93 and then, you know, we broke up for a year in like '97, then we've been together. Like she, so she's, I mean her, this is the greatest thing I've ever heard anyone say and this is something she says and I always tell people about this. She says “Who am I to get in the way of somebody living out there dreams? Like, there's no better thing than to watch your best friend's dreams come true and you get to sit and watch it happen.” You know what I mean? So...like even when I say that, like, it makes me get that tingling feeling in my nose that you wanna cry? Yeah, she's the best.
And what's your son's name?
Jack.
How old is he?
He'll be 4 in April. He's the best too.
I see you've got the new tattoo.
Yeah (laughs). I was never...I always wanted to get a tattoo but I never wanted to commit...it's such a big commitment, and I always thought it was cool when I seen dads, like, honor their son and get a tattoo, so like, that's why I did it. I got a big portrait on my arm.
So you moved from radioing to television. Did you ever get nervous on camera? Do you get nervous on camera?
Uh yeah, I get...I'm a super nervous all the time so...even before I'm about to DJ I get nervous. You wouldn't know that unless I'm telling you right now, but seeing me you wouldn't know, but yeah I'm always nervous.
Would you say you have any aspirations for acting given that you're nervous on camera? I mean appearing in Luda's video and...
Yeah the Akon video was more acting though. Luda's your typical hip hop, like, girls, just flossin', nice cars, but...yeah definitely now just being out here in LA a lot, now kinda toying with the idea. There's actually a pretty good chance I'll have a small, tiny role in the new Mark Wahlberg movie called “The Fighter” which shoots in Boston next September. And like I'm in talks of doing something on Entourage next season too.
Do you have any dream collaborations?
Not dream. There's nobody that I dream to 'cause I just like to work with anybody that's creative and open-minded 'cause I'm very experimental in the studio and I love to do stuff and make people do things that they typically probably wouldn't do or that you wouldn't right off the bat say “Hey this sounds like this person would do that.” So I'd love to work with, like, a Kanye West. Like rock bands, I'd like to work with some bands. Fuse that together.
Do you have any, like, things that you wanna do in your career that you haven't done yet that you're looking forward to?
I'm doin' everything! I wake up every morning and think “How can my life get any better?” So everything that I've ever wanted to do, I'm doing or in the process of doing.
Is there a particular place you see yourself in that clichéd 10 year position?
Honestly, yeah. I hope that I've made enough money that I don't have to break my ass and fly all over the world and I can be at my son's every single baseball game he has and anytime we wanna go to Disney, I don't have to answer to nobody, my businesses are running by themselves and I can say “I'm gonna be gone for two weeks.” That's all I care about, I'm not...I don't care to be...I don't have to have 50 million dollars, I don't have to, you know, I'm just more as long as me and family are financially stable and happy, that's all that matters to me.
Your son's a baseball player, do you want him to play for the Sox?
Yeah of course. What white guy from Boston doesn't want their son to play for the Red Sox? (Laughs).
Is it hard being away from all the games?
No, I don't really have time to watch it. I love the Red Sox, but not so much that I stop what I'm doin' to watch it. I'm not gettin' paid to watch it.
So do you have any advice for people who, just in general, or people who would like to follow in your footsteps?
Be original. Don't copy the trends. If you don't feel like your ideas are good enough, take somebody else's idea and make it better.
In your limited free time, what do you do? What are your hobbies?
Hang out with my wife and son.
Any favorite plane activities to get you through?
Yeah, we love to go out to dinner and sometimes we'll go to hotels for the night and go swimming and go to dinner and just hang out.
What are your plans to get you on this plane for Australia? What are you gonna occupy yourself with?
Some sleep hopefully. Hopefully I'll get some...it's hard for me to sleep on flights but I'll probably write some songs. Stuff like that.
Is it hard for you to get away from music at all?
No, it's always in my mind, yeah. So like, obviously I have ideas for all types of things so...I definitely have to write 2 songs on that flight 'cause I have to send them to my engineer so he can have these guys reference them while I'm gone.
Describe yourself in 3 words.
Motivated. Disciplined. I wanna say hardworking, but that's kinda cliché. Creative? Loyal? Good-lookin'? (Laughs).
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