ON THE 1’S AND 2’S: DJ Strike

INTERVIEW YUVI PHOTOGRAPH Kevin Huckle Sundance Photography UK

VALIDATED: Can you give me some background on DJ Strike for those who don't know?

DJ STRIKE: For those who don't know, my name is DJ Strike, world international DJ and have been DJing for about probably 30 plus years, Hip Hop, R&B tour DJ. I DJ for people like De Las Soul and Dres of Black Sheep. I've DJed for a bunch of other artists in the industry, I could run a whole bunch of names down, but a whole bunch of Hip Hop legends and a whole bunch of Hip Hop artists, that's how I rock. 

VALIDATED: That's dope. So being from Brooklyn, New York, what's your earliest memory of Hip Hop culture?

DJ STRIKE: My earliest memory of Hip Hop culture I would have to say the early 80s. I got two older brothers and they actually live out of town, they're from Ohio. They used to come to visit me and my family every summer and I guess this would be like my earliest memory because this was like my introduction to Hip Hop, kind of. They would come into town and I was a little kid and they would bring their radios and stuff and they would tape the radio at night because that's the only time Hip Hop would play. It was New York, that's where all the music came from. That's where the Hip Hop stations were. 

So I used to remember my brothers coming through with the big radios and the whole bunch of cassette tapes and just staying up all night on Friday nights and Saturday nights because it's the only time it really came on. He would tape the whole show and for that whole weekend, they just were playing the songs and that was my whole introduction to this whole Hip Hop thing. So that would have to actually be my earliest memory.

VALIDATED: So did your brothers have an influence on you, were they in Hip Hop, like b-boying or graffiti or rapping?

DJ STRIKE: Yeah, my brothers I would say they started off as just fans but as time grew when everybody got a little older one of my brothers actually turned into a DJ. He started DJing, I would have to say in the late 80s, early 90s maybe. And that was my first time seeing him do it and it was him and some dude that he knew and they were partners. That really like really turned me on to it, even though I was turned on before, but seeing him close up and seeing somebody that I know actually do it, that was the inspiration for me. So my other brother, he stayed a fan or whatever. 

VALIDATED: So how did you get your start as a DJ?

DJ STRIKE:  Well, my start as a DJ, I started out DJing back in the 90s down in Atlanta. I dibbled and dabbled here and there when I was coming up in Brooklyn because I grew up with a bunch of DJs on my block. DJ Clark Kent lived three blocks away from me, he used to battle DJs that I knew around my block. I knew another DJ, his name was DJ Plastic, and he was in the movie Juice. He was one of the dudes that were cutting and scratching and doing all that. I was always surrounded by DJs even at an early age and a lot of them were Hip Hop.

As I said, I had DJ Clark Kent, he lived on my block, but it was like three blocks down. I used to hear about this dude Clark Kent, how everybody used to go to his house and everybody was battling and stuff like that. But I was still a young kid, so I wasn't really able to see that, but I heard it. I knew it. I knew people who would go down there and do it. So that was like my earliest inspiration for the whole thing and I got to DJing when I went to Atlanta, I moved to Atlanta in the early 90s and it was something that I always wanted to do and I just really started putting my foot into it and I started practicing every day, teaching myself. I was getting equipment here and there. I was buying records and I was just doing it every day, I just made it something that was everyday life to me. So I kind of just practiced and practiced and practice. I became a little house DJ, I would do small parties, house parties, pool parties, and things like that. I would DJ for my friends and make tapes and stuff like that. So that's how I really came into DJing, it was around that time, probably in the early 90s or so.

VALIDATED: So what DJs would you say influenced your style coming up and what if anything, did you borrow from them?

DJ STRIKE: I took a lot from a lot of different DJs as I was coming up because there were some really dope DJs. One of the DJs who really made me want to become a DJ was Jam Master Jay. He was my first spark to it, I had seen him at a young age and also at a concert. It was my first Hip Hop concert, I went to it back in ‘85, ‘86, it was the Run DMC Fresh Fest. I was real young at the time, I don't even know if I was supposed to be in there, but I was with my cousins and everything and they got me in there and I'm like this is crazy. This was my first Hip Hop show, it was Run DMC, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys, Whodini and I want to say Public Enemy was on that. 

