We were lucky to catch up with Oji Morris recently and have shared our conversation below.

Oji, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

As a DJ, my greatest lessons learned came from observing others and practicing my craft. Over the years I have been influenced by many people. All of which have played a role in my becoming who I am today. Learning never stops and I have realized that even the most “unusual suspects” can have some sort of influence on you. Good music is timeless. And Good music is exactly what it proclaims to be. It’s Good Music. So when I am enjoying myself on the dance floor (yes, I dance), you never know what song might come on that I have never heard before and moves me to want to identify it. If it moves me properly, I am interested in owning it and making it a part of my presentation. A DJ should never stop discovering music. A good DJ should always have something new to offer his/her audience with every set.  As it relates to learning, I have never run into many obstacles or been deterred. Once I decided I wanted to be a DJ there was nothing that could possibly get in my way. I was determined and I never looked back. Yes, there was (still is) the expense of buying equipment, but you save your money, make your money and reinvest in yourself.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is DJ Oji aka The Original Man. I was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY and migrated to Baltimore (where I now reside). I came to Baltimore to attend college at Morgan St. University. In college I was linked with several organizations that led me to many opportunities to play parties. Eventually, I would have my own core group of friends (we called ourselves M.O.E.T Productions – Men of Exquisite Taste) and we became “campus famous” for throwing great parties. Fast fwd past college, I found myself playing house music in many night clubs in Baltimore city (Oasis and Paradox are notable residencies). In the mid-late 90’s I was presented with an opportunity to co-host and eventually host a radio show “The Underground Experience” which aired prime time on Saturday nights on Baltimore’s WEAA 88.9fm. The show lasted over 12 years. During that time I also started a record label (POJI Records) with my partner DJ Pope. That was way back when vinyl was thriving. The label is still running successfully in our “digital world”.  Also during this time period and beyond, I wrote and produced many songs in the genre of House, featuring a wide variety of vocalists and musicians. My DJ career also expanded to DC which is the neighboring city to Baltimore. The DC nightlife scene was thriving heavily and I had several residencies there as well (DC Sanctuary and Club Red are notable residencies).
Some of the records I produced, would allow me to become internationally known and travel both nationally and overseas to places like, England, Japan, Honk Kong, Chicago, Miami etc).
I have been DJing now over 30 years. Sometimes people see you and ask “are you still DJ’ing?” My response hasn’t changed in all these years…”until I die”. I love it. So long as the good Lord see fit, music is my ministry and I am ordained in it. The thing about house music is that it is synonymous with Love. As is God. And so that is my mission, to “spread the love around”.
I still do an internet radio show called “The Underground Essential” It airs every Wed from 12pm -2pm on www.handzonradio.fm. You can find many of my archive mixes on www.mixcloud.com/djoji. As far as the music I have produced, you can find it on www.traxsource.com as well as bandcamp or youtube. Just do a search for DJ Oji. Original Man is my alias and represents my more percussive and afro beat side. But either way DJ Oji aka The Original man is ME.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

The first song I ever wrote was co-produced by my partner Dj Pope. Our production team was called “The Brothers in the Struggle”. He and I met at school (Morgan State University) and we had a lot in common. We were both DJs with the desire to make music. We found ourselves at various Music seminars held in NY and Miami. We had our demo done and we were at the New Music Seminar in NY. We were visiting labels in the city and trying to get our music heard. We landed a deal with a record company and were in a meeting with the record exec. He wanted to press our record and was going to send the contract. It was a major label subsidiary. We left his office excited and got back home to Baltimore, ready to take on the world. Well…as far as bad luck goes, the label exec fell sick (he passed shortly after) and our deal never happened.
We tried and tried and tried some more.
At some point we came to the conclusion that we shouldn’t have to wait on a record label to give us an opportunity. We can create the opportunity for ourselves. We can be our own record label. We did some research and the rest is history. POJI Records was born around ’93 and here we are 30 years later and still going.
Opportunities are often disguised as obstacles. The resilient ones will make lemonade from those lemons.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative Artist?

Being an artist has not shown me great monetary reward. In fact, my whole career I have always had a job. A full time job. And it was the job that allowed me to finance my dreams. I am not suggesting that this is everyone’s path, but it was certainly mine. Sure, I would have loved to be able to play my music or produce music full time, but there were bills that needed to be paid. Most successful business owners will tell you that it takes multiple streams of income to survive and prosper. I am blessed because the music has taken me places I had never been before. It has allowed me the opportunity to travel abroad.

But the greatest reward is the individual gratitude that people have shown me. There has been no reward greater than the testimonies of others that I have received. You do what you do because you love to do it. It’s genuine. It’s from the heart. Through music and song, you are hoping to touch someone, but how they are touched is not up to you. As a DJ, it’s my goal to make people dance and put smiles on their faces. But some of the stories I have been told by others suggest that “I saved their lives”. Wow! That’s a lot. People go through things and sometimes it’s the grace of God and other times it’s the music or the combination of the two that get them through. It could be sickness, addiction, incarceration, divorce, death…the list goes on. But when that music and the messenger of that music (me) gets you through what you need to get through, that is the highest reward an artist can receive. Music is my ministry!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: dj_oji_aka_original_man
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/djoji2
• Twitter: @ojidj
• Other: www.mixcloud.com/djoji

Image Credits
All Photos by Cheryl Givens Blue tinted photo by Marc Henry