DJ Drama

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2:28beats and release new music to fans in between their major label projects. By 2007, the underground mixtape market was booming. But in January of that year, DJ Drama and his longtime business partner, Don Cannon, were arrested by federal agents and charged under RICO laws for bootlegging and racketeering. Their arrest resulted in the federal government confiscating hundreds of thousands of from their business accounts. But the much-publicized raid only boosted DJ Drama's profile. In the years since, Drama's built a successful record label and has continued to make mixtapes. Tyler, the creator, even crafted his latest album, Call Me If You Get Lost, with DJ Drama's classic ad-libs all over it and won the Grammy for Best Rap Album in 2022.

3:17But at that same time, while DJ Drama was at the height of his professional success, Personally, he was battling an addiction to opioids, an ongoing struggle he's only recently started to talk about publicly. On today's episode, Leah Rose, who some of you may know as the former music editor of XXL Magazine, talks to Drama about how he got sober after being what he calls a functioning junkie who spent six figures a year on opioids. He also tells a story of how Lil Jon recorded his iconic Gangsta Grill's drops in Drama's laundry room, and explains why he decided to sign Lil Uzi Vert and Jack Harlow to his Atlantic Records imprint, Generation Now.

4:01This is Broken Record. Line of notes for the digital age. I'm Justin Richman. Here's Leah Rose with DJ Drama. So back when I was at XXL, I used to edit a section of the magazine called Show Improve, where every month I would have to find five new artists from like all over the country. And I figured out that if I talked to mixtape DJs, they could kind of like plug me in with who was who and who was doing what where. And you were my guy in Atlanta. I remember us frequently talking. Exactly. Yeah, it's been about 20 years. and your career has grown in so many different incredible ways. So for people listening who might not be familiar with the function of a mixtape in hip-hop, can you describe what the purpose is just at like the base level?

4:52Like what is the purpose of a mixtape? So a mixtape obviously through the years has taken on various purposes and different meanings. me specifically or my brand of Gangsta Girls mixtapes came at a time when mixtapes had become almost like street albums in a sense where they were based around you know one particular artist or one particular crew of artists or a label of some sort and it enabled that artist to kind of do things that they may not have been able to do on their major label album in a sense where they can kind of have a free-for-all or you know rap on someone else's beat you know just kind of experiment and not worry about you know some of the the caution tape that comes with putting out an actual album so a mixtape and a lot of times in and don't in the early years would almost be kind of like lead ups to someone's album or it would be a project that would come in between albums you know to keep the anticipation high and you know then then there would be what my my participation in it as the dj is kind of like properly putting the mixtape together sequencing it you know adding bells and whistles sound effects yeah you know giving what are known is either sermons or rants, depending on who you ask.

6:32And bringing back records just to create these moments and this excitement of almost like being a coach or the guy in the box corner who's hyping up the artists in a sense and hyping up the audience as well and just adding my two cents to the records. and so when it came to you adding your your ad libs and your drops and everything it really seems like it's such an art and it's very intentional first of all how did you develop your style i was listening to old tapes you're screaming it's like horse voice there's a little like you know echo effect how did you develop your own individual style well it kind of changed over the years interestingly so you know in the earlier years obviously when you go listen like i'm definitely more boisterous and louder than i may be in today's time but the style came in like that's what mixtape djs would do and in my era like you know i came up listening to people like clue or or sns or or who kid who you know all djs would would pretty much say their names and and have an echo effect.

7:54But they also, it was in a time where mixtape DJs were doing more of shout outs and maybe promoting the stores where their tapes were sold or shouting out the A &Rs that were getting them records and things like that. And I kind of came up with a style where, for me, it was almost like adding personality to the records. I wanted to be more than just kind of like to say my name where, you know, I was kind of like talking shit, you know, in a sense, like adding my two cents almost in a way of like, you know, I don't rhyme, you know, my statements don't rhyme, but I try to be creative as possible with what I say and add to the record as much as much as I can.

