Atlanta Legend: DJ Kizzy Rock

 

Interview Terrell “ReaLife” Black

VALIDATED: So, being from Atlanta, Georgia, what’s your earliest memory of hip-hop culture?

DJ KIZZY ROCK: My earliest memory of hip-hop culture is we used to have these concerts called the Fresh Fest. We had an arena called the Omni, and I went—it was Run DMC, the Fat Boys, LL Cool J, and Whodini. That was my first time witnessing a live hip-hop concert. At that time, New York mainstream was the mainstream, so that was a huge concert. That was my first experience with that.

VALIDATED: Nice. So can you take us back to the beginning? When did you first get into DJing, and how did you discover your passion for music?

DJ KIZZY ROCK: Let’s see. I started off in the band, and I think the band drew my curiosity to music. The culture in my hood—everybody was either breakdancing, rapping, or trying to DJ. I started off rapping, and this was probably around ninth or tenth grade. Then I moved over to DJing, kind of in tenth grade.

I was making mixtapes for kids in school and stuff, then I started getting kind of popular in the neighborhood, doing a lot of neighborhood parties.

There was an organization out of Atlanta back in that time—we’re talking late ’80s, early ’90s—a guy named Edward J. He owned a record store and had a crew of DJs that DJed in his record store.

If you were a DJ on this crew, man, it was like having a major label record deal at the time. He was the only person in Atlanta doing something like that.

Actually, we were talking earlier—you said you’re going to be speaking to MC Shy D later on. MC Shy D was part of this organization called the J-Team. The J-Team was the name of the crew of DJs who DJed for Edward J and made the mixtapes. Shy D was one of the original members of that crew.

Then a second generation came through the J-Team. They had a group—DJ Len and Lazy Rock—called themselves the Boys from Alcatraz. Later on, they put out a record called Roll It Up, My Homeboy, Roll It Up. It was called Roll It Up, and it was real big in the South. That was late ’80s.

I got on the J-Team in like ’90, along with a guy named DJ Smurf—he goes by Mr. Collipark now. We both got on as teenagers. That’s when my whole DJ career catapulted—when I became a member of the J-Team. Because from the J-Team, I was able to land gigs in some really popular clubs and get residencies, because of the clout that came with being part of that crew.

VALIDATED: Nice. So you mentioned that they were actually breakdancing in Atlanta?

DJ KIZZY ROCK: They were, man! We were following everything New York was doing. We were getting all the cardboard boxes from behind grocery stores, and people were pop-locking and breakdancing. We did the whole culture, man.

When Beat Street hit the scene, Atlanta was Beat Street. Atlanta didn’t start doing its own thing with its own identity until maybe the late ’80s. Late, late ’80s to early ’90s, Atlanta started forming its own culture and style of dance—and then it was all about Atlanta.

VALIDATED: So, witnessing that, what kind of sparked the transition from mimicking New York to finding Atlanta’s own identity?

DJ KIZZY ROCK: I believe it was the vibe that was coming out of Florida. Florida and Miami had an uptempo type of music, and Atlanta gravitated to that because people were doing dance routines that matched that tempo.

I believe that was the transition—when 2 Live Crew and Luke were first coming on the scene. There were also a lot of other Miami cats—Poison Clan, Clay D, Disco Rick and the Dogs. Florida had a whole movement going on, and Atlanta really gravitated to that uptempo sound.

Hip-hop was cool, but we understood that hip-hop, the beats and production, weren’t really what Atlanta was into at that time. We understood that hip-hop from up north was more about lyrics, but down South it was about the party and the vibe.

That transition happened in the late ’80s, early ’90s. Then Freaknik came around—that really catapulted everything. Freaknik was the soundtrack for that bass sound.

So when everybody came to Atlanta during those days, no matter what club they went to or what was happening in the streets, they heard Kizzy Rock, Kilo, Raheem the Dream, Splat Pack. I mean, it was just uptempo. That was really the transition. I think Freaknik took it to another level.

