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DJ P Interview

The Life and Times of DJ P
Interview by Jasko

In case any of you didn’t know DJ P is one of the most talented and inventive DJ’s roaming the land of turntablism. Danny James Phillips(yes there is a reason he calls himself DJ P) has in a sense flipped the DJ world on it’s head by creating some of the most interesting mixes of tracks on the turntables that just shouldn't go together! His beatmatching is truly something to watch and listen to. Unlike most Dj’s DJ P does not limit his style of music to any one type of genre but instead branches out across the spectrum of music while always keeping Hip Hop and the spirit of a B Boy alive inside the mix. Wow enough wordy ass kissing huh…lets get to the interview.....

Jasko: So DJ P, You’ve crisscrossed this country laying down some of the most unique and truly original Dj Sets of all time….how did you get into Djing ?
DJ P : I got into Djing through B Boying first. It was just hearing the music being mixed on a radio station out of St. Louis and there was a guy in our neighborhood that had turntables he was mixing all this stuff up. So all this stuff I was breakdancing to...I was hearing it being mixed and I was curious about it so..that's how I got into it.

Jasko: How old were you at the time?
DJ P: I was in 5th grade. I was like ten years old.

Jasko: So as far as actually having turntables or attempting to mix. How old were you?
DJ P: Sixth grade. Well I didn't have a mixer. I just had two different seperate ghetto rigups. It was like two different K-Mart stereos. Remember the old stereos where you had two speakers came with it and it had a turntable on it. I'm sitting there trying to match records with 4 speakers. Two playing the one record, two playing the other record. I was playing around with it in 6th grade but I didn't get serious about it until my senior year in high school like 1989 or '90.

Jasko: So let's fast forward a little bit here, I’ve heard you tell this story before but for those who don’t know tell us what it was like competing in the DMC contest.
DJ P: Well they said "DJ P from Tulsa, Oklahoma" people were kinda clowning me. You know most people think "Oh Oklahoma's a bunch of rednecks" which it is but at the same time you still have people out there that are heads who keep up with hip hop. It's not all rednecks...it's just surrounded by rednecks(laughs). So anyways to finsh off the DMC battle story. Once I got on the tables and started mixing stuff up...the crowd came out..they came unglued. They jumped out of their seats.They were yelling and screaming and then I came out from behind the tables just to show them I could B Boy too. They already thought what the hell he's from Oklahoma, how can he be Hip Hop. So it was a way for me to put not only myself on the map but other people from the area and even Missouri. To me it was all about going out and having a good time. I never expected to win anything. I just love mixing and mixing different styles together. At that time you didn't have people doing "Satanik Mashups" and all that stuff. So it blew peoples minds that I was up there mixing this weird stuff together and not just doing turntable tricks.

Jasko: You’ve put out a couple mix albums as of late "Out of Control" and "Hell on Wheels 2", any thoughts on those?
DJ P: Out of Control was a Cd I did back in '98. It was mostly just a hip hop thing but I was throwing in a little '80 in here and there. The Hell on Wheels 2 was something that was a takeoff on Hell on Wheels. Now that was originally called 10.31.98. In 1998 I decided to make a Halloween themed Hip Hop mix Cd. If you listen to it it's mainly more dark and underground stuff like Gravediggaz and Ghetto Boys. Then I decided to do another Hell on Wheels/ Halloween theme and I recorded that out there in Portland, Oregon.

Jasko:. Any plans to release any new mixes soon?
DJ P: Yeah. Hell on Wheels 2 is getting repressed right now but without the DVD. My very first Cd which was called Manipulated Tracks, which was lost, I found a copy of it. That will be out soon. I also have my gansta mix coming out...I have a bunch of stuff coming out soon. The Uneasy Listening is getting repressed and we(Ztrip) are only going to sell at shows which will only be two shows. One in LA and the other San Francisco. Vinyl will be pressed of Uneasy Listening. We've already done it. It's on clear, double vinyl. That will be on sale at the shows and distributed a little bit. I think there's only a thousand made. We are going to hang it up. Uneasy Listening is totally over with. We are putting it to bed.

Jasko: Ok so there will not be a summer tour with Z Trip. Just the two dates?
DJ P: Yeah the summer tour is not going to happen. Basically we are doing Uneasy Listening Live in May at the El Ray in Los Angeles and then a date right after that in San Francisco. So these two shows are basically to show people that "Hey we're the pioneers that put this on the map, we weren't the first people to do it but we really put it on the map and put it out there" and here it is and now we're done with it. As in when you come to hear us play, stop expecting to hear Pat Benitar and Pharcyde. Stop expecting to hear Madonna over or that. We're just so sick and tired of it. It's not really the mixes that we're tired of, it's the whole thing of people looking at Z-Trip and going "Oh ya Dj P blah blah blah" or people looking at me and going "How about Z-Trip and the Uneasy Listening blah blah blah". We're just wanting to put that to bed because we're burned out. I'd like to show up at a show and be able to play totally different stuff and people still dig it. Having to hear me do the same rock and 80's mixes all the time. I mean I still enjoy doing those but it's time to move on and do some different stuff. We just wanna say hear's Uneasy Listening for you one more time. Grab the vinyl while you can, grab a T Shirt, grab a Cd while you can and farewell it's over (laughter).

Jasko: Can you name a couple of your favorite gigs of all time. Just a couple that really stand out as incredible moments as a DJ.
DJ P: I would have to say the 311 tour, that was great. That really stands out. Just being able to play all over the United States has been great. Even being able to play in Portland before I lived there was great. Up in Seattle with Z-Trip at Groovetech that was cool. New York City a club called FUN one night, I had people jumping up and down on the furniture. Funny thing about this club is your not allowed to dance there cause they don't have dance code so people were dancing there anyways..it was great! I had a good time. Being able to do all these gigs is a great feeling. I am real humble about it though. There is a lot of people who would love to do what I have done or Z-Trip's done or even these other bigger Dj's like Mixmaster Mike have done. You know were just Dj's. We are playing with studio. We take peoples music and we manipuate it the way we like it and it's respected by a certain group of people in the United States and there is just enough people that keep it alive. It's a great thing.

Jasko: Any thoughts on your time spent in Portand, Oregon.
DJ P: Well there's a lot of people in America that doesn't get the turntable thing. That's whats great about Portland. It's not a real big city but yet it's just big enough and there's people there that dig it and they know what it is. They come out and see it. Thats another great thing about Portland. It's not to big and not to small.

Thanks for the time DJ P...........

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