DJ Whoo Kid is one of the most versatile and entertaining DJs in the industry. The Queens Disc Jockey, who started his career in the mid-1990s with 50 Cent and his G-Unit crew is now a successful radio host, with a brand extension that includes TV, clothing, his own website and more.
Whoo Kid has worked with 50 Cent and Eminem professionally for more than a decade and also been fired a number of times — both seriously and jokingly (we’re sure you remember this). The entertainer, who very recently won the “Tour DJ of The Year” award at the first annual Global Spin Awards in NYC spoke to us about touring all over the world, his hilarious Whoolywood Shuffle show on Shade 45, brotherly relationship with 50 Cent & getting fired over 20 times, his new album Street King Immortal, 50 Cent-Lloyd Banks tension, cooking up a House track with Wiz Khalifa and much more.
Read our crazy conversation below!
First off, congrats on appearance on The Voice the other night with 50 and Adam Levine. That was a dope performance.
DJ Whoo Kid: Yeah that is a big record man. That was a big moment right there man. We are back.
Definitely. Also want to congratulate you on winning the “Tour DJ of The Year” award at the Global Spin Awards last week. How does it feel?
DJ Whoo Kid: Thanks man. Yeah, I guess because I tour a lot. Every week I’m in a different country so I get all the visuals. A lot of people just respect that fact, like last week I was in Canada somewhere on the west coast side, Regina, what they call it v*gina (laughs). I was in Regina, this week I’m in Lisbon, Portugal. Next week I’m in Brazil. So, I got the visuals, it’s not like I’m talking, I come back with the proof (laughs).
How important do you consider touring for a DJ like yourself?
DJ Whoo Kid: It’s important because not only does it keep me relevant overseas, because it feels like dead when you just hang in America, it also refreshes the foreign fans I have when I keep going back there. I bring back new music, it’s not like I go overseas and play the same sh*t, it’s new music, a new form of swag as they would say. It’s like a new feeling every time I come back, and then I learn more about them, what they listen to, how they upgraded and then I bring that back to New York, or Miami or LA. There’s different people in every different clubs and once I’ve mastered every club, it’s like second nature to me. Because I know if you go to Italy, they like the south. If you go to France, they respect they own music but will hear a little bit of East Coast. Or, if you go to China, it’s just pop music, Top 40. You gotta learn by traveling, you gotta learn by interacting with their culture. Even doing mixtapes with their top artists. I did all the mixtapes in the UK with the big artists from Tinie Tempah to Giggs, and I did mixtapes with Booba in France. It’s not about just going there and DJin, you gotta f**kin find a way to get respect from their culture too. You don’t want to just go there and they be like ‘that’s 50 Cent’s DJ’. Nah, you wanna go there like, ‘oh that’s the guy who did the record with Tinie Tempah’ or ‘oh that’s the guy who the remix with Booba’,’oh that’s the guy who did the mixtape with DJ Cut Killer. You know I was on the radio with Tim Westwood. You gotta give ’em reasons why they should respect you. I’m not getting the easy ticket out here, like ‘oh I’m 50 Cent’s DJ’. What is the easiest ticket? I could go over there and say I’m Eminem’s DJ, I’m 50 Cent’s DJ, and I could get all the props ever, but do you give something back to their community & culture and do you bring their culture to America?
I connected Tinie Tempah to Chris Brown and Wiz Khalifa and they did hits. It’s like a cool way of bridging the gap. You know I became like a liaison, like a UN to Hip-Hop linking all these cultures. Other DJs ain’t thinking like that and I’ve always thought ahead, even when I was young, same sh*t. Touring & going overseas keeps you aware and also you’re like a better man. Better than DJing in Brooklyn all your life, DJing in Miami all your life, like you DJ in one club. Who gives a f**k? You know if you haven’t been around the world and you don’t understand the world, you’ll never be that exclusive guy, you’ll never be the one guy with the crazy stories. Like I’ve DJd for Princes. I know the prince of Bahrain, the prince of France, Nelson Mandela, Gaddafi. I would’ve never did that if I didn’t tour overseas. Every footballer overseas, I know all the top dudes. DJing in Ibiza, doing Techno, doing House, I mean you gotta be open format now if you wanna survive. I’m not trying be the DJ that just DJs in New York, gets that little 800 bucks, 500 bucks and goes home. I never wanted to be that guy.