VALIDATED: Who were some of your early influences, both in terms of DJing and producers?

DJ KIZZY ROCK: Oh yeah—Magic Mike. Magic Mike was out of Florida. Clay D, too. And then there was a guy named Pretty Tony. He had a string of hits that were uptempo. I think he was early ’80s, but he had records like Fix It in the Mix, Jam the Box, The Party Has Just Begun—all that.

By me being in the band, I just gravitated to things that were musical—uptempo beats that had a vibe and melody. That’s me all day.

VALIDATED: Bass music is such a fundamental genre in Southern hip-hop. How did you first become involved in the bass scene? You basically told me what drew you to it, but how did you first get involved?

DJ KIZZY ROCK: Well, I was DJing in all these hot clubs, and me and a couple of guys got together and formed a group called the A-Town Players. We had a song called A-Town Drop. We ended up getting a local record deal with a guy named Twin Productions—that was the name of the label. They put out our first single independently, and then they ended up getting us a deal with Bellmark Records.

We signed with Bellmark Records right after Tag Team had signed with them. Now we both had songs that said “Whoomp, there it is” in them—ours was called A-Town Drop. To make a long story short, we got shelved because Tag Team was the forerunner they were really pushing. I feel like we were just signed because we had a “Whoomp, there it is” record and a buzz in the clubs.

Tag Team was working at Magic City, but we were at a party club that both the colleges and the hood frequented. And whenever you’ve got the colleges and the hood going to the same club on the same night, those clubs become legendary. Club XS was one of those clubs.

So I got into the business through Twin Productions, because that was my first record. That was a bass record, so that’s when I got in the game. That was around ’93.

VALIDATED: Okay. So you were a key figure in helping shape the Atlanta music scene. What was the Atlanta scene like when you were starting out, and how did you help develop it into what it is today?

DJ KIZZY ROCK: When I first started, the Atlanta music scene was going uptempo, but the only artists out from Atlanta were Raheem the Dream and MC Shy D. The first artist to ever come out of Atlanta doing rap was a guy named Mojo back in the early ’80s. But the heavy hitters that came after Mojo were Raheem the Dream, MC Shy D, Kilo, and Sammy Sam.

You had a few others too—the Hard Boys, for example—but they weren’t bass music, they were more gangster rap, more like what N.W.A. was doing. They were part of the forerunners, but that bass sound was primarily coming from us.

When me and DJ Smurf came around, we were imitating more of that Miami vibe mixed with what we did. Once again, it goes back to Freaknik—because when Freaknik really hit its peak in Atlanta, it was the same time our records were out.

If you talk to anybody from Atlanta, they’ll tell you the best years of Freaknik were ’93, ’94, and ’95. Those were the classic years—and we were the artists with music out during that time. So we shaped the scene drastically. Because whenever you came to Atlanta, all you heard was us. We were the soundtrack.

VALIDATED: Yeah, I remember hearing stories about Freaknik.

DJ KIZZY ROCK: Man, Freaknik was a serious situation. It started with the colleges, but once the hood got involved, it went to a whole different level. It got so big that it just got extra—and then it went left.

But before it got to that point, it was awesome. Atlanta just wasn’t ready for it. We weren’t able to capitalize on the business side of Freaknik because we were a party city. We were really uneducated on the economics of how to turn that into real money. That’s another story.

But the transition happened for me because my music was out at the same time as Freaknik, and I was DJing in the hottest clubs in the city. That was a powerful combination.

VALIDATED: Atlanta is now a major hub for hip-hop, but that wasn’t always the case. What were some of the challenges you faced putting Southern hip-hop—especially bass music—on the map?

DJ KIZZY ROCK: The biggest challenge was that New York wasn’t doing bass music—and New York was running the scene. So a lot of people were straying away from bass music.

Even when I signed with Tommy Boy, they didn’t really know how to market me. That was the whole problem. They knew bass music was hot and selling, and they wanted to dabble in it, but they didn’t know what to do with it.

