February 23, 2023 • 22 mins
In this episode we're bringing in DJ Elusive, one of the top DJs in the DFW area who now specializes in being a pro sports DJ. He's also a fellow Dallas Cowboys Pre-Game show teammate. Ali Dee and Producer Nicole talk to Elusive about how he became a sports DJ, what tools it takes to be great, and how to juggle all things that are sports entertainment. But before all that we do a quick visit with Nicole who is recovering from a rowdy Mardi Gras weekend in New Orleans.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Hey.
Hey.
Welcome to the, it's a lot y'allpodcast.
I'm Allie d.
With me as always, producerNicole.
It is episode six and we havegot a great episode for y'all
today.
We have a guest coming on theshow, but before we get into
that, Nicole can barely talkbecause she's spent all weekend.
Partying at Mardi Gras, as shesays, right?
(00:25):
I know.
Sorry.
I have no voice right now, butwe are working through it.
Got to spend a lot of time withfamily.
Super exciting weekend.
but glads be back in Dallas, Ithought it was really funny you
sent me those cute videos.
You saw the Clyde Tales when wewere talking about how we love
seeing them on the Super Bowl,so you're so lucky.
We did.
(00:45):
I know.
they're always a part of this.
Sunday's night parade.
B.
Every year the Clyde sales comeout and they have a dalian and
they're on a big red wagon.
It's a Budweiser, you know,Clyde sales, and they're just
stunning.
So when I saw'em come down, Ihad to video and take some
pictures to send over to Alliecause I knew she would
appreciate it.
Yeah, absolutely loved it.
(01:05):
And I asked you like, why didyou lose your voice and what did
you tell me, Nicole?
Because I was screaming for someMardi GRA beads.
literally, like, when am I gonnalearn?
I don't know.
But gosh, I was just screaming.
Throw me something, throw mesomething.
And I have lost my voice.
If you eat some delicious fooddown there, The best we had
(01:26):
past, we had king cake, we hadgumbo, we had everything.
You name it.
just so good to be spending timewith family and celebrating, the
Mardi Girl weekend.
It's funny, my husband's fromLouisiana too, and, when he's
cooking you're always like, Hey,what's you guys cooking over
there?
Because he's always cookingsomething that you're gonna like
some kind of Cajun Delicious.
I know.
(01:47):
And I'm, I need to bring some.
Yes.
I'm always like, Allie, bring mesome to the masks game.
Just, just pour me at to goplate okay guys.
So yeah, this week we've got agreat guest in the house.
It is DJ elusive, you guys.
We have been working with himfor a couple years now on our
Cowboys pre-game show.
He's amazing.
He's a sports dj.
He does it all.
(02:08):
So without further ado, here'sDJ elusive.
All right, everybody, we are soexcited that DJ Elusive is
joining us on the Itlo Y'allpodcast.
Woohoo.
Thanks for joining us.
it took Nicole like four weeksjust to get me on cause of my
schedule just to book you.
Yeah.
You are crazy.
Hard to book.
Busy man.
We have so much to talk aboutwith you today because you guys,
(02:31):
DJ Elusive is a sports DJamongst many other things, and
as I was doing my research intosports DJs, there's some.
Cool things that came up andsome stats that I saw and
actually that I created in myown mind.
but I was thinking about it andhow unique your position is
because really, if you thinkabout it, there's what, 32 NHL
(02:51):
teams?
32 N F L teams, 30 N B A teams,30 major league baseball teams.
That's not many.
That's 124 sports teams overall.
So what that boils down tobasically is there's 124 people
in the entire United States ofAmerica.
That are gonna get your job as aprofessional sports dj.
So that's like 330 millionpeople in the US That boils down
(03:12):
to 0.0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 3 8%.
Wow.
Chance of you becoming a sportsdj.
So your position is so hard toget.
How did you eat in be this?
so it's kind of like a weird,crazy story.
I've always DJ'ed since I was12, Music has been a big part of
my life the entire time.
I think one day, how I got intosports DJing was I attended, I
(03:39):
think it was something at theMesquite Arena, and it wasn't
Rodeo, it was Indoor Football inlike 2016.
And I was like, wait a minute.
There's music here.
Who's controlling the music?
and then I started thinkingabout it and I was like, well,
somebody has to push play.
So then I kind of started doingmore research about sports DJs
(04:00):
and being in Dallas, Google'sgonna pop open whatever sports
DJs are, in Dallas.
And I came across DJ ej, who'sthe in-game DJ for the Cowboys,
and I ended up reaching out tohim and I kind of like kept up
for a while before he gave me myfirst sports gig and.
Sports gig was SMU football.
(04:21):
I did a game and I quicklyrealized how hard it was to do
sports DJing, with the stylethat I was used to So how do you
go from being a DJ that's DJingparties, clubs, weddings, things
like that, and thentransitioning into sports DJing.
And what are some of the majordifferences that you saw right
off the bat where you're like,oh gosh, I need to work.
timing for sure.
