In short
DJ A-Trak discusses how Kid Cudi’s “Day ’N Nite” spread globally via Fool’s Gold, his touring with Kanye West, founding Fool’s Gold Records, playing the first Coachella (1999), winning the DMC World Championship at 15, and how G-Unit helped push rap crews internationally; he also connects hip-hop and electronic music as related “branches.”
Guest backgrounds
A-Trak is a Montreal-born DJ/producer who became a DMC World Champion at 15, later touring with Kanye West and co-forming Duck Sauce (with Armand Van Helden). The hosts include Rob Markman and others (Turbulence Tony, Lil Jet Lenny).
Key claims
International touring exposed him to different “youth music” scenes (especially Europe), where clubs stayed more dance-floor focused than US bottle-service culture. Fool’s Gold was a small, DJ-run label that succeeded through “people’s ear,” not a big corporate machine. “Day ’N Nite” hit big after Motown/Universal bought the master.
Notable examples
Kanye credits (scratches on “Gold Digger,” work on “Graduation”); Duck Sauce’s “Barbra Streisand” (title confusion clarified); Crookers remix boosting overseas; DMC battle travel (Canada → Italy/France/UK); “World Hold On” (Bob Sinclar); “Planet Rock”/“Sugarhill” as shared roots; first Coachella in 1999; G-Unit touring with Rihanna overseas.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOG-Unit's International Impact
1:04 to 2:04
Discussion on G-Unit's international tours and impact on the rap scene.
“My name is Tuba Nguyen, and enrolling at Rasmussen University was essentially a handshake to a lifeline, a career, stability, and a future for myself.”
G-Unit's International Impact
2:07 to 3:29
Discussion on G-Unit's international tours and impact on the rap scene.
“You know, one thing I remember too is there's a point in time when G-Unit was really touring internationally.”
DJ A-Track's Background and Influence
3:29 to 7:10
DJ A-Track shares his journey in the music industry and his collaborations.
“We got the legendary A-Track in the building.”
Fool's Gold Records and Kid Cudi
7:10 to 8:15
A-Track discusses the founding of Fool's Gold Records and its early successes.
“The title of the song is Barbra Streisand.”
The Success of 'Day 'N' Nite'
8:15 to 9:50
Exploration of the making and impact of Kid Cudi's 'Day 'N' Nite'.
“All right, so I founded this label Fool's Gold with a couple friends around 2007.”
The EDM Remix and Global Reach
9:50 to 14:00
Discussion on the remix of 'Day 'N' Nite' and its global success.
“We're going to get through all of it, right?”
The Global Impact of 'Day 'N Nite'
14:00 to 16:55
Learn how Kid Cudi's hit resonated worldwide and its organic rise in popularity.
“So you had two versions that were blowing up at the same time.”
Cultural Differences in Dance Music
16:55 to 19:16
Explore the contrasting experiences of club culture in the US and overseas.
“There's this one song that came on, I forgot how it goes.”
The Roots and Evolution of DJing
19:16 to 22:40
Understand the historical context of DJing and its ties to hip-hop and house music.
“The way that my career started, I won the DMC World Championships.”
The Rise of Social Media in DJ Culture
22:40 to 24:51
Discuss how social media has changed the landscape for DJs, both positively and negatively.
“So - Don't tell me he made Step Into The World.”
Show all 32 chapters
A-Trak's Journey in Music
24:51 to 28:00
Discover A-Trak's early influences and experiences leading to his DJ championships.
“They're learning how to scratch and they're posting their videos on TikTok and on Reels.”
Love for Hip Hop Culture
28:00 to 29:36
Exploration of how growing up with hip hop shaped their lives.
“Every time you say Queens, you see this guy doing it.”
Love for Hip Hop Culture
29:59 to 30:36
Exploration of how growing up with hip hop shaped their lives.
“Are you ready to rewrite your story online and on campus?”
Love for Hip Hop Culture
30:39 to 31:04
Exploration of how growing up with hip hop shaped their lives.
“The July Savings Event from Apple Vacations is here.”
DJ Influences and Legends
31:36 to 36:40
Discussion about influential DJs and their impact on hip hop.
“DJ Craze, he won like all the craziest battles.”
Modern Hip Hop Landscape
36:40 to 42:01
Insights into the current hip hop scene and diverse styles.
“I went to Poland I went to to Paris and then I went in the south of France to like in the Alps close to Geneva and then I had something in Stockholm too So I did those.”
The Evolution of Music Genres
42:01 to 45:40
Explore how the music landscape has changed with diverse genres coexisting.
“Because it's so easy because of social media now.”
The Evolution of Music Genres
45:41 to 46:35
Explore how the music landscape has changed with diverse genres coexisting.
“all virtual, all of my professors throughout the entire journey have been nothing but supportive and making me reach my dreams.”
DJ Culture and Global Music Trends
48:09 to 52:49
Discuss the challenges and trends in DJing and music production today.
“Because back in the 90s, 80s, in early 2000s.”
A-Trak's Upcoming Projects and Collaborations
52:50 to 56:00
A-Trak shares his future projects and collaborations in the music scene.
“So I got a couple of different projects.”
Shouting Out Danny Brown
56:00 to 56:58
Learn about Danny Brown's work ethic and musical talent.
“I found Danny Brown, one of the nicest rappers.”
Kid Cudi and his Classics
56:58 to 57:53
Explore the impact of Kid Cudi's hit 'Day 'N Nite' and his upcoming tour.
“So we'll be, name a city, we'll be there.”
Creativity in DJing and Music
57:53 to 59:19
Discuss how unique sounds and creativity can lead to lasting success in music.
“But I feel like even just like both of you as artists have always been clever and like figuring out ways to stand out because you, the way that you would always do the wrap up records for every year.”
The Evolution of DJ Equipment
59:19 to 1:01:06
Understand how advancements in DJ equipment have changed the industry.
“You got your computer, fucking, you're DJing, somebody spilled some shit on it.”
Finding Unique Talent
1:01:06 to 1:02:18
Learn what makes an artist stand out in today's music industry.
“I mean, there's so many artists that I've been involved with that are just, they're characters, you know?”
The Shift to Independent Labels
1:02:18 to 1:04:16
Discover the benefits of independent labels in the current music landscape.
“Into hip hop like - Yeah, hip hop, hip hop.”
Nostalgia for Indie Hip-Hop
1:04:16 to 1:07:30
Revisit the indie hip-hop scene of the late '90s and its influence.
“Even seeing how consistent they are with doing something.”
DJing at a Young Age
1:07:30 to 1:10:01
Hear about the challenges and experiences of DJing as a teenager.
“Rob Markman, I'm going to go this way and look, go with it.”
DJ Battles and Mixtape Culture
1:10:01 to 1:12:44
Discover the origins and impact of DJ battles and mixtapes in hip-hop culture.
“Yeah, it could have been a crowd when he was 15.”
Upcoming Projects and Collaboration
1:12:45 to 1:13:11
Learn about A-Trak's upcoming tour and projects with Fool's Gold and Kit Ketty.
“What I got coming, the tour with Kit Ketty.”
Upcoming Projects and Collaboration
1:13:34 to 1:14:16
Learn about A-Trak's upcoming tour and projects with Fool's Gold and Kit Ketty.
“I knew before I left that that was the school that I was going to attend.”
Upcoming Projects and Collaboration
1:14:18 to 1:14:49
Learn about A-Trak's upcoming tour and projects with Fool's Gold and Kit Ketty.
“Apple Vacations, where your story starts.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Tony Yayo:This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. This July 4th at Lowe's. Get up to 45 % off select major appliances. Plus, save$80 on a select Charbroil Performance Series gas grill. Now$299. Our best lineup is here at Lowe's. Lowe's. We help you save. Valid through 7-8. While supplies last, selection varies by location. See Lowe's.com for more details. Visit your nearby Lowe's on South Loop 288 in Denton.
0:58So, hey, want to get started? Just head to CarMax.com for details and get pre-qualified today. Want to drive? CarMax. My name is Tuba Nguyen, and enrolling at Rasmussen University was essentially a handshake to a lifeline, a career, stability, and a future for myself. I found it important to be able to speak with instructors and staff outside of office hours, and to have that support system was essential because they believed in me. Rasmussen University. Are you ready to rewrite your story online and on campus? Learn more at rasmussen.edu. Happy birthday, America. It's time to celebrate and play your favorite Las Vegas casino games by American-owned SpinQuest.com.
