Thanks to festivals like Coachella, SXSW and Paid Dues Hip-Hop legends are being instagramed into the timelines of a new generation of fans.
DJ Quik is one of the many respected artists taking it to the road. This month (April 19th & 20th) he kicks off the “Krush Groove” tour which also features Redman, Method Man, Bone Thugs and Harmony and more.
“Great moments make Hip-hop what it is,” says tour booking agent Jamie Adler. “Whether it’s an artist collabo, an onstage reconciliation or a diss, those moments are the exclamation points in the story of Hip-hop. DJ Quik is actually about to give us one of those moments on this tour so people better come with their camera phone’s ready.”
Knowing that DJ Quik is going to deliver it on stage, we asked what are some outstanding moments from his early days as an artist.
DJ Quik’s Top 5 hip hop moments from the 90s
#1 – I did a show with X-Clan who at the time were my favorite group and I was awe-struck. I was a big fan because they were like the Hip-hop Parlament and the Funkadelics, so I was blown away.
#2 – When my 1st album came out and the s### exploded! I had anxiety because of the success of it. I couldn’t believe it. For it being a mixtape, well you might as well call it a mix cassette, but Profile records put some money behind it and put me Michael Jackson’s studio and let me go hard. I ended up making a top 20 album that year. The whole gaze of that is high that’s better than weed and alcohol mixed together, intoxicating. I got a little power drunk though.
# 3 – Working in the studio with Tupac after he got out of jail, that was really intense and it felt…if I could pick a word, there was a type of anticipation for the whole situation. Not just for the album we were working on (All Eyes On Me) but for where he was going at the time because it seems like he was trying to catch up on lost time from being in the pen so it was just a trip how fast we worked when we got in there because he was very driven that was very memorable.
#4 – It’s not so positive but it was when my nephew got strung out on crystal meth and shot my manager at my house. Trying to drive him to the hospital was life changing for me, I never really got comfortable after that in the industry, or around people. That was pretty traumatic.
#5 – Signing with Clive Davis. It was a little bittersweet with that monkey on my back because I had finally made it to the majors but constantly thinking about my friend who had helped me get there wasn’t there to share it with me. It’s a little melancholy but those are some of my most memorable times.