8:43And, you know, yeah, in the early years, it was like, you know, the type of music that I was lending my voice to was very, like, commanding and, you know, it was intense. And then over the years, I started to, you know, do work on various projects, you know, then I started to even play around with my tone and my pitch. I would do a tape like Verde Terrace with Currency, where it's smoker music. You can't come off screaming. Yeah, I would have to come back in a mellow or a tone. Or I would start to do R &B mixtapes with people like Chris Brown or Jeremiah. And then it was like, again, I couldn't come on there yelling and screaming.

9:31So I would then find a different tone and play around with it. And in a sense, it's art to me. It was like knowing where to come and what to say and how to lend myself to the record. So it wasn't... Yeah. And when to pull back. Exactly. When to talk. And it's really like you're punctuating things that people say in a way that sometimes it's subconscious as a listener. or you're listening, and then you might be like, oh, and then that line will sink in, and then you start to say that as, like, you start to know that as part of the song. No, and I love that. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, and then one of the biggest compliments to me at times is when, you know, there'll be versions of projects that didn't have me on there, and people will be like, yeah, it just doesn't hit the same, but I'll draw them on there.

10:25It's really not as good. It's really, really not. So I love that. It's so exciting. Your drops are so, it's just so well done. Thank you. And I just want to play you this. I don't know. Let's see if you can hear this.

10:42Wow.

10:46Yeah. Classic. So that's from Dedication 2. Yeah. Which now is just like widely regarded as the best mixtape of all time. Yeah. Which is crazy. You got your shout out on that. That's fire. but you know you guys you know you and double xl were very important and influential to like mixtapes and mixtape culture at that time and like and i remember like the feeling of you know opening up a double xl and seeing one of my my tapes in there or it being reviewed or you know i'm saying like that was like the holy grail you know i mean that was you know you guys were one of the few outlets where we were getting our praise or outside of the listener or the person who was familiar with the mixtape circuit or what we were doing, where a consumer who might not have been familiar could find out about what I was doing.

11:42Yeah, I mean, you were absolutely keeping the music exciting. You were keeping it going. Appreciate that. So when it came to making Dedication 2, I heard you talk about how you would sometimes script out things for the artist to say. And in Wayne's case, with that tape, you sort of set it up like an interview. Yeah. So in those days when I was doing tapes, I would make a script. Outside of the music, some of the things that were important to those tapes were somewhat of the interludes. or, you know, it was almost like behind the scenes of some of the things that, you know, you wouldn't get from the artist on a project.

12:28So when I would do dedications, you know, I would almost like write a script out for Wayne to record some things outside of the music. I would literally like almost like ask him questions. So, you know, around those times, there were things about him retiring or him signing to Jay-Z or like, you know, I remember asking him like, you know, what, what do you like to watch on television? And that was when he was like, all I watch is sports, sports, sports, you know, and, and he had actually freestyled over this green lantern beat that had been used. That was like, became sports center, you know, where it was like the sound of a basketball or a tennis ball or what have you and I called it SportsCenter and that kind of came from my my interviewing background I guess in a sense of like when I would get my my drops from the artist I would I would set it up where I would you know engage him and this is what the fans want to know so there would be kind of questions he would answer and those those would turn into the interludes or you know the way I would go from transition from song to song it's such a good idea because an artist, especially Wayne, he doesn't really do interviews.

13:44Right. And you know, like those tapes, like Dedication 1 and Dedication 2, like the interludes of him talking are like so key or so memorable, you know. There were just things on there that like came out of me writing these scripts and responding to it. I have to ask you about Dedication 7. Is it coming out? It's been getting teased since I think 2020. Good question. I hope so. Are you waiting to hear too? Yeah, I'm still waiting to hear, but I'm sure he'll start getting the itch. He always starts getting the itch and then I'll get a phone call and it'll be time to go. How did the original session where you recorded the drops with Little John, what do you remember about that session?

14:29And just talk a little bit about what Little John is like. I think a lot of people sort of think of him as maybe a caricature because of the Chappelle skit and the what? I mean, talk about what Little John is actually like in real life. Well, first of all, the fact that you called it a session is the most hilarious thing ever because it's a place in my duplex in the fourth ward where most people would keep their washer and dryer is where I kept my equipment. So it was the fact that it's called a session, like it was not in some fancy studio with some big ass mixing board. Like there was two turntables and a four track in there.