1:44What's better than fireworks and American pie? Hitting a blackjack in the palm of your hand and you won't lose your fingers. Over a thousand games including slots and live dealers. And$30 point packs are on sale for$10. SpinQuest.com. Buy American players for American players. SpinQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit SpinQuest.com for more details. You know, one thing I remember too is there's a point in time when G-Unit was really touring internationally. I think a lot of people in North America might not realize that there wasn't that many rappers or rap crews that were really international like that.
2:25because when i started working with kanye and we were going international a lot and i was already doing those overseas circuits as a dj and then i was working with yay and we were you know going to japan and and nigeria and anywhere everywhere we went g-unit had been it was is g-unit m &m akon there was a point in time where even hove hadn't started doing the international thing then he became international.
2:52Tony Yayo:I remember I was locked up, but Rihanna was overseas. Yes. That's when she just came out. She was opening for G-Unit. Yeah. I was keeping good. But yeah, I was, I remember that you guys really went and hit the whole world in a way that at that point in time, not that many artists had. He didn't get stabbed. Go ahead. Shut the f*** up. Okay. Bro, bro. Why do you get movies with? Oh, f***ing rebel. Yo, bro. All right.
3:28Tony Yayo:Yeah, this is Turbulence Tony. And this the boy Lil Jet Lenny. And welcome to the Real Report Show. Make some noise for DJ A-Track, man. You heard A-Track in the building. We got the legendary A-Track in the building. Thanks for coming by, man. Thanks for having me. Make sure y 'all like, share, and subscribe. We got one of the fastest growing shows on the volume. Rob Markman, You heard? We about to get that plaque. Rob Markman, Yeah, hopefully we get that plaque. 2 ,000 more subscribers. Rob Markman, Yeah, we about to get that plaque. We about to get a hundred thousand. Rob Markman, Yo, and you know what, 8-Track?
4:00Tony Yayo:We bring different things. Like on our show, we have like a mogul segment. Rob Markman, Okay. Rob Markman, When we talk to all kinds of moguls and stuff like that. You too, because you're a mogul. You're not only a DJ, but you have a record label. Not too many DJs have done it. Who? Khaled? Maybe Khaled. Who else? Whatever DJs had a record label. There's a few that had one. They had deals. It's a lot, but as far as the success that this guy right here might have had, maybe not like that. Definitely it's on another level, but what I'm saying to you guys is a lot of DJs had albums like Clue, Flex.
4:38Well, you know what it is? And we can get into that too, but I've bounced around different pockets of the DJ world. you know what I mean? And like mixtape DJs is one thing, but I mean, I even bounced around between hip hop and electronic music. On the electronic side, it's more common for DJs to have labels. Yeah. I mean, DJing just becomes so broad, you know what I mean? That like there's certain DJs that do the compilation album type of thing, like, like Clue, like you said. Right. But you know,
5:05Tony Yayo:I know what you're talking about, the electronic music, because when we overseas and you know, that's so big. That music is the biggest thing. Hold on. Hold on. Yeah, right. We're dancing the music that we would never dance to ever in our life. Music that only got no words sometimes. Yeah. So I feel vibing. But the thing about that is because it has no words, you could bring together like the whole planet. Like, and people from every country will get down. You know what I mean? Look at that. So how was it? Because I know touring for us, we love like going to Europe, UK, everywhere. Hey, yo, even before, I just want to say thanks for having me here.
5:38The both of you guys. I was a big fan of both of you. Thank you for coming here, my baby. My pleasure, my pleasure. Same to you. Both of you. Definitely, man. Appreciate that.
5:47Tony Yayo:Now, when you talk about electronic music, how was it working with a big guy like Duck Sauce? I know he produced for Barbra Streisand, is he? All right. So Duck Sauce is kind of a group name for myself and a guy by the name of Armand Van Helden, who's a legendary house music DJ. He also came up in New York. so like in the mid to late 90s all the way to 2000s Armand Van Helden is one of the most famous house music DJs and but he's kind of like me in the sense that he he's he grew up a hip-hop kid and then got into house music just from being in clubs and stuff but we kind of speak the same language like when we met we clicked we're like 11 12 years apart he's older than me but we kind of clicked because we both grew up in hip-hop and then make house music so we got together and around 2009 we formed a kind of a duo that's another thing you see a lot in house music and edm is dj's you know the same weather like daft punk is a duo or like basement jacks the chemical brothers there's groups like there's you know yeah so we formed duck sauce and we make we made music like that um as a duo and um in 2010 we made a record the title of the song was barbara streisand and And that song went crazy.
7:04Oh Lord, some people were thinking you worked with Barbra Streisand.
7:07Tony Yayo:No. I thought Barbra Streisand. No, it's okay. It's okay. The title of the song is Barbra Streisand. The title of the song was Barbra Streisand. And we didn't even think that much of it. But that was good promotion, naming the song that. That was a good idea. That was a good idea. Eventually it got to her. Look at that. Okay, look at that. I'm told. But really it was just one of those like, you know when you make a record and and you don't even think that's going to be the one. You think it might be a B-side. It's just something that you make casually, like just for fun. It was one of those, but it had like a contagious sort of catchiness to it.
7:44It ended up being a record that sharted, and it was like number one in 12 countries or something crazy. I'm going to say,
7:49Tony Yayo:I'm still going to say, fuck Eddie with these cue cards. Why you always do that to the cue cards? He's the one that says he worked with Boba Streisand. That's good. How'd you look at it? You should have looked. I would have looked it up. Got my man, yeah, looking crazy. I would have looked it up and said, the song is called Barbra Strat. It's all good. You know what I mean? I don't know too much about the electronic music, just give me the right information. Well, on the hip hop side, I do know you had Kid Cudi, a lot of people might not know from Kid Cudi's record, Day and Night, was on - Was on Fool's Gold on my label.
8:16Yeah, on your label. Yes, that came out. So how that whole process? All right, so I founded this label Fool's Gold with a couple friends around 2007. And I had just moved to New York. I grew up in Montreal, Canada.
8:30Tony Yayo:Work? For real? Canada? Yeah. You know, I was supposed to be from Montreal. My family first came from Haiti. My moms came to Montreal. There's a lot of Haitians there. I know. I was going to talk to you about that. I can find the best. Listen, you could go. I've been on tour all over Canada. I've been to Sassatune. I've been to Montreal, Toronto. I'm sure you've been to Vancouver, Toronto. Shout out to my man, Peter Jackson. I went on a whole tour. Peter Jackson. That's my man. And Montreal has the best Haitian food ever. That's for sure. Yes. because Montreal shout out to I know you know about the Haitian food yeah I yeah I grew up with Haitians in Montreal for sure yeah yeah back to the kid cutting how that hope okay so so I moved to New York um I had already established myself as a DJ I I got known as a battle DJ when I was younger but um I moved to New York in 2006 I started this label called Fool's Gold and that was a point in time where like the the scene around the DJs was was changing and DJs were starting to play a lot of different music and it was djs were starting to branch off and do their own thing you know the same way that now you might hear about like a diplo or a skrillex or you know calvin harris they do their own thing that was the point in time where where where where one djs were really coming into their own as as djs but two also the music that we were all playing was changing it was like the genres were coming down it became very eclectic and and we were all just like i say weeks i was connecting with a lot of djs at that point in time we were all experimenting and there was even like this sort of like like fun club music was coming back you know how sometimes club music will be kind of cheesy and not that exciting and then there's other time periods where club music is fun we started fool's gold as djs it's a label run by djs for we speak to djs first if other people get down that's cool but we like our audience is is the djs around the world and real quickly we found a lot of new music that was just different exciting it was just you know you probably remember if you think of 2006 2007 2008 like everything was changing it was kind of a changing of the guards so so mind you we were just an independent label you know we didn't have like a big machine but we had a lot of people's attention because people knew that we were tapped in so like the next thing right we we were down with um it's a group called the cool kids that are still down with fool's gold from chicago they were doing some new stuff a couple artists like flostradamus kid sister just it was just everything was different and new so meanwhile at that point in time i was djing for kanye so okay yeah i toured with so yeah i toured with with kanye from 2004 how you ain't know this stuff man i mean i didn't I didn't know.
11:14Tony Yayo:Let me talk. Go ahead, man. Go ahead. So that's good. We're going to get through all of it, right? Yeah, it is. So I was touring with Ye and basically from right after Call Us Dropout, I was involved with Late Registration. I did scratches on Gold Digger. I was involved with those Common albums. What? Oh, shit. Common's record Go, Common's record Shy City. I scratched on that. and then when Ye worked on Graduation I helped out with some of that stuff the Daft Punk sample and you know Stronger, that record and so there's this guy Plain Pat he was Kanye's A &R and Plain Pat pretty much discovered Kit Katia or he was definitely the first person that helped connect some dots shout out to
12:07Dot the Genius also who you know really was probably the first person that that you know gave cutty time and day and gave him some beats but between that the genius and plain pat cutty was unknown he was just working at the babe store in new york right and um plain pat who i knew from my work with kanye because he was kanye's anr he knew that i had this new label that was that had the ear of people that understood new stuff. So Cuddy was starting to make music and it sounded like nothing else. It was just different. So Pat sent me these two records, maybe a third one. I'm not sure. It was a while ago.
