DJ Cash Money: Party Rockin

Philly's DJ pioneer keeps on turning the tables

Looking back over the last 20 years of hip hop history and tracing back through the culture's formative years, you can't escape being captivated by the originators who innocently pioneered the fundamental building blocks that have blossomed into today's worldwide phenomenon.  Whether through style & finesse, technical innovation, or sheer stage presence, certain select artists have achieved nothing short of legendary status for their contributions to the art form.

As far as DJing goes, Philly resident DJ Cash Money satisfies all of the above criteria, having won the 1988 DMC World Championships, pioneered the transformer skratch, and spread his infectious party-rocking DJ sets across the globe.  To this day, Cash maintains his purist integrity through a lighthearted and humble attitude, while continuing to show the world exactly why he was crowned The World's Best DJ back in the day.

Stopping through Toronto, Cash was down to hang out with Earwaks for a day, so we took him out in a fly vintage ride and went shopping for new kicks.  Read on to hear more on what this legend has to say, and check the video to see the man himself in action.

 

EW: This is Marmalade representing Earwaks.com, and right now I’m chilling in the back of the ride with none other than Philadelphia’s own DJ Cash Money.
CM: Yoyo, what’s up?

EW: For the kids who don’t know their history, who is DJ Cash Money and what are you best known for?
CM: The name is DJ Cash Money and I’m a pioneer in deejaying, and what I’m known for is to turn table – turn-ta-turn table! You know, turntable skills, rocking parties, collecting old stuff preferably from the 70s and 80s.

 
EW: Word.  So what would you say separates you as a party rocker from the 80s, from today’s typical club DJ?
CM: It’s a combination between me doing turntablist skills, and then rocking the party on the mic, bringing fun to the party, and the record selection also.  I would honestly say “fun”.

EW:Do you take requests?
CM: Nah, no requests.

EW: No requests?
CM: Not at all.  Do I come to somebody else’s drive-in and knock the squeegee out they hand?  Know what I’m saying, haha! So I don’t like somebody telling me about my job, I feel pretty confident, I’ve been doing this for years.

EW: And you’re also an innovator too. You’ve been credited as the founder of the transformer scratch as well.  What’s the story behind that, how did you come across that technique?
CM: Actually, that was an accident that happened.  I hit the off button on the turntable and dragged, and I was just playing with the cross-fader, and my mc at the time was like “man that sounds like a Transformer!” because that was the hot cartoon at the time.

EW: So, who was the first DJ you showed and how did that get popularized, because that’s one of the most fundamental scratches that you can do as a DJ.
CM: I think the first time I did it was at this high school party in Philly, I think it was Central high school.  That tape floated around and made its way all around the world.  I didn’t think that scratch would be so popular. But hey, to be honest, I didn’t think anything that I did was going to be popular, it just caught on!  

EW: It’s history now
CM: Yeah, it’s crazy.

EW: What was hip hop in Philly like in the 80’s, the parties and all that?
CM: We had our own scene because we were overshadowed by New York. But what the promoters did was drive the New York artists down, but always put the Philly artists on the bill.  That’s how we got our reputation.  

EW: Was there anything in the 80’s that you could pull off as a DJ that you just couldn’t do today?
CM: I can’t speak for anybody else, I just speak for Cash Money, but the only thing that’s different is the record selection.  It’s mad commercial now in the hip hop game, you have to play some of the songs that a lot of the people will know and like, but then you give them the things they don’t know.  That’s one of the things I try and do all the time.

EW: What would you say are the top things that the DJs in the clubs today have forgotten about the lost art of party rocking?
CM: Well, record selection.  That’s the main thing.  Why do you want to go to a club and listen to the same record that you can hear on the radio twenty times?  It just defeats the whole purpose.  I don’t understand that.  Also, having fun; everybody can’t scratch or beat juggle or do what turntablists do, but you don’t have to.  If you just drop the right song at the right time, it makes for a fun party.

 

EW: So, would you say that legends are being represented properly right now?
CM: Not at all, they’re not.  They’re kind of forgotten.  If I hear about one more Tupac or Biggie legend award coming out man, I’m gonna scream.  These two cats are the only cats that been doing it?  Stop playing.  They honestly need to give it to Grandmaster Flash, [Grand Wizard] Theodore, Kool Herc, and Afrika Bambaataa, all the guys from that era.  No disrespect to Dr. Dre, but they give him a lifetime achievement award?  What happened to Marley Marl?  C’mon, he was before Dre.  It’s one thing I don’t like about the industry, they’re not teaching the kids the right history.

We [the legends] are kind of forgotten.  If you look at the (VH1) Hip Hop Honour Awards, it’s all bullshit.  How are you gonna have a Nelly up there without showing the contribution of what they really did? I was talking to Crazy Legs one time, and they had honoured Rocksteady Crew last year or something.  I asked him why he didn’t perform when then were honouring him, and he was like “It’s all bullshit”, because pretty much they put all these pretty girls at the front of the crowd and held up a sign that said “Clap!”  Come on, man!

EW: And a lot of younger cats look back and consider Biggie, Tupac and Wu Tang as what’s “old school”, without an understanding of where hip hop has come from.  Would you say that knowing your roots in hip hop is important enough that new heads should look back and do the knowledge on?  
CM: You have to!  How do you know where you’re going if you don’t know where you come from?  That’s like a black person not knowing who Malcolm X or Martin Luther King is, and what they did to fight for our rights so we can live the way we’re living today.  History is very important, and that’s why I don’t like where hip hop is going right now.    Yeah, everyone’s making millions, but come on, you’ve got to teach the kids what’s real.  We didn’t do this to be out here making money, the money came, but we did it for the love first.  I deejay because that’s my first love.  Yeah, I make money from it, that’s the gravy part, but you get that because you become good at what you do, but you got to put the work in.  You’ve got to.