But what really stuck out to me was the DJs that night and I want to say Grand Master Dee from Whodini and Jam Master Jay. When I watched those two guys on stage that night, of course, I love Run DMC and I love Whodini, those are like two of my favorite groups ever. But when I saw Jam Master Jay and Grand Master Dee up there, that night it made me say at a young age, “I want to do that.” I wanted to do exactly what they were doing and it was wild to me because I have never seen it on that level up close. I was young, I remember I fell asleep, I didn't mean to fall asleep, but I fell asleep or dozed off because I knew it was late. But I didn't sleep long because I woke up because the music was so loud, I knew this is crazy and the next set… The headliner was Run DMC, which blew my mind, that right there took me to like a whole other level and I knew at that point that's exactly what I wanted to do. I said “I want to do that one day,” that's what I wanted to do. I didn't know how I was going to do it, I didn't know exactly what as far as DJing I wanted to do, but I wanted to be up on that stage. That was really my influence, I took a lot from people like Kid Capri. He was somebody that I vibed with from the beginning when I heard him. Kid Capri, Ron G, all the mix tape DJs, of course, Jam Master Jay, and even Jazzy Jeff were one of my favorite DJs. 

These are the people that I was listening to, just loving the music but I would always take something from each DJ because they were just the greatest to me. I would talk on the mic saying something like Kid Capri might have said, flipped it away that was my way but trying to do tricks like Jazzy Jeff and all that. So I took away from all kinds of DJs, I loved them all back then.

VALIDATED: So how did you go from learning how to DJ to touring with these legendary groups and artists?

DJ STRIKE: I had spent so much time learning and just teaching myself and just watching other DJs that it was a normal thing for me. I would do it every day, all day. I had friends that were DJs, so we would just stay in the house and DJ all day. I was doing that for a while and doing small house parties and stuff like that and at a certain point in time, I was like, I got to get a little more out of this, I just wanted a little more out of it. So, I continued to DJ and try to make a lot of good relationships, a lot of good connections to it, trying to jump up to the next level. Whatever way that was, either if it was on the radio, If it was in a bigger club, I just wanted to do something on a bigger scale as far as DJing.

I stayed in Atlanta for about maybe seven years or so. I moved back to New York and I went to audio engineering school because I said, this might be a way for me to do something a little extra in music. So I went and I did the whole audio engineering school and learned how to do stuff in the studio and all that. After I did that, they helped you with job placement, so they would have somebody to set you up with something to do as far as music goes, whether it was engineering or whatever, it was just your first gig out of this audio engineering school. So my first gig was hooking up with this dude who went to that school also, who was a sound engineer.

I don't want to make this story too long because it's a long story, but I'm going to tell you. I got up with this dude, he was like, “Yo, I need people to help me do this audio engineering thing, you mind going on tour?” He didn't say who it was with, I was just happy. I was like, “Yo yeah,” because I'm down to go on tour and do whatever at that point. Even though I was still a DJ at heart, I was just wanting to do anything to get into the mix a little more. So I got with this dude, he took me on the road, I was like his understudy, it was me and about maybe four other cats. So we were doing audio engineering stuff and it was time for the tour to begin, I didn't know who was on the tour and that day I found out it was Pharaoh Monch, Biz Markie, it was De La Soul. It was all of these dudes, these are dudes I grew up listening to. These are people that I love. These are the greats right here to me.

So my first Hip Hop tour with these dudes even though I wasn't DJing, I was doing the audio engineering stuff and it transitioned me to staying within that level to make myself go to that extra level. So as I did that for a couple years, I got cool with everybody on tour. I was doing audio engineering stuff, I was actually doing whatever I could do to stay in the mix. I was doing stage work, and audio engineering, I was even doing merchandising, selling t-shirts, and stuff like that. But the whole time that I was doing all that in the back of my head, I was like, and I got to get on that stage one day. I don't know how I'm going to get on that stage, but I'm going to get on that stage one day. And that boosted me to a whole other section. I had travelled with these groups for years, I got really cool with De La Soul. We got in the studio, we recorded albums, we went back on the road and this is a part that jumped me to performing on stage because I was just a regular DJ. I do parties and all that, but it's a difference between performing as a DJ on stage with artists or just DJing in clubs. 