12:46But he definitely sent me Day and Night and That Nunu. And pretty much right away, I was like, I want to, you know, let's do a single on Fool's Gold. So we put out Day and Night and we just built it, even though we didn't have this big machine. No, no. Dot the Genius produced Day and Night. Oh, Dot the Genius. Shout out to Dot the Genius. And shout out to Cuddy himself.
13:05Tony Yayo:When did that record have to go diamond, right? Man. It had to go Motown. There's a point when Cuddy signed his album deal, he signed to Motown Universal a couple months after that. And then they ended up buying that master. And whatever the plaque, I don't, you know, we don't have the plaque ourselves, but we got it off the ground for sure. Yeah, got you. Got you. That was like day and night. It was huge. And the thing that was really special with day and night is there was a remix, because we were talking about that EDM thing just a minute ago, right? There was a remix by these Italian guys, the Crookers.
13:39They were also on some different shit. Yeah, I was playing overseas crazy. Exactly.
13:43Tony Yayo:Exactly. So that was one of those, that was a rare record. Exactly. There was a rare record where the original version was popping off and making its way in North America especially. And then the Crookers remix was blowing up, especially overseas. So you had two versions that were blowing up at the same time. Right. But that was on Fool's Gold. I remember because we was going overseas at that time. It was everywhere. You hear it every club. But it was organic. That's the thing that's special. We didn't have and we didn't have a Fool's Gold was like five people. We didn't have like an overseas department or whatever.
14:18But we just we just had people's ear.
14:20Tony Yayo:That's what this is how I feel because you see murder. This thing with DJs like him, DJ Snake. Yeah, that's my homie. Dead Mouse. You know what I'm saying? Remember when we went to Snake and he was DJing? You seen the crowd and he'll have millions of dollars of pyro and fire and drones. It's a show. They do put on the show. Another big DJ we met is Lada Rumpa. Rumpa, right? That's what I'm saying? Rumpa? Yeah, Rumpa. I told him Murda, he had his big chains on. This guy had the littlest chain on in the world. Y 'all guys get millions of shows, no jewelry. I'm like, this guy is crazy. But back to the - He mad because he had a little chain on.
14:59I had the big chains on. Yeah, I'm talking. Yeah, I'm talking. You see how you. You know what I'm talking about? I'm talking.
15:03Tony Yayo:No, that's my point. But it's levels with the DJs. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. And the question I wanted to ask you is like, how do you feel, like, being here versus being overseas? Because my experience is like, I remember that song, World Hold On. Yeah. Bob Sinclair. Yeah, that's my homie too. Yo, listen, when that used to come on, like, we was overseas, and like, the vodka's flowing, like I really felt free overseas people are still dancing while it feels like in the US it's more yo bottles well it's more to it than that and by the way Bob Sinclair who made that record World Hold On we look at it kind of from the outside from a North American perspective and we just think oh yeah he makes house music, dance music it might seem like we're all from different worlds but I've I've become good friends with Bob Sinclair.
16:00And this guy, all he wants to talk to you about is like DJ Premier Records from the 90s. He just wants to talk about Gangstar.
16:06Tony Yayo:But look, but Tony Arrow's in the truck. Well, hold down. And Bob Sinclair wants to be like, yo, but Jeru's album, Jeru the Damage's first album? Or is this guy with these harmonies be having you rolling? No, I'm just saying, the world, the world. He's hitting the notes. He's hitting the notes. He had to get the notes. You gotta understand, music, this is what people understand. Music brings back what? Memories. Yes. Of course. Wow, and that year when that dropped, we was in the club, like overseas. Overseas partying, number one, you feel free overseas because it's less pistols. So you're feeling like, all right, let's just go and be a fistfight.
16:38Tony Yayo:Somebody might pull a knife or a razor on me. Might be a fair fight. So to your question, what I would say is the same way, even though hip hop traveled the world and now house music traveled the world and everything's everywhere now, for a long period of time the way that hip-hop was youth youth music in north america you know in the 90s and 2000s most if you find a teenager somewhere they're probably listening to depending what period of time either 50 or or whatever it might be or fab or lil wayne or you know i mean wu-tang wu-tang right any of that that 14 year old in spain or in italy they were listening to house music or techno or trance or whatever like that's that was always the youth music or not i was always but for a long period of time that was the music of the youth especially in europe and um and even other places too but so that's why it's so big when you go to europe is like that's just what they grew up with that's why i always like who kid because who kid was like always prepared for when we went overseas yeah he would know which records like yeah big overseas records yeah like Like for instance, Afrobeats, we was in London one time.
17:52Tony Yayo:There's this one song that came on, I forgot how it goes. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying when you hear the song, you was in London. It was an Afrobeats. It's like the club shut down when that came on. So when you go overseas and you hear different music, it makes you open to the world. So for me, I had better times overseas than in the US. For me. You know what I mean? There definitely was a point in time where clubs in the U.S. became more about the bottle service and the sections and all that. And that's not fun. I mean, there's money that comes in that way. But for me as a DJ, I don't really like playing a club that has a bottle section.
18:35I want people to be on the dance floor. Got you. Right? And for you, you might be looking at it in a different way, but I'm sure it's less fun too. But overseas, it stayed a little bit more about the music. and that festival culture is really from Europe too. Now you find it in North America too. And now, even since the pandemic, but really like gradually in the last 15 years or so, there's a lot of clubs that opened up in North America that are back to being about the music. So it's less separated, but yeah, for a long time, man, I started going to Europe. My career started when I was a teenager.
19:10In 97, basically, I started traveling to DJ. I was 15. The way that my career started, I won the DMC World Championships. Scratching and all that. You won DMC? No, DMC, it's the most known DJ battle, right? You said this is out in Canada? No, it's, I mean, the eliminations, like the first round that I did was in Canada, but that took me to Italy. It took me to France. It took me to the UK. But yeah, at the age of 15, I mean, I came up idolizing DJs like Rock Raider, rest in peace you know you guys probably remember the x-men executioners um and a bunch of other djs like that obviously jazzy jeff people like that you know so i got on winning this big dj battle and from that point on i started traveling so already when i was 15 16 i was going overseas to play i was going to korea i was going to the uk and even though at that point in time in the beginning of my career i was just a hip-hop kid like i mentioned like you said i was traveling the world and I was observing like oh in Asia they're into this kind of music okay in Europe they like this and really Europe's not just one thing in the UK they might like this but then in France and it's you know and I was kind of picking up on that so many years later when I started expanding the styles of music that I play and I started getting into the house music thing and everything else I was already like absorbing that information for a while and and um but I the fact that I started my career so young it kind of put me in a position where there's not that many people that can that know the roots of DJing the roots of hip hop and like where like I could talk to Grandmaster Flash you know what I mean you could talk to me yeah but on some DJs my best friend was a DJ
20:57Tony Yayo:right so I could tell you like like the first house song that was playing like back then in the clubs was yeah so I didn't even know what house music was because I was just hip hop yeah when i came on so okay but i'll give you i'll give you an example so my because my big thing over the years has been to try to like connect the dots between these different branches because really all house and techno and you know edm and all of that and hip-hop it's all branches that come from the same tree it all comes from planet rock it all comes from africa bambada and all of that right so the you know we we remember like the the sugar hill and planet rock kind of stuff sugar hill again that was disco and at one point hip-hop slowed down and got to the run dmc thing and everything and it became the hip-hop that we know shout out to queens queens baby right but but number one group in the world run dmc there you go get that right paved the way right jam master j rest in peace but that master j rest in peace right but but um it's it's a family tree so if you if you start with planet rock and you start with with the sugar hill and that kind of stuff hip-hop went to one branch and house and all that stuff went to another branch but that song that you were just singing hot music by an artist called soho but he's also known as also known as pal joey just to give you an example of my but my thing about how hip-hop and house music are cousins that dude that made that record he was making beats for uh for caris one and and And BDT also.
