What happens in Vegas usually stays in Vegas. But DJ Vice has taken his brand from sexin’ down Sin City’s craziest nightclubs and after-hours parties to tearing down stages all over the world.
Vice didn’t get where he is now by being in the “right place at the right time.” He picked up his first turntable at the tender age of 11 and was soon rocking Bar Mitzvahs and Quinceañeras. After high school, the Los Angeles-native landed a small promo team gig with the Baka Boyz at L.A.’s biggest radio station and took that opportunity to hustle his mixtapes, which led his new bosses to give him a shot on the air. Recently, the jet-setting DJ has been racking up sky miles and opening up shop with his new retail store CRSVR, but always finds his way back to the place he calls home.
YRB: You’re known as an all-across-the-board DJ, but hip-hop had a strong influence on your career.
DJ Vice: Someone might see Michael Jordan play for the first time and want to play basketball. I grew up watching hip-hop videos and seeing people deejay in the background and thinking that’s what I want to do. I started buying records at 11 and the first records I bought were Doug E. Fresh’s “The Show” and N.W.A.’s “Express Yourself.”
YRB: How do different cities that you deejay in compare to each other?
DJ Vice: It’s always different because I don’t ever prepare a set. I’ve been deejaying for 18 years so I go with the flow of things. In Atlanta, I get to mix it up and play a lot of Southern music.There might be certain Southern records that I’ll play there but I won’t play in L.A. because they’re not going to know them. I can play some Pastor Troy and mess around with it, but if I play that in L.A. they’ll be like, ‘What the hell is he playing?’ When I go to Miami they like Southern shit, too. But they like a lot more house.
YRB: Where’s your favorite place to deejay?
DJ Vice: I love Japan because they really respect music and DJs. They do their research on you before you get out there.When you show up, they already know all about you and your style and they watch you while you deejay. It makes you nervous because it’s like sitting in front of a panel of judges, but it’s dope. I still love Vegas because it’s the city where everyone goes to lose their minds. I’m spoiled because I do one of the hottest clubs out there, which is Tao, and it’s been going for four years. By the time I get on, it’s already at capacity so it’s like stepping up to the plate and hitting a grand slam.
YRB: When did you make the move from rocking Quinceañeras to controlling the airwaves?
DJ Vice: After I graduated high school, I got hired on Power 106, which is a hip-hop station in L.A. It was the sister station to Hot 97 in NY so I was blown away. I was 18 when I got hired there and I had gone from local house parties and clubs to being heard across all of L.A. where, at that point, they had 1.6 million listeners. We were the number two market behind the guys I listened to like Funkmaster Flex and DJ Red Alert. It’s crazy to go from deejaying for a couple hundred people here and there to a couple million. Radio really helped me brand my name. Now, I’m off the radio because it was a steppingstone for me to do nightclubs and travel around the country.
YRB: What do you think about the current state of radio?
DJ Vice: Radio got too controlled. I fell out of love with radio because I think we are hired to give our styles to the audience and not for someone to sit behind a desk and dictate what to play.That person is not at nightclubs; they’re not out at after-hours club and pool parties, you know? Once I saw I didn’t sound like myself on the radio I knew I had to go because I didn’t want to ruin my image just to please the corporate side.
YRB: Tell me about your sneaker collection.
DJ Vice: I collect sneakers, like everyone in hip-hop. It started at a young age with me listening to [Run-D.M.C.’s] “My Adidas” and Nas saying, ‘I’m a Nike head’ and everyone talking ‘bout Jordans. As I was deejaying, I started buying more and more shoes and as the collection was getting too big I opened up a shoe store called CRSVR with a partner. It’s named after the EPMD joint “Crossover,” but at the same time, it’s also a basketball reference.
YRB: What inspired you to open your own store?
DJ Vice: I realized that deejaying is my main source of income and, like everything, you have to treat it like a business. I used my relationships that I have from deejaying to open up the store and we’ve been doing really good so far. It’s been open a year and we’re scouting locations for another store. It’s really dope ‘cause I get to see all the new kicks way before they come out.
YRB: Any plans of taking the store global?
DJ Vice: Nah, I’m keeping it West Coast for now. I might take it to Vegas because that’s where my main residency is and people already think I’m from Vegas.
YRB: How does your personal style influence your music and brand?
DJ Vice: The store reflects on what I wear and what I see working in different markets. I travel and shop and I pick up clothes and kicks. My deejaying is influenced by the way I grew up doing wedding and parties. I know how to adapt to any environment and play the right set for each crowd in any club. I didn’t just buy a laptop like kids these days.
YRB: How was the transition going from music to retail?
DJ Vice: It’s crazy because when I go into a party, I know how to read the crowd and know where to go. But in retail it’s not the same.You have something that you think is hot and will fly out the store, but then it won’t sell. It’s a new challenge to find out what moves and what doesn’t, what your customers like and what will work in your store. It’s a completely different game, but I love it. As long as I’m not going in the Ed Hardy direction, then I should be good.
YRB: What else are you working on?
DJ Vice: The next thing I want to do is production and working in the studio. I used to stay busy in the studio before I started traveling so much.The more I traveled the more I stepped back, but since it’s more computer-based nowadays I can produce with a computer on the road and still be mobile with it.
YRB: Do you feel that you will have an advantage as a producer because of your flexibility to play all genres?
DJ Vice: I have an advantage because I’m not stuck to one genre of music production. I’m not known as a hip-hop DJ or a house DJ or old school. I could play anything I want so I’d be able to produce what I want.You have hip-hop DJs trying to experiment out of their zone. Khaled can’t put out a house record, but he’s in his lane with what he does. But with me being an open-format DJ, there is no lane.
