In case you didn’t know (or if you must be living under a rock), HOT97’s 26th annual Summer Jam concert is almost a week away! Summer Jam is a staple not only to the East Coast—but one of the most iconic hip-hop festivals today. Celebrating its 26th year this year, Summer Jam has evolved since its emergence in 1994 at the Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey when its lineup featured SWV, Arrested Development, Queen Latifah, and more.
Summer Jam has been the home to some of hip-hop’s most unforgettable moments, such as Jay Z’s public diss to Prodigy in 2001—in addition to bringing Michael Jackson out on stage—and the two altercations that occurred a decade apart from one another, resulting in 50 Cent being banned from Summer Jam.
This year’s line up has both familiar faces and upcoming artists that have been breaking the billboard charts. Some of the performances lined up for the 2019 Summer Jam include Cardi B, Meek Mill, A Boogie, Megan Thee Stallion, and more!
While Summer Jam one of the hottest events thrown by HOT97, there is nothing hotter than the DJs and on-air personalities that bring you content that keeps your playlists updated and your social media timelines abuzz. One of the radio station’s tastemakers is none other than DJ Enuff.
Brooklyn and Lower East Side native DJ Enuff is one of HOT97’s most influential team members. Enuff began his career as one of HOT97’s DJs and radio personalities in 1998 two months after his first performance at Summer Jam 1998.
Prior to becoming part of the HOT family, he was part of the Bomb Squad Mix Show Crew on 98.7 KISS FM from 1993 to 1994 before it was bought by Emmis Communications. In addition to DJ’ing both on KISS FM and local parties, he was scouted by Puff Daddy aka Diddy to be the official road DJ for the,—at the time—, upcoming Brooklyn rapper The Notorious B.I.G. After Biggie’s death, Enuff took a break from music, returning shortly after.
His work experience can also be traced back to DJ’ing for BET’s 106 & Park from 2000-2014. He currently hosts HOT 97’s “New at 2” Mondays through Fridays, as well as mixing live on Tuesdays and Thursdays on 107.5 WBLS. You can also catch him reprising his role in the 2009 biopic, Notorious.
Check out my interview with DJ Enuff below:
Keyz: As a native of New York City, the foundation of hip-hop and rap, how did your upbringing influence your aspiration to become a DJ?
Enuff: I think it was, to be honest with you, when I was a young kid—very young, probably 4 or 5-years-old. They used have these things called Park Jams. they predominately had them all the neighborhoods—you know, the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn. Back then, I guess it was cool to play music in the parks, you know, I don't think we needed permits at that time. I used to really be excited about the crowds of people, the noise, and the music. My aunts, while I was young kid, used to take me to the park. We just hang out in the park and we would hear music, you know, so I wouldn't literally be in the middle of it, but I would be on the outskirts of it. I think that was done because my aunts were protecting us from whatever—I ain’t know, violence, you know—young kids in the midst of everything but the music was loud enough. I always thought it was interesting. I would always listen to DJ's play these disco breakbeats, that was the vibe and that was the move. I always felt like I could do that one day, but it wasn’t until I got to high school where I had a chance to literally become a DJ because my aunt was separating from her husband who was a DJ. While he was getting kicked out of the house his equipment records were for the taking, and I got an opportunity to to get some equipment records things like that.
Keyz: Let’s take a trip down memory lane: Summer Jam 1998. Queen Pen brought you on stage. How do you remember feeling before and after your performance, and how have you grown since your first Summer Jam performance?
Enuff: Wow! You remember that, huh? It was amazing because at that time I was not at the radio station yet. I was a part-time mixer or I would probably do like the guest mix weekends only, so I would do like, Memorial Day weekend, 4th of July, Labor Day, and that kind of stuff, maybe Christmas. So I got a chance to DJ for Queen Pen. I think that year, Big Pun was on stage and a few others. On the way to the stage, I bumped into the program director [of HOT97]. Her name was Tracy Cloherty, and she was very aggressive like, almost threatening. Like, “You can't be a part of Hot 97 if—something, something” so I didn’t know what that meant or where that energy was coming from, but I think it was just like a little bug in the air that DJ Enuff would be hired at one of these radio stations. Back then, KISS FM still around and HOT97 was just starting. Something like that. So rather than me going to the competition, I kind of just got kind of bold and said, “Well then why don’t you just hire me?” You know, and stop BS’ing and fooling around or whatever; that was in June, then—probably, if I'm not mistaken—August of that year, I got hired full time and I became part of the HOT97 family.