22:30For real? So it's always - That's crazy. You know your shit. So it's always - Pal Joey. Pal Joey. Pal Joey. Yeah, there's KRS One Records where he shouts him out when he made the beat. Oh, look at that. So -
22:41Tony Yayo:Don't tell me he made Step Into The World. No, he didn't make Step Into The World. I think KRS's brother made that beat. KRS got a brother? Yeah, yeah. Gotta get KRS on the show. Real hip hop. Yeah. That's what I love about music and DJing. Because I remember going to parties with my man Rough Hands. My best friend was a DJ. So we used to go to Jamaica Avenue, Hot Wax. And that was, you know, there was no CDJs. There was nothing. So, you know, we used to do these whole parties. All of them got shot up. But you know what? My man got 10 crates. I gotta help him. Someone's gotta help him. Yeah, right.
23:12Tony Yayo:So he ducking after the shootout. Yo, I need my crates. Nobody's leaving their crates. And he got everything in there. So that kind of made me musically inclined to like listening to all kind of music. Did you see that vinyl to soul? like i think like they said a billion yeah i saw i just saw that today i was surprised when i saw yeah yeah man it's out there buying vinyl they buying them records i said they are yeah it's it's a bit of a different thing where like people buy it almost like a collectible object actually why are they buying it to like just to hold it yeah djs is not using right not as barely right everything's digital whether it's whether it's on the laptop with serato or whether it's on cdj Rob Markman, DJ's got it easy now.
23:55Tony Yayo:Back in the days, listen, back in the days, 1200s, Gemini mixer, party get shot up, you got 12 crates we gotta carry. Nigga got a computer like this now. Rob Markman, So now you say that the party get set up, all they gotta do is grab their ass. Rob Markman, Grab the flash drive, grab the flash drive and go. Rob Markman, Get the fuck outta here. I done been in the clubs with the best DJs in Jamaica Queens, Grandmaster Vick, DJ Rough Hands, Goldfingers, the Rockaway Twins, DJ Dogtime. Like come on bro, we talking DJ. J.D.L. and Rello from Merrick. This is when people was doing blends. This is before DJ Clue.
24:34Tony Yayo:DJ Khaled 1, you know, you got your 1200s and they got the needles and all that. My best friend was a DJ. DJ Khaled 1, we go to my man's house, rest in peace right now. He got about a hundred crates. DJ Khaled 1, if you go through his shit, classics. Yeah And he was doing this at 15 Yeah I never even knew that about you Yeah Do you think social media Helped the game for the DJs Or hurt it a little bit What you think about it Both Both I think You know now there's There's a newer generation of DJs That are able to get known Off of social media And I love seeing There's DJs There's young DJs that are Honestly they're like 8, 9, 10 years old Maybe their parents are They're hunting them out.
25:16They're learning how to scratch and they're posting their videos on TikTok and on Reels. You know, that's a new way to get known. And there's a lot of information that gets shared. But at the same time, that thing with the phone and everybody trying to create these viral moments, it's to a point where that's a little bit artificial. You know, people are sort of forgetting just the feel of being at a party and just dancing to the music and not worrying about, oh, is someone going to see me on such and such a story tomorrow? Should I film this? Asking for requests, all that stuff. It's a little bit like, yo, you got to put the phone down.
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25:53Just enjoy yourself. So it helps in terms of exposure, but it hurts in the way that it just feels artificial. The feeling's not quite the same. Yeah.
26:07Tony Yayo:What are some of the biggest festivals you did? Because I know you've been too big-ass festivals. Yeah, man. I mean, I played the first Coachella ever. I played Coachella a bunch of times. Seriously? Coachella? Yeah, I played it a bunch of times. What year was that, first Coachella? 99, I believe. 99. Yeah, I was like 17. It was a rave, really. It was just a party in the desert. And then they built it into this thing. And then I've got to play it many times since, whether it be solo, 8-track set, or Duck Sauce, or collaborative stuff. But yeah, that one I played a bunch of times. and Lollapalooza I played a bunch of times and yeah but overseas I was like god yeah I mean but he's 17 years old that's that's what I'm saying what gives you the drive and the smarts to to win your first big battle contest worldwide at 15 years old what motivated you man like yeah it was like a worldwide tournament yeah yeah yeah that's crazy I was yeah I was going up against you know, DJs that were France, UK, Japan, whatever.
27:10So, like I mentioned, I grew up in Montreal. I got an older brother, we're super tight. We still make music together. My brother Dave, anybody that knows my stuff. You know? He's also in a band called Chromio. They're well known for their music too. But if you - In Canada? No, they live in New York too. Oh, okay, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When we were growing up, we were just fans of hip hop, fans of the music. We would go to the record store, buy the vinyl, study the liner notes, see who produced what. Oh, you know, who's Havoc's engineer or who makes that Pete Rock thing or that, like just trying, you know what I mean?
27:46Oh, what's this feature? Who's Big Noid? Like just looking stuff up, you know? And so we're just students of the game, grew up in Montreal, idolizing this music. My brother wrote graffiti too. He would come down in New York and get into that. Actually, we had family in Queens, so he would stay in Queens. And, you know. I'm from Brooklyn. Hey, I live in Brooklyn now. Every time you say Queens, you see this guy doing it. You get to say it. Look ahead. Seriously, look ahead. Look ahead. So, but basically, we both fell in love with hip hop to the point where, like, if you think about 90s hip hop too, like, it's more than music.
28:22It gave you, like, a code of how to live your life. Facts. Right? You know what I mean? Facts. You ain't lying. And as a kid that was from the outside of it, from Montreal, all, I feel like we both paid like extra attention to it. We would buy the magazines, whether it's the source or XXL, even before that ego trip on the go, rap pages, all of that and absorb all that information. And we were just passionate. And my brother was making beats and I was scratching and DJing. And he was kind of like my coach because he's a couple of years older. So I'd be practicing every day, coming home from school and learning my scratches and learning these routines.
28:58And And at that point in time, especially if you were into scratching and whatnot, there was these videotapes of the DMC battle, like I mentioned. There's a couple other ones, but that was the main ones. You go to the record store, buy these VHS tapes and just watch those DJ routines, watch Rock Raider and DJ Noise and Qbert and all these incredible DJs and study them. And there was a point in time where I felt like I was ready to enter a battle myself because it's, you know, that was what I watched was battles. So once I got and I got good pretty fast after two years, I was like, all right, I'm ready.
29:36And I won a world championship. My name is Tuba Nguyen and enrolling at Rasmussen University was essentially a handshake to a lifeline, a career, stability and a future for myself. I found it important to be able to speak with instructors and staff outside of office hours and to have that support system was essential because they believed in me. Rasmussen University. Are you ready to rewrite your story online and on campus? Learn more at rasmussen.edu. Hey, everybody. Lady Luck here, and we're celebrating America's 250th birthday. Now, all summer long, I'm going to be celebrating by playing on SpinQuest.com, which is an American-owned social casino.
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31:36That's Sourcebooks.com.
32:06Tony Yayo:All right, no order. All right. DJ Craze, he won like all the craziest battles. Around the same, we were in a crew together. So we were kind of like, all right, we're both killing shit. We're not going to go against each other and we're going to. For sure. So shout out my man Craze. Yeah, he beat me once, but it's all right. I'm going to say Jazzy Jeff, he's big bro for life. He laid down the blueprint. He even laid down the blueprint of how to go from battles to having a career as a solo DJ to producing to everything. Do you feel like he slept on a little bit? I mean, those who know, know, but I think nowadays, I want to make sure people know that Jazzy Jeff is the king.
32:45Are you talking about Jazzy Jeff, Will Smith? Yeah, yeah, definitely. For people that don't know. Right, they might know him from, or even just being the character on The Fresh Prince. Don't not the house. Don't not the house. That's why they don't even know how Don't. You might not know he's the illest DJ. All right, so we got Craze, we got Jazzy Jeff. I'm going to say my man J-Rock from the Beat Junkies I don't know if you know the Beat Junkies in LA yeah come on bro right okay was that the right melody man? I'm not sure but it's cool alright I'll copy okay you know the Beat Junkies you can look it up you know after we alright cool okay so J-Rock alright I'm going to say Premiere even though he's a little more known for his production but Premiere's scratches will always be the funkiest scratches on any record everybody always wanted to have the DJ Premier Scratch on their record.
33:34And that's Big Bro too. So shout out to him. And then the fifth name that I'll say if I'm still thinking within hip-hop, I'm going to say Rock Raider, rest in peace. And he was a mentor to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My five? Yeah, okay, go ahead. My five now? Yeah, go ahead.
