DJ Obscene has probably accomplished more at age 22 than most of the DJs doing it today. Getting an early start, he was the resident for two years at one of Miami's best parties in recent memory: Miami Live at Santos, which was voted Best Weekly Party in New Times' 2008 "Best of Miami" issue. Most recently, he hosted a mixtape for local hip-hop artist Ice Berg.
But Obscene's story begins in the hip-hop world, and though he still boasts a foot firmly planted there, his budding career has him also exploring other genres. Case in point: Besides his residency spinning a couple of nights a week at South Beach hot spot STK, he has just announced a new two-hour mix show on Y100, on both Friday and Saturday nights. Here's what he had to say about his latest projects. Visit Crossfade, New Times' music blog, at blogs.miaminewtimes.com/crossfade to read the full Q&A.
New Times: You recently won the Y100 Mix-Off contest not too long ago and DJed at Mackapoolooza, the two-year anniversary party for the station's Mack at Nite show. How was that?
DJ Obscene: Yeah, the Y100 Mix-Off was tons of fun. Fun coming up with the set, fun performing it, fun all around. I think that's why I enjoyed it so much — because of the simple fact that I had tons of fun, which most people forget to do sometimes in this crazy industry.
The atmosphere at Mackapoolooza was great. Flo Rida made an appearance, and the White Tie Affair performed for the fans. The relationship with Y100 has definitely been a blessing. I wanna give a big shout to Mack from the Mack at Nite show for being about his business and holding me down.
I was actually just brought onboard for the Club 100 mix show Friday and Saturday nights from 10 p.m. to midnight, so you'll be able to catch me mixing on there weekly, spinning your favorite tunes.
A lot of people might know you from all the work you used to put in on the mixtape scene. You've taken a break, though, and have recently surfaced with the new Ice Berg mixtape. Why the long break?
Well, it was never really a break, but a break from the public eye, that is for sure. A few things factored into this decision, but mainly it was the lack of quality music being released. I remember the days where there would consistently be new quality music that I would feel the need to share with the world, but that feeling slowly disappeared.
To make a long story short, I expanded my knowledge of other genres by 5,000 percent, and my natural ear for music made this fairly simple. That was, once again, a very fun experience, being able to discover new and old sounds that I hadn't been exposed to. It was the closest thing to digging through vinyl at a record store like I used to do. I felt like a little kid.
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