An Interview With: DJ Deadeye

 

 
 

Lawrence, Massachusetts DJ and producer ‘DJ Deadeye’ recently released their brand new album Intervention. What started off as an EP years back since blossomed into a strong sophomore album, showcasing some of the underground’s current finest.

 

I sat down recently and chopped it up with Deadeye regarding the new project, his family at ST da Squad, overseas tour memories, the Massachusetts scene, personal growth, and much more! Peep the full discussion below.

 
 

I like to start every interview off with this question. What is your first memory of hip hop?

“I know the first thing that I remember that I really loved was, when I was five or six, I had come across a compilation tape. I think it was my cousin’s and they left it around, it was this tape called Power Rap. It was from ‘86, but I discovered it in ‘87 when I was six years old. And it had ‘La Di Da Di’ on it by Slick Rick.”

 

Doug E. Fresh!

“That was like the first stuff I was checkin’ for, obviously Run-DMC was the biggest shit in the world at the time. LL Cool J and stuff like that. So those guys were on MTV a little bit. But that compilation was what kinda got my ear to the street.”

 

You’ve been living in Massachusetts almost your whole life, right?

“I moved to Mass. when I was four.”

 

Where you from originally?

“I was born in Puerto Rico and then I lived in Dominican Republic for about three years. Then we moved from DR to Lawrence. We’ve been here since like ‘84.”

 

When did the idea of becoming a DJ begin?

“Probably like my junior year of high school. Junior, senior year. I had not made a couple basketball teams on the high school squad and shit, cause I didn’t play organized ball I just played street ball. They were kinda just taking the kids that played boys club and stuff like that. So I missed a couple teams and was like: ‘You know what, this ain’t for me. Lemme just figure out what I wanna do and then just go gung-ho at it.’

The natural progression was to music, and you know, my journey started. I started making tapes, just to kinda get my feet wet, and to get people to even know I was interested in doing something like that. And then, my junior year, I bought some turntables off a friend of mine. Basically just stock, starter stuff. Upgraded the mixer to something where I could sample and loop beats. Then my graduating year, I got some shitty ass job for like two months just to get the money to buy turntables. After that it was on.”

 

Were there any inspirations at this time? Maybe like Jam Master Jay or Grandmaster Flash?

“Oh definitely dude, both of those guys were super duper inspirational when I was younger. I remember seeing Grandmaster Flash in Wild Style and thinking: ‘What is this?’ And also Tony Touch, Funk Flex. A bunch of the 90s mixtape DJs. Kid Capri – a bunch of those dudes. Super duper influential. I just took what I could from them, and they inspired me to try to do this. And then in the 90s, the mixtapes was what gotchu through. That would be one of the only ways for you to know what was poppin’ in the street.”

 

I wanna now bridge the gap between you getting your start as a DJ, and then you linking with ST da Squad and Termanology. What came first, did you meet Term first or did you link with the squad as a whole at first?

“I was in the clubs at first, getting my feet wet and doing half hour sets here and there. Probably between ‘98 and 2000. Then, in like ‘01 or ‘02, I started doing mixtapes just to kinda do something different from just DJing live. In prob ‘02 I was doing this mixtape and Ea$y Money came through and he did a freestyle for me. The next year Ea$y told Term about me, and then Term came over to my crib and we recorded two freestyles. Those two freestyles ended up on Hood Politics.

 

From there it was just a mutual respect and we both felt each other’s drive. It was very similar. I was DJing for older acts, and I wanted to find somebody who was more my age group and who had the same type of ambition as me. We were from the same area and had aspirations to be at a different level from what we were. From there we just started doing more mixtapes, more freestyles, more recordings. Then we started doing shows, and from there it was a natural progression.”

 

The rest is history. Ea$y and Term were in a duo called ‘S.T.R.E.E.T.S’ way back then too, right?

“Yeah, they dropped a single back in ‘02. Then, after that they opened it up to become ‘ST da Squad’ and started adding members from there. So probably like ‘03 or ‘04 is when they started adding members. And by ‘05 I was already Squad, you know.”

 

Y’all just celebrated a 20th anniversary recently too I believe.

“Yeah, the S.T.R.E.E.T.S. single just turned 20 years old.”

 
 

 
 

Dope, I really appreciate the history lesson yo. I wanna now pivot and give you some flowers on the latest album Intervention. It’s filled with great guests…you have everyone from Lil Fame to Flee Lord to Vic Spencer on there. On top of an all-star lineup of Massachusetts greats. I mean, one of my favorite rappers in the game right now is Estee Nack, and he’s on the LP for instance.