(04:42):
I mean, typically when you'reDJing like clubs and, weddings
or any events in general, we usea whole different program.
So like I use Serato, a lot ofsports DJs still use Serato, but
timing is everything in sports.
Like you have to be, you're in areactive role when you're a
sports dj.
we're also called musicdirectors or.
Sound directors because we'reliterally telling the story of
(05:05):
the game.
So what helped me honestly, likebe able to transition a little
bit easier was I've always beenthe type of DJ to take emotions
like up and down and not just goa hundred percent all the time.
And that a lot of timestransitions into sports.
because you can't just start thegame and just go like all hype
(05:26):
the entire time, right.
You gotta read the crowd.
Mm-hmm.
And honestly, the first time Idid a sports DJ gig, like I
failed immensely because I waslike, all right, well people
aren't into it.
you have to be able to pace,that's what we call it.
Pacing, like pace the energy,pace the crowd, and.
When it came to like me usingSerato in this program, there
was no way for me to be able todo that.
(05:48):
And then as I was getting moreand more gigs, EJ helped me out
a lot.
He was like, Hey look, here'sthis program that, it's kind of
like the industry standard forsports DJs.
So we're gonna get it for youand you're gonna load in all
your music there and you'regonna queue it up all to these
points, certain points.
What is that program?
so because we are now working ona new program, I'm mention the
(06:10):
previous program, are WeGatekeeping Here?
the new program is, called sevenPoint Audio and it's becoming
the industry standard, for allsports DJs.
you have 72 buttons on a screenand it's like tabs.
and you have groups of tabs.
And then within there there's 72buttons on there and each button
is queued up to a specific partof the song.
(06:30):
So what about your drops andyour little noises and your, you
know, when someone makes abasket or, yeah.
Is that all in there too?
it is, but me personally, Iactually use a iPad.
and on the iPad I load him awhole bunch of different, I call
'em stingers cuz it's a lotfaster to get.
I have an iPad pulled up rightin front of me, and then I just
(06:52):
push the buttons that I need to.
So technologically speaking, itsounds like it's a lot harder
than I thought it was, because Ithink, oh, you're just up there
and you're like, oh, I feel likeI wanna play this song, Bing.
Like it's a whole differentballgame.
It, everything really is a lotmore calculated and sounds like
there's a lot of technology thatgoes into all of that.
But going back to MesquiteRodeo, where you actually
(07:13):
discovered that this was aposition you could potentially
have, which, by the way, I wannago back to my statistics because
statist.
Speaking, it's easier to make anN B A team than it is to become
an N B A DJ or any sports dj.
So let's just abor that SoChris, awesome.
I know it's true.
I mean, I don't know if it'strue, true, but it's true in my
world because I meant about themath and when I broke it down,
(07:34):
you got a lot more people on theteam.
You only got one DJ people.
that is true.
Back to Mesquite Rodeo.
From there, you got your firstgig, and then after that, how
did you get into getting moregigs?
And tell us about what yourcurrent gigs are.
so.
I am gonna back it up a littlebit because at that time, when I
saw that f indoor football gameat the Mesquite Rodeo.
(07:54):
I reached out to EJ to figureout kind of that side of things
about how to do this stuff.
at the time they were calledMesquite Marshalls, the
professional indoor footballteam, and then I became their
dj.
And that's where I kind oflearned a lot more about how the
game flow goes And the producerof, the Mesquite Marshalls
Travis also did stuff for, theSmith Pro Rodeos.
(08:17):
Yes.
So Smith Pro Rodeos produces awhole bunch of, rodeos all
throughout, the United Statesand also produces, Mesquite
rodeo.
So Travis worked for Smith ProRodeos, and they're like, Hey,
we need somebody in market to dothe Mesquite rodeo because,
Dallas is getting kind of likeexpensive now, and there's all
these music directors that comeinto town and you live here, so
(08:39):
why not?
Like, how far do you live?
I was like, oh, 15 minutes away.
He said, perfect.
So fast forward now, last yearwas my fifth rodeo season wow.
And like rodeo is just, it's, asyou know, Allie, it's very
different than any other sport.
so Rodeo helped me out a lotbecause it helped me think on my
feet because it's very like slowand then all of a sudden it's
(09:02):
very fast, and then anythingcould happen.
and then from Rodeo, I started,to DJ for University of Texas at
Arlington.
I did their volleyball seasonfor three years.
I did some of their basketballgames, men's and women's.
I've done T c u men's andwomen's basketball, volleyball
as well Dallas Open and you'vedone it all.
(09:23):
Dallas Open.
I've done the Gold Cup games atat and t Stadium.
I've DJ'ed for Nike at at and tStadium.
I've done the, U I L StateFootball Championships, which is
really big in Texas.
high school football in Texas.
Yeah, huge, huge.
and then, Before I was able todo all that at at t Stadium, I
became one of the Dallas CowboysDJs, so one of the pregame DJ.
(09:47):
talk.
