Mikiwar: I'm going to try something new. I'm going to do the rapid fire questions. I need the response quickly. Here we go: what's your favorite color?
Reflex: umm umm....
Mikwar and Dainjazone: No no too slow too slow!
Reflex: There are so many colors in the world.
Mikiwar: Ok lets try this again. What's your favorite...
Reflex: Blue!
Mikiwar: What's your shoe size?
Reflex: 10 uhh 10 1/2
Mikiwar: What network is your phone on?
Reflex: AT&T
Mikiwar: 2 x 2 - 3?
Reflex: 1
Mikiwar: Miki or Dz?
Reflex: Miki
Mikiwar: "Hey Mickey" or "Highway To The Danger Zone"? This is important.
Reflex: Highway To The Danger Zone
Miki: AAAHHH!!!
Dainjazone: YES!!!
Reflex: WTF was that? What was that about? What about the serious questions?
Dainjazone: We asked people on Twitter 'what do you prefer: "Hey Mickey" or "Highway To The Danger Zone"?' It ended up being a tie on Twitter. So, we are going to start keeping track as of now. Starting with you.
Mikiwar: Just ask him the serious questions so he's happy.
Reflex: Haha
Dainjazone: So a lot of people don't know about your relationship with Kanye. Can you touch on that relationship?
Reflex: I started out at Power as an intern. I was a part of the street team. I did everything I could at the station. I was about 20 years old. An A&R by the name of Jay Brown was the secret person of Rocafella; he was Jay-Z's right hand man. He had put me on the road with an artist named Knoc-turn'al. Kanye had produced a record for him called " Music", which was actually a very good record. I basically became Knoc-turn'al's road manager. It was me, rolling around the USA, with about 4 or 5 crips like 3 times my size, trying not to get beat up everywhere...
Mikiwar: Well you're not a big guy...
Reflex: Is that a challenge?
Mikiwar: Go ahead I'm sorry.
Reflex: Long story short; I was in New York for the first time. I was 20, maybe 21 by then. We showed up to Kanye's apartment in Jersey for his birthday. Kanye introduced himself and said, "You know I rap too! I wanna start coming to LA". I was the first person to embrace him, first person on stage with him, helped him press his vinyl, helped him in the studio... After his accident, I was there to help push him in the right direction. Is that enough?
Dainjazone: I wanna know about the part where you played the video in a room full of djs...
Mikiwar: VHS
Dainjazone: You said you would call out the djs who left the room.
Reflex: Haha I brought Kanye to the radio station and I'm excited. I don't have a huge voice at the radio station at this point. People like Mr. Choc and those who read the credits knew who he was because he had already produced the Blueprint [Jay-Z] stuff. So he came up extra cocky like Kanye USED to be. Not that he's not now, but he was at a point where he would be like, "Yo! I'm the next best rapper. I wanna show yall the video to 'Through The Wire'." Every DJ except for Mr. Choc, Echo, and Vice were checkin their watch and saying, "This dude Kanye is a fuckin asshole. I just can't wait to get out of here." Kanye says, "Yo I wanna show you the video." The VCR was in another room. There was about 12 djs in the room. The only djs that went to the other room were Mr. Choc, Echo, Vice and myself. Everyone exchanged contacts with him and stayed in touch with him. So basically, Kanye blew up. His album came out and did great. All the djs that left came up to me saying, "Yo Reflex, I need to get a drop from Kanye." I made sure Kanye cut drops for everyone in that other room and the rest that left got slept on.
Mikiwar and Dainjazone: Haha dope!
Reflex: It's just a lesson to learn that if someone comes off cocky to you, you should take a step back and appreciate where they're coming from and the passion that may drive them to be cocky... and never to sleep on anyone.
Mikiwar: What are your top 3 food spots and this will lead to another question.
Reflex: Casa Vega if I want to spend money, Subway, Aroja Sushi in the Valley.
Mikwar: Cool so you didn't mention the one I wanted. There's a spot that is arguably the best burger spot on the west coast.
Reflex: Oh In-N-Out? That was my 1st job. When I lived in Barstow that's where I worked. I was the fry guy. I would also dj the high school dances. I was making like $125 and for weddings $250. I was ballin at the time cuz all my friends were working 9-5 and I was making $600 a week. I started working at In-N-Out just for more income. A lot of people would pass through there. So i met Tatiana Ali, Tyra Banks, George Clooney, Tupac, Oscar De La Hoya. When hot girls would come to the counter after I call their number, I would tell them, "you know I dj too," and they were like, "Oh cool! Where's my food?"
Mikiwar: What happen with Tatiana Ali? You put your job on the line.
Reflex: At the time, Tatiana was a big name. I was in the back peeling potatoes. I got word, "Ashley Banks is here." She was driving off in a van and I'm running after her with an In-N-Out time sheet and a pen yelling "Tatiana! Can I get your autograph!" So they stopped the van and she crawled out from the back and she signed it saying, "To Anthony, I hope you didn't get fired." Because I was yelling out, "I think I'm going to get fired!" Later on, I met her up in the studio through mutual friends and I told her the story. She blushed.
****INTERVIEW CONTINUED AT THE END OF THE SHOW***
Mikiwar: It was dope to have you on. Your set is directly going to my Ipod.
Reflex: It's just nice to play whatever the hell we want: from some of the corniest pop stuff--not that I played that tonight--to hip hop, dance, funk...
Mikwar: What's the corniest song you play?
Reflex: That I like? Oh! 3 by Britney Spears. I'm not mad at Miley Cyrus. I'm able to separate it. I enjoy seeing people have a good time. As far as requests... it can get annoying, but I don't mind. I'm grateful to even have a job doing this. I'm the first person in my family to do something outside of our family trade, which is work on the railroad, so it's a blessing just to be here.
Dainjazone: You guys, over at the station, have a lot of angry west coast rappers, picketing, causing ruckus. What's your opinion on the west coast rap scene? A lot of people don't know what gets played on Power unless they tune in online. You just don't hear too much of the west coast rappers unless it's Snoop or the other heavyweights.
Reflex: I think we all miss hearing so much good music from the 90's and we had nothing to worry about because they were all hit records. They just happened to be west coast records that were hits. I don't take it that seriously. At the end of the day, the people that are making noise out in LA, we're behind them. You know, you got like J Rocc, Bishop [Lamont], Nipsy Hustle--who I hosted a mixtape for, Glasses Malone. When I first heard of him, I drove down to Watts just to meet him and show him how to get on the radio and create a buzz for himself. So I don't really see the disconnect. Good records get played on the air. People have this misconception of west coast being a typical "street hip hop thing". That's apart of it, but LMFAO is technically from out here. Same with the Black Eyed Peas. Far-East Movement is a local group. We support local acts. If it's a hit record we're going to play it. What's frustrating is that artists think that radio is the first stop for their record. Virally, the internet is bigger than radio now. People get signed from singing on youtube. People need to change with the times, know their resources, and not always depend on radio.
THE REST CAN BE HEARD ON http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2684119
60 Minute mp3 version of DJ Reflex on the MikiDz Show courtesy of Beezo.net
http://www.beezo.net/djs/mikidzshow
VIDEO DOWNLOAD
All full recorded videos for past guests can be accessed from the MikiDz page here:
http://www.djcity.com/mikidz
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