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8/10/2006 What's up? Everything's good. I'm loving life. I'm doing what I wanted to be doing for years, so I'm happy to be here. Congrats on the OZONE Awards. Good looking. That was hot. I brought two home. I won Best Mixtape DJ which was a good look. There was definitely some competition in that category but there's no denying that I've been doing my thing. It was definitely a blessing to grab the Hustler Award. Everybody knows I make mixtapes but that was something special to me. Whether you're an artist, DJ or anything in this game, to be called a hustler in this game is a sign of respect. That was a good look for me. Jeezy won the Mixtape Monster Award so that was a good look because that was off the projects we did together. Also shout out to Khaled, he brought two home. He's my brother and I'm so happy for his success. When I was coming up I was inspired by a lot of DJ's and I feel like we're inspiring a whole new generation. Speaking of Khaled, did he make you raise the bar on your album after Listen! came out so crazy? Most definitely, and rightfully so. Me and Khaled have had many conversations. He's given me a lot of advice and vice versa. It was great to see what he did and see the quality of his album. Now I have to go in because niggas are coming with it. He deserves everything he's getting right now. Khaled told me if he didn't name his album Listen! it was going to be named No Budget, which tells you what he was working with. His joint is banging and I'm proud of dude. He passed the torch on to me and I have to hold it. How's your album coming? Shit's hot. We're 70% done. We're looking at a December release date. We have a banger with Beanie, B.G. is on there, I have so many songs to choose from with Tip and Weezy. Conceptually I'm really trying to come with something more than just a "compilation album" or a "DJ album." Gangsta Grillz as a mixtape, I feel like it stands out and I want to make sure my album stands out. Cannon's been going hard and he's been producing some bangers and we've been getting some great beats from other places. It's hard. It's like painting on an open canvas. It's all coming together. We're definitely getting everything we need. With the support of Grand Hustle and having Tip involved is great. Atlantic is a winning team right now. As a label right now they're killing it. There are some great people working over there. I heard you have a deal at Asylum now too. Yeah. Me, Cannon and DJ Sense signed a deal for the Aphilliates. We had a lot of options but Asylum was the best place for us to go. We're in the same building as Atlantic and they're about what we represent. It was a good home for us. What's the first project? Willie the Kid is actually going to be up first. He's featured on the "Cannon (Remix)" and he's featured on my album. We're going to drop his album after my album. We also have The Replacementz dropping after that. You also have La the Darkman in the Aphilliates. What does La bring to the table? La is an artist but he's also involved with us on an executive side. Having him on the team is great. La was part of a dynasty. He was a part of the Wu Dynasty. Wu-Tang was there before G-Unit and they laid the blueprint. Wu-Tang was a motherfucking movement. La came at us with a million jewels. Plus La and Willie are family. Willie the Kid is La's younger brother so he'll definitely be on Willie the Kid's album. They just put out the mixtape together Dead Presidents. That's how we get down. La already had Heist of the Century out and everybody already knows La wherever we go and La has his fan-base and he's very well-respected all over. DJ Kayslay made some comments about you when I interviewed him a month ago. Do you want to comment on anything he said? I'm going to say this: I'm getting money right now, I'm doing what I always wanted to be doing and I'm happy to be here. I don't have any bad words to say about anybody. I will say you can check my resume. I've been DJ Drama since the 9th grade. I made my first mixtape with a cover in 1995. I had been making tapes before that, but my first tape with a cover was inspired by Doo Wop's '95 Live. I would just tell people to check my resume. I was DJ Drama when I was in Philly. From the minute I've been in the game I've always paid my respects to those in the culture that move the game forward and Kayslay is one of those people. Other than that, I don't really have anything to say on the subject. In my interview with Kayslay, he also said, "No disrespect intended." Did you see any disrespect in his words? No. I didn't take it as disrespect. I think I got disrespected by some of the comments that came after that from what other people were saying in the comments. I know what I do and I know the type of nigga I am. I'm 100% with mine. I've been doing my thing since '92 and I made my first mixtape in '95. My name's been DJ Drama since '95. Shout out to everybody doing their thing in the game including Kayslay. Everybody doing tapes before me, I see what they did. If you want to take it back, look at what Lovebug Starski and Brucie B brought to the game. I'm getting money and I'm loving what I'm doing. A lot of websites were saying there's beef between you and Kayslay after what he said in the HipHopGame interview. Do you consider yourself having problems with Kayslay? Not at all. What's going on with the Gillie the Kid/Lil Wayne situation? First of all, I want to start off by saying that my integrity and principality mean everything to me. I heard rumors that I was paid off to not do Gillie's tape and those comments are 100% false. I will say this: I fuck with Lil Wayne heavy and I fuck with Gillie the Kid heavy. Me and Gillie have been planning to do a project for a year's time and I knew the two of them had problems and me and Gillie had spoken about it. The problems between those two have nothing to do with me. I made that clear to him. I have to be concerned with DJ Drama's career first and foremost and The Aphilliates. Those two gentlemen are at war and I did not get in the situation where I'm not going to do a tape with Gillie. I would love to do it and I've had respect for him for years since he was on Suave House. As of right now I took myself out of the equation because I knew they would shoot darts at each other and I don't want to be