“Shoutout Estee Nack that’s my guy right there. Super cool dude. Me and him linked on some street shit, on some Dominican shit. You know, we seen the drive within each other and the camaraderie was there right away. I hit him up to work, sent him a few beats, and he ended up choosing the one I had made so it was perfect. I wanted to do a song where I produced everything and he ended up choosing that beat and murdering it. Then at the end I had Vic Spencer rap it up with a bow with the hook, you know.”

 

That’s an elite combo on that track.

“Thank you man, that shit worked out great. SmooVth and Bub Rock, I had done a show with them in Manhattan at the Highline Ballroom. Probably like two or three years ago, shoutout my man Jazz.”

 

Jazz UN?

“Yeah, Jazz UN put the show together, it was kinda like a New York showcase. A lotta these guys were known, but weren’t what they are now. SmooVth, Bub Rock, Rome Streetz, Rigz was on the show – a bunch of them was on the show. From that show I ended up linking with them and after that we ended up getting that work done. But yeah man, Estee Nack definitely stood out on the joint for sure.”

 
 

 
 

Hell yeah. Did you have a concrete goal in mind when you were making Intervention?

“I knew I couldn’t do a record without tying it to the older one in a sense, I didn’t want it to be a letdown or different type of sound or any of that. I kinda wanted it to be in the same vein as the first record you know. After I had all of the music done, I had to tie it all together. That’s when I started tying in the skits, and the intro, and the interludes. Wanted to make it flow together you know, so that was really my driving force. Make this shit make sense, and make it tie into the brand.

 

And I wanted to celebrate being in this whole new headspace mentally. You know, no booze and thinking clearer. Being more articulate and more compassionate in my offerings.”

 

You mentioned that you wanted to connect the two projects, Substance Abuse and Intervention. In your own words however, how do these two projects differ?

“Well, Substance Abuse was my first and I wanted it to be a story almost. Every record had some sort of substance or theme tied to it almost. With Intervention, it was kinda like a brother to the first album, but a brother that is completely different. You know what I mean? They’re related, but one is more of a warning, and the other is more indulgence. Substance Abuse is more in-your-face, and then on Intervention, it’s more a celebration. And it gives you more of a warning of the pitfalls and perils of being out here as an incoherent human being just abusing shit all day and not really seeing the bigger picture.

 

Plus, I made Substance Abuse in my twenties and now I’m 40 putting this one out. A different mindset, different mentality. I’m tryna do the next one pretty fast, probably by summertime.”

 

Ooo, can I put that in the article?

“Yeah you can do that. Hopefully summertime, by late summer you know. The next record is way different than these first two. A bigger sound, just way bigger you now. I’m tryna elevate the sound.”

 

It’s all about leveling up and keepin’ it moving forward.

“Exactly. So that’s where we at witit.”

 

Hell yeah. Final question about the new album. Now that it’s finally out, how does it feel to look back at it as a whole? Does it feel good to have this one out there in the public?

“Yeah it feels great man. It really feels good. All the feedback has been fuckin’ amzing. I’m happy with the response, I wanted to do something for the spitters and for the underground cats. I wanted to do something where you could look at it as a whole and pick out what you like. Glad that a lot of the stuff I thought of correlated well to people, and it made sense to them.”

 
 

 
 

I got two more questions for ya, but before we wrap it up, I was wondering if you’d be down for some more rapid fire questions?

“I’m down, let’s do it.”

 

Favorite song on the album?

“Shittt, I got a few. Really like the ‘Lawless Jungle’ joint. It has to do with Lawrence and is a dope set-off record. Really like the ‘Gangster’ song, that’s one of my favorite joints. Had that beat since Substance Abuse. That came out beautifully.”

 

When I say the phrase ‘wild tour memory,’ what comes to mind?

“Oooof, there’s a ton man. I remember being in the Czech Republic, this probably 2009. We were at Hip Hop Kemp, we had like four days there. We’re performing one day, Reks is performing another day, and then it’s like another two days of being in that country. So the first day we watching Camp Lo, a bunch of dope artists, and then Method Man is headlining. We were already fam with Meth cause we toured with him back in ‘08. He comes out, just so happens that when he flew in his DJ got held up at the airport, and Meth had to go right to the show. They bring a dude in to DJ for him, and it looks like they had e-mailed him the setlist and all that. When the DJ went to burn it on CD, it’s like he burned it too fast, and sometimes that can make tracks skip. Every track had a skip in it. And there’s 20,000 people.”

