What made you the man you are today?

I come from a mother and father. My father is a Jamaican guy, very political. Always talked about politics at home. My mother was a hard working lady, two jobs. I come from an Island background, Most Island people just work so much. That’s pretty much what made me me. Everyone in my family is hard working people, educated people.

You are credited with creating the Miami sound. How did that come about?

It was more like where I’m from. The music is up tempo with a lot of base in it. That’s what Island music is. My father is Jamaican. I spent a lot of time over there. And I spent a lot of time doing Jamaican 8-track tapes. So listening to that music and being that Miami is so Caribbean, it’s like to create a sound, you had to have up tempo, a lot of bass, and real sexual driven. It’s a real sexual city. Everything about the Islands and Miami is really sexually oriented because it’s so hot people don’t dress with as much clothes, lot of beaches, lot of bikinis, lots of dancing. Most Island people like dancing. And Miami people too. That’s how the music came about. It made sense to do it like that.

Did you start out as a solo artist?

I was a DJ. I like to DJ. I used to bring artists to perform down in Miami. I used to bring Run DMC, T La Rock, Jazzy Jay, all these different artists. I DJ’d real good. I was one of the best DJs in Miami. I break music. I used to tell artists I’d break their record and to come down to perform. I broke 2 Live Crew records at the parties that I did. I used to do parties for 10,000 people for the weekend. Before you knew it, I brought 2 Live Crew down and they were looking for a record deal. I couldn’t find them one. Everyone told them no, so I eventually ended up hooking up with them.

Weren’t you actually a member of 2 Live Crew?

I never had no intentions of being a member but then they were like, “Oh hey, we want you to be in the group because of your DJing.” DJing down there is not like DJing up here. It’s like call and response, talking trash over the microphone, getting the party started. So that’s what I did. The ultimate hype man. So they wanted me to be part of the group and I told them no problem, they just had to change some things. So they did. They used to do more dance music. So we changed it. Continued on page 2 »