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Doin' Tha Damn Thing:
Toronto DJs making some noise: the ill kidz...
If someone asked me what I wanted to do if I weren't a writer, I would have to tell them that I would love to be a DJ. For real. You're probably wondering: Does Michelle got skillz to rock the mic? Umm, well no. And you're still wondering: Has Michelle even touched vinyl? The answer is no as well.
Since I can't DJ (yet), I want to keep y'all informed of the DJ's that are running tings in the T Dot.
Keep your eyes and ears open for the ill kidz.
I know you know them. Even if you haven't gone to one of their jams, I'm sure you know someone who knows someone who has.
It was a cool day in early May when I got the chance to sit down with Ricky, a.k.a Ricochet, one member of the ill kidz. He quickly apologized for the absence of AZ, Juice and Trixx, the other members of the powerful sound crew.
As the interview went on, I was thinking, "Damn, I got respect for this guy." Not only have the ill kidz been DJing for ten years (by the way, Ricky is just 23 years old), they are ambitious and they haven't gotten caught up in the moment. They see their careers spanning a very long time.
The group was formed when they were all about thirteen years old, and it was also convenient that they all lived in the same neighbourhood. When Ricky was younger, he admitted to getting in trouble with the law. His mom and brother were very concerned about that, and thought of ways to focus his attention on something else.
Being a hip hop head, Ricky used to watch "Electric Circus" and waited to see the DJ come out and work his magic. On a seemingly normal day home from school, he walked into his room and came face to face with some DJ equipment that his mom and brother bought for him. He called his best friend over, and the rest is history.
The Beginning
Me: How did you guys come up with the name ill kidz?
When we were like thriteen, me and Juice, we came up with the name "Ghetto Jam." We went with that for a little bit. As you could probably understand, it wasn't working out. You know what I mean? Then one night, we were just brainstorming and we came up with the new name, ill kidz. You know - when you're young and you're like, wow that sounds so cool! You know. Then from there it kinda took off.Me: What made you get into DJing?
I fell in love with the music. When I heard Eric B and Rakim…everyone always says Kool Herc, GrandMaster Flash, Run DMC, but I was playin' with my G.I. Joe at that point. When I heard Eric B and Rakim I was like wow! Also, definitely Nas. When I heard Nas' first album, I knew that this is definitely what I want to do.Me: When did you guys actually start DJing?
We did a high school dance and we were in middle school. It was kinda funny. We were in middle school and we were going across the street to a high school to DJ a dance. From there we went to small basement parties to reggae parties. It picked up from there.Me: Did promoters take you seriously at such a young age?
I remember there was this Ron Nelson and "Word of Mouth" party and we didn't know what was gonna happen. We just put crates in the back of the car and we said that we are going to this party. So we went to the party, we went to go speak to the promoter and the bouncer was like, "What do these little kids want with the promoter?" We were like, we want to DJ…we want to open up, we want to warm up, we'll do it for free. And at the time they did not have any headphones in the club. So his first question was, "You got headphones?" So I was like, "Yeah, yeah, guy." So he was like, "Bring your shit…here ya go." So we got put on. We did free dances for a while just to build up our name, and then eventually it was like a hundred bucks here…
[ Ricky talks about money, Jay-Z, and passing out on stage. Part II of the interview. ]