DJ Whoo Kid is starting to get a lot of well deserved recognition. He gave maybe the most hilarious interview of the year when he sat down recently with Howard Stern. If you missed it click HERE.
He won the "Club Tour DJ of the Year" Award at the 2012 Global Spin Awards earlier this month and continues to bring us hilarious interviews and entertainment on his website RadioPlanet.TV.
HipHop-N-More recently caught up with Whoo Kid for another great interview. Check out an excerpt of what he and @RealJoeMoney chopped it up about.
First off, congrats on appearance on The Voice the other night with 50 and Adam Levine. That was a dope performance.
DJ Whoo Kid: Yeah that is a big record man. That was a big moment right there man. We are back.
Definitely. Also want to congratulate you on winning the “Tour DJ of The Year” award at the Global Spin Awards last week. How does it feel?
DJ Whoo Kid: Thanks man. Yeah, I guess because I tour a lot. Every week I’m in a different country so I get all the visuals. A lot of people just respect that fact, like last week I was in Canada somewhere on the west coast side, Regina, what they call it v*gina (laughs). I was in Regina, this week I’m in Lisbon, Portugal. Next week I’m in Brazil. So, I got the visuals, it’s not like I’m talking, I come back with the proof (laughs).
How important do you consider touring for a DJ like yourself?
DJ Whoo Kid: It’s important because not only does it keep me relevant overseas, because it feels like dead when you just hang in America, it also refreshes the foreign fans I have when I keep going back there. I bring back new music, it’s not like I go overseas and play the same sh*t, it’s new music, a new form of swag as they would say. It’s like a new feeling every time I come back, and then I learn more about them, what they listen to, how they upgraded and then I bring that back to New York, or Miami or LA. There’s different people in every different clubs and once I’ve mastered every club, it’s like second nature to me. Because I know if you go to Italy, they like the south. If you go to France, they respect they own music but will hear a little bit of East Coast. Or, if you go to China, it’s just pop music, Top 40. You gotta learn by traveling, you gotta learn by interacting with their culture. Even doing mixtapes with their top artists. I did all the mixtapes in the UK with the big artists from Tinie Tempah to Giggs, and I did mixtapes with Booba in France. It’s not about just going there and DJin, you gotta f**kin find a way to get respect from their culture too. You don’t want to just go there and they be like ‘that’s 50 Cent’s DJ’. Nah, you wanna go there like, ‘oh that’s the guy who did the record with Tinie Tempah’ or ‘oh that’s the guy who the remix with Booba’,’oh that’s the guy who did the mixtape with DJ Cut Killer. You know I was on the radio with Tim Westwood. You gotta give ‘em reasons why they should respect you. I’m not getting the easy ticket out here, like ‘oh I’m 50 Cent’s DJ’. What is the easiest ticket? I could go over there and say I’m Eminem’s DJ, I’m 50 Cent’s DJ, and I could get all the props ever, but do you give something back to their community & culture and do you bring their culture to America?
I connected Tinie Tempah to Chris Brown and Wiz Khalifa and they did hits. It’s like a cool way of bridging the gap. You know I became like a liaison, like a UN to Hip-Hop linking all these cultures. Other DJs ain’t thinking like that and I’ve always thought ahead, even when I was young, same sh*t. Touring & going overseas keeps you aware and also you’re like a better man. Better than DJing in Brooklyn all your life, DJing in Miami all your life, like you DJ in one club. Who gives a f**k? You know if you haven’t been around the world and you don’t understand the world, you’ll never be that exclusive guy, you’ll never be the one guy with the crazy stories. Like I’ve DJd for Princes. I know the prince of Bahrain, the prince of France, Nelson Mandela, Gaddafi. I would’ve never did that if I didn’t tour overseas. Every footballer overseas, I know all the top dudes. DJing in Ibiza, doing Techno, doing House, I mean you gotta be open format now if you wanna survive. I’m not trying be the DJ that just DJs in New York, gets that little 800 bucks, 500 bucks and goes home. I never wanted to be that guy.
Your ‘Whoolywood Shuffle’ show is really funny and entertaining. Which artist did you have the maximum fun with on the show?
DJ Whoo Kid: I think one of my favorite artists is T.I. because Tip is the type of guy that’s really tough. He don’t play no games and then I guess like over the years of me f**kin’ with him, it kinda like cooled him down, where he became the cool guy. He jokes now. Before that, he used to be so serious, but now he’s like the jokester. He don’t mind me f**kin with people, I can make fun of people with him, he’ll jump in. Now he makes it a point to come on my show every time he is in New York. I kinda like enjoy. You know, like everyone else I’ve known him from even before he blew up, so it’s kinda cool. But he’s always been a serious guy because of the beef, and all the negativity, and all the haters he had. He was never the kinda guy who didn’t mind joking. And you know I’m an idiot on the radio (laughs). I can make everyone laugh and go crazy and I thought it was very difficult to make him laugh, but the fact that I can make him keel over, I could make anyone just cry. I use him as my medium or I test my skills. If I can make T.I. keel over and pee on himself, then I’m the man, I can anybody laugh, you know what I’m saying.
