DJ
Whoo Kid, known for his G-unit mixtapes and wild interviews, has
adapted nicely to the changing tides of the hip-hop industry. Now the
weekly ‘Whoolywood Shuffle’ host on Shade 45 radio is expanding his
resume and tells VIBE what he’s been up to.-- Adelle Platon
You’re heavily involved with Radio Planet TV. How did you start the site?
Well I started a magazine years ago called Pow! (in 2006) and it had one issue. It was supposed to be me just interviewing Hollywood stars and getting their reaction to hip-hop so it would be like Robert DeNiro, you know everybody that you see on the big screen but their experiences and views on hip-hop.Then all the magazine experts out there like VIBE and all the other prints were telling me all the problems magazines were having so I deaded the magazine and just started a website called Radio Planet where I could mix my radio station with movie stars and music on Eminem’s channel Shade 45 called ‘Whoolywood Shuffle’ or if you miss it, you could watch the interview all week on the blog. So it’s just like watching a radio show during the week if you do miss my show on Saturdays.
Well I started a magazine years ago called Pow! (in 2006) and it had one issue. It was supposed to be me just interviewing Hollywood stars and getting their reaction to hip-hop so it would be like Robert DeNiro, you know everybody that you see on the big screen but their experiences and views on hip-hop.Then all the magazine experts out there like VIBE and all the other prints were telling me all the problems magazines were having so I deaded the magazine and just started a website called Radio Planet where I could mix my radio station with movie stars and music on Eminem’s channel Shade 45 called ‘Whoolywood Shuffle’ or if you miss it, you could watch the interview all week on the blog. So it’s just like watching a radio show during the week if you do miss my show on Saturdays.
How long have you been involved with ‘Whoolywood Shuffle’?
It’s seven years now, seven years strong. I interview almost 100 Hollywood stars a year. So it was kinda cool that I did all the hard work to get respect from their publicists ‘cause usually publicists would have 10 or 15 high-profile VIP movie stars under them. So they’ll send me their B-list movie stars and I’ll interview them for their first movie and then over the years those B-list guys become incredible major movie stars. I interviewed Rob Pattinson and nobody wanted to interview him then ‘Twilight’ came out and now he’s like my homeboy. So it’s the same story over and over. It was the ignorance of hip-hop years ago when it was in a box. Nobody understood how to interview them, how to integrate the interviews to make sense to listeners so they would just ignore every interview, not to mention it’s a very pop white world. You can’t see super hardcore hip-hop DJs interviewing Denise Richards but the only way is to just have it all make sense.
It’s seven years now, seven years strong. I interview almost 100 Hollywood stars a year. So it was kinda cool that I did all the hard work to get respect from their publicists ‘cause usually publicists would have 10 or 15 high-profile VIP movie stars under them. So they’ll send me their B-list movie stars and I’ll interview them for their first movie and then over the years those B-list guys become incredible major movie stars. I interviewed Rob Pattinson and nobody wanted to interview him then ‘Twilight’ came out and now he’s like my homeboy. So it’s the same story over and over. It was the ignorance of hip-hop years ago when it was in a box. Nobody understood how to interview them, how to integrate the interviews to make sense to listeners so they would just ignore every interview, not to mention it’s a very pop white world. You can’t see super hardcore hip-hop DJs interviewing Denise Richards but the only way is to just have it all make sense.
How did you know there was that void of hip-hop people not really wanting to mess with movie stars?
I DJ all their parties in L.A., overseas, Europe, China and usually that’s where you see movie stars are very relaxed ‘cause people don’t bother them in these foreign countries. You know, Samuel L. Jackson, we partied in Japan crazy, where they can’t really do that in New York but when you see them dancing to Jay-Z, 50 Cent, they just love the music on the side but it’s just like, that world is not in front to them, just that corporate, red-carpet bullshit. And then when they come on my show, they release it. It doesn’t have to be hip-hop, it’s all about the energy of something different. Usually a lot of people come on my show and they release their frustration of doing corny interviews over and over, basic “Where were you born?” interviews. My show is like a hang-out. When I interviewed Quincy Jones, first thing I asked him was, like I know about Michael Jackson but I wanna know what the f**k was he doing when he was young? You’ll never hear those stories from all these boring interviews. I always get the wild, crazy stories. Being in the industry for 20 years, I know a little bit more and especially the inside, personal stuff. There’s a difference when you know someone personally and they party with you, did an event with you, all of them got borders, they got to go through promotional maps, whether it’s a mixtape, radio show or whether they want me to shout ‘em out. A lot of it is really connected. You don’t really see that and that’s why I created my website ‘cause once they see it on camera, people are ready to believe that.