That's where we know you from,Yeah.
I think we need to talk abouthow we all know each other and
kind of introduce how we broughtDJ Lu on board.
I know.
It's so awesome.
So if you don't know, this islike the, dream team as we call
it.
It's myself besides producerNicole.
we work on the east side ofCowboy Stadium.
We host the pre-game show, so weall work super closely together.
(10:09):
That's how we met.
How many seasons have we beenworking together now?
Two.
Two.
Wow, okay.
I was gonna say like fivebecause it feels like we know
that's what it feels likeforever.
It's hard to find a team thatyou really just gel with and
everybody can like, play offeach other and we know what each
other's thinking before we evendo it.
That's a really like specialplace to be.
in a team so quickly.
(10:30):
I think, you know, we've allworked with all different kinds
of people, I mean, I hope youguys like me.
I love you guys.
Um, but let's talk about ourstuff at the Cowboys and how
being the DJ of the pre-gameshow and what responsibilities
you have there, Yeah, I feellike I really warm up the fans.
because it's like these peopleare out there for hours before
(10:51):
the game starts.
And I mean, we're out there inthe cold, in the rain.
At least we're covered.
They're not, yeah.
Right.
So it's like, it's, it's our jobto really be, entertainment.
And it's basically like, Hey,you're getting ready to see a
football.
so a lot of times, I mean, justthe formatting of everything,
goes hand in hand.
Like I don't try to just comeout and just go a hundred miles
(11:12):
an hour as soon as we start andnobody's there.
It's like, right.
Try to go up and down, up anddown, take emotions and Right.
what do you think is one of themost important things as someone
who's trying to become a sportsdj?
Like what do you think is one ofthe most important qualities
that they have or that they tryto learn?
I always say that you have to bea good listener.
(11:33):
and know how to take criticism.
You have to have thick skin andknow that the show isn't about
you.
Like at the end of the day, yes,I'm hired as being the
entertainment, and you alwayshave to remain humble about
that.
Like knowing that you can bereplaced at a moment's instance,
and.
you have to know what the valueis that you bring to the team.
(11:53):
you could be the best DJ in theworld, but it doesn't
necessarily mean that you are agood sports DJ or endgame dj.
Like what we do is a lot ofendgame stuff.
and you have to have thick skinbecause you may have a producer.
like, whenever I go to a newteam and I'm asking like, oh,
what's a production style?
are you a yeller?
I always ask the producer, areyou a yeller?
(12:13):
And they're like, yeah, I'm ayeller.
And I was like, okay, cool.
Like you like don't hold backfor me because I can take it.
Right?
a lot of DJs will freeze becausethey're she's yelling And I'm
like, right, that's okay.
Yeah, that's just how they are.
And also Twitter tells youeverything you need to know.
The sports fans on Twitter,they're rough for bay.
As well.
So Baylor basketball, we're inthe middle of basketball season,
(12:36):
did football.
Baylor fans love to be onTwitter and it's quite
interesting reading some oftheir tweets cuz I really want
to be like, if you only knewexactly what was going on in
that moment, right.
Yeah.
I actually wanna kind of talkabout this really quick because
I know you previously weretalking about, it's all about
timing, which me and Alliealways talk about, like in
sports entertainment, it isalways about timing.
(12:57):
And you referenced like, youhave your iPad with the certain
sounds.
I remember doing this back in2020, whenever it was covid
year, and then the N B A, we hadto bring in virtual crowd noise,
and so we.
Similar system where obviouslywe were trying to get the 17,000
fans, to sound like correct, tosound like it was up.
(13:18):
But talk a little bit about howimportant it is to not only
understand the game, but to beaware of what's going on so you
don't miss a beat.
Yeah.
So that's a very good point justto give like people that are in
my role.
So I'm literally payingattention to the game.
But for basketball, for example,I'm looking at the coaches, I'm
(13:39):
looking at how many timeouts wehave.
I'm looking at, the clock to seeif there's immediate rate coming
up.
I'm thinking about the situationor about what could happen,
who's in the game.
I am listening to my.
I am thinking four or fivethings ahead And it's very
important to be like prepared.
like you said, you don't onlyneed to know the game, but you
(14:01):
have to know your team, like youhave to know if, so and so gets
the ball, are they about toshoot?
And then if they shoot or ifthey get a big block or
something, what are you gonnaplay?
Mm-hmm.
But then you have to know yourlibrary.
And you have to know where allthe buttons are.
and a one pager, 72 buttons.
But on my page, I may be on adefensive page and there might
(14:23):
be a big sound that I needbecause maybe there was a steal
and then they went over and theydunked the ball.
Well, that's not gonna be on mydefensive page anymore.
I gotta switch pages and I haveto know where my, the eyes to go
in order to click on that buttonto bring up the crowd.
and then, Let's say there's aninjury, like the home team gets
a huge dunk and somebody'sinjured, well, I can't celebrate
(14:47):
the injury because you can playthe wrong thing at the wrong
time and you could pass on thewrong message.
