DeeJay Ran also known as "Jersey's Fastest Hands" has been into the art of Deejaying since the age of 10. The multi talented Ran who was raised in Irvington, NJ has displayed his talents all across the country while building unprecedented media strategies to promote his services. As the former Marketing Director for clothing store franchise Against All Odds, DeeJay Ran toured the states and increased his impact and knowledge of rocking diverse crowds while they shopped in stores. Those appearances were featured on the Comcast/Mike Sisti produced 'Where Ya At?' video show where Ran was also a Co-Host. Ran keeps it true to the culture and represents an area where the DJ is a champion for the music. In addition to working major celebrity events and parties, DeeJay Ran also promotes the singing vocal talent of his brother Shane, who recently won the Steve Harvey Foundation/Choice Hotels 'Rising Star Challenge'. He developed both his own and Shane's websites, DJRansWorld.com & ShanesGoldenVoice.com and has developed a craft for unique promotional ideas that enhances his profession. Mixshow 360 Host D.Bail had a chance to speak with Ran in detail about the impact of winning a Justo award, the differences in music in between regions, push-button DJ's and more.
D.BAIL: Talk about the significance of The Mixtape Awards and the impact of winning a coveted Justo could have on a DJ?
DEEJAY RAN: Winning a Justo mixtape award would have a very big impact on a DJ. Justo was the very first person who gave that proper respect to the DJ and came up with the awards show. I think that any DJ that wins a Justo award would definitely get more exposure, more notoriety and the DJ would probably get more paying gigs because he won that Justos award.
D.BAIL: How do you feel about the new era of push button DJ's? Should the original artform be stuck to and learned or is it a just a matter of palying good music on set?
DEEJAY RAN: At first I didn't have any respect for a push button DJ. But now that technology is evolving so much, it makes it a lot easier. I'm not a push button DJ, however I still use that technology to bring 20 to 30,000 songs rather than carrying a 100 crates of records. The push button DJ and technology as a whole I would say is a gift and a curse. Because it makes it easier, but it also makes it easier for someone who didn't put the work in. For example, somebody like me, I been deejaying since I was 10 years old. I'm 34 now so I've learned. Like before I had my first set of turntables, I used to listen to the radio and I had one Belt-Drive turntable without the pitch control and I had a cassette deck. I used to record the radio and then try to mix from my record to the radio. That's what I used in order to help me learn how to DJ before I was able to get enough money to get a full DJ setup. Back in the day, I used to listen to Red Alert and Chuck Chillout when they were on 98.7 (Kiss Fm) which used to be like Hot 97. Hot 97 used to play Freestyle music and stuff like that back in the day. It was no Hip Hop, no R&B it was just straight Freestyle back then.
D.BAIL: Aww man, yup. I remember that vaguely man.
DEEJAY RAN: With the push button DJ's I would say it would depend on the DJ and how much creativity that he uses with it. I seen a lot of push button DJ's where they was able to sample or bring a song back and still keep it on point.
D.BAIL: How do you as a DJ cater to so many different crowds? How do you stay up on the music in all genres?
DEEJAY RAN: The way I cater to different crowds is I love all types of music. I learned to love all types of music. Rather than just Hip Hop, R&B, Reggae and Club. Now I been getting into Pop & Mainstream. I'm American and Puerto Rican but sometimes I would have to deejay a Haitian party where I would have to bring Suk music or Zouk or Komba. So I had to learn their culture or what they liked to listen to. Then as far as Hispanics, I had to learn the Reggatone, Salsa & Merengue and Bochata. The reason I try to broaden myself out is because where I'm from in Essex County, the average DJ is just doing the clubs in Essex County. They're playing the same songs, the same set, the same order with the same people coming to the same party every single week. Me, I always try to do something to be remembered. I just started thinking out of the box. If I know they're going to be playing Hip Hop, R&B, Club and classic Club all night long, let me try to go out of the box and play a little Pop. Like sometimes, in a club like that you can't even play different genres so you can't even go out of the box because they're so accustomed to the same format or the same type of DJ. So when I use my versatility it's usually when I'm out of state or when I am doing a party with some White folks or some Spanish folks. They like a variety of everything. I have to do a wedding for a Korean couple coming up, so I had to learn how to play their music and the American music at the same time. I have a lot of experience being versatile just from deejaying for Against All Odds for so long. They were sending me to different states, so before I went to that state I had to look at what was the hottest radio station, see what was the hottest songs so I know what type of music they like. So I had to do my homework on every state. That helped me broaden my horizons and be more versatile because when I go out of state and they will book me for a gig, I had what they wanted. Right here in Jersey, you can get away with playing classic Club and House music. You mess around in Miami with that or Atlanta they gonna look at you like you crazy.
