D.J. SHAME

Check me out every Sunday at NoonTuesday at 10:00 PM& Friday at 9:00 AM (eastern standard time) on XM 65 The Rhymefor the best in old school hip hop & original breaks



Started DJing back in 84 when hip hop was a thriving culture where skills & creativity were a main focus of what we were doing. After a couple years of practicing in the bassment i took my craft to a local roller rink, and then to my first weekly club spot. Club Uptown in Worcester Ma. was the placeattracting crews of hip hop lovers from Boston, Springfield, Providence, Hartford& other spots in the general area. At the same time i was putting together 4-track megamixes & producing tracks for different mc's which also helped me to gain more recognition via radio. Up until about 90 i had dj'd for numerous mc's and rocked shows with artists likeBizmarkie, Big Daddy Kane, T La Rock, Poor Righteous Teachers, Run Dmc, Craig G, & the list goes on. In 89 i was invited to be in the New Music Seminar "d.j. battle for world supremacy" which helped me to make many industry connections that i would later put to use. I won first place in the Boston battle of the dj's the following year in 90.& did a few more battles while my main focus was on producing. The same year while opening for a Run Dmc show i met Jamieson Grillo who invited me to spin on his radio show at WRBB in Bostonwhich ended up turning into a 5 year gig at the station, and also gave me personal connects with people at most major & independent record labels. Through Ed O G & the Bulldogs i met Joe Mansfield, who produced the majority of Ed's first LP. I found that Joe like myself, was also into digging for breaks much deeper than most people at that timewhich led to an instant friendship. The following year in 91 i met & became good friends with Sean C through my friend Jamieson while at the CMJ Convention in NY. Sean was far behind myself & Joe as far as knowledge of breaks, beats & productionbut he quickly accelerated and after a couple years we ended up forming the Vinyl Reanimators which was Myself, Sean & Joe. I produced the single "jungles of da east" for Scientifik in 94, which was released on definite records. This was the first record to have the Vinyl Reanimators name. We began shopping beats to A&R cats at most major labels but found most work was going to the more established producers. We ended up getting a few jobs but were disappointed as far as dealing with major labels. The following year in 95, Sean & I decided to move from Ma. to Brooklyn, NY. to be more involved in the music game. Shortly after is when i did the remix to "fast life" by Kool G Rap & Nas. Sean & I decided rather than trying to shop the remix to Epic which was the label G Rap was onwe would give copies on dat to all the top radio dj's like Marley Marl & Pete Rock, Bobbito & Stretch, Riz & Mayhem.since we knew all of them. We were hoping that after creating a big buzz, that this would force Epic to pick up our remix. I used to be up in the Epic office with the promo people while numerous dj's called wanting a copy of our remix. As usual, the idiot A&R broad decided to use Salaam Remi's remix which made no noise whatsoever.so we ended up selling our remix to a couple different bootleggers who put it out on white label releases. Unfortunately in early 96 i ended up having to move back to Ma. to start building a case to pursue a custody battle for my daughter as well as constantly look out for her well being. Shortly after moving back is when i produced "too complex/it's your life" for L Tha Head Toucha. We put it out on our own label which was Direct Records& the response was overwhelming. Every major hip hop radio show from Ny to La & even overseas was killin it. I think we initially pressed 2,000 copies & sold through quickly.but were stuck because we were always waiting for money to come back so we could press more copies that we already had orders for.but i believe we ended up going through about 8,000 copies which wasn't too bad for an indie release. After that i did a couple more bootleg remixes with Seanand then the whole custody game began in early 98. which kind of pulled me away from the music, which was definitely the most difficult time in my entire life. Even though it was nearly impossible to concentrate or be musically creative during these times, i ended up doing a couple of projects that i didn't really feel 100% but did as a favor for some friends of mine. I'm happy to say that towards the end of 2003 i was awarded full custody of my daughterwhich brought me such an incredible relief from the stress that you couldn't even imagine. So i immediately started getting involved again with the musicand kind of figuring out what i actually wanted to do. I ended up spinning with a rock band for a little while and also an old school crew of mc's which connected me to the local rock scene in my area. Through one of the mc's i linked up with a few incredible musicians. We were all involved with different bands at the time but when we first tried playing together it was like we had already been playing together for a long time. The band consisted of Drums, Organ/Keys, Trumpet & DJ. In late 2004 i also finally released a follow up vol. 2 to the original "traveling through sample land" which gained worldwide recognition amongst beat heads & vinyl diggers. I did vol. 1 in Feb of 93 and it is usually referred to as the original sample break mixtapefar before Kon & Amir& Cut Chemist who are all friends of mine. I guess that pretty much sums it up. Many people have been asking for a complete Vinyl Reanimators discography.so feel free to check it out above in the blog section .1 (a few more still need to be added though).