And that is like a huge no-no,you're making me anxious over
here thinking about all thestuff you have to do.
I mean, I'm Nicole and I arelike, oh, we got a lot of stuff
going on.
But what you're saying is sointeresting because just
recapping having.
To have your eyes on so manythings at once for example, the
(15:10):
basketball court and like yousaid, the players, the coaches,
the timeouts, the big screen,the vibe, the emotion.
Is there an injury?
knowing what players are on thecourt, it's a crazy job that you
have and really any sports DJjust thinking.
making sure you hit all thoseboxes.
I mean, is that just somethingyou're learning as you go in
(15:32):
experience in those like amateursports that you did leading up
to this point, or have you beenlike, I'm learning right here on
the job?
a lot of it is learning on thejob.
You don't know what you needuntil it happens and then you
realize you don't have anythingfor that specific thing.
So I'll, I can give like acouple of examples.
so along with doing cowboys andeverything else, right now, I'm
(15:55):
also in Athletes Unlimited.
And Athletes Unlimited is aprofessional women's league.
So they have lacrosse, fieldhockey, softball, basketball,
and volleyball.
So last year I was doingvolleyball.
so we're in South Dallas andthere's a lot of straight
animals over there.
Somehow a cat ends up here.
(16:20):
I my God.
I think the broadcast startedtalking about it.
So I was like, well, what can Iplay it for a cat?
oh, I'm gonna play a Mick song.
I didn't get a chance to playit, but if that ever happens
again, I'm gonna load it inthere You'll be prepared.
Yeah, exactly.
The, Dallas open, the l e d wallwent out and the l e d walls go
around the entire.
the worst possible time for itto go out is right before the
(16:42):
trophy ceremony, spent nine daysthere.
L e d walls working and all of asudden the last day it doesn't
work anymore.
Granted, it's because probablythe 130 mile an hour serves So
there's a big gap in the, in thewall, where sponsorship is
supposed to go And that's a bigdeal when you're presenting a
trophy for the sponsorship to beup.
The person that was fixing thewall, he was like, well, how
much time do you have?
(17:03):
And they're like, well, notreally any time, but you
definitely need to fix it forthe next match.
so I pretty much, I had fun withit and I played like 10 minutes
of songs about waiting, likewaiting is the hardest part or a
I will wait.
I'll wait for you.
So I got a chance to do that.
But then in the next doublesmatch then what they call
(17:25):
Hawkeye.
Hawkeye is a system that, tellsyou if the ball is in or out on
the line There's these high techcameras So Hawkeye went out and
it turned into a 20 minute delayand at this point I'm just gonna
start trolling.
So I played like the Cisco holdmusic, when you have to call and
somebody put you on.
And then Coldplay Fix Youthere's a lot of songs that you
(17:47):
can use as puns in order to tellthe story of what's going on.
And so, I say that because.
In any sport, something could gowrong.
You could have a delay, youcould have a review.
So it's telling the story andyou're learning as you go,
honestly.
And then they become greatstories afterwards do you have
to have a lot of confidence inwhat you're doing because you
have to make split seconddecisions.
(18:09):
Like you said, there's no timeto dilly dally or wonder what
could happen next.
So you really have to trust yourinstincts, right?
Yeah, I mean, When I firststarted, I was really nervous,
like super, super nervous.
Yeah.
Just because I'm in, in chargeof every single thing that comes
outta my laptop, every singlesong.
Right.
and as you get more experienceand as I've gotten more big
(18:31):
gigs, it's one of those thingsof where I don't necessarily
have to prep as hard anymore.
but I do still need to look at arundown to see what's going on,
because I need to know, like aBaylor.
I'm in a front facing role whereit's like, You are the dj, you
are DJ elusive.
We're gonna put you up on the,video board.
We're gonna do all this stuff.
okay, well now I have to go intoDJ mode and like do the life of
(18:53):
the party and like the, and allthat other stuff, you know what
I mean?
The triple air horn, which wehad at the wedding.
We had on our mask in the otherday.
I love that.
okay, so that is so interestingto me because I feel like you
really bring up a whole thing,which is that sports DJs have
now become their own brand.
Mm-hmm.
You're not just sitting behindthe booth, behind the glass,
(19:15):
kind of hidden from what's goingon.
Teams really are embracing thiswhole.
Sports DJ role and they want youto like be another big
entertainment piece.
So did you have to kind ofreadjust your thinking into like
yeah I am actually like aperformer, sports dj.
it was actually the other wayaround because like I was always
somewhat of a performer.
Like I DJ clubs for forever, soI can get on the mic right now.
(19:38):
True.
I do it for Athletes Unlimited,where they'll come to me for
crowd.
right before we do tip off, Nowthere's times where if y'all
know me and y'all, I'm, y'allknow me, I have to bite my
tongue cuz I'm like, all right,I'm not in the club anymore.
Let me call you, bite my tongue,lemme make sure what I want to
say.