Your ‘Whoolywood Shuffle’ show is really funny and entertaining. Which artist did you have the maximum fun with on the show?
DJ Whoo Kid: I think one of my favorite artists is T.I. because Tip is the type of guy that’s really tough. He don’t play no games and then I guess like over the years of me f**kin’ with him, it kinda like cooled him down, where he became the cool guy. He jokes now. Before that, he used to be so serious, but now he’s like the jokester. He don’t mind me f**kin with people, I can make fun of people with him, he’ll jump in. Now he makes it a point to come on my show every time he is in New York. I kinda like enjoy. You know, like everyone else I’ve known him from even before he blew up, so it’s kinda cool. But he’s always been a serious guy because of the beef, and all the negativity, and all the haters he had. He was never the kinda guy who didn’t mind joking. And you know I’m an idiot on the radio (laughs). I can make everyone laugh and go crazy and I thought it was very difficult to make him laugh, but the fact that I can make him keel over, I could make anyone just cry. I use him as my medium or I test my skills. If I can make T.I. keel over and pee on himself, then I’m the man, I can anybody laugh, you know what I’m saying.
One of my favorite all time guests is Willie Nelson. It’s kinda cool like to interview a guy like that because it’s hard to integrate a legend with the ignorance of my Hip-Hop show. if I can make him comfortable, and he can give me his stories and we come to an agreement, it kinda like proves my skills is up to par. Because I had him up there wildin’ out, so that was one of my legendary situations.
The third one would be taking over the Howard Stern show (laughs). I was supposed to just do a f**kin’ rap battle, and I wind up taking over the whole show and it looked like he was interviewing me for an hour. So, I became like a mentalist when it comes to interviews. Like I know how to manipulate anything and make everything comfortable. I can make any artist say whatever just by keywords and I learned this from being on radio for almost 20 years.
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Tell us exactly what your relationship with 50 is like. Haven’t you been fired like a number of times now? (laughs)
DJ Whoo Kid: Man it’s been the same ever since we started. We can be cool every day, but if I get him mad, he gets mad. He’s a normal human being. If I f**k up, he’s a perfectionist, you what I’m saying. Like on stage, sometimes I tell him ‘yo I’m not a robot’ and sometimes humans f**k up, but he don’t wanna hear that shit. Thats like the only time we have any kind of friction, is on stage. Besides that, it’s like brothers man. I’ve been with him for almost 12 years. Get Rich Or Die Tryin album is going 10 year anniversary in February. The fact that you can prove it’s brotherly love, is like you can fire somebody 100 times, but where am I gonna go. He can find another DJ all he wants, but it’s kinda hard to find a DJ that he could know from a 10 year experience. You gotta know the person, you gotta know when they f**ks up, you gotta know the music, not even the music alone. It’s not just press and play. A lot of people think it’s just pressing buttons and then 50 cent is on stage. There’s a lot of technical shit, even watching him and bringing the volumes up and down. It takes years to even know someone to understand them.