That was a big issue—people just didn’t know how to market bass music. And again, New York wasn’t doing bass, so it didn’t get the respect.

Now, if New York had embraced bass music, it would’ve been a different story. I mean, Afrika Bambaataa and the Planet Rock guys were from New York.

VALIDATED: Your music and sound are closely tied to Atlanta’s identity. What does Atlanta mean to you personally and musically? How has the city influenced your style?

DJ KIZZY ROCK: Because I was a DJ in the city, I know the culture—I am Atlanta. Atlanta is all I know. I know how people party here because I lived it.

I got to travel everywhere, but the reason I can go to other cities and rock the crowd is because of what I learned DJing and partying with the people of Atlanta.

Atlanta has phenomenal energy—party energy. New Atlanta is different, but Old Atlanta was all about the party. And honestly, no matter what city you were in during that era, people knew how to party. They don’t do that anymore.

VALIDATED: Southern bass has evolved over the years. How do you feel the genre has changed since you started? Does it still hold the same cultural significance?

DJ KIZZY ROCK: No, it doesn’t. The culture has changed. The music people vibe to now is at a completely different tempo. The subject matter is different, and the vibe is different.

We’re no longer dancing—we’re sitting in sections, recording ourselves. The club is now just a backdrop. The energy is different. The tempo is slower, so the energy in the club is more melancholy.

Back in the day, when the beats were going 135 BPM, the energy was crazy.

That uptempo Atlanta bass music isn’t in the clubs anymore. If someone brought it back, I think it could work. Producer Mr. Hankey did a few uptempo records—he gave City Girls and Usher one, and Sexy Red had one with Drake.

They all did well, but it’s not consistent. Back when we were out, there were six bass records out at the same time. DJs could run a whole bass set. That’s not the case anymore.

VALIDATED: Your record Yeah, Shawty, Yeah, did you expect it to have such a big impact on your career when you were making it?

DJ KIZZY ROCK: Yeah, Shawty, Yeah was the first song I did, and that’s the one that got me signed to Tommy Boy. That was our first major situation—even though Tommy Boy was technically an independent label, it was still big. Coolio was over there, Queen Latifah—this was the label that put out Planet Rock.

So it was like a major label, but they didn’t know what to do with my product. They weren’t even sending it to the right markets. The reps didn’t know what to do. It was bad.

The only good part was I was signed to Tommy Boy. I may have gotten some exposure in places I otherwise wouldn’t have because they were able to get my song Bounce It Y’all onto the MTV Party to Go compilation. That thing was everywhere.

So yeah, it had its perks, but it wasn’t what I thought it would be. I was disappointed.

VALIDATED: Did they not have reps familiar with your region?

DJ KIZZY ROCK: Exactly. Bingo. You hit the nail on the head with that one. That was the problem.

VALIDATED: So what ended up happening? How did that situation pan out?

DJ KIZZY ROCK: It was only a single deal. They wouldn’t give me an album deal because they weren’t really confident in my work.

I ended up doing another single deal with another label called Ichiban and did an album deal over there. Then that folded. So I started doing my own independent thing—just reaching out to distributors. I launched Perfect Beat Entertainment and used that as the label for everything I wanted to release.

VALIDATED: So in the big picture, it actually panned out?

DJ KIZZY ROCK: Yeah, it did—because I was able to get branded. The money wasn’t the best from the label situations, but the big situations led to better shows, and the shows paid well.

Even though the label money was iffy, I was able to gain a fan base from those bigger situations and continue independently. And doing the shows, most definitely, helped too.

VALIDATED: What are some other tracks you’re known for?

DJ KIZZY ROCK: Well, some are underground, but Players Club was one. We had a track called We’re Gonna Start This Thing Off Right, but it was known as Bounce It Y’all—and it was on the Players Clubsoundtrack. That was pretty big.