So this transitioned me to DJ on stage with artists, De La Soul had signed this new artist during the album “The Grind Date” his name was Butta Verses. He was from Florida, originally from New York and he was like the new protégé. He was the dude they were bringing out at the time. He and I had got real cool on the road, we became like brothers. We were just hanging out every day and all of that, we got really cool and I knew his show from watching it every night because he used to open up for De La Soul. They brought him on the road to open up for them and Maseo would be his DJ. So Maseo would DJ for him and then go on to DJ for De La Soul right after that set. So by me doing everything I needed to do on stage, whatever it was, I watched the show and I learned it.

Me and him were vibing and I was like “You need to let me come on there and rock with you. I’ll even jump on this being your hype man.” I wasn't trying to take over Maseo's job, that's his artist or whatever. I was just like, I'll come on and I'll be a hype man. When we talked to Maseo, he was like, “That's cool with me.” So that even led me to practice more on just the vocal part of the show, just being a hype man, knowing when to come in with the drops, and doing all that. As I said, when you are just a regular DJ and you just DJing parties or house parties like that, it's totally different. Your mic game is a little different, the way you spin records is a little different because now you're performing with artists and you got to be in tune. We did that and to make a long story even shorter...

VALIDATED: It's all history we want to hear it.

DJ STRIKE: But that's the only way I can say, it's hard for me to really break it down and you miss certain parts of the story or whatever. So we got really cool and doing the shows, we were opening up for De La Soul while Maseo was still DJing. I was Butta Verses hype man, which was dope. Maseo got to a point where he was like, he really didn’t want to be out there for the whole time and didn't have to DJ for his group, which was a lot of work for DJs. So I was like, I know the words, I can DJ, let's just do that. I'll come on and be his DJ, my man Butta, he was all down for it, so it was basically a no-brainer. So I and Butta became almost a group on tour opening for De La Soul and we learned from watching them. So it was like we were their protégés but we were still good because that's what it was. And that's what transitioned me to performing on stage, now getting with all of these legends performing with them, that's another story because it took me to get to Butta Verses to get on that stage, to be able to learn and do what I need to do to get on stage with the bigger artists. 

VALIDATED: And how long did that take?

DJ STRIKE: It really didn't take that long as far as De La Soul is concerned. But I DJed for Butta Verses for about maybe two and a half years or so, maybe three. But in that time there were dates that we were rolling with De La Soul and Maseo didn't make the show for whatever reason and they needed a DJ. I was the only one there at the time, so I knew their show just the way I learned my man Butta Verses show. I would be there and watch De La Soul show every night, so I knew it word for word. I knew transitions, I knew when to drop what, when to come in with what, and what songs would come in. But also it's a little different than watching and hearing it to being up there doing it, there's a little difference in that. 

Within that two year mark, they knew I could DJ for Butta Verses. They saw what I did, so it was like, we need you to fill in for Maseo and you DJ for us and I was like, alright, cool. And the first time I got to do that for them, we were on tour in Australia and we rock big shows and this was like the first few dates in Australia. Maseo didn't make like the first two or three dates and I'm like, oh, okay. They need me to be a DJ and I was cool with that. The first one I did, I was really nervous because it's different. There's a difference between DJing for legendary artists who've been doing it for years upon years, then DJing for your man who just came out, and you all just kind of still figuring it out as you go. DJing for De La Soul, you got to be on point. There is no mess up. You got to be on total point because these are legendary dudes, they don't accept anything less.

I did the first show with them out in Australia, it was a club show. It was a pretty big show, about maybe 3000 people. That was cool, even though I was nervous, the second show came, Maseo still didn't make it. This was even a bigger show. This was a festival show. This had like 60,000 people. I had never DJed in front of that many people before, even being in the opening act with De La Soul, this was my first time doing it as a DJ for De La Soul. I was nervous, I knew what to do, but I knew I had to do it right. So long story short, everything went cool and here we are today. That led me to doing all kind of other stuff also.

VALIDATED: So your first real show, I guess you could say was in Australia?

DJ STRIKE: I am not going to say that's my first real show because we had traveled and we did Germany, London, we were all over the world basically. But my first big show was that one with De La Soul.

VALIDATED: Is there any particular venue or place in the world that you'd love to perform at that you haven't?

