I am here to set the rumors and record straight. DJ Prostyle is by far the hardest working DJ in the industry, from radio, TV, Promotions, Labels, DJ Crews, Sponsorships and more. Get ready to be schooled in this one on one with a legendary DJ!
Ok, so I did my homework on you and thanks to my skills I learned you were originally born in Harlem, you reside in Orlando and are moving back to NYC! Did I do good? LOL, well ma I was actually born & raised in Queens, and lived in the Bronx before I moved back to Orlando. As far as moving back to NYC, it’s up in the air right now. I live in both Orlando and NYC right now. I spend half the week in Orlando and half the week in New York.
Awesome, so I am officially done with google.com. My next question for you my dear is: What brought you from Orlando to New York?My family moved me down. When I was like 13 I really did not have a choice. That led me into meeting a couple DJs out here in Orlando.
What made you want to be a DJ?Honestly, the reason I became a DJ is my sister. My sister had a sweet 16 and the DJ left his equipment there. I asked him if I could use it. He showed me how to turn it on and let me play with it for like a whole weekend. So, I stayed home the whole weekend and played with the DJ equipment. I then somehow talked my mom into buying me 1 turntable from a pawn shop and that’s what I started DJ’n with, 1 turntable and a mixer. Then I found someone who was selling off all his records, so for like $50 I got 3 crates of records. I only had one turntable for awhile, when I was in like middle school and stuff. I used to play music from something else like a tape deck or something and just scratch with the turntable, so I learned how to scratch before anything. Eventually I figured it was time to get another turntable so when I got the money up I went back to the pawnshop, got another turntable and started learning how to DJ.
To put in perspective how long I actually been DJ’n I actually DJ’d the Middle School graduation after party from my school.
WOW, so was that your 1st gig/event?Yea, that was my 1st event. It was funny too because I would put a record on, and then run around the table to dance with everyone. I forgot that it was me playing the music. I would run back put another record on, and then run back around and dance with everyone. At that age that’s just what it was.
So how old are you now?*cricket cricket cricket* (silence) …. Ummmm I’m getting old
I only ask so I can determine how long you been a DJ?You can put mid-late 20’s. Well, I am right there so you just called me old, thanks. LOL. Na you know what I mean.
So, you have had a lot of accomplishments Mr. DJ Prostlye, I know you are a Heavy Hitter and there are 16 original Heavy Hitters. How did you get into the Heavy Hitter’s because that is a huge honor for DJs?Yes, shot out to DJ Enuff. It’s funny because this whole BET and Heavy Hitters thing all came to me at once. All because of this event called Spring Bling. It was the 1st time BET did Spring Bling in Daytona Beach for Spring Break. Spring Bling is a BET event where they bring out all these artists & take over the beach. At that time I was already DJ’n & had my own show on 102 Jamz in Orlando & was one of the hottest DJs in the club scene. Being on 102 Jamz I learned a little bit of the industry and met a lot of people. Obviously being on radio and in the market a lot of record labels and promotion people would reach out to me to play records, so one of them named RJ, at the time had a connect for someone at BET who was looking for someone to play music on the beach during down time, and in between shows. So I went out there and I met DJ Enuff he was DJ’n on air. This was a time when down south music was real big down here but they weren’t playing it in New York yet, the times when Trick Daddy was blowing up and I think even Bone Crusher was like the newest record out. None of these records even made it past the Carolinas as far as moving up the east coast. So what happen is Enuff and all the DJs came out here playing a lot of east coast New York music and stuff, for a crowd of like 50,000 people strong of straight down south college students, so they wanted to hear that down south music. So, when they asked me to DJ I was playing the Trick Daddy records, the C-Murder records, the Bone Crusher records, the Master P records and the Pastor Troy “we ready” record. When I started playing all the down south music, the crowd went insane to the point that BET asked me to keep playing the records and hyping the crowd up, they turned the cameras on and started filming good footage of the crowd wiling out and all that kind of stuff. I really did such a good job of doing it that for one that landed me a real good relationship with BET, as well as with DJ Enuff. DJ Enuff came over and said “you tore it down out there”, he started asking me about the tracks I was playing and stuff. There was this girl, Yvette who was part of the Heavy Hitters, she was real close to Enuff, so she told him I was on the radio and this, this and that. So he said to me “Yo we need a heavy hitter out here (in FLA)”. At that point there where only Heavy Hitters in NY and they had decided to start branching off. So, right then and there DJ Enuff was like “yo, that’s it you’re gonna be a Heavy Hitter now” and I was like “alright”. I really didn’t even know who the Heavy Hitters were or how big the Heavy Hitters were gonna get at that point, But I was like “OK, that’s cool”. I knew they were a crew in NY and Big into radio. I had heard of them, I heard of DJ Camilo and all them, so I was like dope, put me down with a crew like that. Down the line they sent me the drop and we made it official. They brought me to Hot97 and DJ Enuff used to let me do some quick sets of down south music. I was one of the 1st people to play the Bone Crushers “I ain’t never scared” track on HOT 97. I am just happy to be part of the team and one of the original members.