Even when he f**ks up, I can fix the shit. So you can hire a new DJ, I don’t mind getting fired, because I know I always return (laughs). I got fired damn near 20 times in my career but yeah we’re like the coolest. I talk to him about my family, he talks to me about his, everything is cool, we’re brothers. I ain’t going nowhere, I don’t care who the f**k it is. I’m always gonna be his DJ, even if he fires me. I don’t give a f**k. I told him — if he fires me, I’m not gonna be a DJ for anyone else. Like I’m not DJing for an artist ever again. Anybody can hire me, I don’t give a f**k, I’m just gonna be like a tour DJ. I tour every weekend, you know, the promoter can abuse the situation like ‘oh 50 Cent’s DJ’ but then in some countries ‘oh DJ Whoo Kid coming to town’. Well, that it depends on who the d**khead promoter is. But I told him (50) I’m never ever gonna DJ for any other artist for the rest of my life. I ain’t wanna deal with this shit. I’m not gonna be the 45 year old f**kin DJ on a wheelchair in the back (laughs). That’s why I’m still there, because there’s no one that can take over that spot. Even that show The Voice, you said that shit was incredible. It may look simple but it’s really knowing him, understanding he’s on stage, watching him, it’s not that simple. If you don’t have the relationship with the artist, you’re not gonna be the DJ that he needs.
Like Whoo Kid is always gonna be there. I’m always gonna be there for him and I’m not gonna DJ for nobody else. Simple as that!
You guys put on a crazy show.
DJ Whoo Kid: Come on man, a 2 hour show at that. It’s not like it’s a f***ing 20 min show. I’’s 2 hours of painstakingly understanding how each song goes to the next, gun shots, fade outs and all of that. It’s not just pressing a button. DJs watch me on stage DJing and say ‘I don’t think I can do this shit’. Not only that, he’s done beat up all the other DJs that have tried to be his DJ. They f**k his show up, he chases them, they leave the town (laughs). It don’t matter, it’s not that easy. I would love to see somebody press buttons, so they say, for f***in’ 2 hours, let’s not add the extra 30 min that he’s on stage after the 2 hours with the random songs because he wants to keep going. I’m talking about after the concert — he’ll do a two hour show, then an extra 30 min of all his classic hits, extra freestyle songs. It ends up being more like 2.5 hours. If you can’t read his mind, if you can’t understand what the f**k is gonna happen next, he’ll turn on you. He’ll be like a Pitbull (laughs). You ever not fed a Pitbull before? I’ve learned from the past 8-10 years how to compress the fear. I don’t even give a f**k about the 80,000 in front of me, the 30,000, I don’t give a f**k about them. I’m more worried about him not getting his look, because he is a perfectionist, point blank period.
Wow. Have you heard 50’s ‘Street King Immortal’ album? How does it sound like?
DJ Whoo Kid: Yo man, incredible man! He played it for us the other day when we were rehearsing for The Voice. Unbelievable. We had to rehearse the ‘My Life’ record and I was like ‘yo, I haven’t heard the whole version with Em (Eminem), can you play the whole version.’ He played that and I was going crazy, I’m like we gonna perform this? Get the f**k outta here! Then he’s like ‘yo , lemme play some other joints for you and I was just bugging out on them. He’s got some other artists on the album and he has them out of their element too. So every artist you see out there doing the norm like they usually do? He made all of them come into the zone 50’s in. Something like ‘this is the beat, this is what you gotta do, and you can’t be like the same 101 of what you do every day because I want this to be different.’ And then they all adjusted and it sounds incredible. It’s definitely gonna be like greedy, grimey like Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ but on the next level. Yo, I was so amped son. I’m about to be gone again. I told my wife “f*******ck you”, I’m not coming back home again. When I told my baby moms back in the day when we first toured for Get Rich Or Die Tryin’, I told her to go f**k herself, I ain’t seen her for like 6 years. I ain’t even know where my kid was. I came back and my kid was like another human yo (laughs). And now I’m about to go tell her to f**k herself again. We’re about to be outta here, that’s if I don’t get fired again! And then the reaction from The Voice? Damn! And we got more shows coming up, it’s already a good look man.
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(Laughs) You’re crazy. So there’s some tension brewing between 50 and Banks. What’s your take on the situation and what’s your relationship with Banks like?