I DJ all their parties in L.A., overseas, Europe, China and usually that’s where you see movie stars are very relaxed ‘cause people don’t bother them in these foreign countries. You know, Samuel L. Jackson, we partied in Japan crazy, where they can’t really do that in New York but when you see them dancing to Jay-Z, 50 Cent, they just love the music on the side but it’s just like, that world is not in front to them, just that corporate, red-carpet bullshit. And then when they come on my show, they release it. It doesn’t have to be hip-hop, it’s all about the energy of something different. Usually a lot of people come on my show and they release their frustration of doing corny interviews over and over, basic “Where were you born?” interviews. My show is like a hang-out. When I interviewed Quincy Jones, first thing I asked him was, like I know about Michael Jackson but I wanna know what the f**k was he doing when he was young? You’ll never hear those stories from all these boring interviews. I always get the wild, crazy stories. Being in the industry for 20 years, I know a little bit more and especially the inside, personal stuff. There’s a difference when you know someone personally and they party with you, did an event with you, all of them got borders, they got to go through promotional maps, whether it’s a mixtape, radio show or whether they want me to shout ‘em out. A lot of it is really connected. You don’t really see that and that’s why I created my website ‘cause once they see it on camera, people are ready to believe that.
You
started out in this industry as a DJ doing beef mixtapes, which is
still much a part of hip-hop culture today. What are your thoughts on
the way rappers come at each other now like the whole Drake versus
Common and Diggy versus J.Cole scenarios? How has beefing sort of
evolved throughout the years you’ve been in the game?
I started in hip-hop when there was house and then when hip-hop came in, the rap battles were serious, it was crazier then. Thing is it was lyrical. Now it’s personal with the girlfriends and the mothers. Back then it was lyrics towards lyrics. Then Jay-z and Nas came in with the baby mama stuff. I was with Nas when he did “Ether then when we debuted it, it really started with personal, going in hard then of course, 50 Cent revolutionized it with videos and flying in the baby moms. Like who the hell does that? I’m afraid where words are gonna go to after this. I still believe Serena’s the reason why they’re (Drake and Common) beefing. The core thing of every beef is always a female. So unless we get rid of vagina, I don’t think the beef is ever gonna end. It’s escalated more to a personal thing. People always look at lyrics but lyrics got to have personal touches on it. Right now, the funniest shit I ever seen is J. Cole versus Diggy. I thought it was April Fool’s but like here we go again with the personal bullshit. Fact that there’s some so called rumor that J. Cole banged his sister and then came out five months later with a diss record, I don’t know what it’s coming to but we didn’t have Twitter, we didn’t have all this craziness back then. It wasn’t being utilized the way it was then like it is now. Now you got pictures, photos, people getting knocked out. You got web sites, World Star, there’s so much ways of degrading an artist and it’s almost kinda like scary. Even to this day, I’m more scared of getting robbed on camera then anything. I’d rather somebody rob me on the low or keep it on the hush. I don’t want no visuals.
I started in hip-hop when there was house and then when hip-hop came in, the rap battles were serious, it was crazier then. Thing is it was lyrical. Now it’s personal with the girlfriends and the mothers. Back then it was lyrics towards lyrics. Then Jay-z and Nas came in with the baby mama stuff. I was with Nas when he did “Ether then when we debuted it, it really started with personal, going in hard then of course, 50 Cent revolutionized it with videos and flying in the baby moms. Like who the hell does that? I’m afraid where words are gonna go to after this. I still believe Serena’s the reason why they’re (Drake and Common) beefing. The core thing of every beef is always a female. So unless we get rid of vagina, I don’t think the beef is ever gonna end. It’s escalated more to a personal thing. People always look at lyrics but lyrics got to have personal touches on it. Right now, the funniest shit I ever seen is J. Cole versus Diggy. I thought it was April Fool’s but like here we go again with the personal bullshit. Fact that there’s some so called rumor that J. Cole banged his sister and then came out five months later with a diss record, I don’t know what it’s coming to but we didn’t have Twitter, we didn’t have all this craziness back then. It wasn’t being utilized the way it was then like it is now. Now you got pictures, photos, people getting knocked out. You got web sites, World Star, there’s so much ways of degrading an artist and it’s almost kinda like scary. Even to this day, I’m more scared of getting robbed on camera then anything. I’d rather somebody rob me on the low or keep it on the hush. I don’t want no visuals.