33:51Tony Yayo:All right, first I got to go with Jam Master J. Yes. And I'm going to tell you why. I'm going to tell you, I felt like Jazzy Jeff is slept on because will smith was more of a commercial right i say that's more of like a hardcore rapper yeah so for me i'm gonna go with queens i'm gonna go with jam master j because he set trends yeah leaders with no laces you know what i mean and he was he they just set trends run dmc oh for sure so next he made everyone want to be a next i'm gonna go terminator x well i gotta go with terminator x you never can forget Terminator X he had the big glasses fight the power that's what I'm telling you when the DJ was more in the 80s the DJ was they were up on stage with the rappers they were on the records Terminator X he was always quiet he never said shit he was like the scary motherfucking nigga in the back or something you know what I mean then I definitely gotta go thinking about I would say D-Nice oh hell yeah cause D-Nice was he was DJing for KRS-One yeah until he came out.
34:54Tony Yayo:What's my name? It's D-Nice. Yeah, he was rapping too. I like that record. Yeah, it's good. I just wasn't used to him being a rapper right there. And then, what do you think? Lost that number five because I gave him a four, right? I think yours was on for three, man. No, I gave him a four. You gave four? Yeah, I said, I said, What about DJ Scratch with EPMD? DJ Scratch, he's incredible. And he toured with Busta for a long time. Yeah. Because I want to put Scratch as like my honorable mention so you could just put him in your top line. Rob Markman, Yeah, cause I said Jam Master J, Terminator X, Eric B, D-Nice, and Scratch.
35:31Tony Yayo:Rob Markman, Yeah, I gotta give it to Scratch. Oh no, whoa. Rob Markman, I love Scratch, but I gotta give it to Cutmaster C, rest in peace Cutmaster C. Big Daddy Kane back in the days. Rob Markman, There you go. Rob Markman, Come on nigga. Yeah, the flat top chain and all that. Rob Markman, Okay. Rob Markman, Cause you gotta think for me, the DJs was as fly as the rappers at that point. Rob Markman, You said Cutmaster C or Mr. C, you mean? I mean, Mr. C. Mr. C, yeah, that's right. Mr. C. Rest in peace, Mr. C. Thank you, I was bugging him. We lost too many legends. Mr. C, Brooklyn on that. But Mr.
36:02Tony Yayo:C, when he was doing Hot 97 at that point, he was killing radio that back in the day she was playing and all that. But I remember him being with Big Daddy came back in the day. That's a fact. And how the DJ kind of looked like the drug dealer too. Like Eric B, come on. That nigga had as much jewelry as fucking Rock him. Right. and mr c just rep so hard for brooklyn he did he got mentioned mr c used to go so hard yeah i mean i mean he dj for big daddy king and he found biggie yeah and you know what rest in peace to clark kent yeah oh that's my opinion that's why we gotta have a top ten yeah okay
36:41the sneaker attic yeah definitely man definitely that's why we get djs like you on here so we talk
36:47Tony Yayo:about these classic moments because it's like yo the djs meant so much back then of course
37:06Tony Yayo:you got your different genres of djs that are all historic you know what i'm saying yeah but like when you hear A-Track and like Loud Mouse and DJ Snake and I'm always thinking overseas even Who Kid like Who Kid loves it overseas I love the US too ain't nothing like doing the grimy of course I just got back from I got back from ain't no place like home I got back from Europe on Monday I was there for 10 days doing a little tour where you went? I went to Poland I went to to Paris and then I went in the south of France to like in the Alps close to Geneva and then I had something in Stockholm too So I did those.
37:43Tony Yayo:Stockholm, Germany. Yeah. Sweden. Now tell them how them trips. You love it though. Yeah, man. How you like the food? I love the food. I love the food. I don't understand why people say they don't like the food. It feels like it's more, I don't know. It's more, I feel like it's more healthy. Yeah. Yeah. You, for sure. The ingredients are more fresh. What's our spot in Australia we love? We addicted to? Nando's. Nando's is good. They got that in the UK. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Nando's, Nando's. Shout to like the barbell or not. Nando's, Nando's. barbecue peri sauce the peri peri sauce yeah the peri peri sauce that's right with the garlic bread but I feel like you you're like you're so like the ultimate hype man like your energy and what you bring to the live show as you know with that voice that you have it's not that it's not very different from a DJ yeah you know what I mean you're kind of you're almost like a DJ like we're probably like this guy be taking over parties DJ that's what I used to I used to he be taking over parties I used to do that with my man Rough Hands.
38:42Tony Yayo:So like I said, I come from a real hip hop background. You know what I'm saying? Like I could tell you 50s first freestyle of my man Rough Hands. Bigger. Like we used to be down there, mixed records, new Wu-Tang instrumentals. Used to come out. I wasn't the best DJ. I was just, just playing around. Yeah. I could put a blend together. Yeah. But my man Rough Hands, Goldfingers, they was, you know, they was the nice ones. Superfly, they all, like they all could kill a club. You know what I mean? Of course. And back then it was a little more special because. Goldfinger is incredible. I'm gonna give you a perfect example.
39:13Tony Yayo:Rest in peace, Mr. C, not Cutmaster C. Cutmaster C's still alive. He's still alive. Shout out to him too. He's still alive. Even though 50 shakes through with a knife one day. We're talking about this woman. Allegedly. Cutmaster C. So with that, look, so with that being said, Mr. C, he didn't even know, and rest in peace, I called him, we were talking on the phone, and he didn't know about the Gap Band. Okay. We had a share of troubles. That's like the Southside anthem. Many more than others. Like every time Grandmaster Vic used to come on, like the Southside. Yeah. That was like Grandmaster Vic came.
39:50Tony Yayo:Yeah. You hear that? It's like, oh, my God. Okay. People start paying homage. Grandmaster Vic. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, even Ron G. Ron G, of course. I don't know murder. Know about Ron G. Of course, man. The mixtapes and all that. Ron G. Ron G. No, I know you know, but I don't know if you know about that. Rob Markman 1 ,010, though, was a classic. Rob Markman 1 ,010, that was the one. Rob Markman 1 ,010, to me, if you ever go back and you could, Ron G had plenty of dope tapes, but Ron G, number 10 was like a drug dealer's anthem. Rob Markman 1 ,010, people on the block, all the drug dealers. Ron G, number 10, that's what was playing.
40:23Tony Yayo:Rob Markman 1 ,010, that was a blend era before DJ Clue came. Shout out to Clue, too. Rob Markman 1 ,010, because he's one of them dudes. He changed the game. They went from mixtapes, because I'm still listening to Dirty Harry and all them dudes. Rob Markman 1 ,010, I'm still listening to it. yeah serious and then when i go overseas it's a whole nother element yeah of music of course of course but that yeah ron g changed the game with those blends he influenced the the production so i feel like him and then kid capri with the blends too and the next thing you got i didn't have it on the list you got it yeah we got to talk about what are the artists are you watching right now that you think people sleep with the cool kids for sure like i mentioned them earlier they're from chicago and they just starting in the blog era like even a little before that like from like 2006 or so up until now they just they set trends all the time and um from the beats the rhymes to to style they changed they changed the way a whole generation dressed them shout out to chris crack he's he's on my label fool's gold yeah there's a whole bunch for sure um but i think what's cool about hip-hop now is like it's so broad that it's probably like 10 12 different lanes of types of rappers you know i mean like i think we could you we could sit here and reminisce about how how great the 90s was and at the end of the day that's that that's the era that shaped me but i love the fact that now you can have so many different types of rappers that coexist and and they find their fan base just directly online you think it's too many rappers now yes I just think there's too much music that comes out.
42:01Tony Yayo:Rob Markman - It's too much music. Because it's so easy because of social media now. You know, it's too much music, but what I love about the music now is it's so much lanes. Like one day I might want to do Old School. Rob Markman - Yeah. Rob Markman - Roberta Flack, Mita Simone, fucking, I don't know, anybody. Rob Markman - Yeah. Shade. Rob Markman - And then one day I might want to do, you know, the ratchet shit, fucking Pooh Shiesty, because I'm listening to that all. Rob Markman - Hell yeah. I'm not, I'm Key Glock and Sexy Red. She wanna fuck with that beat. Tay Key, for real. No matter, that's what Sexy Red is just ratchet, it's good music.
42:36Tony Yayo:You know what I'm saying? Like, Tay Key on the beat, it's always the beat for me. So when I hear Tay Key on the beat, and then she got Key Glock on there. So to me, Key Glock is still up there with Dolph. He's like holding his own. So I might wanna listen to some YN shit. And then I might go to all the dead rappers. Pop Smoke, Nipsey. of course 2 pop biggie my mind just be all over yeah now so i like the fact that at the same at the in the same slice of time you could have like all this all the stuff that alchemist is producing right and the earl shout out to out he's him the other day he's yeah he's a legend and and and you know it's amazing that he's kind of at the biggest point of his career now because we all remember the stuff he was doing 25 years ago.