Of course, Yeah, Shawty, Yeah. Then there’s Can’t Stop the Rock—that was a big one. I’ve got a dance floor battle anthem called Eat ’Em Up and one called U-Way.

These were all regional club records. A lot of people might not know who sings them, but they know the records when they hear them. Depending on where you’re from, people definitely know.

VALIDATED: So do you think bass music had a lasting impact on today’s Southern hip hop? And can you hear its influences in trap music that dominates Atlanta now?

DJ KIZZY ROCK: I do. And I think it’s from the 808—the 808 quad, the drums, how bass music used to do. I still hear that now. It’s just a different tempo. It’s slowed down. But I do believe that part of bass music stayed around—how to have the bass doing different tones when it’s playing. I believe that came from that. But as far as the tempo, like I said, when people hear the tempo, they’re intrigued, but it’s almost like the industry is scared to just really go take a chance and go full throttle with pushing artists out doing that tempo of music.

VALIDATED: Yeah, it seems to me as if the industry can’t do—or won’t allow itself to do—more than one urban sound at a time.

DJ KIZZY ROCK: I agree. I agree. And I’ve never understood that. Even now, you have—I think this is the first time in hip hop where you have 20-year-olds, 30-year-olds, 40-year-olds, 50-year-olds—and we can all listen to hip hop that’s in our age bracket, right? But they only push the hip hop for the younger crowd. We gotta go find ours.

VALIDATED: It seems like there’s no more kind of leadership out there.

DJ KIZZY ROCK: So it sounds like everybody just kind of following. It’s like trends—whatever is really just trending, everybody does that. That’s what it seems like. There’s no creativity out here. There’s no artist development going on no more. It’s nothing. I don’t know what killed it like that. I don’t know, but it’s definitely not the same.

VALIDATED: What do you feel is your biggest contribution to the Southern hip hop scene?

DJ KIZZY ROCK: I believe that I’m a real powerful part of the soundtrack for the party. When the party really goes into overdrive and they really dancing—and you got the type of crowd that knows old-school, good classic Atlanta music—when they hear that music, man, it’s gonna release all kinds of endorphins in these people’s bodies, man. And these people gonna feel amazing. So I feel like that’s what I contribute to the game, man. People feel real good, man, when my music come on—for the people that understand, you know, what they listening to and like to party to that type of music.

VALIDATED: So the role of the DJ has changed a lot over the years. How do you see the role of the DJ in today’s music industry compared to when you first started?

DJ KIZZY ROCK: Back in the day, the DJ controlled the party. Nowadays, the party be controlling the DJ. They tell them what to play. They all in his space with these requests. See, back in the day, you couldn’t have all these people come to you talking about “play their song” because in order to have a song, you had to have a record—real vinyl wax. Now anybody got a song.

You got DJs who aren’t really DJs, who really don’t have a passion. They didn’t come up in the wax era. They don’t know. They’re kind of more like just hard drive, playlists. You have all the songs that are supposed to be popular and just kind of robot this thing. And they aren’t able to create a vibe. And that’s what’s missing in these parties. It ain’t no vibe. Yeah, you playing this song, but the DJ all over the place—he play this tempo, he stop it, he go this tempo. You got somebody that’s on the microphone that just keep talking, talking. Then he keeps saying, “Stop, bring it back, bring it back.” Man, you messing up the flow like that. So the vibe, man—yeah, it’s a difference. I think a lot of the DJs nowadays don’t know the fundamentals of creating that atmosphere in the party. That’s the problem I’m seeing.

VALIDATED: Is there anything you would have done differently in your career if you had the chance?

DJ KIZZY ROCK: Yes, I would have. I would have been more hands-on with the paperwork and really understanding and not putting my trust in people—assuming that they were going to put me in the best situation for whatever the deal might have been. Because I found out people do not have your best interests. And I found out that you have a lot of people that are only out for themselves. They don’t consider nobody else. And I didn’t think people really operated like that—not if you told me we were gonna, you know, make it happen together. I believed you. So yeah, that kind of stuff right there—I would definitely do things different. I would definitely have jumped in the game with an entertainment attorney from the very beginning before trusting anybody. I would have done a lot of things different.

