Integrity or Eat? What is the Choice?
By judge | October 1, 2008
With recent downfalls in the stock market and realizing that we may all experience personal recessions, I’ve found a common thread that runs from Wall Street to Bankhead. Whether you name is Greenspan or G-Code you will have to make a daily decision… Do I keep my Integrity or do I do what I need to Eat?
Let me expand on how these times make us all ask some of the same questions. Let’s say you are the owner of a multi-million dollar corporation. You may be faced with the choice of “Integrity” - standing by your promise to your customers and employees to supply them with quality products and jobs, or to choose “Eat” - put cheaper parts in your product, fire a few employees and keep the company operating at a profit. I’ve personally experienced that scenario recently, but how about this one.
As a DJ, I used to spend hours on end practicing the skills of a master DJ, (sound like some Ninja ‘ish right?) studying the craft of song selection, blending, mixing, scratching, and sound quality. After years of being appreciated for making quality mix tapes/CDs, I developed a level of “Integrity” that said as a respected professional, this is the level of quality that I will provide to my fans. Of recent years, the consumer has come to accept play-list made compilations as Mix CDs. They were told by bootleggers that “this list of new songs is called a mix CD” and as new consumers began buying this product they too were taught that a “mix CD” is simply a compilation of songs, hence the dEath of the “Mix”. Now back to the “Integrity vs. Eat” Recently over a two day period a few DJs got together to move some Mix CDs. On day one, two of the DJs, myself included, did well moving traditional Mix CDs. We had 1-3 volumes each of our latest work. On the second day another DJ (with the new definition of Mix CD) pulls out 10-15 compilations and damn near shuts down the sales of the “mixed” mix CDs. Now as tempting as it may be, I’m not mad at the ‘New Era’ DJ. However, I am mad at the decision that has been placed in front of me. “Integrity or Eat?” I missed out on some serious gas money by choosing to take the time to be crEative, provide a better product, and uphold my Integrity. I could easily crank up my iTunes and knock out a CD every hour, and Eat well, but that would shame my Integrity. So once again, “Integrity or Eat”?
Just for the record, I’m choosing to hunger for a little longer, for it will take much more than a recession to steal my Integrity.
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Why the Emergency?
By judge | October 1, 2008
We’ve all experienced it. Time is running out before an event begins, something is missing, something is out of place, something isn’t going right, and someone isn’t here yet. The person “in charge” begins to throw blame rampantly at any and everyone that was supposed to provide something for the event. Emergency ensues. Sound familiar? A while back I heard someone say “Don’t let your lack of planning become my emergency” and every since, that phrase comes to mind when I see these kinds of emergencies. I recently saw a conference promoter blame the hotel, their staff, and even traffic on why their event had no sign of existence at the time posted on the flyers and commercials. They were literally sweating, running around at the last minute and apologizing to everyone that was arriving to an empty room. Oh yeah, speaking of “Room”, I suppose it was the hotel’s fault that the room I was promised wasn’t available too, huh? No, turns out that the hotel had not been properly compensated for the ball rooms and the guest rooms, and the hotel was only “trippin” because they had taken care of their business not to make a move until paid. Lack of Planning=Emergency!
As a DJ I can’t leave out the numerous times I’ve been DJing for a showcase and an artist shows up with an entourage of 10, but no one managed to bring the show CD! Last week, someone was performing at a major Atlanta venue and handed me a data CD, full of folders and not one mp3 that would pull up in Serato. Here I am on stage, under bright lights, in front of an audience, and the artist is yelling over the mic (from off stage mind you)… “come on DJ…let’s get it together!” Damn, their lack of planning became an emergency and on top of that tried to throw me under the bus! Instead of totally calling them out, I remained professional and said “sorry man, your CD has no usable music on it, don’t blame the DJ you should have planned better” Now that was something I had rather not said to the audience, but yelling back to the other side of the stage would have made me look as unprofessional as they, and I don’t do that. Eventually, someone brought me a full-length, non-show CD, and I announced that I felt sorry for them so I’m gonna bring them back up for their chance to perform. Keeping it professional paid off, because later they thanked me for my patience and for giving them another chance. (Word to the wise performer… every DJ isn’t going to give you that break and your emergency could become the end of your career.) Lack of Planning=Emergency=Career End!
