DJ Green Lantern doesn’t rhyme, but he’s got all the other areas of this rap shit covered. Primarily known for his skills behind the turntables, he initially established himself with Shady Records’ Benzino-blasting Invasion mixtape series. Since then, everyone from D-Block to Ghostface Killah has enlisted the Rochester, New York native for his energetic hosting and deft mixing. But Green Lantern is just as talented on the MPC as he is on the Technics, and heaters like Ludacris’ Austin Powers-sampling “Number One Spot,” and others. He’s also played a behind-the-scenes role in the career of Uncle Murda, the hard-nosed Brooklynite who impressed Jay-Z enough to earn a deal with Def Jam.

These days, Green Lantern is staying busy by incorporating all of his talents at once. He has a radio show on the hit video game Grand Theft Auto IV that sees him spinning and hosting self-produced songs featuring the likes of Jim Jones and Juelz Santana, Busta Rhymes and Fabolous and Fat Joe. After laying the soundbeds to several new Nas songs and hosting his latest The Nigger Tape, he served as his deejay on the Jones Experience Tour. His mixtape/album with Immortal Technique, The 3rd World, has gotten rave reviews as one of the year’s best releases. Now, he’s putting the final touches on the much-buzzed Barack Obama Mixtape, and in this interview with HipHopDX, he reveals upcoming projects with dead prez and Jay Electronica. Read below to see the "Evil Genius" chop it up about working with Nas, going corporate with the GTA project, and being Hip Hop for Obama without damaging his campaign.

HipHopDX: We know you as a DJ first, and a producer second. Which were you doing first?
DJ Green Lantern: I wanted to be a producer first, I was making beats for a few years. I fell into deejaying and started doing the mixtapes, and that sort of propelled my name to where I could shop beats differently than most producers. Everything goes hand in hand, but I was definitely producing first.

DX: How does a deejay—specifically you, but in general—transcend from doing free beats for cats on mixtapes, to being taken seriously by major labels?
DJ Green Lantern: You’ve just got to have peeps, but you’ve got to have a hustle, too. You look at somebody like Don Cannon [click to read]. He’s getting a lot of production credits, he’s on his hustle. He’s a deejay, and he makes beats too. You’ve got to be ready to be in the studio, playing beats for people just like producers are. You always have to understand what your competition is. You’re in competition with professional beatmakers, and professional producers. You can never just say, “I’m such and such,” or “Here’s this beat. You better like it, and you better use it, because it’s me.” You’re in competition with people who do nothing but produce, so you’ve got to be able to compete on that playing field, or don’t even try.

DX: What would you say are your favorite five beats that you’ve made?
DJ Green Lantern: The “2 Gunz Up” joint for D-Block, that’d probably be number one. Then I’ve got to go with Ludacris’ [click to read] “Number One Spot.” Number three would be Jadakiss' “The Champ Is Here,” Busta Rhymes [click to read] and Rick James' [“In The Ghetto”] is number four. And [Uncle Murda’s] [click to read] “Bullet Bullet” is number five.

DX I thought some of your best beats were with Nas. What do you think contributes to you guys’ chemistry?
DJ Green Lantern: I don’t know man. We just started rocking, too. It’s kind of ill, man, because the chemistry on stage is like that too. Shows were going real ill from a deejay format; we go on the road, and there’s an ill chemistry. I don’t know what it is, man. It’s something…I don’t know if it’s some elements used in a laboratory that we didn’t know about, but it’s really there. I think he’s an ill dude. Some of those joints that you hear are me taking his vocals and reworking an acapella into a song. That’s what happened with the “Cops Keep Firing.” He gave me the acapella of the first verse, and I built the whole song around it. Then he went in and did a second verse. So I think it goes hand in hand.

DX: You’ve performed with a live band and Rock The Bells in New York. What was it like for you, as a deejay, performing with other performers in a live situation?
DJ Green Lantern: You’re pretty much the quarterback in that situation. I know the show, and sometimes, you’ve just got to be ready to give queues. Like, “All right, we’re going to stop right now based on the queues that he’s giving me.” It’s one thing with two turntables and a mic. And then when you add guitars, keyboards, trumpet, all kinds of stuff, they’ve got to take their queue from somebody. So there’s the band leader, who’s the bass player, he’s watching me, and I’m watching Nas, because sometimes he’ll call different queues on the show to switch up the show. You’ve just got to be ready to be on your toes, because the show’s going to switch sometimes during the show. It’s a challenge, but it’s a fuller sound, and I always like to think it’s fun. Continued on page 2 »