Well that is amazing a true honor, Congratulations Thank You.
Before a recent trip to Orlando I hit up a few of my local DJs to see who was the best DJ to get down with up there, and each of them said “DJ Prostyle”, BUT it came with a disclaimer that you were “a jerk”, “cocky”, “snotty”, etc. My personal experience when I met you (both times in Orlando and down here in Miami) was 100% the opposite of that. So, I want to clear up the rumors. DJ Prostyle is not a jerk! How do you deal with all the hate? Thanks, I am far from a Jerk, my people tell me I am too nice actually. See I am real busy and people sometimes confuse that with being caught up or stuck up or something to that nature. I am just a real outgoing, nice person. I know I am blessed, I am really into god, I pray a lot, everyday not just cause times are rough. I am a really happy person, I have a lot to be happy about, got a lot of great things going on in my life. I never been the stuck up type ever. Some people got nothing better to do, ya know, no matter how nice you are it don’t matter you can’t please everyone, so I don’t care about the haters. You can read an article I did like almost 10 years ago when I got out of High School and the title was “I just don’t give a f*ck”. I had the #1 radio show out here and you know how it is, I had a lot of haters, and I have always been a flashy guy with like the jewelry and with fashion, so a lot of people were hating. I just don’t care there is no one that can hold me down or stop me. I gotta lot of love for everybody, there is not even a person out there where I can say “I hate that pussy”, I don’t burn bridges, people usually burn bridges with me. That’s about it, I have always been mad cool, the people that have been around me, have been around for a long time.
You are an extremely busy person, how do you handle it. I don’t have an assistant yet! I do everything myself. My lawyers and managers are always sending interns to me, and I don’t know what to tell them to do. I am used to doing everything myself and not only with music, but with other things too. I end up getting caught up and overwhelmed with a lot of things because obviously I have a lot of things going on as far as my different companies and different things I do.
Yes, let us talk about that. What else are you branching off to, because I see you have “All-Pro Records” and I see you are a spokes person for “God’s Gift” clothing line, or is that your company? Na, God’s Gift clothing line is my people out in NY. Anybody can come up to me, a lot of times at 106 & Park people approach me and give me a free shirt or something from there line and I’ll look at it and if it matches what I am wearing I’ll just throw it on and show love, because that makes a difference to a lot of people. I always been the type to rep everyone’s stuff, I am not signed to any certain clothing company. I have been approached by some, but I haven’t taking it there yet. I am more focused on the entertainment thing and everything I have going on with the shows, radio, internet, and TV. I think by next winter I’ll have my own sneaker or clothing line that I will push.
Awesome, I better get a pair sent to me! So, tell me about All Pro records. That’s all you right? Yea that’s me. I gotta lot of artists and music. One is Traffic who will be dropping his album this summer “Die hard fan”. He is very talented, he has the single “Hercules”, which is on heavy rotation and going hard on BET right now. Another artist that’s heating up out here named Drop, he is real hot and real young. He is going in real hard. His CD is crazy he got a lot of features. Drop got a song with Lil Boosie. We are going to be pushing him on radio and doing a video real soon. Shout out to them 2 there our hip hop artists, we got right now. We also got Big Adept who’s been down since day one. We got JaShawn who is real talented, got a real soulful voice. Besides all those artists we have a lot of stuff going on with some artists in Puerto Rico & Dominican Republic. We have a group out in PR called Mega & Kanai they got like 2 songs on the radio out there & are doing real good. All you need to know is www.Allprorecords.com
A lot of DJs turn artist, is that something we can expect from you? No, I’m not trying to be an artist. I feel that DJ’n has always been my passion. My biggest passion is the club scene. When I am getting it in and everyone is moving that’s me being an artist as far as putting on a show. I have already turned down 2 offers to do a DJ album. I feel like that’s Khalids thing and he is doing his thing. Right now I am just focused on the things I have going on already which is radio, BET, and 106 & park. I have my own show on X-Box right now, and I have some big syndication stuff.