 

And Meth is headlining!

“Meth is headlining. It’s about to go down. The DJ is up there and can’t figure out the sound or nothing, and Meth’s tour manager looks at me cause we had toured prior and he knows that I get busy. He called me over, I didn’t wanna step on dude’s toes, but I helped him plug in and hear the sound and everything. They go to rock and every song has a skip in it, right? Method Man is catching every skip! He’s jumping to whatever lyrics it is when the beat skips.”

 

Woahhhhh. You gotta be aware as hell to do that.

“Yeah, and it was all random. It’s a random skip, it’s literally happening in the song whenever it wants. And he’s catching every god damn skip bro! Without missing a beat, without sweating – the crowd had no fucking idea what was happening. They just knew he was killing shit. That was definitely one of the best things that I watched and witnessed personally.”

 

Incredible man.

“Next level shit. Great tour memories.”

 

What’s a goal you still have as an artist?

“I think I can still get bigger. Still make better stuff. I wanna work with some of the big, big dogs. I got a lot of shit to do. I wanna see different parts of the world I haven’t seen. I wanna go back to touching the people. I wanna do a lot more.”

 

Breakfast, lunch, or dinner?

“I’m probably a dinner guy, yo. There’s no rules to dinner ya know? Dinner for sure. You can add some dessert…”

 

…Oh yeah. Appetizer, entrée, then dessert…

“And the after-dinner blunt.”

 

Ohhh, the after dinner-blunt/joint is undefeated.

“Clutch bro. Super clutch.”

 

Man you gettin’ me hungry up in here.

“Word (laughs).”

 

What’s an album you’d bring to your grave?

“Probably Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…. Raekwon, featuring Ghostface. That’s just one of those albums where everything on it is perfect.”

 

Dream vacation spot?

“There’s a few places I wanna go to where I ain’t been. Hawaii, definitely wanna touch Africa, Australia. Shit like that ya know? Three on the bucket list fa sho.”

 

Current artist you still wanna collab with?

“Yo, I would love to work with people like Kendrick. I would love to work with Migos – shit like that. On some other shit. I like the Cordae kid, J. Cole – you know who’d I’d really like who’s hilarious? Is Blac Youngsta. Would definitely like to work with him. Cats who got their own style but are still fun ya know? Like Ludacris and 2 Chainz…”

 

…2 Chainz still rappin’ his ass off too.

“Rappin’ his ass off – and we still haven’t heard the whole album with Statik!”

 

I wanna hear that soooo bad.

“Shit’s so crack, I’ve probably heard six or so of the joints and they’re fucking crazy.”

 

I still play ‘Smoke Break.’ Still gets stuck in my head. One last rapid fire question. What’s some advice you’d give your younger self?

“Ummm shit, stop boozin (laughs)! I would definitely say slow down a little, and do as much networking as you possibly can. I had to learn that it doesn’t come fast.”

 

You survived the rapid fire! Moving on, in my mind the Massachusetts scene is in such a good place right now currently. As a veteran of this scene, what are your thoughts on it as a whole?

“I think it’s really dope man. There’s a lotta lanes for people. It’s very eclectic. Um, nobody is in each other’s way cause the way the Internet is. You’re not stepping on anyone’s toes by just being you. So I think it’s in a great spot. It’s all over the place, it’s love man. I’m very happy with the scene and how it’s going right now. I’m happy for everybody. As long as you representing the New England situation, I’m witit you know. I’m willing to help.”

 

Final question, where will DJ Deadeye be one year from now?

“One year from now? Hopefully another year of no drinking, another year of better decisions and more financial freedom, and I’ll have another record out. Shit’s gonna be moving crazy, big videos, big shit. That’s what’s in the plans for me musically. Just to do more big shit, and put out more dope shit. Trying to be a little more self-sufficient and give the people what they want. Just gotta put the blinders on and keep working.”

 

Love it yo. Thanks again for real!

“Thank you man, appreciate you.”

 

You already know, peace.

“Peace.”

 
 

Cop DJ Deadeye’s brand new album on Bandcamp today. Follow his IG and Twitter as well.

 

This article is dedicated to the life and legacy of Blacastan.

 
 
 
 

Images and content courtesy of Sinematic Studios, Clockwork Music, DJ Deadeye, ST da Squad, & Rightful artists

 
 
 
 
 
 

– Benny P