We recently connected with Jason Shelby and have shared our conversation below.

Jason, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I would have to say during my first “residency” as a dj is when I knew. A friend of mine owned a Mexican restaurant that had bands on the weekend and I bugged him for a year to let me come in an dj for him one night. He called me right around the year mark and asked “Do you still want to try to dj?” Of course I said. I had no technical skills, didn’t really know how to structure a club night ie opening set, rotating the floor, prime time music and so on. While I didn’t have that specific knowledge I played how I would want my club night to be and a lot of that structure came natural. Song selection came naturally. We took a Wednesday night in a part of Jackson, MS that was nowhere near other venues that had 5 people on a Wednesday night to over 700 people and after that residency was over I knew then that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to dj, I wanted to entertain people and I also wanted to use my talent to help charity organizations as well.

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

I’m originally from Jackson, MS, and around 2004-5, I started out djing for a friend of mine that owned a Mexican restaurant that did bands on Friday and Saturdays so he gave me a Wednesday night. My first venue went from 5 people to 5-600 people on a Wednesday night in Jackson, MS.

During this time, Myspace was real big and I ended up meeting a couple (Daniel Mai & Heather Sellers) that owned an entertainment company called Tweaked Out Ent. where I started my first Livestreamed Mixshow every Monday morning called The Caffeine Mix. We eventually started a Wednesday Night show called Humpday Madness that included a crazy cast of characters.

That is where I got my introduction into the MS Hip-Hop scene by interviewing artists every Wednesday. I eventually went to go DJ for a rock club where I eventually got to open up for Vanilla Ice and worked alongside countless rock bands. During this whole time, I ended up being voted one of the best nightclub DJs in the local paper The Jackson Free Press. Because of that nomination local hip hop legend, Kamikazee brought me to work down at Dreamz JXN in the hip hop market.
During my time there, I played opening sets for Juvenile, Plies, Gucci Mane, and Nappy Roots. While at Dreamz I met Preston Johnson, founder, and CEO of Ace Up Productions, and began working parties all over the city with them. This is when I began to experiment with mixing music videos instead of just audio. I was then asked by Kamikaze to be the DJ for the Generation Next Concert Series which was a Sunday Cypher/Networking event. A club called Mardi Gras took notice and hired me to DJ for them where I opened up for Rick Ross in Sept 2007 and during the same night I was inducted into a DJ organization called Violator All-Star DJs.

Which brings many industry connections. Around 2010 I traveled to Las Vegas for a video DJ conference where one of my violator brothers was the booking manager at Mandalay Bay’s Eye Candy bar. He brought me on board the Definitive Talents Booking Agency out of Las Vegas and was asked to take on the position of Deftal Djs Gulf Coast team leader. I was tasked with building out their DJ network in the southern regions. My team members consisted of DJs from Jackson, MS, Biloxi, MS, Dothan, Al, Destin, Fl, Charlotte, NC, and Miami, FL. We were able to book our own multi-state tours and we all looked out for each other.

So as all these newfound connections were developing I was hired by the largest nightclub in the state, Electric Cowboy which after a short year we relocated and renamed to Club Magoos where every Thursday night was around 1000 and 1500 on Saturday nights. I was voted one of the best club DJs 3 years in a row and ended up being interviewed on a local Comcast channel by a host named Peaches. She quickly because the producer on my own local tv showed called Xposure TVJXN where I focused on bringing to light the personal side of the artists in our city while also doing shows like bringing awareness to cochlear implants.

It was fairly new and had about 30K ears. We brought the family on and gave them a platform to help raise money for their daughter that was about to start college. I ended up getting a call from a venue in McComb, MS and was given a budget to produce my own show. Me, two DJs, and a hype man. I started bringing artists from the Generation Next Concert Series down to McComb to perform in front of about 7-800 people. Through one of my Deftal Team members Dj Hyphee I was able to break into the Casino market in Biloxi, MS. I was the resident Dj for the Golden Nugget’s Rush Lounge, guest spots at the IP Casino, and Hard Rock’s Live with a regular rotation at Zeppelin’s Pizzeria.

Gosh, there are so many other things to speak about from booking my first 3 state tours with 3 DJ friends Dj Kommotion & Nasty Sho, to hosting Music Therapy Fridays at Kemistry Hookah Lounge, and doing 3 projection mapping during my Old Tavern Friday Night gig. I am now in Birmingham and since being here have been the Friday night DJ for Innisfree Pub in the 5 Point District and traveled with a production company out of Tuscaloosa to Headline University of Texas’ biggest frat party.

And now I am working on building my Livestream platforms and have a mix show on Violator Radio Unkut which airs on 6 different radio stations including London, England. I am ALWAYS looking to find the newest and hottest artists for my mix show.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

I am a firm believer in investing and saving money however I am not a huge fan of NFT’s for young inexperienced investors. There are too many other ways to invest and take advantage of tax breaks and other benefits along with investing in institutions that are creating something of true value. With that being said I do have a healthy Crypto investment account but no NFTs lol

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I’m sure there are some that I can’t think of at the moment but I can tell you I wished we had social media like we do now when I was coming up. We had myspace to start but the ability to make money like you can now on social media didn’t exist when I was first coming up.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Instagram.com/dvdjreign
• Twitter: twitter.com/dvdj_reign
• Other: Mixcloud.com/ReignsCorner Twitch.tv/ReignsCorner Twitch.tv/DVDJREIGN

Image Credits
JASON SHELBY… I took all my own pics.