Mixed messages
The upcoming Million DJ March is viewed as a solution by some, spin by others
Bobby Kariotis discovered one of the challenges of being a DJ five years ago after a club gig in downtown Boston. Kariotis, known as DJ BK, says that at the end of the night the club owners refused to pay him, claiming they didn't make enough money for the evening. According to Kariotis, the owners, whom he didn't want to identify, told him they were doing him a favor by hiring him. Kariotis refused to back down; he argued that if no one at the club had been playing music, the owners wouldn't have made any money at all.
"I made sure I got paid," says Kariotis, now 22, who remembers getting about $150 for the night. "It wasn't what I expected, but I got something."
On Saturday, DJs from all over the country will gather on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for the Million DJ March. The event will not only give them an opportunity to protest unfair compensation practices but will help DJs organize their businesses, sign up for health insurance, and learn about the legal issues mixtape DJs face. For decades, mixtape DJs have received unreleased songs from record company promotions departments that hope the DJs will help break potential hit singles, but in recent years the Recording Industry Association of America has cracked down on the DJs who sell compilation CDs of these new songs.
The event's founder and organizer, Amorette Shaw, who identifies herself as A. Shaw on the Million DJ March website (www.themilliondjmarch.blogspot.com), has recruited iconic old school rapper KRS-One and Green Lantern, a mixtape DJ who came to prominence through Eminem. Speakers will include DJ Scientific and Harald Blakeslee, managing director of the Texas music distribution company BCD Music Group. Among the performers are DJ K-Sly and MCs Joell Ortiz and NYOil. Panels will focus on the legacy of the mixtape, and on Friday, a complimentary dinner will cover the subjects of insurance and retirement planning.
But this is a community whose members are used to battling each other musically and dividing into crews. Not all DJs have united in support of the march. Many local DJs said they hadn't heard about it. Interest seems based on the level of experience of the DJs. Up-and-coming DJs such as Kariotis who are just starting out say they understand the need for this kind of public unity.
"You need someone to learn from," says Kariotis, who won't be able to attend the march because he has to work. "I noticed, talking to DJs, there's a lot of things they don't know."
But the more established DJs have concerns. They wonder whether the event is merely an opportunity for a handful of successful DJs and artists to publicize themselves. They don't know Shaw and wonder what will happen with the money from sponsors such as Smart Water and Don Diva magazine. Veteran DJs also say there are more important issues for DJs to get politically active about.
DJ Bruno, known for his Sunday nights spinning house music at An Tua Nua in Kenmore Square, hadn't heard about the event but quickly got on a computer to peruse the Million DJ March website. His immediate reaction? "This is one big promotional scam for these DJs to promote themselves," he said. "If they want to march, march about something. March about the environment, march about crime, march about the high prices of gas, march about impeaching Bush. March about something a little more serious."
Shaw, who came up with the idea for the event two years ago, says she received permission from Nation of Islam minister Louis Farrakhan to use the term Million DJ March, which mirrors the name of the Million Man March that Farrakhan organized in 1995. Shaw says that as a manager for DJ Suss One and DJ Dallas Green, and a sponsor of DJ tours and the Justo Mixtape Awards, she has firsthand knowledge of the DJs' struggles. She says the sponsorship money she's raised will pay for the rental of portable toilets, audio speakers, and the stage. "I'm not making a dime off that," Shaw says.
Shaw has noticed the divided interest in the march and insists the event is relevant. "There are a lot more DJs striving to feed their family than the known ones," she says.
Shaw had wanted to fly Clinton Sparks, a well-known Boston-area mixtape DJ, to D.C. for the march. But Sparks, who has a syndicated radio show and a weekly Saturday gig at Las Vegas's Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, says he will not be participating. He had spoken with his friend, Green Lantern, about the march. At the end of the conversation, Sparks had reservations about the event's goals and the woman behind it.
"I have no clue who this person is," Sparks says, "what merit she has, what her agenda is. There are a lot of people who use the DJ for self-benefit. There are companies who will start a conference and say they'll get all the big DJs here to get big sponsorship money and the DJ gets nothing."
Many wonder how many people will show up at the event.
"I haven't heard a tremendous amount of buzz," says Jim Tremayne, editor of DJ Times, a monthly magazine that has covered the business since 1988. "I go on their website, they put these 'just announced' things up, and there aren't that many comments. I don't know if that's good or bad or what."
DJ Times is running ads about the march. Other sites doing promotion include Black Planet and MySpace. Although touted as the Million DJ March, Shaw estimates that the event may draw a crowd of 100,000. For Shaw, the grassroots effort shows DJs don't need a record label or a superstar such as Russell Simmons to generate interest.
"We are a unit that can work by ourselves," says Shaw. "We don't need someone to cosign what we do."
DJ Rick Rude, an East Boston DJ who has residencies at Felt and Revolution Rock Bar in Boston, found out about the march from a DJ friend in Chicago. He hopes to attend with a group of DJs. Like DJ BK, DJ Rick Rude, whose birth name is Rick Trainor, has found it difficult to get paid. Club owners complain about how much money they want to pay, he says, because they view the job of DJ as a hobby rather than a career.
"This isn't my side job," says Trainor, 21, who started DJing at the age of 12 and played his first club gig four years later. "This is my real-life job. It's about time that people realize what DJs do."
Sparks has been a mentor to Kariotis and Trainor as they navigate the DJ world. Both Trainor and Kariotis have health insurance. Taking Sparks's advice, Trainor incorporated his business after graduating from high school so he could write off his equipment purchases. Kariotis would like there to be a minimum payment for DJs playing clubs. Someone opening for another DJ could get about $200, says Kariotis, who works as a head engineer of Sparks's SmashTime Radio show. A headliner could get about $350.
Kariotis flies to Las Vegas every Saturday to open and close Sparks's show. Before getting his first paycheck from the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Kariotis had to fill out a W-2 form, something he wishes Boston clubs would also have DJs do.
"It should be all legal," Kariotis says. "It shouldn't be under the table." 