DJ STRIKE: I'm sure there's a lot of places that I haven't performed at that I would love to, but to tell you the truth everywhere that I perform, I've loved it. Whether it's a big venue or the smallest venue I just love doing it. That's something that I really fell in love with doing at a young age. I’ve performed in some great venues, I’ve performed in some great venues in the UK, of course, Australia, in Japan, and we’ve done big things. I DJed in Dubai, there's so many places I have DJed. I will say this, one of my favorite places that I have DJed was the Barclay Center in Brooklyn, because I'm from Brooklyn. So that was like a big dream for me because I went to high school like four or five blocks from the Barclay Center. So for me to DJ on that big stage, that's something I could never like take for granted, that was probably one of the biggest places that I think I've rocked not just by big in size, but just by big in its name and stature and everything.

But the Apollo has been dope too, that was something I've always wanted to do and I've got to rock there a few times. I've DJed in some pretty big dope venues, so that's been cool.

VALIDATED: The Apollo, that's got to be crazy though.

DJ STRIKE: You watch that show for so many years and the next thing you know you’re on that stage, whoa, this is what it feels like to be up there.

VALIDATED: So I've heard that Hip Hop fans abroad still love genuine Hip Hop and appreciate the culture still including the core values. But would you agree with that versus fans in the states?

DJ STRIKE: Yeah, I've seen that from the beginning. I've always thought that fans overseas or in different countries have a different appreciation for Hip Hop music. Because here in the states, of course, it was born here, bread here and not to say people here don't appreciate it because of course people here appreciate it. We all appreciate it from east to west, to north, to south in this country. But in other places where they don't get to see people up close and personal, like here in New York, you walk down the street and you see somebody and you be like, oh, there’s such and such and it becomes like a normal thing. You get numb to it, you'll be like, yeah, I see them all the time. So it doesn't become something that holds that much of an appreciation.

When you go overseas and they've only seen what they seen on TV or something like that and then they see you in person, you see the difference and you feel the difference in energy, they can't talk any English, but they know it word for word. They can rap your lyrics almost better than you can, they know all the lyrics on the album. So that shows a bigger appreciation for it because they don't see it up close and personal as we see it up close and personal. We went to school with people who are now rappers, I grew up the street from Jay-Z down the block. I would see him ride by now and then. But you go overseas somewhere where they don't see that then they show a little bit more love and you feel that from the fans and the people in general. So there is a little bit more of an appreciation for Hip Hop music out there. Plus they love vinyl. They still buy vinyl out there. We do shows out there and they still come to you and like, "Yo, y'all got any vinyl?" They're connected to the core, you got to see the graffiti on the walls that are out in these other countries, it's hardcore. The way they still break dance, it's crazy.  They have a bigger appreciation for Hip Hop than I think people here in the states still do. 

VALIDATED: Do you have like a crazy fan moment abroad?

DJ STRIKE: It's probably so many crazy fan moments of course. Rolling with people like De La Soul and Dres, like these are legendary dudes. I've seen people chase us down in tour buses, I've seen people trying to sneak backstage just to meet people. Fan moments almost happen all the time. It's been a while since I've seen something like that, but I know for a while there are a lot of wild fan moments. I don't want to get too crazy in the fan moments, but there are some wild fan moments out there.

VALIDATED: No, that's funny.

DJ STRIKE: People doing wild stuff or anything just trying to be close to you. There are people throwing clothes and stuff up on stage or running up on stage. All of that stuff is wild, but it comes with the territory, that's all a part of it. 

VALIDATED: So if you could collaborate with anyone in music past or present, who would it be and why?

DJ STRIKE: There are a couple of people I would love to work with. I would love to work with NAS because I just feel like I and NAS, we are so close in a lot of spiritual moments I got to say. It's ill because me and him, we're born on the same day. He's from Queens, and I'm from Brooklyn. My pops is heavy in Jazz, he taught me all about jazz growing up, the music thing is crazy. And with NAS, his pops was a jazz musician. So I just feel we're kindred souls somehow and I just want to see how that connects whenever we meet or we come together. But I'd like to work with a lot of people, man.

Of course, one dude I would've loved to do anything with was Big, he's not here, but he was just so dope to me that he would be somebody I would always love to work with. I just love Hip Hop so much, there are a lot of people that I would just love to work with, even if I don't collaborate, I just love to sit there and soak in some information that they got. But, Nas and Big, there's a lot of dudes that I see now as far as shows go and stuff like that, I would love to work with. Just to do anything like Rakim and Big Daddy Kane and all of them because those people I grew up loving. I love to work with anybody. 

