Today we’d like to introduce you to DJ Johnnie Dynamite.
DJ Johnnie, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My Dj journey started as a youngster in Chicago. My Uncle had a massive vinyl collection and since my family was a pretty popular bunch on our neighborhood they would have these epic “blue light in the basement” parties. My grandmother would cook, my aunties would bartend, my Uncle would conduct the evening soundtrack and it seemed almost as if every given weekend there was a party and people from the neighborhood would come by. So at my young age at the time I would sneak downstairs and watch my Uncle play and be mesmerized by how he was able to drive the energy of the room with his deep crate of selections. To this day I think he has the greatest vinyl collection I have ever seen next to probably Quest Love or Dj Shadow. He (my Uncle) was a huge James Brown fan and also loved Parliament, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Hall and Oates as well as New Jack Swing. His mixes always crossed genres and blended old with new exceptionally. His style have shaped a lot of what I do today, as my sets are known to be very diverse and creative laced with high energy. I love blending current hip hop, with sampled rare grooves from the past, breakbeats, pop, even tv show openings, Latin music and reggae. Depending on the night there is no real definition to what avenue I may take.
Years later for my 16th birthday my mother purchased me my first Mixer a Realistic 32-1200c and a single turntable. Knowing I would need 2 I “borrowed” another from the top of her Kenwood stereo cabinet, and began building my vinyl collection. At the time vinyl was pretty expensive be it the only real medium as cds were a new corner being introduced and mp3s weren’t even an option. Thus I also “borrowed” moms tape player and began buying cassette singles for .99 when I couldn’t afford 5.00 12”s. I learned how to pitch blend between tape decks and the turntable and this forced me to learn the science of BPM (beats per minute). I would make tapes for friends, mainly Chicago house as that was the sound of the time and always have done cool edits with cartoon show openings etc. My mother would also allow me to play at the very beginning of those blue light in the basement parties before things got really “adult” to entertain everyone arriving.
I later moved to Atlanta to attend college and took a hiatus from the decks and focus on my studies. I then couldn’t fight the urge any longer and began saving money to purchase new equipment. I got “antsy” and after getting together about 200 bucks bought a “Dj in a box” setup that included a decent belt drive turntable, light weight mixer, and headphones that really were meant for a Walkman. Nonetheless I was on my way. I bought records, and called every label in the city “posing” as a huge Dj in the city in order to get their marketing department to send me vinyl for free. It absolutely worked and I promised myself to practice for a year before I started gigging. That year never occurred as I jumped out head first after about 3 months. I kept getting booked and the intense pressure of doing parties and the crowds I found myself in front of made me get better in a hurry.
I soon found myself in some crazy dope places and meeting some even doper people. I was deejaying for an upstart Cloud 9 Entertainment group that has now become a huge conglomerate, Dynasty Entertainment, and even events for high profile individuals like the Apphilliates.
As time passed I began to gain more notoriety and was honored to play rooms alongside the incredible Rare Form Dj Crew, the Face Off Friday MJQ Family of which I am a member, as well as events like All Vinyl Everything, Pretty Sweet Party Atlanta, A3C conference, and the huge annual One Music Festival. I have also been blessed to be embraced by the Coalition Deejays, and hold down a residency for 10+ years at East Atlanta best Hookah Spot iLounge Atlanta. So in essence Dj life has been really good and I feel like I’m just getting started.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The road to this position has definitely NOT been all yellow bricks and “sing-a-longs”. There have been plenty of hazards, pitfalls and “piles” along the way. Like I said before I really learned while already gigging which is really not common so I had to be very receptive to constructive criticism from my peers. As artist we are notoriously sensitive about our art so that can be a challenge, especially just listening to it and not trying to make e uses as to why certain things went the way they did. So that was at first hard to deal with but I appreciate it so much as I have had some great people assist me…major Dj’s like Rasta Root (Smokin Shells), DJ Jaycee (Scratch Atlanta ), Applejac, Presyce (Scratch Atlanta), Dj Finesse and Jah Prince (Da Flava Radio). These guys are exceptionally busy so for them to take the time has always been awesome for me. As the old adage goes “the coach is always hardest on their best player because they ALWAYS see them as being better than they are”.
Above Exceptional – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
The name of my company is Above Exceptional LLC, and we are a multi-faceted in that we have three different arms to our success. The first being dynamiteFM, which is our deejay, production, event specialist branch. Under this wing you can hire Deejays from our network, have Your Event regardless of size planned and suited to your budget or if you are an artist we can handle all of your mixtape needs. The next arm is dynamiteFILMS, which is where any and all video creation is handled. We do everything from live production to video. We also can produce video mixtapes as well thought this division. Finally we have dynamiteCREATIV which is our apparel and creative branch where we produce really cool clothing and home items with a flair. This division is set for its first product launch and roll out late summer 2018. The idea is for us to provide an entire experience, a one stop marketplace for all of your creative entertainment needs. All branches and information in regards to services can be found on the website www.dynamitefm.com.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I personally define success based on your commitment to excellence and broadening your brand. I have never been one to measure success based off of a bank statement, or material things like homes and cars. Don’t get me wrong those things are nice and if success affords you those luxuries then by all means indulge however success is not measured by gaining those things. Instead success to me is actually becoming what I told my mother and father and Uncle what I would become. Being successful at that and even further expanding that dream into something larger than I can even imagine. I want to create something impactful, something incredible, something that’s just Above Exceptional.
Pricing:
- Small Events start at 400.00
- Medium Events start at 500.00
- Large Events start at 800.00
Contact Info:
- Website: www.dynamiteFM.com
- Phone: 4042773797
- Email: djjdplaylist@gmail.com
- Instagram: Its_dynamitefm
- Facebook: Dj Johnnie Dynamite
- Twitter: Itsdynamitefm
- Other: Snapchat: bangjdbang
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