43:24Tony Yayo:Yeah, he's doing a record, an album with Erykah Badu, right? Right. I'll make sure y 'all check that out. But the stuff that he's doing with Earl or like Surf Gang, Mike, artists like that, you got that pocket, you got like V's and like I Swear Vezo and the Detroit guys. You got Kodak doing his own thing. You got, you know, all the LA stuff that's been popping. You know, I like all the artists that Kendrick put on that last album, like Az Chayik and people like that. Right? that album was crazy. But so, so, you know, all those different pockets and then the ratchet stuff too, like you said, and, and, and the Memphis shit and all of that, like that can all coexist.
44:02There was a period of time where I think everybody was trying to work with the same producer and everybody was trying to make the same kind of record. But now everybody can do their own individual thing. And, and that's dope. But the flip side of that is as a DJ, I'll tell you, there's less records that bring everyone together. It's way harder to find, you know what I mean? Like the way, like put it true, like I think some of these artists, and I'm not saying the ones I just named, but some of the current rap artists, because they can just go straight to their audience and their niche, they're a little bit less three-dimensional.
44:39Because when you think about the way that in the height of you guys and stuff and the height of G-Unit, but also like a Nas record would be lyrical for the heads, but it would be in the clubs too. The girls liked it. The guys liked it. You know, the beat heads liked it. It was for everyone. Whereas now, lyrical is one thing. The club is one thing. The girls is one thing, right? You know what I mean? Yeah, I see. But who's making... Nobody's trying to put it all together. Right. Because in a sense, like, Kanye at his height, Wayne at his height, because that's even after you guys' era, in a sense, they were still making records that ticked many of those boxes.
45:22It's a little bit harder to find those records now that for me as a DJ, where at any record I know, I'd be like, yo, this is the record of the year. Like, this is the, like, what's the biggie hypnotize of last year or this year? It's harder to find those. You know what I mean?
45:37Tony Yayo:Yeah, it's hard. I have been with Rasmussen University since 2013, all virtual, all of my professors throughout the entire journey have been nothing but supportive and making me reach my dreams. Rasmussen professors, they want to see you grow so that you can be what you went to school to be. I'm so thankful for Rasmussen University for being able to make it so easy and seamless. Rasmussen University. Find your seat and start now at rasmussen.edu. Hanging out at the pool is great. Relaxing and playing Vegas-style games on my phone at the same time. Drink in one hand and a blackjack in the other.
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47:00Start today at AppleVacations.com or contact your trusted travel advisor. Apple Vacations, where your story starts. You're building your career, your routine, your future. But this summer, that's for you. This season, escape into stories that feel like golden hour, rooftop drinks, and the kind of love that sneaks up on you when you least suspect it. Sourcebooks' Summer of Romance brings together the rom-coms everyone's talking about. From Laugh Out Loud favorites by Lucy Score and Megan Quinn, to binge-worthy reads you'll want to finish in one sitting. Find your next summer read at Sourcebooks.com.
47:37That's Sourcebooks.com. Yeah. I mean, there's a point in time where I started messing around with house music.
47:44Tony Yayo:I think production is different, Eva. Remember Dimes FX when that beat? Of course, yeah. I think it's the artist though. You wanna flex. I think it's the artist. I think the artist are putting in. I think it's the production. I think it's like you said, they catering to, all right, they know I got this audience right here. They already fucking with me, they rocking me. I'm cool with that. I don't need to try to entertain nobody else. That's what I see right there. You know why I say it's the production? Because back in the 90s, 80s, in early 2000s. It'd be a beat like, you hear a beat like, Method Man, what was that?
48:20How High, Bring the Pain. Yeah, I came to Bring the Pain.
48:25Tony Yayo:One person will have that beat. Yeah, of course. You know what Biggie, who shot you? It was like one person, you'll never hear a beat like that again. Right. You know what I mean? It's different. Like when I say Daz Effect. I get what you say a little bit, because the beats nowadays do, they do a lot of beats do sound familiar. there's just too much of everything there's incredible producers now there's producers that are doing some shit shout out to great john and the beat by the way great john there you go i'm just saying epmd you guys i know what you mean when certain things came on it was just like yeah right yeah look every every generation has their classics and people that are just going to the club now they're 20 years old they'll they'll hear a record it might be Osama-san or someone like that.
49:12And they'll hear that record and be like, yo, that's my shit. Or obviously Cardi and Uzi are super important to the last 5, 10 years. So if a Cardi record comes out, people will be like, yo, they'll react the same way as maybe you reacted to You Got the Chill. The Biggie and the Jay-Z's and the Nas. So the same way we felt about back then is how these young people feel about right now. But a lot of music
49:35Tony Yayo:is microwave music. That's to us though. Rob Markman, Because I'm realizing now, that's to us because you know what? Rob Markman, No. Rob Markman, You remember the older generation used to hate on - Rob Markman, Right. They would be like, what's this hip hop? Rob Markman, Oh, what they talking about? Rob Markman, This ain't real hip hop. They talking about streets. This ain't real hip hop because they got away from the hippity-dippity-dop. Rob Markman, Right. Rob Markman, And they was a little mad at that time. Rob Markman, Right. Rob Markman, They wasn't respecting the street music. Rob Markman, Of course.
49:57Tony Yayo:Rob Markman, All I'm saying is this, as a DJ, right? Rob Markman, Yeah. Rob Markman, We're not just talking about hip hop. When we go to Queens clubs, you could play hip hop music like when we was going to the hole in the wall shit. But it was a time where, nigga, you better have that Jamaican ready. You better have this ready. Like that, that, sorry, boom, boom. It's all that you can say. Boom, boom, boom. That was every block party. And baby, you know me. We knew that record could play somewhere overseas and still knock. Yeah. Am I wrong or right? The difference is too much. You had to have your shit back in time just now.
50:39Tony Yayo:But you still, as a DJ, you know you still have to have your shit together. Yep. Yep. You got to be able to show up at that party. You might think it's going to be one style and you show up. And like you said, they might want reggae. They might want old school. They might want some regional shit. As we, like, us DJs, we need to be able to, like, get there and flip the formula. Shout out to DJ Robbie Robb. Not to disrespect him, but we went overseas. You sound like you about to disrespect him. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. You sound like you about to disrespect him. Nah, but he thought he was going to go overseas and do all that American shit?
51:15Tony Yayo:Right. That shit was out the window. Them all of us were playing a different shit. Yeah. Afro beats. You know what I'm saying? Okay. He plays different shit. When you go other places and he learned this lesson, he's like, I ain't gonna fry. I say, yo, when you come over here for your first time coming overseas, you can't just think the American records are gonna rock for you. I done seen that. Who Kid, I always give it to Who Kid, because Who Kid will have the world, hold on. And I'm like, how he know? Rob Markman 1-0 We can see that's one of his joints. That's his joint. Rob Markman 1-0 That's his joint right there.
51:46Rob Markman 1-0 That's what I'm saying.
51:49Tony Yayo:For a DJ, you got to be prepared because what's the worst feeling? Throw a record on and people are like, nobody moving. You want that shit. You know, one thing I remember too is there's a point in time when G-Unit was really touring internationally. I think a lot of people in North America might not realize that there wasn't that many rappers or rap crews that were really international like that. because when i started working with kanye and we were going international a lot and i was already doing those overseas circuits as a dj and then i was working with yay and we were you know going to japan and and nigeria and anywhere everywhere we went g-unit had been it was is g-unit m &m akon there was a point in time where even hove hadn't started doing the international thing then he became international but i was locked up but rihanna was overseas yes when she just came out she was yes yeah yeah but yeah i was i remember that you guys really went and hit the whole world in a way that at that point in time not not that many artists my story is crazy with 50 because i remember opening up for cash money rough riders to him okay that's when we got how to ride like little way little wayne was he was young he was on stage i'm like rich already these was had all of the props flying up on the stage a million girls fire i'm like oh shout out manny fresh that's my man man whole cash money yeah come on you gonna pass that or what what's next for a track yeah what do you say what's next for a question I got, what's next for Atre?
53:41So I got a couple of different projects. That's one thing with DJs too, is we collaborate a lot. Okay. Right. So I mentioned my brother, me and him have a project we're doing together called the Brothers Maklovich. That's our last name, Maklovich. So Brothers Maklovich, we're dropping a couple of songs with that. And we do, we go on the road. We do some gigs like that. I'm working on a new EP myself, but I'm always doing remixes and collaborations with other DJs. And I'm working on a new kind of concept, like a new live thing that I'm going to bring out on the road probably in a year or so. But I'm really just always churning out.
