“When you make it, you supposed to get out the hood”. (c) DJ Quik
With his ninth studio album The Midnight Life out right now in stores everywhere and iTunes, DJ Quik made a brief stop during his NYC promo run to Eminem’s Shade 45 channel on SirusXM. In his sit-down on Sway In The Morning, the Compton pioneer opened up his historical timeline, working with virtually every artist and one of the few producer-rappers to get co-signs from all generations of hip-hop.
During the 30-minute conversation, he even performed a few songs from his new album; but he really caught our attention discussing being the first hip-hop artist in the mainstream to wear a red flag, for his Piru background. Quik shed light on his reasoning for shying to the right side of things with fellow Compton youths trying to jump him – when he was just trying to be the music guy.
After seeing Mack 10 followed his path being from the only red rapper on the market, he breathed a huge sigh of relief; but that segued into Sway bringing up the current generation of artist in the likes of Chris Brown and Lil’ Wayne. DJ Quik soon said he felt flattered for the homage, but revealed it shouldn’t be used for glamorization. He revealed was forced into the lifestyle to survive and didn’t forget his roots when he came into the rap game.
LISTEN: DJ Quik – The Midnight Life [Album Stream]