The difference between day one and now is just, I got to see so many incredible performances. The confidence level gets high because you get to witness the music selection of the artist that the fans love—and they love you also. You say your name one of mic drop, you drop your drop, you hear the crowd scream, and it's kind of sanctioned. So it's like, “Wow. They said my name!” The crowd screams, so that's exciting. If I’m not mistaken, year after year that process got larger and bigger for me. So if year one was like DJ Enuff there would be claps, you know, then year two; then by year three or four, it was just like, “I’m here.” When they would announce my name, the crowds, the yells, and the screams got got bigger.
Keyz: As a member of the HOT97 family for almost 21 years, how have you seen the brand grow since you’ve been hired?
Enuff: There’s all kind of ways I’ve seen the brand grow, from a programming standpoint to see the many different changes of how different people programmed Hot 97 how they feel, you know, the brand should have been represented. I think it was very interesting watching it grow from a digital standpoint from our first inception of what we thought was digital and the marketing behind it. You know, we were one of the first radio stations to go digital early, to have a digital Department, to film, to be on social media early, and whether it was YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and the other others prior. To see that I'm going to be a part of that, I always thought was it was very interesting how we were leaders in that capacity.
It started to feel like we will no longer just a terrestrial radio station. We were a cultural brand that lived and was born here in New York. Our fans all over the world were interested to see what Hot 97 had to say. They were interested in our thoughts on what we thought about the music; they were interested in us; they were interested in our DJs and the mix styles and the songs that we got. Maybe some of the exclusive content that we dropped, you know? All these things were important because you got to think about it: back then there wasn't smartphones around there wasn't any of the digital musical platforms for the music from. So we were always the leaders in that. To this day, even though there are other platforms today that you can go on to hear brand new music, I think people still want the cosign from a Flex, Enuff, or a Drewski or Bobby Transit or Kast One. Collectively, we're great DJs in our own right, and when people are like, “Oh they cosign that? Okay must be good.” You can listen to anything on any of platform—you can listen to it and you could either know it's good or you can have to be like, “Well, I'm not too sure.” I think you being able to ride out or vibe with a HOT97 DJ will give you that official opinion. Like you know, “Well, I do think this is hot.” That's what I try to do, and that’s our job to do that.
Keyz: What does culture mean to you? How do you, in your role, preserve culture?
Enuff: For me, it’s some of the early pieces of hip-hop culture: the dance element, the art and graffiti element, the rap element, the DJ element, and all these different facets to me are what makes up hip-hop culture. Throughout time it slightly has changed, but being one of the pioneers or the legend of Hip-Hop is especially on New York radio, we try to preserve it. You know, we try to preserve the fact that yeah, you still can cut and scratch but still make it funky enough and make it sound cool enough where young kids who might not understand the DJ culture won't get turned off. The same thing with lyricism; as much as you want to turn up and have a lot of dance records you know, and we want to twerk and have a good time, there needs to be some artists that we co-sign that have lyrics and support lyricism. Same thing with art; there is a bunch of art, you know, it came from the Subways, and where's art today? There's a lot of graphic designers and motion graphic designers who use special effects that use whatever. It’s got to be some sort of Integrity when it comes to that also, you know, so it's a combination of using old school culture and today's technology so we could do that in a space where they kind of mesh and don't feel like we’re crossing boundaries where we seem to be disrespectful to the culture that, to me, is what I am looking for. So those are the things to me that are important about culture. Also being yourself, also having a good time and then being able to provide a soundtrack for a very, very diverse background.
This the rotten apple, there’s more than 8 million people in New York City. We come from all different walks of life, all different genres, and all different kind of people. It's Russian, Jews, Muslims, blacks, browns, and yellows, and Latinx. For us to be able to somehow mesh and be able to be the soundtrack for the city, I think that's one of the most exciting feeling. So we can go urban, we can go turbine, we can do crossover, we can play reggaeton, we can play afro beat, you know? I think that's amazing. Those are some of the things that have grown because when hip-hop first started, afro beat wasn't around reggaeton wasn't around, you know, a lot of other music genres wasn’t around. When you look at the music that I just mentioned, it targets the same people that targeted hip-hop, so that's that.
Keyz: It is no question that you are one of the most influential Latinos in hip-hop. How do you feel the hispanic community has influenced the hip-hop industry?
