DJ Drama discusses his career defining moments that made him both a curator and contributor to hip hop as we know it.
Tyree Simmons, better known as DJ Drama, is a prominent fixture in hip hop culture. He’s managed to assert himself as an industry pioneer and trailblazer in every aspect of the business, from the turntables to the boardroom.
“It’s hard to compare me to any other DJs out there,” he said. “You can put me in with the Kobe Bryants and the Floyd Mayweathers [of mixtapes]. And yeah, you can write that,” he laughed, in his characteristically confident manner.
There are two critical components the Philly-bred DJ credits his successes to–“perfect timing and perfect grinding.” The early integration of these two traits ensured that the foundation for Drama’s monopoly of the hip hop game was laid at an early age.
“My first memories of hip hop go back to Philly. I was a little kid and the older kids in the neighborhood would have me say ‘The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire. We don’t need no water, let it burn!’ I was little, so I guess they took the part that said ‘mother f’er’ out for me. That’s my first memory of hip hop; past that, hearing Run-D.M.C. It was the late 80’s. I remember being a little kid and wanting the Adidas sneakers with the three stripes so bad; my parents bought me the wrong pair and I was mad. Mine didn’t have any stripes.”
In the late 80’s, the young Tyree was no more than an elementary schooler. His early memories of hip hop no doubt remained a heavy influence, ingrained in his brain, as he launched his career. The perfect timing that allowed him to witness firsthand some of the culture’s most historical defining moments later gave way to him being instrumental in hip hop history himself, as a creator of some of the newer defining moments in our culture.
Besides being the first hip hop acts to sign a major product endorsement deal (those Adidas originals with the three stripes), incidentally, Run-D.M.C. was one of the first hip hop groups to highlight the importance of the relationship between MCs and DJs.
The reciprocity of the artist/DJ relationship is something that allowed Drama’s growth as a DJ to flourish, while simultaneously giving artists a huge platform with which to promote their albums and further their careers.
“I’m very blessed to have a catalogue of moments that mean a lot to people,” he said, reflecting on his past 10 years of dominance.
One of the defining moments in DJ Drama’s career has come full circle with the recent reunion of Outkast. Their track “The Art of Storytellin’ (Part 4),” was the second single off Drama’s debut studio album, Gangsta Grillz: The Album, named after his popular Gangsta Grillz mixtape series.
“Outkast was working on Idlewild at the time. Big Boi and Andre wanted to do a Gangsta Grillz mixtape before the album. They didn’t have enough time to do it strategically with the album coming so soon. They were like ‘We can’t do a tape, but we can do a song for the album.’ I sent 3000 beats for the album. Nothing stuck. Then I got raided January 16 or 17th of 2007. A lot of our equipment had been confiscated. We were on an aggressive high from being knocked down. Cannon had been working on a specific beat, so we sent that to Marsha Ambrosius, who did the hook. I sent it to 3000 and he hit me back like ‘Give me a day.’ I was in disbelief, because keep in mind, this is after months–and I mean months–of trying to court him with beats. I was sending him beats from anyone who was anyone at the time, all the top notch producers. It was one of the proudest moments of my career. Not only are they one of my fave groups in the history of hip hop, but I got an Outkast record when there weren’t that many out at the time. It was legendary; monumental, especially after what happened with the raid.”
The raid he’s referring to was another historical moment in the revolution of hip hop, with DJ Drama being the first big name to be taken down in the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) quest to put an end to bootlegged music.
Drama, however, never received complaints from artists when using their music. He’d been the beneficiary of nothing but cooperation, with some artists–like Outkast–even hitting the booth to record fresh new material solely for his use on a Gangsta Grillz tape.
That sacred relationship between artist and DJ reached a level of symbiosis that allowed Drama to create mixtapes that weren’t simply haphazard compilations of random, disjointed singles, but more like solid street albums instead.
It’s little surprise that his last album was titled Quality Street Music, as that’s what he’d been creating since he first hit the mixtape circuit.
“I was making mixtapes when I didn’t have any hot water in my crib. I put a lot of energy in what I do,” he said, reminiscing on his early days. “I’m here now, so many years later, because I don’t get comfortable. I look at it like ‘Ok, great job, but that was yesterday. What’s up with today?’ I’m grinding like that because of my passion, my drive, my work ethic…because of consistency, creativity, my team–and more than anything, because it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I love my job, my career, the culture. I love it.”
DJ Drama’s dedication and love for his craft and hip hop as a whole recently led him to a new position as an A&R at Atlantic Records.
“This is a new position to me,” he confessed. “I can’t always put the artist development process into words, because there’s no formula to it. A lot of it is just about ideas, experiences, and putting great records together. It’s helping great be great. I’ve seen so many artists come from the beginning to being superstars. I’m bringing that experience to the table. It’s about putting the pieces together now. Success is going to be the biggest challenge I face; it’s the only challenge there is.”
The DJ turned A&R is also continuing to challenge himself by continuing to put out the top notch albums that his name has become synonymous with. His next album, Quality Street Music 2, is due out sometime this year.
“It’s gonna be better than the last one, which is saying a lot for me, because my last was, in my opinion, the best,” he said of his upcoming project. “It’s well executed and cohesive. A lot of DJ albums…sometimes they wind up being a lot of various verses over random beats.”
Drama lives by the phrase that Biggie made famous: “Sky’s the limit,” he said, when asked what’s next for him.
“I’m in a great space. I’m loving life. I’m here. More money, more music, more movements,” he summed up, simply.
Acknowledging that “More money, more music, more movements” was a great motto, he laughed about his inability to rap.
“I talk some great shit, I just can’t make it rhyme,” he admitted. “Maybe that’s next!”
April Dawn (@scarlettsinatra)