DJ Whoo Kid: I mean I don’t even know man, I tried to like talk to them. Fif says he hasn’t heard from him, I don’t know man. They’re supposed to be cool, I don’t think there are any major problems. From what I know, they’re cool. They were all at Chris Lighty’s funeral. You will hear it from him (50). He will give you the view points on Banks and the whole situation with the Unit. But from what I know, they’re cool. But 50 will let you know and explains the situation better.
Tell us about your future projects. What are some of the mixtapes you have lined up?
DJ Whoo Kid: It’s too much man, I’m doing like ten things at once (laughs). Right now I’m working on a reality show, like a DJ reality show. It’s like based from the UK to the US. It documents my traveling, my radio and my everyday life. Whether I’m doing a mixtape with Snoop Dogg, marketing, my lifestyle, how I live etc. We’re working on that now. I’m joining Howard Stern on his network, he loves me so I’m about to be his partner in crime. I’m often on The Opie And Anthony show also which is another big radio show, those are like my boys. I’m probably like the first black guy to just jump from one show to the next. I love those guys, they give me a lot of radio love. I’m always working for Eminem, I mean Jesus, can’t get much better than that!
And my Whoolywood Shuffle show is about to hit 9 years running. I think I’ve interviewed something like 260 movie stars, it’s crazy. I never wanted to be the f**kin DJ that keeps interviewing rappers over and over every year so I kept it to the big name rappers and then decided to interview movie stars because I find that intriguing and the curiosity about understanding what the hell goes on in these guys’ minds. Like what the f**k is Brad Pitt thinking about when ‘Niggas In Paris’ comes on, like what the f**k is he gonna do? Is he gonna go crazy, is he gonna dance, that’s where I come in! I’m glad I’ve had the opportunity to do that, and then it made me the main dude for all the Hollywood personalities. My clothing line is poppin’, I got KRSP, I got a deal with Marc Ecko on the distribution side. I got my radioplanet.tv, that’s my website where I post everything and I’m working on my Whoolywood shuffle TV show also, which is derived from my radio show. So a lot going on. And I get money from like 10 other products, the shit to shout out is ridiculous man. I’m great though. I teamed up with DJ Chuckie, we’re working on House records now.
Oh, so you’re serious about House?
DJ Whoo Kid: Yeah. I gotta get into that. I love DJing House and I respect the House DJs, and I’m not trying to be the illest house DJ. David Guetta’s my boy, he was on the show a couple months back, thanks to Akon, he hooked me up with David Guetta. You know DJ Chuckie has always been my fan so it’s only right because he came from a Hip-Hop background but he’s a big House man now, you know what I’m saying. It only makes sense for me and him to link up, we’re working on a song right now with Wiz Khalifa, a House record. So it’s like the fastest way to get into this shit, I’m not trying to come out doing made house sound noises and you know, I’d rather be with the experienced dudes, who understand what to do, what to say. I’m learning man, it feels like I’m starting over again, but I’ve actually been doing this for like 20 years. I was here when there was no Hip-Hop, it was just the clubs and now I’m back to the clubs with the House music & the techno and all that stuff. That’s basically all I’m doing, I’m excited about the Howard Stern shit. Every time I’m on there, 20 million are tuned in. I’m really excited for 50’s new record, so that means we’re gonna be back on TV, back on touring back on these h*es, any of you h*es out there listening, or reading this shit, prepare to suck my d**k again because 50 cent is back f**in whore! I don’t know if you can add that in your interview, but add that! (laughs). Yooo we are back kid. I was so f**in amped, I’m ready to get my d**k sucked all year kid (laughs).
(Laughs) oh man, if you got so much going on. Any shout outs to end our crazy convo?
DJ Whoo Kid: Yeah! My Twitter updates every day, I was with Betty White today, got Starbucks, took her to eat at Nobu (restaurant). I even humped her, I got photos of me humping her. It’s like, she’s 90 kid, that chick is crazy kid, I was with Betty White. I still got it kid, I’m goin’ in, I’ll even send you the photos if you want (laughs). But anyway, follow me on Twitter and Instagram. We out, peace to Hip Hop N More. Pow!