We were lucky to catch up with DJ Macho recently and have shared our conversation below.
DJ, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?
When I think about the legacy that I want to leave behind, there are so many different avenues and ideas that come to mind because I’m constantly thinking bigger and bigger. I know that I want to be recognized as one of the most successful and wealthy DJ’s/Producers of all time, someone who inspired and touched as many people as I could with my musical talents. Outside of making my own dreams a reality, I aspire to be someone who’s able to help other people reach their goals as well, which is why I’ve started developing my own record label and began brainstorming on non-profit orgs that I can get started over the next couple of years to help the younger generation behind me find and develop their passions in life.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is DJ Macho, I’m 21 years old from Jackson, MS. I got into DJing 3 years ago around June 2019 after graduating high-school. There are so many different things that drew me to DJing. Ever since I can remember I have had a passion for music… one of my first Christmas gifts growing up was a drum-set, my favorite movies were all music based, I sung in the children’s choir at church, I used to control the aux-cord at my friends birthday parties, etc. Fast forward to my senior year of high school when I realized that I wouldn’t be playing basketball beyond graduation, I went and got a job working at a fast food restaurant making 7.25/Hr or $300 for a full 40 hour work week. This wasn’t bad for an 18 year old in MS without any real responsibilities, but this also obviously isn’t an ideal situation for anyone. So I reached out to my Uncle Reese (Maurice Rounsaville) who goes by the name “DJ ReeseRe” and asked him if he could introduce me to the craft of DJing. He happily took me in and showed me the ropes, from there I fell in love with DJing and have been able to take it farther than I think anyone around me would ever have seen coming including myself. I spent a lot of hours in my Uncle’s house, my bedroom, my mom’s (who also played/plays a huge role in my success) garage, and various other locations just practicing and working on my craft. I studied some of my favorite DJ’s like DJ T. Lewis (Lil Wayne’s official DJ also from Jackson, MS), DJ Drama, Holiday, Khaled etc. and just tried to soak in as much as I could and I still look up to all of these guys today. I’m just really proud of my personal growth as well as my growth within the musical industry today. I feel like when I played basketball that I never believed in myself enough to be great until it was too late, but when I found my love for DJing I promised that I would never hesitate to bet the bank on myself. In the 3 years that I’ve been DJing I was able to go from DJing in a room of nothing but my closest friends, to house parties around MS State’s (my alma mater) campus, to DJing in arenas in front of literal thousands at a time for major concerts and events. I currently live in Houston, TX (I moved here in June of this year after graduating college in May), but I’ve been blessed to DJ across several different states including MS, AL, TN, TX, and OK as of right now. I recently got into production a little over a year ago now and have been able to release 2 of my own projects with artists that I have genuine relationships with and work with on a daily basis as I’m developing my record label and trying to help them reach their goals within the industry. If there was one thing I want people to realize about me and my business as a DJ/Producer, it would be to just understand that literally everything is genuine, I want to see everyone succeed, I’ve had a lot of low points and a lot of high points, so I understand what it’s like which is why I try to inspire and encourage everyone to push to be the best version of themselves.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
I started DJing in the summer of 2019, and I really didn’t begin getting consistent gigs until November-December of that year. But as we all know the COVID-19 pandemic came around in March 2020. This shut down almost all momentum that I had going for myself as a DJ at the time. I was primarily a college DJ, so when the pandemic forced everyone to return home for the remainder of the school year it really hit me hard. Financially and mentally. I felt like things always happened at the worst timing for me and began to question if this meant I would have to give up DJing because there were so many rumors that the world would never return back to “normal”. On top of that someone had recently stolen my first DJ controller, so I needed money badly to invest in a new one. I was forced to go back to my hometown and I ended up working a job at a food truck for a couple of months until I could get back on my feet. It was during this time period when I realized that physically DJing would not always be an option nor would it always be enough. This is when I developed the idea for my first mixtape “Raising Hail”, I felt like the title was perfect because of all the chaos going on amidst the pandemic as well as my affiliation with MS State also known as “Hail State”. The project exclusively featured artists who had attended the school at some point. I was able to partner with a couple of friends while working on the project to put together a rap cypher as well as artist interviews for everyone involved. This made me realize I had a deeper passion for music than just DJing but I was also interested in the production side of music and artist development.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Having a genuine physical and social presence with the people around me, on top of actually being talented at what I do has helped me to build and grow my reputation. I feel like a lot of times people within the entertainment industry forget that without the people who support you that you’re virtually “nobody”. The amount of support that you receive doesn’t dictate how talented you are, but it does carry a lot of weight in terms of the amount of recognition that you’ll receive. So I would say building and maintaining genuine relationships with people around you and just making sure that you keep a good public image; not only on social media, but in person as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.djmacho.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/djmach0/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zachary.mikell.12/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/dj_mach0?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe_qFiRO7UXlmsxtBuDbK4w
Image Credits
Picture 1: Jeremy Hinds Picture 2: Shondell Ivy Picture 3: Marion Davis Picture 5: Lashun Jones II Picture 6: JoVon Sanon Picture 7: Shondell Ivy