It’s
crazy cause everyone now has a camera so they can put everything on the
Internet. Do you think that the web and social media hinders hip-hop in
any way or does it help it out?
The pros and cons are there. You could sell albums. You could not sell albums. You could get somebody killed or you can prove someone is better than, I mean we always need a competitive energy when it comes to hip-hop or else hip-hop becomes boring. They claim they’re the best, they claim they run this. Nobody has to claim, either take that or prove that to a formidable enemy, go against whoever the so-called guy is. T.I. is the self-proclaimed guy and he’s the King of the South in his circle but there are so many South rappers, he needs the element to keep that hip-hop thing going on. Hip-hop is transforming into so many things right now like house music, techno, overseas, I mean the people in Pluto are on hip-hop right now. It’s infiltrated movies, it’s infiltrated fashion. They should call it something else other than hip-hop.
The pros and cons are there. You could sell albums. You could not sell albums. You could get somebody killed or you can prove someone is better than, I mean we always need a competitive energy when it comes to hip-hop or else hip-hop becomes boring. They claim they’re the best, they claim they run this. Nobody has to claim, either take that or prove that to a formidable enemy, go against whoever the so-called guy is. T.I. is the self-proclaimed guy and he’s the King of the South in his circle but there are so many South rappers, he needs the element to keep that hip-hop thing going on. Hip-hop is transforming into so many things right now like house music, techno, overseas, I mean the people in Pluto are on hip-hop right now. It’s infiltrated movies, it’s infiltrated fashion. They should call it something else other than hip-hop.
It’s
definitely become this global genre. Now there are a lot of
up-and-coming rappers who have the Internet to thank for blowing up. Are
there any new cats you’re listening to right now that you’re excited
about or eventually want to work with?
A lot of the dudes that are blowing up, I already work with them or promoted them or indirectly promoted their music. A$AP Rocky, I’ve been playing his music for a good long time. B.o.B. years ago. He went pop but B.o.B. out here was hard. He spit real shit with high-paced music. Then you got Mac Miller who I never knew but always loved his style of music and now he gets like 40 million views. He’s dope. So I’m in the business of finding out who’s new. Almost everybody out there from Wiz Khalifa to all the people you see now. They went through my system of I already know who might be next with me doing those Freshmen mixtapes and things like that. That’s where they call me in to put all these guys together. Hip-hop is totally different right now. I couldn’t even be able to tell you what the hottest record out was last year.
A lot of the dudes that are blowing up, I already work with them or promoted them or indirectly promoted their music. A$AP Rocky, I’ve been playing his music for a good long time. B.o.B. years ago. He went pop but B.o.B. out here was hard. He spit real shit with high-paced music. Then you got Mac Miller who I never knew but always loved his style of music and now he gets like 40 million views. He’s dope. So I’m in the business of finding out who’s new. Almost everybody out there from Wiz Khalifa to all the people you see now. They went through my system of I already know who might be next with me doing those Freshmen mixtapes and things like that. That’s where they call me in to put all these guys together. Hip-hop is totally different right now. I couldn’t even be able to tell you what the hottest record out was last year.
Now there are other projects you got coming up?
Yeah I’m working with Snoop right now. I’m working with A$AP Rocky so we’re chopping it up. Me and David Banner is dropping a mixtape Sex, Drugs and Video Games going for sale for $1 on iTunes, which will be a donation to create Banner's new movie department to put out films. Paul Wall just hit me up yesterday too.
Yeah I’m working with Snoop right now. I’m working with A$AP Rocky so we’re chopping it up. Me and David Banner is dropping a mixtape Sex, Drugs and Video Games going for sale for $1 on iTunes, which will be a donation to create Banner's new movie department to put out films. Paul Wall just hit me up yesterday too.
That’s a loaded list. When can we expect these to drop?
They’re all in production stages so hopefully by first week of May, they’ll come out. Also, check out my ‘Whoolywood Shuffle’ on Shade 45 every Saturday 10am to 5pm or you can watch it all week on Radio Planet TV. I also have a clothing line called Krisp where we take care of the homies.
They’re all in production stages so hopefully by first week of May, they’ll come out. Also, check out my ‘Whoolywood Shuffle’ on Shade 45 every Saturday 10am to 5pm or you can watch it all week on Radio Planet TV. I also have a clothing line called Krisp where we take care of the homies.
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