54:19The way that now a lot of the music industry is kind of coming around to doing singles and EPs rather than just albums. Us, the DJs, we've been doing that for years. DJs is all singles and EPs. So I'm just churning out a bunch of music, keeping Fools Gold going. I got another...
54:36Tony Yayo:Fools Gold record! There you go. you got to say fool's gold all right um and i got another label called a track and friends that's again that's singles right because fool's gold is more projects a track and friends is house music singles we do parties that are that are branded as a track and friends so even just this weekend i got a track and friends event in la week after that i got one in in miami i'm gonna do one in London this summer. So just building that and just keeping it going.
55:09Tony Yayo:All night. That's all people want to do is dance. I love EDM. We know you made a bunch of money with this shit, right? Do you still love it? Do you still love it? Yes. Yes, of course. It was never for the money. And there's a ton of stuff I could have done for money that I passed on if it didn't feel authentic to me. I'm still like I got into it because I was telling you like as a young you know 13 14 year old in Canada falling in love with the music and trying to understand listening to records by the Beastie Boys and Farsight and De La Soul Tribe Called Quest what are these samples how did they make this beat that passion that's still why I do it and then there's a point in time where I went from being the student to also being in a position where I could put other people on.
55:55So that's even the Kit Kati thing that we talked about. Danny Brown, who you got to talk about. Shout out to Danny Brown.
56:02Tony Yayo:I found Danny Brown, one of the nicest rappers. Yo, you were early on Danny Brown. I was early on Danny Brown. Danny Brown got bars and he's one of them, he's a machine. He'll sit in front of the computer. Used to be in my house. He won't even leave the studio. He'll record himself. He'll record 10, 12 records. You know, he record himself. He will report to any kind of beat. You give him the sound of like a water dripping from a faucet. He'll find a way to flow around that. Yeah. I can tell you one thing. Kid Cudi wasn't playing when Jim Jones said he had something to do with that record. Motherfucker, that's my record.
56:32Right.
56:33Tony Yayo:He got gangsta. Yeah, yeah. Hold on a second. I like Kid Cudi though. You know, like 50s Barber, cut him a couple of times. What you was about to say about that? I'm about to go on tour with Cudi. Oh, I'm sure you're still cool with Kid Cudi. Hell yeah, yeah. That's my bro. That's my bro. Come on, you know he could tour forever, he got hit records, but day and night, that had to go diamond. He's got probably a dozen classics. So in May, I'm going on a tour with Kit Cuddy and MIA and Big Boy from OutKast. So we'll be, name a city, we'll be there. So that too. That's dope. Yeah. Cause you gotta remember day and night, I remember like being overseas, that had to be played every club at least 10 times a night yeah and in every type of club I'm always a fan of records that are just like that stand out that don't sound like anything else like there's there's hits and classics that sound like their era that sound like other stuff that comes out but the the ones that really really survive the decades are the ones that sound like nothing else you know I'm always just I'm always looking for stuff that's kind of left the center, a little weird, a little, you know, stuff that doesn't really fit in the box.
57:49Because I know that that has the potential to reach even more people, you know. But I feel like even just like both of you as artists have always been clever and like figuring out ways to stand out because you, the way that you would always do the wrap up records for every year. Like I feel like that's like, that's almost like a thought that a DJ would have. Like, what what could I do that's different that can get noticed? Get the same thing, get the same thing, get the same kind of every year, have people talking and things like that. Yeah. What year did you start, what was the first one? I think I started in 2014.
58:24Okay. Yeah, 2014. Yeah, that's something a DJ would do. The same way a DJ would think of a blend, you were like, all right, what can I do that's not gonna be like everybody else's record? And it's gonna keep it going. Shout out to Mad Skills, cause I know he gonna put my shot. That's the homie, that's my best.
58:43He just won a Grammy He just won a Grammy or something like that Yeah for like a spoken word album Because he made a different type of album It's poetry and it talks about It's some real like
58:54Tony Yayo:Fuck murder with the rap up I want to grab you and a Grammy
59:00Shout out to my God Mad Skills He even acknowledged That he recognized that The rap up is murder and Murley kind of took that in. Both of you guys did it. Both of y 'all did it. I don't know why you're doing it, man. It's enough room for everybody.
59:15Tony Yayo:I didn't know he won a Grammy, so he's - Yeah, nah, shout out to Mad Skills, man. Last month. How do you feel about the technology? Like how I said the crates? Yeah, that's different, man. Let me give you a scenario. Yeah. You got your computer, fucking, you're DJing, somebody spilled some shit on it. It's fried. What the fuck you do next? You gotta be ready. You gotta have like the flash drive in your pocket, something. Shit? Yeah. I mostly play off the flash drives now. It's even more portable. I show up with my headphones, plug my shit in, let's go. So you think that's like the equipment is better now?
59:48Tony Yayo:Like the mixes and you know how they got like the echo chambers in there? Yeah, for sure. You can do more with the equipment now. You could do more effects and loops. And I'm a DJ that does tricks. Like I told you guys, I started with scratching and, you know, DJ battles. So all the new equipment that has all that technology, it just gives me ideas. So I'll be like, oh, shit, I'm going to have a loop on this one. And I'm going to have this other thing underneath and then the drum beat. And I'll just come up with crazy tricks with all the gear that I get. But I do think that when it was just two turntables and a mixer and no effects and just vinyl and the 10 crates that you talked about, you had to get creative.
1:00:34and you had to everything that you were doing was really you it was just from your hands to to the to the vinyl and to those faders and and there's no no way to to cheat it there's no way to
1:00:47Tony Yayo:what was your mix at 15 a Gemini Gemini yep you know come on bro when it come to artists when it come to artists like as far as you looking for to sign yeah what you look for well it's kind of like the thing I was saying where like it needs to stand out you know maybe there's other you know because at Fool's Gold I wear many hats like you know but I'll be the A &R the same way that I'll organize the events the same way whatever else so if I'm putting my A &R hat on there's probably other A &Rs out there that are better at finding the quick hit better at finding the thing that will hit the charts now but I just try to find stuff that that stands out because I think that stands the test of time more and there'll be stuff that I'm excited about where I'll think about the different pockets of DJs that I could try and reach with those records.
1:01:39So the standing out thing is important. I mean, there's so many artists that I've been involved with that are just, they're characters, you know? They got that extra little thing to them.
1:01:50Tony Yayo:And the standing out keeps you touring. That too. Because you're touring now. Kikuddy's touring. He's still going to make millions of dollars. You can go make millions of dollars. Look at Danny. He's on the road. Yeah, for sure. Look at Danny Brown. He's still touring. That's like when we go overseas and we run into J-Rooter Damager. or Boyz II Men or KRS-One. We ran into Blase Blase. That's dope. That's dope. Yeah, we just ran into Blase Blase. The East is in the house. You in the East is in the house? Oh my God. East, New, Gow. That's my neighborhood. East, New, Gow. That's why we bring DJs with you.
1:02:22Tony Yayo:Like I looked at you as just EDM DJ. I didn't know you was like - Yeah. Into hip hop like - Yeah, hip hop, hip hop. Cause I looked at him with Fools Go record. Yeah. You know what I mean? to him like on the EDM side because you know he's like there with Diplo and Grumpa you know so so when he tells me these hip-hop stories and how he was cutting shit out I'm like man I gotta yo gotta go around with me. Rob Markman, So he looked up there like you worked with Kanye and he's like what what's going on? No not even the Kanye to me. But even before yeah we can sit here and just To win a DJ tournament at 15 worldwide you got to be doing shit by your head.
1:02:57Tony Yayo:You don't know. I was in the parties. I told you my best friend was a DJ. So I had this, I know how it is when you bought, you go to your store in Montreal and you know something, Wu-Tang is about to come out. Like I remember when they came out with a double album back then. Then there was an instrumental album too. Remember when that came out? Come on, when Cuban Lynx came out, nothing sounded like that. You ain't lying, Raekwon had to smoke with that. You ain't lying. Come on. Nothing sounded like that. Independent versus label. What you think about that? I mean, I have an independent label.
1:03:35I'm very pro-independent. If there's an artist that's making records that are just made for radio, that need to hit those international departments, the majors can still do that like no one else. But everything else, I think at this point, it's independent. because especially now, you know what I was going to say, the other thing I was going to add to when you ask what I look for with the artists that I might want to sign, I think now it's also important to have artists that are clever with their own marketing and that know how to go and find an audience. You know, it's for better, for worse, it's not just about the music anymore.