Enuff: Well they’ve been there since day one, so that’s for sure. We don't get as much credit as maybe as we should that's because some of our founding Latinos were almost probably, to be honest, might have been afraid to represent themselves. I remember being in school, a lot of kids didn't want to speak Spanish because they wanted to literally assimilate with the Americans or the “Yankee-ness” of being a New Yorker. All the kids who spoke Spanish were in these bilingual classes or special education classes only because they didn't understand English. A lot of parents would teach their kids English, and hopefully that would help with assimilating into American culture. Latinos in hip-hop—some of producers, writers, dancers have been around and been part of it since day one time. I'm very happy and lucky because every space I went to and every platform I went to—whether it was BET television, whether it was here at HOT97, 98.7 KISS FM , or WBLS—you know, a lot of those stations would be considered “urban” or “black”. I got the cosign from my black brothers and sisters and my black people in the industry to be one of the first mixers on Hot 97 who is Latino and be one of the first Latin hosts on BET, so always groundbreaking for my people. I honestly thought always thought that was very special and very honoring. Kids in Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, and Texas all over the country knew who my name was and knew what I stand for I think they love that I was just being me, so to me that was an honor.
Keyz: What was it like touring with The Notorious B.I.G. as his road DJ, and what is one of your favorite memories with him?
Enuff: Oh wow! When I got the phone call, the legendary DJ Clark Kent was his regular road DJ, but Clark was getting very busy. He was producing a lot of music hit then. I guess he had a calling for going to studio to make records, so I don't think he would be able to go out on the road as much. He laid the blueprint for the soundtrack for Biggie’s performances, kind of like how the records went from one to another and had some special mixes in the air, and I was kind of the guy that style followed that blueprint. What was great about me was that, I was always clean and on point—very precise, and sound quality was very important to me, and being able to do that, not realizing that—I always knew he was special, but I didn't realize that what we were doing was going to end up being legendary. I guess a lot of it has to do with you know the beefs he had—the East Coast versus West Coast thing but to put all of that to the side. I think it's performances were great.
He was a very, very funny individual. He would give you his last dollar out of his pocket. I remember gaining probably 60 pounds in one summer, you know, literally because he was a big eater and he would make sure everybody would eat. When you hear the lyrics, “Cheese eggs, Welch’s grape, steak,” all of that stuff was real. We ate the best.
The sad thing is, Biggie was very funny and very comical. For a very, very long time until the “Hypnotized” video, you never got a chance to see Biggie smile. It wasn’t until the Hypnotized video after he died is when you saw a great smile on his face. The persona back in the 90s was hardcore, the “gangsta.” To put that to the side, he was a teddy bear and everyone loved him.
Some of the best memories would probably be one time I “messed up” at a show. Biggie was probably almost 400-500 pounds, 6-feet-something, and 5X. The way stages were built were on these rises, and it was built so the vibrations could be taken away from the music. But when he would walk across the stage, it would make my record skip. [laughs] So he walked across the stage, and it made my record skip a few times—I believe during “Who Shot Ya.” I remember him taking the vinyl off my turntable because he was so upset, and he chucked it in the crowd. He said something in the likes of, “Don’t mess up my sound.” Afterwards, I was beefing with him but then I realized it was job to make sure his music was right. So I promised and vowed to never have his music skip again because he was going to dock me $500 out of my pay. [laughs] There were other good times, like being snowed in, in North Carolina and being on a broken down bus in Chicago and I’m in my underwear with Biggie, Lil’ Kim, and Lil’ Cease. Those were the memories that were the funniest.
Keyz: You have been a contributor to the break out of several of today’s hottest artists—one of the artists being Kanye West. Can you tell us how you discovered him?
Enuff: Kanye used to my record office on 38th Street in Manhattan all the time, and he was begging to be a Heavy Hitter. I was trying to explain to him Heavy Hitters are just DJs, and that I don't have artists who are Heavy Hitters. He's like, “Why not?” I said I always felt like it was a conflict of interest at that time. If I had known any better, I would have made him an artist and probably blow him out. I think he was stuck in the space where he was already considered an incredible producer for what he's done with a lot of Roc-A-Fella artists, even with artists around his way but he was trying to come out himself and he was trying to sell himself. He would always come by with Talib Kweli, Common, and Mos Def. Those were regulars who always around him. I think those individuals helped him with his flow—he always had the lyrical content but those individuals help them with the flow. They were good friends of mine, and he just he just bothered me so much, it was just like, “Alright, whatever.” One of my DJ’s, Absolut, put out his first freestyle on one of his mixtapes and I said I like it. I decided to put out his Get Well Soon mixtape, and we were the first ones to put those out. I made like $600 bucks putting them out because nobody wanted it. Crazy, right? A few months later, he had dropped “Through The Wire”, and when he dropped it, there was some traction. People picked up the mixtape; before you know, it started to bubble. It started happen. By the second single, he was gone and it was no turning back. It’s amazing to see the status of where he is at now.
Keyz: What does it mean to be a “Heavy Hitter”?