I have to say, put your hands upin the air and not put your.
(20:02):
Hands up.
You know what I mean?
Right.
You're Ming So yes.
So that like, it comes with alot of responsibility.
It comes with a lot of, likerealizing where you are in the
situation.
And then just going back to themusic standpoint, I mean, you
talked about checking tickmarks, when I picked the.
that's also like, does it makesense for sports?
(20:23):
Is it popular?
Is it something that I can playaround kids?
Is it is this team, a hip hopteam There's some schools that
don't want that.
So you have to like, right, beable to literally and just go
into these things and you havethe biggest, age gap You can
have 80 year olds there, youcould have six year olds.
How do you play something foreach one of those people?
(20:44):
so that part is what it comeswith responsibility and it comes
with a lot of prep.
And I am never a hundred percentready.
Like that's just, honestly, I'mnever ready because you just
don't know what you're goinginto, what works at one place.
Yeah.
I may not work somewhere else.
Right.
I remember, Ray Allen, the n B aGreat was asked, why he always
(21:04):
continues to practice soincessantly on his shots, and he
said, I've never made a hundredpercent of my shots.
You're never, a hundred percentprepared.
There's all kinds of differentsituations and scenarios that
can play out, and that's thesame for anybody that's in the
sports entertainment.
as well.
There's so many scenarios thatwe have to be prepared for that
we can't really prep for.
(21:25):
You just have to be preparedfor, and I think that that's
just a common theme amongst anyof us, whether you're a
producer, whether you're a dj,whether you're a host, you just
gotta be ready for it.
Yep.
It's so true.
Wow.
I feel like we've learned somuch from you.
This has been awesome.
I'm so glad we get to finallyconnect.
I know you are the busiest guyon the planet.
Thank you for taking the time tocome on to the It's a lot.
Y'all podcast dj.
(21:46):
Elusive everybody.
Woohoo.
Thank you, It was definitely alot.
Y'all Thanks so much for joiningus for episodes.
Six.
That's a wrap for the, it's alot y'all podcast.
Don't forget to follow us on allthe social media platforms, but
the most important thing is foryou to subscribe and like us on
either Apple Podcasts or Spotifyor anywhere that you listen to
podcasts, and please give usthat five star review.
(22:08):
All right, see you next time.
Bye-bye.
Hey.
Hey.
Welcome to the, it's a lot y'allpodcast.
I'm Allie d.
With me as always, producerNicole.
It is episode six and we havegot a great episode for y'all
today.
We have a guest coming on theshow, but before we get into
that, Nicole can barely talkbecause she's spent all weekend.
Partying at Mardi Gras, as shesays, right?
(00:25):
I know.
Sorry.
I have no voice right now, butwe are working through it.
Got to spend a lot of time withfamily.
Super exciting weekend.
but glads be back in Dallas, Ithought it was really funny you
sent me those cute videos.
You saw the Clyde Tales when wewere talking about how we love
seeing them on the Super Bowl,so you're so lucky.
We did.
(00:45):
I know.
they're always a part of this.
Sunday's night parade.
B.
Every year the Clyde sales comeout and they have a dalian and
they're on a big red wagon.
It's a Budweiser, you know,Clyde sales, and they're just
stunning.
So when I saw'em come down, Ihad to video and take some
pictures to send over to Alliecause I knew she would
appreciate it.
Yeah, absolutely loved it.
(01:05):
And I asked you like, why didyou lose your voice and what did
you tell me, Nicole?
Because I was screaming for someMardi GRA beads.
literally, like, when am I gonnalearn?
I don't know.
But gosh, I was just screaming.
Throw me something, throw mesomething.
And I have lost my voice.
If you eat some delicious fooddown there, The best we had
(01:26):
past, we had king cake, we hadgumbo, we had everything.
You name it.
just so good to be spending timewith family and celebrating, the
Mardi Girl weekend.
It's funny, my husband's fromLouisiana too, and, when he's
cooking you're always like, Hey,what's you guys cooking over
there?
Because he's always cookingsomething that you're gonna like
some kind of Cajun Delicious.
I know.
(01:47):
And I'm, I need to bring some.
Yes.
I'm always like, Allie, bring mesome to the masks game.
Just, just pour me at to goplate okay guys.
So yeah, this week we've got agreat guest in the house.
It is DJ elusive, you guys.
We have been working with himfor a couple years now on our
Cowboys pre-game show.
He's amazing.
He's a sports dj.
He does it all.
(02:08):
So without further ado, here'sDJ elusive.
All right, everybody, we are soexcited that DJ Elusive is
joining us on the Itlo Y'allpodcast.
Woohoo.
Thanks for joining us.
it took Nicole like four weeksjust to get me on cause of my
schedule just to book you.
Yeah.
You are crazy.
Hard to book.
Busy man.
We have so much to talk aboutwith you today because you guys,
(02:31):
DJ Elusive is a sports DJamongst many other things, and
as I was doing my research intosports DJs, there's some.
