DJ Drama

Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

Pushkin Industries

Society & Culture, Music

4.5 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2023

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

DJ Drama is one of the most iconic mixtape DJs of all time. His legendary Gangsta Grillz tapes helped propel artists like T.I. and Young Jeezy to stardom. His classic Dedication series reinvigorated Lil’ Wayne’s career in the early and mid-2000s.

By 2007, the underground mixtape market was booming. But in January of that year DJ Drama and his longtime business partner Don Cannon were arrested by federal agents and charged with bootlegging and racketeering. The much publicized raid only boosted DJ Drama’s profile. In the years since, DJ Drama has built a successful record label and he’s continued to make mixtapes. Tyler The Creator even crafted his latest album, Call Me If You Get Lost, with DJ Drama’s classic adlibs all over it. It won the Grammy for best rap album in 2022.

That same year though, while DJ Drama was professionally at the height of his success, personally he was battling an addiction to opioids—an ongoing struggle he’s only recently started to talk about publicly.

On today’s episode Leah Rose talks to DJ Drama about how he got sober after being what he calls “a functioning junkie” who spent six figures a year on opioids. He also tells the story of how Lil Jon recorded his iconic “gangsta grillz” drops in Drama’s laundry room. And Drama explains why he decided to sign Lil Uzi Vert and Jack Harlow to his Atlantic Records imprint, Generation Now.

You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite DJ Drama songs HERE.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, before this episode begins, I just wanted to let you know that there's
0:14.1	a month of new content coming from Pushkin that you can hear early and ad-free.
0:20.6	Our team has exciting new shows and episodes, like a new series from Malcolm Gladwell's
0:25.4	Revisionist History, Paul McCartney's brand new podcast, A Life in lyrics, new content
0:31.6	from the Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos, and a brand new season of a podcast called
0:37.8	The Dream that dives into the truth behind life coaches and self-help.
0:43.5	You won't want to miss Pushkin September launches, and if you want to binge shows early
0:47.7	and ad-free, you can hear all of Pushkin's content by becoming a Pushkin Plus subscriber.
0:54.0	Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or by visiting Pushkin.fm slash plus.
1:01.3	DJ Dramas, one of the most iconic mixtape DJs of all time.
1:06.6	His legendary gangster girls tapes helped propel artists like TI and Young GZ to start them.
1:12.9	His classic dedication series reinvigorated Lil Wayne's career in the early and mid-2000s.
1:19.6	With their height, mixtapes like DJ Dramas allowed artists the freedom to wrap over other
1:24.6	people's beats and release new music to fans in between their major label projects.
1:30.7	By 2007, the underground mixtape market was booming.
1:34.9	But in January of that year, DJ Drama and his longtime business partner, Don Cannon,
1:39.8	were arrested by federal agents and charged under Rico Laws for bootlegging and racketeering.
1:46.2	Their arrest resulted in the federal government confiscating hundreds of thousands of dollars
1:50.5	from their business accounts.
1:52.5	But the much-publicized raid only boosted DJ Dramas profile.
1:56.9	In the years since, Dramas built a successful record label and has continued to make mixtapes.
2:03.0	Tyler the creator even crafted his latest album, Call Me If You Get Lost, with DJ Dramas classic
	...

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