So for anyone planning an event or performance, know that readers of this article or those who are familiar with the phrase “Don’t let your lack of planning become my emergency” are not going to accept excuses and will not have sympathy for you when you are sweating. Handle your business, be professional, be prepared, and if a glitch does happen, we know you’ll take care of it because you planned a backup plan. Remember the catch phrase “Never let’em see you sweat”? Well… no emergency, no sweat!
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Coming Out of the Closet
By judge | June 16, 2008
Dj Judge Mental is proudly coming out of the closet. Hell naw, I’m not talking about my sexuality, Judge Loves the Ladies ONLY! I’m talking about how its time for me to let it be known and to celebrate in the fact that I’m not just a successful DJ, I’m a well educated young man, that cares for his fellow colleagues. Now I’m not saying this to exalt myself. I’m saying it because I’ve realized that a lot of people in our industry often dumb themselves down in order to increase their level of cool. Some of us don’t want to mention that we had or have a profession or education outside the industry. More than once I’ve had new artists or DJs in the industry come up to me after I spoke on a panel and say, “man you spoke so well, I really appreciate the knowledge you dropped.” Those comments make me realize that I could have dumbed down to my audience to preserve today’s standard of “Cool”, but by speaking as intelligently as I know how, I’ll be appreciated by those who are there to truly learn. Wow, you mean its ok to be smart in this industry? You mean I can enunciate my words and even use words like “enunciate“? We live in an era when your favorite MC may loose his career if the general public found out that he had several college degrees. Don’t laugh, it has happened before to a chart topping, grammy award winning rapper. (I’ll let you do the research). I’ve just become comfortable with admitting that I’ve been in the industry for 20 years and that part of that was during my college education. What I once considered a statement that made me sound old or square, I realized now that being able to do what I love and to learn, learn, learn in this industry makes me one of great experience. A while back someone asked me how did I become a Consultant. My answer was, “when people respect your experience enough to pay for your advice… you are a consultant”. Another eye opening experience was when a music industry aurthor and panel moderator Jawar said to me, “You are the only DJ I know of that gave a PowerPoint presentation at a Radio Music Conference!” Yeah, I felt square for a moment, but then I felt proud of myself and decided at that moment I was “coming out of the closet” (that’s a catchy phrase, but hard to type for those who don’t read this whole blog!)
Recently in my travels around my country and others I’ve been moved to ask DJs and Musicians, “what did you do before you rapped/DJ’d” or “what else do yo do”. Many where hesitant to answer or ‘come out of the closet’, but I’ve found so many multi-talented and educated people amongst our industry I was really surprised. I’ll admit it, I’ve preJudged some of my own colleagues by thinking that they chose their profession as the only thing they did in their lives or that they lacked other skill or education. Mainly being because so many of us are afraid to admit it. I’ve found everything from school teachers, to lawyers, to electricians, to web designers, business owners, and even computer experts that happen to be some of your favorite DJs or entertainers. Wow! Ask a DJ how he met another DJ, he might hesitate to say “I met him in college”. Why? Why? Why? What kind of example does that set for a kid wanting to Rap or DJ. I bet he would see things differently if you let him know that you’ve got a back up plan! I once had to assure my Mom about my love and dedication to the music industry. I told her “I will always be an artist, but I promise you I will never be a “Starving Artist” I stayed in school, worked day jobs that I didn’t like, and still keep a backup job today, but I have always been an Artist, a DJ.
So all in all, if not for you, for the younger people who want to be like you, come out of the closet if you are hiding behind your “Cool”. Hmmm, that reminds me of an email that I get from my colleague Kim Ellis about a program called “It’s Cool To Be Smart“ Yeah, it is cool to be smart. Each of us has a talent or education of some sort outside of the music industry (You don’t think 50 Cent became Forbes 2nd Richest Hip-Hop entrepreneur because he could rap well or get shot 9 times the best do you?) Rapping damn sure didn’t make Diddy or Russel Simmons rich! Yeah they’re cool, but just as sure as I’m reading Russell’s book, there is a lot of smarts going on their too!
To all of you Entreprenuers and Educated Entertainers out there, I challenge you to share your knowledge and experience with others. You’ll still be cool, I promise. If you’re really cool, tell me about yourself and I’ll include you in the next newsletter so that you’ll be “Out of the Closet” too!
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