DJ Excel Interview

Dainajzone: You’ve been spinning for 19 years. You’re a Philly native…
Excel: Yea. I’m 30 now. So, I started when I was 11. I’ve been able to play full time for about 11 years. I don’t think I would have been the artist I am today if it wasn’t for Philly. I grew up around a lot of guys who not only turned out to be friends later on in life, but legends. A lot of those guys are in the crew…

Dainjazone: Go through the list of guys in the Skratch Makaniks.
Excel: Jay-Ski, Sat-One, Adam Bomb, Aktive, A.Vee, Jey One, Impulse, Kay-Dee, Elixir Jon B, and Don Rivers. There are about 13 of us. I might be forgetting some. All these dudes are so dope when they step behind the tables. Those are the guys I had to come up with.

MikiWAR: What brings you to LA?
Excel: Philly is a great city, but I felt like I was at a ceiling and there wasn’t much more that I was going to accomplish in my personal career. I needed to move to a place where I was able to network with more people. Of course, LA and New York are great for networking; not so much the gigs that you’re playing, but just grabbing coffee and possibly running into someone that you wouldn’t run into in Philly. I felt like if I was going to pick my whole life up and move, let me do something drastic, which brought me to the west coast. I wouldn’t exist out here if it weren’t for some of the homies who looked out from the very beginning. Mr. Best was one of the first dudes to throw work. Edski was always plugging me in when it came to looking for people to play. Rick Rude has looked out for me as well. Gomez is the one who brought me out here and I met so many people because of him. If you come out here “dolo”, it’s harsh. There are so many guys that are knee deep into sh#t; the actors, the dudes that are serving the drinks and the guys that are working the door are spinning. No one really cares about all the shit we are doing here. When people see me play, they aren’t too familiar with who I am. Then they say, “Who the f#ck are you? Where did you come from?” It’s cool because I’m playing for people who have no idea who I am.

Dainjazone: It just goes to show how competitive LA is. We have our own guys coming up and then we have guys like you, Rick Rude, and Evil One who are looking for a new challenge because they have conquered where they came from.
Excel: The game itself is very competitive and it’s supposed to be. It’s all friendly. At he end of the day it’s fun. The dudes that are spinning and take it seriously, they are your bros. If this was college, we would all be in a frat. If you’re not looking out for each other, then you’re not helping yourself either.

MikiWAR: How did Jazzy Jeff influence your DJ career?
Excel: Jeff of course is one of the all time icons when it comes to Philly. No question about that. I didn’t mention him first because Jay-Ski was the only source that I had on the radio. Jeff wasn’t on the radio. Jeff and Cash Money sit at the top when it comes to Philly, but those guys weren’t audible at that time because they were doing other things. Ski, Ren, and Cosmic Kev were on the radio. We used to record off the radio and that was our bible. This was how we knew how to play. Some people see me and they say, “Damn! You’re juggling and not f#cking it up!” That’s what the Philly sound was. It was about being a little bit of the turntablist, but having that party rock mindset of the New York dudes.

When California got involved for us (like Revolution, who is a massive inspiration to all of us), I felt those dudes were above and beyond the curve for cutting. So listening to Rev on the Wake Up Show was what got me to the point of wondering what that little cut was, that little noise. There was a time when Sway said to Rev, “show them an 8 bar flare…show them a 16 bar flare… now show them a 32 bar flare,” and Rev just went off and I’m thinking, ”what the f#ck is that!?!?” I’m just staring at the cross fader, stuck on stupid like, “how the f#ck is he making that noise?”

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