15:16But, you know, John has always been one of the most down to earth, humble, laid back and giving people that I've met within the music business. You know, I got to be him at an early age for me when I was kind of just transitioning from being a college DJ to really just getting into the business. And he was the king of crunk. It was a time before, you know, the explosion of the Chappelle show. But, you know, John was definitely a very key figure within the Atlanta hip hop scene, as well as, you know, being becoming a national, an international star. And this was at a time when Gangsta Girls, like, as a mixtape, was just becoming a series.

16:10And, you know, having a host of your mixtape was a very important thing, at least from an up-north perspective. Like, you know, and I was following a lot of the up-north, the East Coast trends of mixtapes. and you know people were having people like puffy and nods and you know just all these you know huge artists hosting their mixtapes and i was like yeah i need to i need to find a host for you know against the girls to make it seem like it was something you know and legit yeah like make it seem legit it's like a cosign to cosign absolutely cosigns are important so i i remember asking like three people around that time and two of them pretty much told me no and john was the one that told me yes he would host the tape for me and he came to my crib again like this raggedy ass uh duplex i had for fort of atlanta and he did the drop for me i think i either wrote out a script or I would just tell him, yeah, can you say this?

17:20Can you say that? And in him doing those drops, the way he said Gangsta Grizzles. Gangsta, Gangsta, Gangsta Grizzles. You know, he did that on his own. And he hosted, it was the third Gangsta Girls I did. I had did two before. And at the time, they were still just like compilations. You know, they were just like the best, the hottest songs in the South that I was putting together. and he was the first host of Gangsta Grills, which turned out to be Gangsta Grills 4. So, you know, that tape has him all over it. And then the next tape that I did, when I did Gangsta Grills 5, it was time to put a tape out, but I couldn't find anyone to host in time.

18:07So instead of, you know, having a host, I just used Little John's voice saying Gangsta Grills seals and ran it back abundance of times all over the music, kind of like to brand it in a sense. And, you know, the drop went on to be quite legendary. But yeah, John is, you know, for those who see him as a character, like, you know, he knows when to turn it on. And, you know, somewhat similar to me. I mean, I don't go around screaming all day, every day, like I'm doing a mixtape. But like, you know, he's he's he's one of the most creative, hardworking, you know, guys in the business, you know, that that really, you know, has guided himself to an incredible career, you know, from from production to, you know, artists to DJ to, you know, just rock star in a sense.

19:02Did you coach him to say it a certain way? No, he did that on his own. And when you heard that, like, did you know, were you like, oh, that's good? I didn't know. He just said it. He said it like that. Gangsta Grizzles. And what's crazy is that I never realized, now looking back on it, there was a Hot Boy song prior to Gangsta Grills where Manny Fresh actually says Gangsta Grizzles. Really? Yeah, so I'm curious if that's where John got it from. I never knew. I really I've recently just heard it like in the last like two three months where Manny Fresh says Gangsta Grizzles and this was a record from like 98 99 so it came before Gangsta Girls and you know and but even at that time that's not even where I got the name for the tape like I just kind of came up with Gangsta Girls in itself so you know great minds think alike but I didn't know that him saying that would turn out to be so iconic or turn into what it is today.

20:09But I was always very keen on branding early on. How did you learn about branding? Because you're obviously so good at it. Where does that instinct come from? Well, I remember taking a marketing class in college. And I was a radio TV film major. but as a mass communications major we had to take some business classes it was mandatory and marketing was one of them and i remember just it was during the time when i was in college and i was very earnest on my mixtape hustle and my marketing class just like every part of it fascinated me into what I was doing with my business or my mixtapes. And I was applying everything that I was learning to my craft.

21:02And I just remember again, just even early on, just studying DJs like Flex and Capri and Bismarck, you rest in peace, just how big of a brand Funkmaster Flex was and you know watching him and and even Clue as well like you know just just watching like you know them beyond the mixtape like you know get endorsements and become figures on television and things like that so you know one becoming a mixtape DJ for me was was key because the mixtape DJ in hip hop for me was the largest in life DJ. You know, those were the DJs that were treated like artists. You know, those are the DJs that were the ones that people knew outside of the city they were from, you know, and even when I was approaching Gangsta Grills, for me, it was like my goal was to create a brand from the mixtape that people recognized even bigger than at the time dj drama you know like most djs at the time were trying to make a name for themselves or make sure their their name as a dj was the most well-known and i i approached it in a sense where i'm gonna make this brand this mixtape brand gangsta girls the biggest brand where when people see it, they automatically want it, regardless of who's on it or what it is.