One of my favorite all time guests is Willie Nelson. It’s kinda cool like to interview a guy like that because it’s hard to integrate a legend with the ignorance of my Hip-Hop show. if I can make him comfortable, and he can give me his stories and we come to an agreement, it kinda like proves my skills is up to par. Because I had him up there wildin’ out, so that was one of my legendary situations.
The third one would be taking over the Howard Stern show (laughs). I was supposed to just do a f**kin’ rap battle, and I wind up taking over the whole show and it looked like he was interviewing me for an hour. So, I became like a mentalist when it comes to interviews. Like I know how to manipulate anything and make everything comfortable. I can make any artist say whatever just by keywords and I learned this from being on radio for almost 20 years.
Tell us exactly what your relationship with 50 is like. Haven’t you been fired like a number of times now? (laughs)
DJ Whoo Kid: Man it’s been the same ever since we started. We can be cool every day, but if I get him mad, he gets mad. He’s a normal human being. If I f**k up, he’s a perfectionist, you what I’m saying. Like on stage, sometimes I tell him ‘yo I’m not a robot’ and sometimes humans f**k up, but he don’t wanna hear that shit. Thats like the only time we have any kind of friction, is on stage. Besides that, it’s like brothers man. I’ve been with him for almost 12 years. Get Rich Or Die Tryin album is going 10 year anniversary in February. The fact that you can prove it’s brotherly love, is like you can fire somebody 100 times, but where am I gonna go. He can find another DJ all he wants, but it’s kinda hard to find a DJ that he could know from a 10 year experience. You gotta know the person, you gotta know when they f**ks up, you gotta know the music, not even the music alone. It’s not just press and play. A lot of people think it’s just pressing buttons and then 50 cent is on stage. There’s a lot of technical shit, even watching him and bringing the volumes up and down. It takes years to even know someone to understand them.
Even when he f**ks up, I can fix the shit. So you can hire a new DJ, I don’t mind getting fired, because I know I always return (laughs). I got fired damn near 20 times in my career but yeah we’re like the coolest. I talk to him about my family, he talks to me about his, everything is cool, we’re brothers. I ain’t going nowhere, I don’t care who the f**k it is. I’m always gonna be his DJ, even if he fires me. I don’t give a f**k. I told him — if he fires me, I’m not gonna be a DJ for anyone else. Like I’m not DJing for an artist ever again. Anybody can hire me, I don’t give a f**k, I’m just gonna be like a tour DJ. I tour every weekend, you know, the promoter can abuse the situation like ‘oh 50 Cent’s DJ’ but then in some countries ‘oh DJ Whoo Kid coming to town’. Well, that it depends on who the d**khead promoter is. But I told him (50) I’m never ever gonna DJ for any other artist for the rest of my life. I ain’t wanna deal with this shit. I’m not gonna be the 45 year old f**kin DJ on a wheelchair in the back (laughs). That’s why I’m still there, because there’s no one that can take over that spot. Even that show The Voice, you said that shit was incredible. It may look simple but it’s really knowing him, understanding he’s on stage, watching him, it’s not that simple. If you don’t have the relationship with the artist, you’re not gonna be the DJ that he needs.
Like Whoo Kid is always gonna be there. I’m always gonna be there for him and I’m not gonna DJ for nobody else. Simple as that!
Wow. Have you heard 50’s ‘Street King Immortal’ album? How does it sound like?
DJ Whoo Kid: Yo man, incredible man! He played it for us the other day when we were rehearsing for The Voice. Unbelievable. We had to rehearse the ‘My Life’ record and I was like ‘yo, I haven’t heard the whole version with Em (Eminem), can you play the whole version.’ He played that and I was going crazy, I’m like we gonna perform this? Get the f**k outta here! Then he’s like ‘yo , lemme play some other joints for you and I was just bugging out on them. He’s got some other artists on the album and he has them out of their element too. So every artist you see out there doing the norm like they usually do? He made all of them come into the zone 50’s in. Something like ‘this is the beat, this is what you gotta do, and you can’t be like the same 101 of what you do every day because I want this to be different.’ And then they all adjusted and it sounds incredible. It’s definitely gonna be like greedy, grimey like Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ but on the next level. Yo, I was so amped son. I’m about to be gone again. I told my wife “f*ck you”, I’m not coming back home again. When I told my baby moms back in the day when we first toured for Get Rich Or Die Tryin’, I told her to go f*ck herself, I ain’t seen her for like 6 years. I ain’t even know where my kid was. I came back and my kid was like another human yo (laughs). And now I’m about to go tell her to f*ck herself again. We’re about to be outta here, that’s if I don’t get fired again! And then the reaction from The Voice? Damn! And we got more shows coming up, it’s already a good look man.
To read the full interview head over to HHNM.
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