It’s official ladies and gentlemen, DJ JayCeeOh is SMIRNOFF’s MASTER OF THE MIX!
The champ battled his way past 18 other DJ’s over the course of 10 challenges this season and outlasted, outworked and out-DJed the competition as he fought for the grand prize of $250,000, becoming an official Smirnoff DJ and being crowned the Master of the Mix.
After a finale that saw JayCeeOh go up against his close friends and the show’s finalists, Incrediboi and DJ Chris Karns, the opportunities for the future have opened up. JayCeeOh’s work schedule is quite crazy as the Pittsburgh native finishes up work on the next installment of his “Super 7” series, prepares to release a mixtape, and continues crafting original production for the masses.
Check out our exclusive interview with the Master of the Mix himself, DJ JayCeeOh, where he speaks on keeping the win a secret, the show’s hardest challenge, putting Wiz Khalifa on his first mixtape and much more below:
The man of the hour! Congratulations on the win, how does it feel?
DJ JayCeeOh: F*cking amazing!
As someone who has been tracking your progress throughout the season I have to ask how long ago the show actually wrapped and how you kept such a big secret to yourself the whole time?
DJ JayCeeOh: It was pretty much impossible. I knew by the end of January, like January 25th is when I found out.
Even though you were touring, was it difficult to be more lowkey and out of the scene while you waited for the season to play out?
DJ JayCeeOh: Yeah I would definitely try and be systematic about where I was and making sure I wasn’t every at once. When people would ask me questions about the show and other contestants would comment on certain things, I wanted to stay out of the conversation cause I didn’t want to say something that would allude to my win. I was trying to just be careful.
Would you say that the final challenge was the toughest for you?
DJ JayCeeOh: The finale was the best one for me cause I got to do everything that I wanted to do. The “Bend the Ten” challenge was probably the hardest cause we had to do the ten songs from ten genres at ten different BPMs in four minutes and we only had a couple of hours to work on it. I love challenges like that but having to do that in such a short period of time was really tough.
I know from watching that Incrediboi, [DJ Chris Karns] and yourself were really supportive of each other during the show. How have those relationships grown since you guys wrapped?
DJ JayCeeOh: It’s gotten even better man. We’ve all kept in touch and I actually threw a finale party in L.A. and they both stayed at my house. I feel like we’re a family now. That whole experience was just so crazy to go through together and we all have a lot of love for each other. The two of them can still hold their heads high. It’s not an injustice where they got jerked and were beat by some bum. They both respect me a lot and I feel like I deserved to win.
I saw on your Twitter that you were doing an interview at Power 105.1 with Kid Capri yesterday. How is it having him as more of a mentor and companion now than a judge?
DJ JayCeeOh: It’s great man. When I started DJing I was watching him on Def Comedy Jam in awe of what he did so he’s been an icon and an idol that I looked up to my whole career as a DJ. Just having him walk around and vouch for me, that means a lot.
Let me backtrack real quick. When we spoke last month you were touring with rapper Sam Adams. How did the rest of the tour go for you?
DJ JayCeeOh: That tour was amazing man. We had a blast and I got to do like 15-20 minute sets before he came out in every city so I got to really show his fan base, which isn’t really like mine from the jump, what a real DJ does. A lot of these kids, especially his fans, have grown up in an age where they think Deadmau5 is a great DJ when they’re really just producers playing music. So when I play that kind of set or that kind of music the way I play it, they’re blown away and a lot of those kids after seeing me live say that JayCeeOh is there favorite DJ. It was really beneficial and just a great tour to be on.
In addition to doing more remixes like the one you dropped last week for French Montana’s “What Happens Tonight” what are your plans as far as producing original stuff? Is that more of a focus for you now?
DJ JayCeeOh: Yeah, honestly that’s my number one focus right now. Like every second that I’m not on tour, I’m working on production and that’s because I just proved to the world that I’m one of the best DJs around but I can’t stop there. The guys making the most money are the producing DJs so since I’ve gotten back from filming, all I’ve done is produce. I have a ton of records ready to come out, I’ve just been waiting for this win to happen and with all eyes on me now when I release something people are actually going to pay attention to it.
I plan on releasing a lot of my own stuff, a lot of remixes and I also have a bunch music that I’m going to try and start getting placement with some major label artists and hopefully everything catches on like I plan.
You had a good following from your “Super 7” series which was really your claim to fame before the show started so how does all the attention now change your game plan for the series’ next installment?
DJ JayCeeOh: It’s crazy and I can’t wait. I think I’m going to drop it next Fall and I have almost the whole lineup in order already. I plan on doing this one much bigger and I want to get a really big sponsor behind it and do a whole tour behind it and make it more of an all-around staple. It’s been a staple in the DJ community for years but I want it to be something that the regular people in say Ohio know about.
What are some of the next tracks you plan on remixing?
DJ JayCeeOh: I actually just remixed this Jeremih record “Let Loose” that’s going to be on the next mixtape which I plan on releasing next Wednesday or Thursday. So I’m going to leak that and then I’m working on some more dance and up-tempo remixes as well. I have like a pipeline of stuff I’m ready to release. I’ve just been waiting for this moment so now I can start feeding people with all my work.
What kind of sound can people expect on the mixtape?
DJ JayCeeOh: It ranges from Hip-Hop to Trap to that up-tempo dance music I was talking about. It jumps around but it’s all really flavorful stuff. It’s not Pop; it’s stuff that real music heads and people who are on top of the latest trends in music are going to really like.
What is the Summer like for you now that you’ve been crowned Master of the Mix? Will you be doing a lot more shows and festivals?
DJ JayCeeOh: I’m in Vegas today, North Carolina Friday, back to the city this weekend and I’ve got two shows in L.A on Sunday. I’m going to be hitting San Diego and then doing this Master of the Mix tour and I just signed with The Windish Agency so that’s going to be big going forward.
We’re a little late on getting festivals for the Summer because we couldn’t use the leverage of me being the champ until after the show so hopefully towards the end of the summer I’ll get some looks with some festivals. Like I said though I’m really completely focused on production because those festivals all based around DJ/Producers so that’s my next goal.
I know that you DJed for Wiz Khalifa a couple of years back but is it true that you were also the first DJ to put him on a mixtape?
DJ JayCeeOh: Yeah I actually went to Taylor Allderdice High School and Artie Pitt from Rostrum Records was one of my older brothers best friends so since I was a little kid that’s basically been family so when he and Benjy Grinberg eventually signed Wiz, he was completely unknown at that point and he was still in high school.
At that point I was in Boston at college on the radio and I was working at UGHH and he told me to check Wiz’s s### out so those being my boys I was completely supportive from the jump so anytime I had a mixtape or a project I would ask for some Wiz stuff. When I was putting together this Exclusives project for the website, I put Wiz on the first volume and that was right around the time his Prince of the City came out. The world had no idea about him at that point and yeah it’s pretty crazy. I knew I was one of the first but I might have been the first.
That’s dope! Thanks for your time man and congratulations again champ.
DJ JayCeeOh: Thank you.
Follow DJ JayCeeOh On Twitter: @JayCeeOh