22:40If they see a new Gangsta Girls, that they're going to cop it. And I was like, through that, then I can kind of double back and create the brand of DJ drama. So in those days for me, Gangsta Girls was a larger brand than DJ drama. And then I started applying, okay, now I'm going to go and put my face on the Gangsta Girls along with the artists and start branding myself and making myself known once Gangsta Girls was already a known brand. And then just again, branding through the years, I guess it's something that kind of has come somewhat natural in a sense. I think so. It must. It feels like an innate ability because you have a real solid instinct for it.

23:29you know, you've been able to maintain it for 20 years. 20 years. In so many different areas. So yeah, it definitely feels like something that comes naturally to you. Yeah, thank you. You know, that's key in hip hop. I mean, when you think about it, I mean, from DJ drama to Gangsta Girls, to Generation Now, to dedication, you know, there's just so many things that I'm attached to that are, you know, known within the culture. At the height of Gangster Grills, would you say the height was like 05, 06-ish? I think it's had different heights. I think 05, 06 was... Like the first peak. That was the first peak, definitely.

24:12Do you have an idea roughly of how many copies you were selling per month and how much you were making per month on the tapes? I was probably selling between each tape. It was, you know, just coming from my backyard, probably like maybe 20, 35 ,000 tapes, you know, just for me. But then again, like that's not including the bootleggers and the people that were taking masters. So, you know, there were hundreds of thousands of copies. Like, I'm sure in that time there were, you know, a million physical gangster girls, if we're including the Jeezy tapes and the Wayne tapes and, you know, all the various tapes.

25:01And then, like, monetarily wise, I was, you know, bringing in 50, 60, 70, 80 thousand dollars a month. Like, you know, money that I had never seen or been familiar with. so it was it was a hell of a time and then all that changed on uh the morning of january 16th 2007 can you just tell us quickly what happened that morning what you remember from that day i got raided i came to the studio that day and i had gotten tipped off that uh that they were coming to the studio, but I thought it was a mix-up or a mistake. And I went outside to go move my car. I let my employees know, like, y 'all just got a weird call, and, you know, the cops are coming over here.

25:55And I went to go move my car, but I went outside. And, you know, they pulled up with, you know, Tahoe's with the lights, and the helicopter was above my head, and they jumped out with M16s, and told me to get on the ground and told me Tyree Simmonds were being arrested for bootlegging and racketeering under the RICO law. And they tore the studio apart and they were looking for guns and drugs and all they found was mixtapes. And I remember being taken down the right street and sitting in the holding cell and somebody tapping me like, look, you're on TV. and that was what they know is like the day the game changed within the mixtape world because like you know I was like top of the food chain I was one of the biggest mixtape djs in the world at the time and you know it was like man if dj drama can get locked up like nobody's safe what happened when you were in jail how long did you have to stay I was only there for like 24 hours we got a hundred thousand dollar bond and you know i had a lot of hip-hop conversations honestly i was you know with you know the guys that were were locked up or the inmates like we just had rap talk but i remember getting out and you know it literally like changed my life overnight i became this i became the represent a representation of like the what was wrong with within the music business.

27:32And, you know, it definitely made me more famous than I was. And, you know, my record label was pretty excited. They were like, oh, we can't pay for this type of publicity. At the time, I was signed to Atlantic Records as an artist to put out an album. Official Gangster Girls. Yeah, official Gangster Girls album. So, you know, they were like, oh, how fast can we get the album done? Like, you know. There were negative effects, right? It wasn't all positive when you came out. Well, they froze my bank account, so they kept my money. They kept like six figures of an account that I had had. But beyond that, there weren't that many negative effects to it.