EW: How do you feel about the mixtape scene right now?
CM: I feel like it’s a dead issue, because all the tapes have the same records on them.  It’s all the same stuff, they’re not mixtapes.  They’re just songs being dropped.

EW: Lets talk about the new artists, do people ever get you confused with Lil Wayne, Juvenile, and the Cash Money Millionaires?
CM: All the time.  That’s what I’m saying, do your history.  That’s like calling yourself Stevie Wonder.  Come on.  You’re in the hip hop game, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t know the artists that came before you.  I used to look at it as a form of disrespect, but they just don’t know.  They’re lost.  Busta Rhymes said it best, ‘these guys come up and perform with fifty guys on stage, and all he’s doing is holding his dick’.  That’s not showmanship.  And that’s what I’m here to do, shut that shit down!

EW: Yeah man, and you do a good job of that because most cats these days don’t rock the mic when they deejay and you bring back that feel of a real hip hop show.  
CM: Thank you for that.  To be honest, I am a different Cash Money from when I first started and had emcees, but I had to learn how to be on the mic.  I put the work in, glad to know you like the finished product.

EW: It’s timeless.  What was one of the first records you started playing with?
CM: The very first record I bought was Superrappin, by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

EW: And the last record you got?
Actually, I don’t even know the name of it but I got it from Cosmo Records.  I’ve been a record collector my whole life, so when you get a chance to get your hands on something that you don’t know that’s dope, it’s beautiful.

EW: What are some of the gems in your collection?
CM: Aww man, I got the “Funky Funk” 45, I got all original twelve-inches.  I used to have 45,000 albums but narrowed it down to 20,000 because I got rid of a lot of stuff that was bullshit.  I’m a huge collector and it’s not just records. I also collect old blacksploitation posters, old kung fu posters, old arcade games, I got a Mohammed Ali pinball machine, Tron, Phoenix, and about 15 old games.  

EW: You must have a huge crib then!
CM: A couple of houses, so it’s all good.  What else?  Boomboxes.

EW: How many boomboxes?
CM: Twenty nine boomboxes, classic, real big ones.  I got the Conion with an alarm system on it.  

EW: You should get two boomboxes with pitch, you could rock a set.
CM: You know what, I do have that.  It’s crazy how technology has changed.

 

 

EW: So Cash, tell us, what do you have in store for 2007?
CM: I have some artists I’m working with.  An R&B singer named Ivy, slamming,  and a rap group called 84.  The groups I’m working with are off the hook, and I’m really excited about introducing them to the world.  I have a DVD coming out about my life that I’m working on and should be finished by next year.  And some production, and still doing the parties.  

EW: Cash Money, you’re clearly a collector, but right now you’re sitting in the back of a Riviera.
CM: I’m sitting in everything!  I got a ‘68 Chevy Impala fastback with the gearshift.  I’m also into remote control cars, the gas-powered joints.

EW: What’s the fastest one you got?
CM: It goes 100mph.  It was a custom Kung Fu Theatre one with a picture of the main character from 5 Fingers Of Death on the front.  We used to race ‘em.  I had extra gears put it on it, so when it shifts into 2nd or 3rd gear, it’s gone.  You have to put a limiter on it, because if it goes beyond the range of your remote it’ll just crash into a wall.  

EW: Or you’ll get a speeding ticket.
CM: Haha, fuck the ticket! You’ll get pissed off because that’s $700-800 down the drain.  

EW: What’s your favourite kung fu flick?
CM: Favorite flick is ‘Chinese Professionals’ with Jimmy Wang Yu, a classic right there. That, and ‘Five Deadly Venoms’.

EW: How big is your VHS library?
CM: I got all the old concerts, blacksploitation, and TV commercials.  Jackson 5 commercials, old Afro Sheen commercials, old Soul Train tapes.  It’s like a museum.   Before Rice Krispies were called that, they were called Rice Kringles, and the Jackson 5 had a promotion with them with a record on the back of the box that you could cut out and play.  I still have that with the cereal in it.  To find those boxes of cereal intact with the record still on it is almost impossible.

EW: You gotta find another and get a juggle going on!  On another topic, what’s your perspective on living?  Living, being, life.
CM: Life is a very, very beautiful thing, and a lot of times we take the smallest things for granted.  Getting up, taking a deep breath, having both of our legs.  I appreciate everything, and not to take it to a spiritual level, but all praises go to the creator.  Right now we’re living in a crazy time with the war and what Bush is doing.

One thing I love about hip hop is how it’s allowed me to travel the world and gel with people.  We’re all the same.  There’s a saying I say and write all the time – “Keep it green”.  Most people think it’s about blazing, but no, it’s not that.  Us as humans, we all have the same blood.  It’s a bluish-green before the air hits it and turns it red, so we’re all the same.  Keep it human.

EW: And finally, I’ve got another introspective question for you.  Autobot, or Decepticon?
CM: [long pause] Decepticon. Heh heh.  I’mma take it a little further, I’m going back before Transformers. Ultraman! Johnny Sokko robots, the Space Giants.  That’s what I’m talking about.

 

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Hit up the turntable pioneer on Myspace: www.myspace.com/djcashmoney12

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