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N.P.: Do you feel that radio has changed
over the years?
RED ALERT: Radio has changed in a major way over the years, not
just in New York, everywhere. I don’t know if you ever spent
time listening to the radio?
N.P.: I’m from Connecticut. Around
the Hartford area.
RED ALERT: We have a sister station there
104.1 fm. Once corporations bought out the radio stations, its
not the same any more. I feel like satellite is taking over.
N.P.: If you didn’t see yourself
in music what would you see yourself doing right now?
RED ALERT: What I wanted to do at one
point in time was do consulting for mix shows. But I learned once
again that these corporations have a handle on mix shows. They
have them going by the play list. They restrict you from breaking
records. What I use to do when I was coming along doing mixes.
I’m just involved with what I’m doing now. I’m
involved with doing satellite. Stations like 103. And lately,
I’ve been involved with Sirius radio, and moving right along
with it.
N.P.: With all the artist you’ve worked with in the past,
which ones were your favorite artist to work with?
RED ALERT: You know, I never really had a favorite.
N.P. : Nobody special ? You know, there are a lot of artist out
there.
Yeah. There are a lot of great artist out there, but I kinda jammed
along with everybody. And I tried to do everybody even and fair.
Whether you’re in a group or solo. If you wanna work, I’ll
believe in you.
N.P.: Do you think the artist you met,
changed after they became big?
RED ALERT: Oh yeah, you know, you gonna
see that. Some change for the better, some changed for the worst.
But you see, that depends on self. You may have some that may
change but they still have their focus and their structure on
what they are. You’ll have some that just wanna stay in
the same situations that they started and don’t want to
know how to change. Some of them get caught into a time zone.
They don’t want to involve themselves in a new experiment.
N.P.: I heard you have an exhibit out
in Cleveland. How does it make you feel and how do you want people
to look at the exhibit when they go out there?
RED ALERT: Its funny you say that. They
got me in the radio section. Not in the hip hop section, the radio
section. When they approached me, they approached me as me being
the first to start capturing everybody across the country, as
far as rap shows. The funny part is when I first started rap shows,
I was acknowledged as doing mix shows.But what happened is , when
I started doing mix shows, the rap world started to become popular.
I was learning to start doing mix shows - not with just rap, but
dance music, hip hop, r and b, and I mixed all at once. What happened
over a period, rap started taking over all kinds of music. One
time, it was 30 percent rap, 70 per cent r and b. Then, before
you know it, I had 85 percent rap, 15 percent r and b. Then before
that died down, before you know it, it was all rap. That was the
sound. It was more as a demand. When It came around the mid -
80s, they had a new style called the ‘New Jack
Swing”. That brought out Guy, Al B. Sure, Keith Sweat, the
list goes on. They were called the new r and b. Because the r
and b before that, became kinda stale. Nobody was into The O’jays
or The Whispers any more.
N.P.: Why do you think that ? Cause now,
artist, whether it be r and b or rap, are using old school beats.
So when people listen to these new artist now, they hear old school
beats.
RED ALERT: That came from the hip hop
era. Before we started rap records, we always sampled other instrumentals
from other artist, cause that’s what we wanted to vibe over.
When you listened to the music then, we had d.j.s doing a section
in a song called a break. That’s when d.j.s keep mixing,
keeping that break going on, while the M.C. or rapper spits over
it. By the time the “new r and b” era came around
you start hearing new records using old r and b or old hip hop.
I thought I’d never hear a time when new r and b would use
old hip-hop tracks. It’s like they’re saying, “what
you gave, we giving back.”
N.P.: How did you feel when you worked
with the Zulu nation ?
RED ALERT: How that came about.... me
and my cousin we looked up to Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash.
When I got my money after getting out of college, I got my equipment.
So when my cousin got older, I t aught him as well. When we moved
from Harlem to the Bronx, we came across a cat by the name of
Disco King Mario. He’s from the pioneer stage. When he started
playing for Disco King Mario, Bam was like.... Who is that kid
over there playing with Mario? They were like.... He’s from
the projects. Why is he over there ? He needs to be with us. At
the time, he had two other djs, Bambo and Sinbad, and they wanted
my cousin. That’s how he rolled. If he liked you and you
were talented, he would work with you.
N.P.: Thanks for your time and we hope
to hear from you again.
RED ALERT: Thanks for having me. I’ve
enjoyed every minute of it.
www.kooldjredalert.com
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