Hometown: Akron, Ohio (Dirty 30)
Phone: 330-701-8327 or 614-668-2
Email: djmrking@yahoo.com
"I can remember sitting in my room in high school every Friday and Saturday while me and my dudes were waiting on a ride to the club listening to Scratch Master L or Mick Boogie on the radio like, "Damn! These cats is doing they thing and having fun with it at the same time. I know I can do this."
That's how DJ Mr. King recalls his introduction to his becoming of a DJ. After graduating high school, where he often DJ'd local house parties, talent shows and school dances even at his rival high school, King enrolled at The Ohio State University not really looking to further his career as a DJ but just to continue it as a hobby. But after hearing the so called DJs in the area, he decided to get more serious about hobby spending countless hours perfecting the art of mixing, scratching and blending while everyone the others spent their nights in clubs listening to the some of the world's worst DJs. Refusing to except the $50 gigs promoters were offering, DJ Mr. King made up his mind that he wasn't going to sell himself cheap just to get his name out there and began feeding the streets with mixtapes.
That grind and self-confidence in which some referred to as cockiness has prevailed DJ Mr. King to where he is today, spinning across the country, dropping and moving units of his own mixtapes every month and the Co-CEO of Tha Takeover Productions Marketing and Promotions Company.
"It was a lot of haters man since day one. But one thing I have learned throughout everything is to have a strong team around you that believes in you no matter what and is not going to be there just for the ride," said King"
DJ Mr. King's recent mixtape success has made him a fixture among some of the great underground mixtape DJs in the business. After selling more than 6,000 copies of this past summer's Southern Smothered & Covered Pt. 2 (The Best of Lil Jon), DJ Mr. King and Tha Takeover Productions has not slowed down one bit. His recent collaboration with up and coming Houston artist Jokaman on Southern Smothered & Covered Pt. 3 has created such a buzz that it has been nominated for Best Mixtape Collaboration for the 2006 Get Em Magazine Music Awards. The duo has already planned to release a Chopped & Screwed version of the mixtape as well. DJ Mr. King is also nominated for Mixtape DJ of the Year and Best Mixtape Series at the UGA Awards.
"When I started the Southern Smothered & Covered Series it was just to give cats up here in Ohio a feel for the music in the south," says King. "But then all of a sudden I started getting hit up from like everybody down south like, I'm tryin to do a tape with you man what's good'' That was crazy to me cause I was just doing mixtapes for my people in the hood and giving them away at parties I was doing. Once I dropped that Best of Lil Jon and put it on the internet and in a bunch of mom and pop shops I got connecting with in the south then had to keep reordering and reordering copies of it to keep it in stores, I knew it was official."
Knowing that the mixtape game is so saturated and watered down, DJ Mr. King strives to better and separate himself from the others with each and every mixtape he releases not just to be the best in the game but to be the best in the world.
"When people listen to my mixtapes, it's like being in the club. It's easy to put a bunch of mp3s you downloaded from Limewire, get a fresh cover and call it a mixtape, but when it comes down to it in the end can you MIX!!!. Just because you have DJ in front of your name doesn't make you a DJ. We need to separate the real DJs (Disc Jockeys) from the fake DJs (Download Junkies), feel me'"
Not only is King, who is a member of TJSDJS, AMPM (Association of Mixtape Paper Makers) and the all new Hustle Squad DJz out of Houston, Texas, making moves on his own with his mixtapes and as the President and Co-CEO of Tha Takeover Productions, but he is also opening the doors for up-and-coming artists in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. DJ Mr. King is currently the official DJ of local artists such as Kilatainment and Young Dame and is currently in contract negotiations with a number of independent record labels.
"That's one thing we don't do as much up north man. We don't support our artists like they do down south. I been doing my Southern Smothered & Covered series and been killing in sells and I aint even from down south," said King. "Cats down there hold each other down. I don't think it will be long though before the industry starts to recognize the talent that's in the Midwest, particularly in Ohio. You got DJs like myself, G-Spot, Mick Boogie, Chicago, and Joey Fingas constantly breaking new records so it's just a matter of time before we get our shine."
For mixtape hosting, booking, drops or interviews contact Tha Takeover Productions at 330-701-8327 or visit the website at www.thatakeover.net.
For more information on DJ MR. KING visit www.www.thatakeover.net |