VALIDATED: Those are two of my favorites and I just saw Rakim about a month ago.

DJ STRIKE: He's dope. He sounds the same.

VALIDATED: It was incredible.

DJ STRIKE: It's like you just put on the record and you watching him doing it right then and there in front of you. He sounds and looks the same. He's amazing on stage. I love seeing Rakim on stage. I've done so many shows with them guys, man and I always try to catch a glimpse of them every night that I can, because those are special moments, man. You don't know how long you going to have those kinds of moments.

VALIDATED: That's true, I feel like he doesn't get the recognition. He does in the Hip Hop world from those who come from that era, but I feel like as of right now, he doesn't get the recognition he deserves.

DJ STRIKE: True indeed.

VALIDATED: A lot of them don't.

DJ STRIKE: Hey, you got to give it to him though, even though we might feel that they don't get the recognition, they still out there moving and shaking. They will still bust somebody's ass on stage. You can't come on a stage after any of these guys and think you're going to be rambling over your lyrics or you just up there playing because it won't work, I've seen it. As I said before when you are on stage with these legends, you got to be just as legendary because these dudes don't play when it comes to that stage.

VALIDATED: I think it's bugged out to see, when I saw him perform it wasn't a huge venue. In my head I'm like, this should be like an arena full. That always blows my mind but it's still regardless always dope to see somebody like him on stage. 

DJ STRIKE: I agree.

VALIDATED: So what are your thoughts on today's music industry as a whole or just Hip Hop specifically?

DJ STRIKE: Well, my thought on Hip Hop right now at this present moment, I don't want to hate on Hip Hop right now in this present moment because I just feel like Hip Hop is always evolving. We'll go through a change for a second and then it'll evolve into something else. So I never want to say that it's bad or what kind of music some people are making trash because it's going to evolve into something else. Especially nowadays the only thing I could say about Hip Hop in this present moment at this time, is that with technology and all of that stuff coming, music is fast nowadays. It has a course of maybe a few weeks like before when we used to come out with music during the golden era, you would have a whole year to rock off over a song. Now, everything moves so fast that your music will be hot for the next three weeks and then it's over. Then it's something else that comes to be the next hottest thing for the next couple of weeks and then it's over. 

So that's my issue is that the music moves too fast right now. If it had a little more sustainability and it could last longer, and you create timeless things when it's like that.  But just fast stuff, nothing becomes timeless because you don't remember it because it comes and goes fast. It's like I don't even remember what was out three weeks ago. There's something new I'm listening to, before we could rock. Now you are like, yo, I remember when this was rocking all summer and still rocking today, that's timeless music right there. That's something you can't buy, people don't create that anymore. It's hard to get something that's going to be timeless that you can hear 20, 30 years from now.

VALIDATED: I completely agree. I mean, these days it seems kind of impossible just to buy an album that has a vibe to it.  

DJ STRIKE: I agree. It's different.

VALIDATED: If I could go back, I would because I agree with everything that you've said. As you said, it does evolve and there are different types, you got different sounds, but I'm still trying to preserve what we grew up on. And not even just the music, but the culture as a whole we lived and grew up on it, I don't want to forget that. 

DJ STRIKE: Not at all. That's creating history, those are the things we use to teach where we came from. So we got to teach the next generation and be like, this is how it went. This is where it started. This is where it came from. Now, you take it and do something else with it, and hopefully when it's time for you to teach the next generation it can sustain like the way we sustain this music. I guess time will tell if that thing does happen, but that's what I hope and pray for. 

VALIDATED: I still rather buy vinyl or a CD over streaming.

DJ STRIKE: That's the tangible of it. You can hold that. You can hold that vinyl, it got pictures on it. We got the sleeve, you can go and read who produced what, who wrote what. That right there is a lost art. With the vinyl stuff, you can see those credits.

VALIDATED: The days where you would save up your money and go buy an album and take it home, put it on and just sit there and read it through the insert. The last time I went to go buy a CD, this little girl looked at me, she was like, "You know you could stream that right?" Girl just hush your mouth and ring me up. Lol She made me feel so old. I completely agree with what you're saying.

DJ STRIKE: Yeah. 