VALIDATED: So looking back on your career, what are you most proud of?

DJ KIZZY ROCK: What I contributed with the music, all the clubs that I’ve rocked, all the people that I’ve met. I wouldn’t change anything about that. It was a great ride—and it’s still going. It’s still going. It’s just transitioned into some other stuff, but it’s still along music. I’m still recording. I’m still doing mixtapes, but it ain’t on CDs no more—it’s on USBs. But the culture is still going. It’s just I’m more now mobile DJing, more for like corporate events.

But even that is great because see, these corporations, these people work there, man, they be so burnt out really at these places. There’s no light. So when they have these corporate parties, man, and I play this music, they just really get a sense of—they be relaxing, man. I mean, I don’t know, man, it’s therapeutic, man. I feel like a doctor, man. So I love it. I wouldn’t change it. I wouldn’t change nothing. This is definitely what I’m gonna be doing. Even if I’m not DJing, I’m gonna be connected some kind of way with this music. That’s my bloodline.

VALIDATED: So with that being said, would you say there are actually different eras of crunk music?

DJ KIZZY ROCK: Yeah, because if you call them crunk, like Lil Jon and them was like the king of crunk—that was the name of the album, I believe. That era, the tempo was slower. That was more like the tempo 105, 102. That was what Ying Yang Twins was doing. And they were calling that crunk, like when Lil Scrappy was out, and Crime Mob, “Knuck If You Buck,” they was calling that crunk.

Our era was the predecessors to that. We were before them, but the term crunk—we were still saying it though, because that’s what it was. When you turned the party up, you got crunk. So it’s kind of complicated maybe how I’m saying it, but I guess it is two parts of crunk. You got it where, when you play the music, if the music gets you hyped, we say you got crunk. “Yeah, I got crunk.”

And then when Ying Yang and them came around, they actually labeled that sound of music crunk music. They just called it that. But we was already saying crunk with our era.

VALIDATED: Okay. And then Atlanta is also known for making or inventing trap music, right?

DJ KIZZY ROCK: Yeah, that’s later on. Yeah.

VALIDATED: I’ve seen a lot of stuff saying that T.I. sparked that, but who would you say started trap music?

DJ KIZZY ROCK: I would think more like, well, original trap music would be this group called the Hard Boys, but they were in front of everybody. They was like late eighties. ’Cause Atlanta been like that. Atlanta has always been—one sound is going to be the uptempo bass music, and the other sound is the street music.

But when Atlanta really just went all street music, that’s when Jeezy and T.I. and OJ da Juiceman, those guys were out. So I would say Gucci—definitely Gucci. T.I. too, but Gucci just another level of the trap. T.I. was more, I don’t know, commercial trap maybe? But Gucci was like—that was gutter right there. That was the real gutter.

VALIDATED: So you named a lot of Atlanta artists that made it big. Are there any that have been independent and never made it mainstream, but we should still be on the lookout for?

DJ KIZZY ROCK: Oh, maybe—have you heard of Kilo Ali?

VALIDATED: No.

DJ KIZZY ROCK: Okay. Kilo Ali. Kilo. Kilo is a big one. How about Raheem the Dream?

VALIDATED: I heard of him.

DJ KIZZY ROCK: Okay. Raheem the Dream, Kilo. How about DJ Taz?

VALIDATED: Yeah, heard of him.

DJ KIZZY ROCK: Okay. Yeah, those are just a few right there.

VALIDATED: Okay, now I’m definitely gonna check those out. Any last words for the people?

DJ KIZZY ROCK: Man, just if you’re interested and wanna hear more or see more of what I got—www.kisbeescornerstore.com. And man, I just appreciate you even reaching out, man, and giving me the opportunity to use your platform to even, you know, speak this history from my perception and perspective.