Cool things that came up andsome stats that I saw and
actually that I created in myown mind.
but I was thinking about it andhow unique your position is
because really, if you thinkabout it, there's what, 32 NHL
(02:51):
teams?
32 N F L teams, 30 N B A teams,30 major league baseball teams.
That's not many.
That's 124 sports teams overall.
So what that boils down tobasically is there's 124 people
in the entire United States ofAmerica.
That are gonna get your job as aprofessional sports dj.
So that's like 330 millionpeople in the US That boils down
(03:12):
to 0.0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 3 8%.
Wow.
Chance of you becoming a sportsdj.
So your position is so hard toget.
How did you eat in be this?
so it's kind of like a weird,crazy story.
I've always DJ'ed since I was12, Music has been a big part of
my life the entire time.
I think one day, how I got intosports DJing was I attended, I
(03:39):
think it was something at theMesquite Arena, and it wasn't
Rodeo, it was Indoor Football inlike 2016.
And I was like, wait a minute.
There's music here.
Who's controlling the music?
and then I started thinkingabout it and I was like, well,
somebody has to push play.
So then I kind of started doingmore research about sports DJs
(04:00):
and being in Dallas, Google'sgonna pop open whatever sports
DJs are, in Dallas.
And I came across DJ ej, who'sthe in-game DJ for the Cowboys,
and I ended up reaching out tohim and I kind of like kept up
for a while before he gave me myfirst sports gig and.
Sports gig was SMU football.
(04:21):
I did a game and I quicklyrealized how hard it was to do
sports DJing, with the stylethat I was used to So how do you
go from being a DJ that's DJingparties, clubs, weddings, things
like that, and thentransitioning into sports DJing.
And what are some of the majordifferences that you saw right
off the bat where you're like,oh gosh, I need to work.
timing for sure.
(04:42):
I mean, typically when you'reDJing like clubs and, weddings
or any events in general, we usea whole different program.
So like I use Serato, a lot ofsports DJs still use Serato, but
timing is everything in sports.
Like you have to be, you're in areactive role when you're a
sports dj.
we're also called musicdirectors or.
Sound directors because we'reliterally telling the story of
(05:05):
the game.
So what helped me honestly, likebe able to transition a little
bit easier was I've always beenthe type of DJ to take emotions
like up and down and not just goa hundred percent all the time.
And that a lot of timestransitions into sports.
because you can't just start thegame and just go like all hype
(05:26):
the entire time, right.
You gotta read the crowd.
Mm-hmm.
And honestly, the first time Idid a sports DJ gig, like I
failed immensely because I waslike, all right, well people
aren't into it.
you have to be able to pace,that's what we call it.
Pacing, like pace the energy,pace the crowd, and.
When it came to like me usingSerato in this program, there
was no way for me to be able todo that.
(05:48):
And then as I was getting moreand more gigs, EJ helped me out
a lot.
He was like, Hey look, here'sthis program that, it's kind of
like the industry standard forsports DJs.
So we're gonna get it for youand you're gonna load in all
your music there and you'regonna queue it up all to these
points, certain points.
What is that program?
so because we are now working ona new program, I'm mention the
(06:10):
previous program, are WeGatekeeping Here?
the new program is, called sevenPoint Audio and it's becoming
the industry standard, for allsports DJs.
you have 72 buttons on a screenand it's like tabs.
and you have groups of tabs.
And then within there there's 72buttons on there and each button
is queued up to a specific partof the song.
(06:30):
So what about your drops andyour little noises and your, you
know, when someone makes abasket or, yeah.
Is that all in there too?
it is, but me personally, Iactually use a iPad.
and on the iPad I load him awhole bunch of different, I call
'em stingers cuz it's a lotfaster to get.
I have an iPad pulled up rightin front of me, and then I just
(06:52):
push the buttons that I need to.
So technologically speaking, itsounds like it's a lot harder
than I thought it was, because Ithink, oh, you're just up there
and you're like, oh, I feel likeI wanna play this song, Bing.
Like it's a whole differentballgame.
It, everything really is a lotmore calculated and sounds like
there's a lot of technology thatgoes into all of that.
But going back to MesquiteRodeo, where you actually
(07:13):
discovered that this was aposition you could potentially
have, which, by the way, I wannago back to my statistics because
statist.
Speaking, it's easier to make anN B A team than it is to become
an N B A DJ or any sports dj.
So let's just abor that SoChris, awesome.
I know it's true.
I mean, I don't know if it'strue, true, but it's true in my
world because I meant about themath and when I broke it down,
(07:34):
you got a lot more people on theteam.
You only got one DJ people.
that is true.
Back to Mesquite Rodeo.
From there, you got your firstgig, and then after that, how
did you get into getting moregigs?
And tell us about what yourcurrent gigs are.
so.
I am gonna back it up a littlebit because at that time, when I
saw that f indoor football gameat the Mesquite Rodeo.
