Music

Give De La Some Love

DJ Maseo Hits Seattle

by Charles Mudede

w/DJ B-Mello

Fri Feb 14, A'ight? at the Showbox, 10 pm, $10.

De La Soul is not dead, yet. They are working on the third part of their Art Official Intelligence trilogy, which is to celebrate the art of the DJ in general, and De La Soul's DJ, Maseo, in particular. Before his upcoming night at the Showbox, I had a chance to ask Maseo a few questions about the founding period of his long hiphop career.

When did you start as a DJ?

My first introduction to scratching was [through] a relative of mine who had some turntables. When I turned nine, my mother bought me my first DJ mixer, and my uncle put together a turntable set out of these old record players. And then when I was 12, my grandmother bought me my first set of Technics. So I have been doing this from day one.

How did De La Soul form?

We came together in high school, and started by making music in my mother's house. This is how all the early hiphop artists began. It was basically just doing it from your backyard or bedroom, getting ready for the local party on the weekend, or DJing in the park in the summer. Then there were all these records coming out. It was inspirational. JVC Force came out with their record, EPMD came out with their record, Craig G came out with his record. Us being from Long Island, we felt we could develop something here. Then we met up with Prince Paul and the rest was history.

How did you meet up with Prince Paul?

Through neighborhood events, parties at the Dugout, at the community center, the high school. He used to be a student at my high school. His last year there was my first year there.

You are spinning for A'ight?'s Valentine's show. What should we expect?

I'm really going to do my own thing, come out and deliver my flavors as a DJ.

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