D.BAIL: (laughs) Word. That's interesting how different regions view whats hot and what's not. How important is it for a DJ to be involved with all aspects of business?
DEEJAY RAN: Every DJ can't handle business. Not even just DJ's just a business man or woman has to separate corporate from street. It's alot of people that think that "All right, I'm from the hood and I can just get it poppin' by freestylin' it," instead of having a plan and having a proposal to bring to different corporations if thats the angle or way they want to move. My way of networking myself is through flyers, business cards and promo Cd's. I'm always making a CD that's promoting my website or I'm making a CD promoting a promoters party or birthday party. I do a side service where I make customized Cd's for people. I found out when I was with Against All Odds, every week I would make 2 Cd's that's promoting their sales or an upcoming event, things like that. So once I left the company I said, let me utilize that in the night clubs. So what I would do is, if a promoter pays me to that promo CD, I keep promoting that promoters name and company, I let the audience know about the club, whatever drink specials or whatever specials they have, whether you can get in the club a certain time for free, or ladies free, stuff like that. I also been into video mixing while I'm deejaying. I'll play a regular video but then get my own video promoting myself or promoting that I have Cd's on sale, or for the next 5 minutes shots of Hennesy is 3 dollars at the bar, you know different marketing schemes. People gonna look at the screen all night anyway, so why not promote yourself?
D.BAIL: True. That's whats up.
DEEJAY RAN: They will watch me deejay, but while they're dancing they're looking at the video. Then as I'm playing a song where I don't have a video, it will have words saying 'DeeJayRan - Jersey's Fastest hands', or ' Log on to Deejayransworld.com' or 'If you liking the music come come see me at the booth, I got Cd's, 1 for 5 dollars, 5 for 20 dollars.' So then when they see it, I don't even have to say it on the mic, cause they done read it already. So they will come up to me and say "You got this type of CD?" That's how I get my side grustle on.
D.BAIL: I hear that. What are some of the other differences in clubs around the states and the people you've noticed during your travels?
DEEJAY RAN: Well, let me start with Jersey. I've been here all my life. I've seen the clubs and the music change. I feel the 90's was the best era. Now a days, a lot of music is watered down and they talk about nonsense. Back in the day people was doing music with a meaning. You really had to have skills in order to get a deal. If you wasn't really good you wasn't getting a deal no matter who you knew. Now a days with all the politics and money, money talks now. It's not a matter of if your good or not, it matters who you know and how much money you got. As far as out of state, I like to go to other places rather than this Tri-State area. Don't get me wrong, you got good people in it, but you also have people that feel threatened if they see you moving faster than they're moving. It's more hate than love up here now a days. There's no more unity. As far as the music, music is starting to be almost everywhere. Like a lot of Pop and Mainstream, you hear the same songs everywhere now.
Back in the day if you went to the South, all you would hear on the radio was Dirty South. But I went to Atlanta 2 weeks ago and they was playing R&B, they was doing blends, they had old school. They still did the Dirty South, but it was more of a variety now, because more of a variety of people are moving down there.
D.BAIL: Definitely, there is a big East Coast migration headed to the South. Especially Jersey cats a lot of people from around my way in Plainfield moved down there.
DEEJAY RAN: Yea man, Monica's DJ (DJ Siza) is from Plainfield. And he came down and got it poppin' in a matter of 2 years. My man Face, he's from Jersey he moved down there and he got a film and video production crew and a magazine down there. So when I was there the last time, he introduced me to all types of folks, DJ Drama, DJ Don Cannon, Issac Hayes son (Ike Dirty) and this was just a matter of 3 to 4 days. Like I made more connections down there in 3 to 4 days then I did in about a year or 2 here. It's more of a love and respect for the craft. Like up here in Jersey, no one's respecting the craft anymore. Now a days, the promoter wants me to be the DJ and the promoter, but they want to pay me to be a DJ. And then if it's a slow night, they will look at me like, "What happened?" My job is to make them dance, my job ain't to get them here.
D.BAIL: That's crazy!
DEEJAY RAN: That's messing up the game over here a lot. The promoters here will throw a party, but there's no decorations, no thank you for coming to my party, no giving back to the community. It's no love, it's just "Alright, I am having a party they have to pay to get in and that's it." I just hope that the unity changes. If not, I will make moves.
DeeJay Ran showcasing his skills live:
Check out DeeJay Ran on facebook.com
Follow DeeJay Ran on twitter.com
No comments:
Post a Comment