VALIDATED: Are there any artists currently that you feel are still carrying that torch, Not from our era, but in this new era?

DJ STRIKE: Yeah, if you throw out names like J Cole, Kendrick Lamar, and not to just keep bringing up those names. I know a whole lot of people always bring up Kendrick and J Cole, but those are the people who are making timeless music right now. These are the people who are taking the craft seriously. They're not just going in the studio to try to get some hit for some quick change or whatever, just to say I'm popping, let me pop a bottle or whatever. They're making music that you can feel, that inspires. This is timeless stuff right here, this is the way that they're following the rules that were laid down when we were coming up and it shows. They make that kind of music.

But you got some real spitters out there, you got some MCs out there and even female MCs are coming up right now. Some real dope parts of Hip Hop are happening right now which I love. As far as people that are making timeless music, time will tell how much music is going to last. But I do see it. I do feel it. And there are people out there putting in that work to make that happen.

VALIDATED: It does feel like there's a slight shift going on in Hip Hop compared to what we've gotten for the last 3, 4, 5, 6 years to now. the shift is kind of going back to what we love. Because you mentioned Nas, he is one of my favorite MCs, what do you think about the new work he's putting out?

DJ STRIKE: Oh, I love it. I love the collaboration with him and Hit-Boy, like those two albums they are dope. And it shows that even though there could be a gap between our generations to the new generation, they close that gap with those things right there. And that's what makes it so dope, that's how we teach. That's how we still learn. Just because we're the older generation doesn't mean we still don't learn even from the newer generation. They showed us stuff too that we never knew.

So it works hand in hand and I think even the stuff that Nas just did with Hit-Boy, I don't want to call him an old school rapper, but from today's people, they would call Nas the old school rapper. But from our generation Hit-Boy, he's the newer generation so to speak, to see that happen and it came out so dope. It shows that this progress and that gap could be closed where we definitely can get back to the stuff we love. The stuff that we feel that we've lost through the years. I love that stuff that Nas has put out, it's dope. And it shows so much dopeness and creativity.

VALIDATED: I agree with that. So to get away from the music for a minute, what can you tell us about team Body Box?

DJ STRIKE: That's something that me and my brother put together through the last maybe eight or nine years. At a certain point in doing all of this touring and all of this road life, it kind of wears on you and it wears on you physically and mentally if you're not taking care of yourself. What I felt in myself, I got to a point where I just got tired of being tired. I would be on stage and I'd get off and I'd just be drained. I couldn't even get up in the morning but that was a lifestyle I was living on the road. You don't get much sleep. You're up all night, you're partying, you're drinking, you're smoking, and you’re hanging out. You're not eating right.

So I got to a point where I needed to do something for myself to make myself have a little more energy, to feel better. And we started this whole fitness thing about maybe eight years ago or nine years ago and it transformed my life in every way possible for the better. And it was something that I've always wanted to put into the whole music industry because I know a whole lot of people, even DJs dealing with health issues or just people in Hip Hop in general. We lost a lot of people to just bad health and it was something that I've always wanted to address and tried to put forward to people to know that even though a whole lot of artists don't have insurance or health insurance or whatever. There are things we can do to minimize the sickness part where we can maintain health, so we can keep doing this. It's changed my life, we've been doing this CrossFit thing, is the way I train and it's intense.

VALIDATED: CrossFit is not a joke.

DJ STRIKE: It's intense and it took us a while to get into it. We taught ourselves a lot of stuff, we watched a lot of YouTube videos and we just trained, trained, and trained. And now we have a team called “Team Body Box” where we compete in all kinds of CrossFit competitions, and fitness competitions. And we're just trying to promote a healthy lifestyle to whoever and we got a lot of young people to come in. We got many older people to come in and just try to make their life a little better as far as health and fitness goes. So that's where Team Body Box comes in. That's like a whole other love for me that I found, even as far as doing this music thing, which is like one of my first loves this fitness thing is a whole second love for me right now. So that's something I'll be doing for the rest of my life and I am going to keep promoting health and wellness to everybody.

VALIDATED: That's dope because that is important. As you said, we have already lost a lot of MCs to bad health. And as we get older, I keep thinking to myself, we are going to start losing more of these legends. Its dope to see Method Man, for instance, look at him, he has changed his life around, and he's healthy. I'd love to see more MCs and artists do that.