28:15I mean, it pretty much made me like, you know, it made more people want to interview me, put me on more magazine covers than I was, like made me more recognizable to people outside of you know the the mixtape world and i became you know larger than than i was you know and at the time like for another person or another situation that could have been the end of the end of the story but like you know for me i was like this is just like one chapter of my story like this is not what this is not going to define my whole career like you know it'll definitely be a talked about moment but i got you know so much to accomplish and yeah that was what i would i would say at the time not knowing how much of a career i was set out to have but you know i definitely knew that i wasn't gonna like lay down and let this be the end you know i'm saying especially because of how much i loved mixtapes like and I felt I felt some guilt that was that was the only other bad part was the guilt I felt like I didn't want to see this culture that I love so much die on my back you know that I came up loving and wanting to be a part of because it was sort of a situation at that time where album sales were down across the music industry mixtape sales were up and mixtape DJs were making a bunch of money and record labels were losing money it was like the wild wild west yeah because i mean technically mixtapes weren't even supposed to be making money like it was always the quote unquote for promotional use only stigma attached to it right and then you know outside of what myself or you know other well-known mixtape djs were doing there were also just not even DJs but mixtape guys that were stealing MP3s and hacking Gmail and getting records that weren't sanctioned by the artists or the label and they were putting them out so it was becoming overly saturated and it was becoming a problem and then on top of that the music business was in a decline, album sales were in a decline so it was kind of like some were looking at it like oh this is the this is the music business way of sending a message to the mixtape djs like yo y 'all gonna stop this shit cut it out stop taking our money but meanwhile you were promoting the artists like wayne and jeezy would tour off your mixtapes definitely i mean the artists were you know they were able to go on and you know tour and make money off of the music that was coming off of their mixtapes as well as you know those mixtapes were used as promotional tools to lead up to people's albums you know they were they were part of the marketing plan of the labels like yeah before we do an album we gotta go do a gangsta girls to create some hype and anticipation right and the labels would pay for them at times they would they definitely would yeah i was definitely getting paid by labels to do tapes.

31:38Did it scare you after the raid? Did it stop you from doing tapes? No, it didn't scare or stop me. I kind of stopped the regular numbered Gangsta Grill series that I had been doing because I was more focused on individual artist tapes. But I went and did Gangsta Grill 16 and 17 after the raid. And I continued to do mixtapes as did other people. I mean, you know, mixtapes are a part of the culture. Like, they'll never go anywhere, even though through the years they've changed of how they may be presented or looked or what have you. Like, I continued on after that. It didn't stop me. We're going to pause for a quick break and then be back with more from DJ Drama and Leah Rose.

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33:40If you're ready to find the right therapist for you, BetterHelp can help you start that journey. Our listeners get 10 % off their first month at BetterHelp.com slash broken. That's BetterHelp.com slash broken. This episode of Broken Record is brought to you by Chase Sapphire Reserve. Everybody loves to travel, right? We can get away as a once-in-a-lifetime vacation, all of it. And no matter where you're going, Chase Sapphire Reserve is your gateway to the world's most captivating destinations. Travel is its own reward, you know. You're out there having experiences you can't have any other way, and with your Chase Sapphire Reserve card, you're also being rewarded.

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35:28So don't wait. Get yours today. Visit buyatoyota.com for deals and more. Toyota, let's go places. We're back with more from DJ Drama and Leah Rose. Recently you did a talk as part of a mental health awareness month with Shanti Doss. Yeah. And you opened up about your struggle with opioid addiction. When did you decide to come public with that? My opioid journey started somewhere around 2015 or something around there. To be honest, a lot of it started because of my issues with sleep. I had really bad sleeping patterns and stuff, and I started drinking a lot of lean in the early 2000s. And by kicking that habit, I then started to, I think I went from lean to Xanax, then to Percocets.

36:35And, you know, I started to realize it was a problem around like maybe like 2018 because I had never really knew the effects of withdrawals. And I went through withdrawals from Percocets and it was like a pain or a feeling I never felt ever before in my life. I remember telling myself at the time, like, I'll never go another day without a Percocet. And that was really where my addiction or my habit went into a different space and really became a serious issue and problem. And in 2020, right when COVID hit, I went to rehab. And that was my first time in rehab and in a facility trying to deal with my opioid addiction.