involved in that. Is the Gillie mixtape going to happen? I hope it does happen. I definitely hope it does happen. Will your helping Gillie ruin your relationship with Wayne? No. I have a relationship with everybody in the game. I'm a DJ. Emcees throw darts at each other all the time. A lot of darts have been thrown on Gangsta Grillz. I work with everybody but in a situation of war...this is like countries going to war and I'm a country of my own. When two countries are at war, I can't be a part of war. At the same time, just because people have problems, doesn't mean that affects me. People have been having problems on mixtapes for years. It just got to a very climatic point. Because I fuck with everybody so hard, I took it upon myself under these circumstances to fall back for the moment which does not mean that me and Gillie do not have business. There were rumors that Lil Wayne stepped to you and Gillie at a radio station. That's a new one to me. I haven't heard that one. If the ghostwriting rumors are true, will that hurt Wayne's career? That's on them. I think Wayne's a beast. Are you happy with how TI's King has done? Yeah. Hell yeah. That shit is doing incredible. It's doing phenomenal. How was it filming your cameo in ATL? It was great. It was a good look for your boy. I just did another movie. It should be out at the end of the year. It's called Step Show. I wound up getting me another little cameo. Should you have been up on stage with TI at the BET Awards? Any time Tip has a show, I'm supposed to be there, point blank. Especially for some big shit like that. But I will say for his situation where his shit went haywire, the nigga held his own. For not having no music and it being the BET Awards, what he did on stage is what a professional should have done. Is that an issue between you and TI? No, not at all. It's no issue whatsoever. It's a big show and sometimes the powers that be might not always understand the power of the DJ. Hopefully that lesson was learned. Tip is my brother and that man has so much love for me and vice versa that it would not even be a topic of conversation between the two of us. That's my nigga and that's how it's supposed to be done. Is Young Dro ready to come out? I think Dro is going to be all right. Dro has the hottest song in the country right now. His album's coming out in a couple of weeks. He's going to do his thing. He's going to be all right. Dro's going to be able to hold his own, especially in a situation coming right next to Tip after the year he's had. His album is incredible. He has banger after banger. What's coming up for you with the Gangsta Grillz? This album is the main priority. It's prime time for me. It's time for me to really show the people what I got. Gangsta Grillz Radio is No. 1 in the city of Atlanta. I'm going to stay in the streets and stay breaking new artists. I'm going to let the little guys come up and become head honchos. I don't ever want to forget the streets because that's what's made me. I'm working on this album, keeping the buzz strong and keeping the movement moving. Aren't you working on an Outkast mixtape? They're going to do Gangsta Grillz 16. The last one was Project Pat's Coming Home Party. It's an honor to work with them. I was the first DJ to get Big Boi on a mixtape and I have to check the history books but I may be the first to get Andre 3000 as well. Whatever happened to the Rick Ross Gangsta Grillz? It's probably going to come out soon. We're still working on it. Me and Rick are going in. Rick was doing his thing and I was doing mine. We're still going to make it happen. Sometimes the mixtapes that come out after the albums are just as good. Dedication came out after The Carter and you see what that did. Sometimes you want to build up the anticipation for the album but with my situation and what I do with the streets, they're always going to check for us. What do you think of Rick Ross's Port of Miami? I've only heard a little bit of it. I don't have a copy that I can ride to in my car first. I'm sure it's a banger but I need to ride to it before I give an opinion on it. I know what Ross does and I'm confident it's going to be a banger. You also have that Gangsta Grillz with Plies. Why should we check for him? He has a movement. I believe that everything is based on movements and Plies, plain and simple, has his movement. He's killing the streets in Florida and he's a nigga who's built not on commercial radio and still commands big money for shows and sells them out. He's a real dude and he's coming with some real shit. You've done mixtapes with artists from all over the South and East. Is Drama going out West soon? I want to work with everybody. I'm in talks with some people out there but I don't want to say anything before it's finalized. The brand represents the movement. If the shit is hot, I'm going to work with it. I'm steady on the grind and you never know what's going to pop up with DJ Drama. You've also been doing the blog at XXL. How's that going for you? It's cool. It's all right. For me, it's just another platform. To be honest with you, I wasn't really aware of it until I started doing it. Since I started doing it, I started checking them on other sites. It's another opinion. Sometimes the opinions are straight out of somebody's mom's bedroom with posters of Jay-Z on the wall, but to each his own. I have thick skin. I get a lot of hate on there but it's all good. I put so much work in and I know how I got here. I'm not a critic. In the words of Method Man, "Fuck a critic who talk about it while I live it." You're not going to catch me dissing somebody or criticizing somebody's opinion. I'm in the game to move the culture forward and I respect everybody that's doing their thing because I know how hard it was to get here. I don't need to diss niggas. I write my shit and move on. I've actually stopped reading the comments. What do you want to say to everybody? I appreciate the support. I've been grinding from day one to get to where I'm at. I believe in the culture and I believe in the past and the future. I'm doing what I'm doing because I'm carrying the torch for who came before me and I'm doing it for the niggas coming up who are going to do it in a couple years. I'm living proof that you can do it. Just pay attention.

By Brian Kayser

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