DJ STRIKE: And I love to see them guys do that too, man. Even when I started, I still didn't see a lot of people doing fitness. I come here and there, but like 7, 8, 9 years ago, I was like, yo, I want to do something to kind of put this message out and just be proof that it works. I would even do things like, I would try to get Dave and Dreads in the gym with me while we're on the road doing stuff, just to get them into staying on that health and physical thing, because we all deal with sickness and things while we're on the road. Because like I said, we traveling, you don't sleep well, you don't eat right. That lifestyle leads to a lot of sicknesses and I just want to be that kind of inspiration for people so we could keep everybody here as long as possible. Because I swear if there was something I could have done with Phife because the Phife was cool with me, he was a real dope dude. And to see him pass from what he passed from hurts my heart and it still hurts my heart to this day because I knew there were things he probably could have done a little more to help him stay around longer. So he's somebody I always think about when I'm on this whole fitness knowledge and everything because he was somebody I wish I could have helped a little or even did something to kind of keep him around.

VALIDATE: That's dope, do you have a website for that?

DJ STRIKE: Right now, we're on Instagram. We did have a website, but we figured that doing a lot of things on Instagram was probably the easiest for us. We'll probably set up a website a little later with videos and all that, but we've been able to kind of do a lot on Instagram and maintain. You can go on Instagram, there's a Team Body Box page, and you can go in there, you can check out a whole bunch of videos. We also have a Team Body Box programming page. You can find that on the Team Body Box page, and look at that page and we put up all kinds of workouts and fitness things that you can do and follow. If anybody has any questions about any kind of fitness things, just send us an email, we're always on there. We'll talk if you want to come to get trained or you want to work out with us some days. We do all of that too, so reach out.

VALIDATE: That's dope. So what does the remainder of 2022 look like for you? 

DJ STRIKE: Well I'm hoping it looks good. It's been looking pretty good so far. As far as shows go, things have been picking back up, as far as the whole shutdown and pandemic thing went. Once that thing came it shutdown so much for everybody and it's slowly been creeping back here in the states to where it was at one point. I don't know if it's going to get back there.

VALIDATE: You mentioned the last few years were rough for you due to the pandemic. You wanted to do shows, you wanted to DJ, but when people couldn’t gather, how did that affect you? 

DJ STRIKE: Oh man, it was rough because that year of the lockdown was crazy. After all, as far as me and Dres goes, we had tours lined up. We had a bunch of things lined up and it was like building up and then all of a sudden everything got wiped away and it was just like a total shutdown. And it was hard because the way you live for so many years, the way you made money, it just went away. And it was just like there was no alternative at that point to what you could do to kind of makeup for it. So yeah, it was rough. We would do things like go online and DJ for a little bit and everything like that, but it just wasn't the same. 

I didn't know if it would ever come back. I didn't know when it would come back. I just knew it was rough being at home, not being able to do what you love doing and, seeing the fans and doing the shows and stuff like that. So it was rough man, but I thank God. Like now things have been looking up. I've been going out to London every so often with De La Soul and I've been doing shows with them and Dres got shows coming up. We were in Maryland, we were in Coney Island with Video Music Box. Special Ed's was there too. That was a pretty big show. Those are shows we missed doing since everything happened but those seem to be coming back, so I'm happy about that.

VALIDATE: So where can the viewers find you on social media?

DJ STRIKE: They could find me at @djstrike on Instagram and Twitter. Find us at @dresblacksheep or @blacksheepdres on Twitter and Instagram. Or you can find us at @wearedelasoul on Instagram and we post stuff up there all the time. The crew was always staying busy doing something, trying to show what was next and everything. Or you could find me on @teambodybox, I'm there all the time. It's me and my brother Reaf. Shout out to Reaf, he's a workaholic and all of that.

Just stay in tune! Dres just released a project with Stu Bangers called “Sheep Stu”, which is dope. He got another project that he's already completed, it should be coming out sometime this year. He's done a whole collaboration with De La Soul of a whole bunch of De La Soul beats and stuff like that. So it's called “Dres and De La”, it's called “D&D”, which is a really dope project. So we'll be releasing that soon and we got a lot of stuff coming up. De La Soul is working on some stuff, just stay tuned. Just stay tuned when this stuff starts popping, we'll start putting it out there to the people. So we let you all know what's going on.