X-BOX? Yea, I have my own show it’s called: Hip-Hop 360. It’s a hip hop show that people will only be able to watch thru there X-Boxes. So as long as you have a X-Box which is connected to the internet, which right now there is 30 something million active X-Box users online, you’ll be able to check it out. So I mean it’s a real big look, this is something that could turn me into a house hold name. No matter if you’re Black, White, Spanish, Chinese, or whatever, or if you’re 4 years old or 50 years old people play and get on X-Box everyday. So this is a real big look and incredible for me.
Is your show like an interview show? It started off like that with interviews like your saying, but with time the show could only get better. It’s turned into a show more about Hip Hop and about me. You are basically going on a ride with me wherever I go, experiencing whatever I am experiencing. From being in a party, wild shit, to having girls… ya know, to getting drunk, and going on a plane drunk, all types of stuff, & lots of traveling. With in the show there are interviews with artists and stuff but interviews with a twist, like me in the back of a Maybach with Rick Ross, driving around the hood with me interviewing. There is a shot where I break into the 99 Jamz studio down in Miami, and run up on Khalid and interview him right there. There’s a shot where I am with Pitbull at a bar taking shots of patron, talking about different records. I even have a shot of me and Akon sitting there playing chess and talking about life.
It sounds almost like a reality show. Yea exactly it’s a reality, Hip Hop show. Its not like a generic radio interview, we get to talk about real things that artists want to talk about.
Sounds like a good show, can’t wait to check it out. So we touched on the artist thing, what about Producing, is that something you would consider branching off to? Did you produce the beat for the Hercules song? No, I didn’t produce that. I feel, and this is going back to what I just was saying, right now I am just trying to stay in my lane. I used to produce when I was younger. I know how to do it, I did it for years, but I haven’t done it for years. You never know it could be something I do down the line. I just feel whatever you do in life, you have to put your 100 % into, and right now I don’t have the time to produce. There are a lot of DJs and people that produce and that’s what they do, I’d rather leave that to them and let them do that, and I do what I do.
Have you done any mix-tapes that are out right now? Right now I only have 2 out. That’s Traffik’s “Ounce of Stardom” I got a bunch of drops on there and I co-hosted with DJ Element, and I got Drops mix tape which is called “No Rookie” and I hosted that with DJ Drama. So those are the 2 CDs I have out right now. I do go thru a mood where I catch myself with some time where I want to hit the streets with some CDs. When I do a mix-tape, I do it live. I just press record and go live.
I prefer Mix-Tapes over LPs that’s how you get to know New Artists. I actually found out about Pit from a mix-tape. Yea and you get more music.
True! So what else can we expect from you in the future, or is this a “to be continued” question (lol)? One thing I always do and this is a message to all the DJs to branch out, the reason you might see me have the things I have; the real estate, jewelry and the money I make, not that the radio & TV hasn’t helped me, but its promoting yourself and do your own parties. You’ve been to my show you seen how they are.
Oh yea, insane. Hot guys & gals everywhere. I fell in love like 17 times. LOL, yea there insane. I have a company called All Pro Parties, and a website called AllProParties.com. We throw all the biggest parties. It’s a great way for DJs to make it big. Don’t get short changed for what your worth. No one can promote yourself harder than you can. I started renting halls out when I was in 9th grade, throwing my own parties. I feel the most successful business I had was promoting and throwing my own parties. It’s what I do best.
WOW, you really do it all. Where can we experience your hard work? My Show on X-Box, on Wednesdays & Fridays on BET’s 106 & Park, Monday thru Friday on Power 95.3 in Orlando from 7pm to 11pm and Sunday nights from 8pm to midnight, In New York Every Sunday from 3pm to 8pm on the #1 rated Power 105.1FM (power1051FM.com), who knows you might even hear me on the radio down in Miami, I have had some conversations with DJ Laz.
That would be great. You have a lot of sponsorships too. Tell me about them? I started a deal with Diddy, we started the Ciroc DJ Program. We have some of the biggest DJs in the country representing Ciroc. I am Ciroc DJ #1. Shout out to Boricua Jimmy, he got me getting stuff from all different angles right now. I just did a deal with “Rent-A-Wheel”.
What clubs can we find you at? If you’re in Orlando you can most likely find me Destinys, Roxys, Taboo, Antigua, Tavern, and more. In New York I am all over the place. I been all over the country, I do a lot of stuff in Canada, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, etc… If you follow me on Twitter @DJProstyle you’ll find me.
Any Shout Outs you want to give? Um, Thanks to you, DAWNdada and the Magazine.
No one else specific? I would be hitting a lot of people if I tried to name them all (LOL). So just shout out to everybody, shout out to GOD, that’s the most important!
There you go! Thanks so much DJ Prostyle. You are truly an amazing person, I look forward to seeing your future endeavors. Thanks you for the opportunity. See ya in Miami!