Enuff: Heavy Hitters is something special to me. It's my brother-sisterhood I did it kind of like—almost like a fraternity or sorority. If you guys follow the Greeks, they have a foundation and they come from a certain space, and they were trying to get in universities and college all over the world, and they were trying to be able to create this network of individuals that could ride or die for each other because the system is against them. So I almost felt like that’s my motto, and I want to do that. Initially, it was only because of the music. I wanted research, and I wanted to know what was happening in different cities across the country—this is pre-smartphone and pre-Google. The only way to kind of know that information is to have an account with Billboard or have to actually literally purchase Billboard Magazine. Even with that information, I didn't know what part of the record was moving. When I speak to a DJ from another city, he'll tell me like, “When Lil Wayne comes in, you play that part. When this other artist comes out, you take that out and no one cares.” So that was very important information. I didn't get that from a magazine, so I created a small little network of DJs. I had one guy in Chicago, one guy in Miami, and it was important because I went to Chicago a lot back in the days or Miami or LA—very big cities. I needed to know what's happened on the radio or in the club, so that was my network. Before you know it, one year turned into two years and 20 years later—this year we celebrate 20 years. We have about 87 members, across the country and around the world. You gotta be the man or woman in your city. When you make a pit stop, you gotta check in with my DJ. If you’re not checking in with my DJ, then you’re not doing your job. I hang out with and vibe with my Heavy Hitters, it’s one big family. The only thing is, we don’t haze anybody. [laughs]
Keyz: How has the rap game evolved positively or negatively since your emergence?
Enuff: If we go back to Common’s “I Used To Love Her”, he talks about how music went from one space to another and how hip-hop has grown. I think that record would still make sense of it today in 2019—[hip-hop] is still growing, she’s still evolving. The branches on this hip-hop tree are just getting bigger and bigger, you know? It went from just hip-hop to gangster hip-hop and Jazz hip-hop, to R&B hip-hop to hip-hop trap, and there’s so many different types of hip hop today. It is all kinds of hip-hop. Where she lives is, to me, on a worldly these space; she might have been born in the Bronx, but she lives all over the world now. I think collectively, we all want a piece of her. If you’re from Africa, there’s some hip-hop that you could love; if you’re from France, it’s the same thing. As a mainstream thing now ,being probably the most popular genre in the world—that part to me is very exciting because when I was first listening to hip-hop and looking at hip hop culture, it was never a part of mainstream America. Every time we saw a piece of it in mainstream America, — and what I mean by that is a television commercial or a radio commercial on a movie inside of a movie or something on the soundtrack—, every single time was exciting. I feel like was a new bud being grown, a new branch being grown. Now we don't think about it because it's everywhere so maybe people today don't see the how important it really is. I remember a time when that wasn't happening with hip hop, and it was only played at night at two or three in the morning. Now it’s played in the morning or soon as you get up at six in the morning, and hip hop is played 24/7. When you’re talking about artists that are so big and they’re going to the Met Gala, being talked about on TMZ and on Page Six, it goes to show you how important hip-hop truly is.
Keyz: Who are some of your favorite artists right now? Who is DJ Enuff listening to?
Enuff: Right now, I really like DaBaby. I like DaBaby because his voice is so distinctive, and even though a lot of young kids are turning up, I like his voice. He really sounds great. I like this kid TJ Porter, I like Lil TJAY also. I’m naming the younger kids because I feel like we all love J. Cole and Kendrick, and it’s easy to say that. I want to concentrate on some of the younger cats because I'm doing the "New At 2" every day, and I'm seeing like what the future is. I’m seeing the Lil Baby’s and the Gunna’s. I even like some local acts here like Jay Critch and Flipp Dinero. I like that these guys are moving and making noise. There’s some old school veterans I like from New York, like Uncle Murda and Maino. I still have a soft spot for them because we’ve done 10 to 15 years together. Overall, I love music.
Keyz: What advice do you have to offer upcoming artists, DJs, or anyone interested in the music industry?
Enuff: I think for anybody who want to be a part of this, I think the biggest thing is going to be yourself and you guys have to learn how to be marketing geniuses at this point, because that's where it's at. I look at some of the greatest DJs who are technically incredible and some of the greatest rappers who are technically lyricists who are killing, but if your marketing game ain’t right then no one is going to see you. You need to be seen, so make sure your business is just as great as your talent. Your team has to be just as solid as as you are. If you can kind of get that all kind of going at the same time, then you’re on your way.
Check out DJ Enuff on HOT97’s “New At 2” Monday-Friday from 2 PM EST to 3 PM EST, and catch his live mixes on 107.5 WBLS on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Make sure you stay locked in with HOT97 before and after Summer Jam! For tickets to HOT97’s Summer Jam 2019 concert, check them out here.
Just one dose of HOT97 wasn’t enough? Check out my interview with Pio Ferro here!