(07:54):
I reached out to EJ to figureout kind of that side of things
about how to do this stuff.
at the time they were calledMesquite Marshalls, the
professional indoor footballteam, and then I became their
dj.
And that's where I kind oflearned a lot more about how the
game flow goes And the producerof, the Mesquite Marshalls
Travis also did stuff for, theSmith Pro Rodeos.
(08:17):
Yes.
So Smith Pro Rodeos produces awhole bunch of, rodeos all
throughout, the United Statesand also produces, Mesquite
rodeo.
So Travis worked for Smith ProRodeos, and they're like, Hey,
we need somebody in market to dothe Mesquite rodeo because,
Dallas is getting kind of likeexpensive now, and there's all
these music directors that comeinto town and you live here, so
(08:39):
why not?
Like, how far do you live?
I was like, oh, 15 minutes away.
He said, perfect.
So fast forward now, last yearwas my fifth rodeo season wow.
And like rodeo is just, it's, asyou know, Allie, it's very
different than any other sport.
so Rodeo helped me out a lotbecause it helped me think on my
feet because it's very like slowand then all of a sudden it's
(09:02):
very fast, and then anythingcould happen.
and then from Rodeo, I started,to DJ for University of Texas at
Arlington.
I did their volleyball seasonfor three years.
I did some of their basketballgames, men's and women's.
I've done T c u men's andwomen's basketball, volleyball
as well Dallas Open and you'vedone it all.
(09:23):
Dallas Open.
I've done the Gold Cup games atat and t Stadium.
I've DJ'ed for Nike at at and tStadium.
I've done the, U I L StateFootball Championships, which is
really big in Texas.
high school football in Texas.
Yeah, huge, huge.
and then, Before I was able todo all that at at t Stadium, I
became one of the Dallas CowboysDJs, so one of the pregame DJ.
(09:47):
talk.
That's where we know you from,Yeah.
I think we need to talk abouthow we all know each other and
kind of introduce how we broughtDJ Lu on board.
I know.
It's so awesome.
So if you don't know, this islike the, dream team as we call
it.
It's myself besides producerNicole.
we work on the east side ofCowboy Stadium.
We host the pre-game show, so weall work super closely together.
(10:09):
That's how we met.
How many seasons have we beenworking together now?
Two.
Two.
Wow, okay.
I was gonna say like fivebecause it feels like we know
that's what it feels likeforever.
It's hard to find a team thatyou really just gel with and
everybody can like, play offeach other and we know what each
other's thinking before we evendo it.
That's a really like specialplace to be.
in a team so quickly.
(10:30):
I think, you know, we've allworked with all different kinds
of people, I mean, I hope youguys like me.
I love you guys.
Um, but let's talk about ourstuff at the Cowboys and how
being the DJ of the pre-gameshow and what responsibilities
you have there, Yeah, I feellike I really warm up the fans.
because it's like these peopleare out there for hours before
(10:51):
the game starts.
And I mean, we're out there inthe cold, in the rain.
At least we're covered.
They're not, yeah.
Right.
So it's like, it's, it's our jobto really be, entertainment.
And it's basically like, Hey,you're getting ready to see a
football.
so a lot of times, I mean, justthe formatting of everything,
goes hand in hand.
Like I don't try to just comeout and just go a hundred miles
(11:12):
an hour as soon as we start andnobody's there.
It's like, right.
Try to go up and down, up anddown, take emotions and Right.
what do you think is one of themost important things as someone
who's trying to become a sportsdj?
Like what do you think is one ofthe most important qualities
that they have or that they tryto learn?
I always say that you have to bea good listener.
(11:33):
and know how to take criticism.
You have to have thick skin andknow that the show isn't about
you.
Like at the end of the day, yes,I'm hired as being the
entertainment, and you alwayshave to remain humble about
that.
Like knowing that you can bereplaced at a moment's instance,
and.
you have to know what the valueis that you bring to the team.
(11:53):
you could be the best DJ in theworld, but it doesn't
necessarily mean that you are agood sports DJ or endgame dj.
Like what we do is a lot ofendgame stuff.
and you have to have thick skinbecause you may have a producer.
like, whenever I go to a newteam and I'm asking like, oh,
what's a production style?
are you a yeller?
I always ask the producer, areyou a yeller?
(12:13):
And they're like, yeah, I'm ayeller.
And I was like, okay, cool.
Like you like don't hold backfor me because I can take it.
Right?
a lot of DJs will freeze becausethey're she's yelling And I'm
like, right, that's okay.
Yeah, that's just how they are.
And also Twitter tells youeverything you need to know.
The sports fans on Twitter,they're rough for bay.
As well.
So Baylor basketball, we're inthe middle of basketball season,
(12:36):
did football.
Baylor fans love to be onTwitter and it's quite
interesting reading some oftheir tweets cuz I really want
to be like, if you only knewexactly what was going on in
that moment, right.
Yeah.
