DJ Cisco.com

Friday, July 25, 2008

Atlanta based Overtime Productions is owned and operated by DJ CISCO. I am a mobile disc jockey service that has operated in Atlanta for twenty years.

I got my start as a DJ by telling a lie. Back in the day the kids in my neighborhood were break dancing but I couldn’t dance so I told everyone I was a DJ. Three guys formed a break dancing crew called Triple Crush. Triple Crush was about to start touring with Whodini and they came to me and said they wanted me to DJ for them. Of course my skills as a DJ were non-existent. After all I did lie.

I panicked and grabbed my mom’s Fisher Price record player (back then they weren’t called turntables) and the only two records I had (Planet Rock and Ashford and Simpson’s Found A Cure) and tried to figure out what to do. I used my boom box, recorded the Planet Rock onto cassette and tried to scratch using the other record. It was horrible. When the crew came over I panicked and told them my mom said I couldn’t tour with them, which was a lie.

Determined to no longer lie about being a DJ I got a job at a fast food restaurant. With the money I earned I would walk to a record store called Turtles and buy records. Soon I saved enough money, went to a pawnshop and bought my first turntable. A friend offered to sell me his Dad’s turntable for $50 bucks. I checked it out and bought it too. I went to Radio Shack and bought a mixer and with my mom’s Fisher Price speakers and receiver I officially had my first set up.

I started practicing and making mixtapes and would pass them out to the people in my neighborhood. I didn’t even know I was promoting myself. I was just happy to hear people listening to what I had done. Some days I would put my speakers in the windows of my Mom’s apartment and have a block party. I would DJ until I got tired or ran out of records.

At 16 I got a car and started bumping my mixtapes all over Atlanta. One day someone told me my mixtapes were ok but he wanted to hear something different, not the same music on the radio. About the same time I was told this I found a store by Greenbriar called Supersounds. Theo was the owner and when I went in he had a huge selection of 12” vinyl. I bought $100 dollars worth of music because it was all I had in my pocket. Theo asked me if I was a DJ and I said yeah. I told him I didn’t know he existed and how often did he get new music. He told me every Tuesday. I told him I would be back every week.

The second week I went back to Supersounds I bought another $100 dollars worth of vinyl. He said he could see I was serious about being a DJ and reached behind the counter and gave me at least 100 records. He told me these were promo copies sent by labels and local artists. “You can have them,” he said. From that stack of records I found new releases and local artists and started putting them in my mix tapes. At that moment he taught me a DJ could get free stuff from labels and local artists. They wanted you to play their stuff.

To separate myself from the other DJ’s I started making unique mixes, taking accapella’s of R and B songs and mixing them with Hip Hop beats. Keep in mind I had no mentor. I was learning on my own. One day I accidentally dropped a slow jam on top of a fast beat and knew I had hit on something. I put it on tape and gave it out and it was my new calling card. I submitted my unique mixes to the major labels and I asked a DJ named Tommy Fixx at V-103 in Atlanta to play a remix I did for R and B artist Rome. It was my first remix played on a major station. The label didn’t pick up the remix but it was circulated in mix tapes.

In 1994 some friends opened Club G-Spot off Campbellton Road in Southwest Atlanta. I DJ’d there full time for a year but found it confining so I went back to being a mobile DJ since I could set my own schedule and accept or decline any business I wanted.

Over the next few years I did a lot of mobile gigs and a Step Show at the O’Keefe Gym at Georgia Tech. The step show was huge. I set up the sound, stage, videographer, coordinated with Laface to get Cool Breeze and Witchdoctor to appear as performing acts. I put a lot of time and preparation into that function and it was fantastic.

In 1999 I began volunteering at WRFG WRFG 89.3 FM in Atlanta and in 2000 I was given a show to host. In 2002 “The Remix” show was formed and we have made it best late night show in Atlanta with our easygoing demeanors, interviews and music. We have informal discussions on current events and sports topics. We talk with local artists as well as established artists. We also play a variety of Hip-Hop, R&B, unsigned artists and Reggae music not heard on the other stations in Atlanta. In fact we pride our show on being different than the typical mainstream show. You can check us out at ATLRemix.com. You can also check me out mixing from 3 am to 5 am.