1:04:19You got to tap into social media. You got to have a following. And I'm not saying I'm looking for someone that knows how to do a TikTok dance, but it might be, they might not even look at it as marketing, but sometimes you hear someone's name, you see the way that they look, the way they dress, the way they get their friend to do their artwork and everything just, it just stands out even visually. Even seeing how consistent they are with doing something. Yeah, that too. They're not jumping on every trend every six months. It's just, you know what I mean? Like that consistency is important too.
1:04:49So what we're saying just now about the independent thing, you know every project now should be marketed in its own way there's no longer just one way to do things and i think a lot of the majors stayed in that sort of cookie cutter thing where they just those departments are doing the they're trying to fit you in the same old same mold as an artist they put out the previous quarter but the indies they'll they'll custom tailor and and they'll go straight to their audience and sell them the vinyl and do the, and take, take the email addresses from the tour presale and use that for the marketing on the album rollout.
1:05:28And it's just more, it's, it's more involved in, in more custom tailored.
1:05:34Tony Yayo:Do you feel like, like artists now that like, like a talent creator, you'll never be on the radio and be a young boy. You'll never hear on the radio. Danny Brown, you'll never be here on the radio, but these guys are touring. Yes. Making money. It's totally different right now. yeah sorry yeah it is different and I think that that is where the culture is now is like sure if a record gets on the radio it'll hit another another plateau in numbers but there's a lot of artists that are on the radio that can't really sell out the garden right you're just selling out the garden or maybe they can only do New York and LA or maybe their hometown but you know you put them in in Madison, Wisconsin and it's not moving like that.
1:06:17But the artists that have their audience and maybe the YouTube shit is popping or whatever it is, but they're going straight to their audience. They're reaching people everywhere and they can go overseas too. And yeah, I think in the end, I'm more a fan of that approach. Because the other thing that, just to sort of connect the dots, is like when I came on the scene, even when I was just doing hip hop, Like 97 is when I won that big DJ battle. 97 was also, we mentioned Lord Seer, rest in peace, because I went on the Stretch and Bobbito radio show that year too. Like shout out to Stretch and Bob.
1:06:5797 was a period of time where in hip hop, there was a revival of that indie thing. Rockus Records and groups like Company Flow and Dilated Peoples and Nonfiction and all of that. You know, it was, there was indie labels, stone's throw that's still a big label now and they got known they got even more known when they put out the mad lib stuff and mad villain with mf doom and all that like that sort of alternative independent side of hip-hop that's that's what i was into when i came on the scene and that's what like just going to fat beats and looking at all the records on the wall and being like yo i want to do this right like that taught me a certain ethos of you know if you and your friends are doing some cool you and your friends got they are making music and it's and it's different right you could just put the out yourself right and and i learned that by going to fat beats and by listening to stretch and bob and by listening to these independent artists that were just doing some different shit and and and and they knew how to get to their audience already then you know that's
1:08:09Tony Yayo:i mean you was 50 i never knew you was 15. yeah i'm i'm 43 now so it's been a minute that's crazy yeah 15 years old yeah that's crazy that's dope man that's super dope yeah appreciate it you have to stand on the crates to dj man i had i had to say yo because if you what type of Rob Markman, I don't know what shit is you asking my man, but I'm only playing. Rob Markman, I'm going to go this way and look, go with it. Cronchdale, Circle One, Bow Wow DJ, DJ Juss, he was like seven, eight years old. Rob Markman, On place? Rob Markman, Yeah, like 10, probably. So depending on how tall you was and - Rob Markman, I looked 11 when I was - Rob Markman, That's what I'm saying.
1:08:51Tony Yayo:So the set, you know back then you had the core fit and everything stacked up and shit. Yeah. All right, so did you have to stand on the craze? Sometimes. See, all right. He's right. And if you go to YouTube and you look up 1997 8-track DMC, you'll see the video of me winning this battle, and I look like a child. Don't worry. Eddie's going to edit that right. He's going to put it in. He fucked up earlier with that clickbait shit. Yeah, it's all good. It's cool. What are you, man? Yo, that's where it all started for me. And yeah, I used to have to travel. I would go to some of my gigs and the bouncer wouldn't let me in and I was the DJ.
1:09:30That's crazy. You know what I mean? I'd be like, I'm DJing and they'd be like, I'm not letting you in. You're a kid.
1:09:35Tony Yayo:15 years old. I'm not on my watch. You're still drinking milk, man. And then they would have to send out the promoter and the bouncer would get into an argument. The bouncer would be like, yo, if the cops come in and they see him, that's on me. Da-da-da. A lot of gigs when I was first starting out, they would just have me wait like in the manager's office, like the club manager's office. Wait for it to be time for my set. They're like, all right, come up. Do my little thing. All right, come back. That's crazy. But I was just so passionate. That's, you know. Yeah, it could have been a crowd when he was 15.
1:10:06Yeah. He's doing festivals. That's when you know you super dope, though. That's when you know you dope, man. That's fire.
1:10:11Tony Yayo:It's a real DJ right here. You know, I thought it was just, you know, the EDM shit. And of course, Fools Goals Records, we know you for that. That's a legendary label. But I didn't know you, you know, the DJ battles back at 15 years old learn something new every day definitely man that's what's up but that that's again us it's also that thing about being students of the game about just wanting to understand how these records were made and where the samples were from and knowing about your freestyles and your freestyles and the mixtapes man when you guys came out with that run of mixtapes no one was touching that you know and and you know you could people could look at it now as marketing or this or that but like it was it was just like the best like those like 50 cent is the future and and and and come on man that was better than the albums that were coming out that's what i'm saying like nostalgic nostalgic moments like i said was going to jamaica avenue yeah you're going to the boot every mixtape.
1:11:13Tony Yayo:The Rootlegger, yeah. And then, like I said, my best friend was a DJ, he'll go to Hot Wax, what record is there, what instrumentals is there. Because you remember you had your A-side, B-side, instrumental albums. All of that. You know, so that was dope, because people wanted the instrumentals too. Yeah. And it was like, you know, now you get everything on your phone, it's not a special no more. You had to get on the dollar van. Yeah. Know what I'm saying? You had to choose, no, really, also. Traveling to get those instrumentals. And you had to choose which records you were buying that week because no one had enough money to buy everything that came out.
1:11:47So maybe you might just have enough money in your pocket to buy three 12 inches. And you're like, all right, am I getting this Pete Rock and CL Smooth and this, you know, Tribe and this Farside thing? But damn, this Raekwon thing is kind of different and cool. Or damn, Methaman, Redman, How High. Damn, and that one's got an acapella. If I buy that, I can use the acapella to do a blend. So you're just sitting there, you're like, I got enough money for three records. Which ones?
1:12:12Tony Yayo:Ruffin ain't sold drugs, we selling drugs. Okay, see, I didn't do that. I didn't do that. It wasn't like Juice. Remember Juice was still in the records? My man had that crack money. We, yo, give me every John's bass. Give me an instrumental album. Maybe I should have done. Nah, you made the right choice. Nah, you made the right choice. I'm fucking with you, man. But we happy to have you here. Thank you. Appreciate it, man. Appreciate it, man. I learned a lot of shit about the culture. I learned a lot of shit about DJing. I learned a lot. Shout out to Fool's Gold's record. You want to shout anything out?
1:12:42Yeah, you said it. What you got coming? What I got coming, the tour with Kit Ketty. Shout out to Kit Ketty. All these releases on Fool's Gold and 8-Track and Friends, Brothers Maklovich. We're going to do more Duck Sauce soon. In the meantime, my joints. Definitely, man.
1:12:59Tony Yayo:8-Track in the building. Shout out to 8-Track Fool Gold records. You know what it is. We doing it big. If we don't do everything what everybody else do, make sure you like, share, subscribe. You know the vibes, man. Yeah! Out!
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From the publisher
This week on The Real Report, Tony Yayo and Uncle Murda sit down with legendary DJ, producer, and Fool’s Gold founder A-Trak for a deep conversation on DJ culture, hip-hop history, and the records that changed the game. A-Trak breaks down launching Fool’s Gold, helping introduce Kid Cudi’s “Day ‘N’ Nite,” touring with Kanye West, forming Duck Sauce, winning world DJ battles as a teenager, playing the first Coachella, and why G-Unit’s global reach was different. The episode also dives into classic DJs, crate-digging, overseas club culture, independent artists, technology changing DJing, and what still keeps A-Trak passionate about music.
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