I actually wanna kind of talkabout this really quick because
I know you previously weretalking about, it's all about
timing, which me and Alliealways talk about, like in
sports entertainment, it isalways about timing.
(12:57):
And you referenced like, youhave your iPad with the certain
sounds.
I remember doing this back in2020, whenever it was covid
year, and then the N B A, we hadto bring in virtual crowd noise,
and so we.
Similar system where obviouslywe were trying to get the 17,000
fans, to sound like correct, tosound like it was up.
(13:18):
But talk a little bit about howimportant it is to not only
understand the game, but to beaware of what's going on so you
don't miss a beat.
Yeah.
So that's a very good point justto give like people that are in
my role.
So I'm literally payingattention to the game.
But for basketball, for example,I'm looking at the coaches, I'm
(13:39):
looking at how many timeouts wehave.
I'm looking at, the clock to seeif there's immediate rate coming
up.
I'm thinking about the situationor about what could happen,
who's in the game.
I am listening to my.
I am thinking four or fivethings ahead And it's very
important to be like prepared.
like you said, you don't onlyneed to know the game, but you
(14:01):
have to know your team, like youhave to know if, so and so gets
the ball, are they about toshoot?
And then if they shoot or ifthey get a big block or
something, what are you gonnaplay?
Mm-hmm.
But then you have to know yourlibrary.
And you have to know where allthe buttons are.
and a one pager, 72 buttons.
But on my page, I may be on adefensive page and there might
(14:23):
be a big sound that I needbecause maybe there was a steal
and then they went over and theydunked the ball.
Well, that's not gonna be on mydefensive page anymore.
I gotta switch pages and I haveto know where my, the eyes to go
in order to click on that buttonto bring up the crowd.
and then, Let's say there's aninjury, like the home team gets
a huge dunk and somebody'sinjured, well, I can't celebrate
(14:47):
the injury because you can playthe wrong thing at the wrong
time and you could pass on thewrong message.
And that is like a huge no-no,you're making me anxious over
here thinking about all thestuff you have to do.
I mean, I'm Nicole and I arelike, oh, we got a lot of stuff
going on.
But what you're saying is sointeresting because just
recapping having.
To have your eyes on so manythings at once for example, the
(15:10):
basketball court and like yousaid, the players, the coaches,
the timeouts, the big screen,the vibe, the emotion.
Is there an injury?
knowing what players are on thecourt, it's a crazy job that you
have and really any sports DJjust thinking.
making sure you hit all thoseboxes.
I mean, is that just somethingyou're learning as you go in
(15:32):
experience in those like amateursports that you did leading up
to this point, or have you beenlike, I'm learning right here on
the job?
a lot of it is learning on thejob.
You don't know what you needuntil it happens and then you
realize you don't have anythingfor that specific thing.
So I'll, I can give like acouple of examples.
so along with doing cowboys andeverything else, right now, I'm
(15:55):
also in Athletes Unlimited.
And Athletes Unlimited is aprofessional women's league.
So they have lacrosse, fieldhockey, softball, basketball,
and volleyball.
So last year I was doingvolleyball.
so we're in South Dallas andthere's a lot of straight
animals over there.
Somehow a cat ends up here.
(16:20):
I my God.
I think the broadcast startedtalking about it.
So I was like, well, what can Iplay it for a cat?
oh, I'm gonna play a Mick song.
I didn't get a chance to playit, but if that ever happens
again, I'm gonna load it inthere You'll be prepared.
Yeah, exactly.
The, Dallas open, the l e d wallwent out and the l e d walls go
around the entire.
the worst possible time for itto go out is right before the
(16:42):
trophy ceremony, spent nine daysthere.
L e d walls working and all of asudden the last day it doesn't
work anymore.
Granted, it's because probablythe 130 mile an hour serves So
there's a big gap in the, in thewall, where sponsorship is
supposed to go And that's a bigdeal when you're presenting a
trophy for the sponsorship to beup.
The person that was fixing thewall, he was like, well, how
much time do you have?
(17:03):
And they're like, well, notreally any time, but you
definitely need to fix it forthe next match.
so I pretty much, I had fun withit and I played like 10 minutes
of songs about waiting, likewaiting is the hardest part or a
I will wait.
I'll wait for you.
So I got a chance to do that.
But then in the next doublesmatch then what they call
(17:25):
Hawkeye.
Hawkeye is a system that, tellsyou if the ball is in or out on
the line There's these high techcameras So Hawkeye went out and
it turned into a 20 minute delayand at this point I'm just gonna
start trolling.
So I played like the Cisco holdmusic, when you have to call and
somebody put you on.
And then Coldplay Fix Youthere's a lot of songs that you
(17:47):
can use as puns in order to tellthe story of what's going on.
And so, I say that because.
In any sport, something could gowrong.
You could have a delay, youcould have a review.
So it's telling the story andyou're learning as you go,
honestly.
And then they become greatstories afterwards do you have
to have a lot of confidence inwhat you're doing because you
have to make split seconddecisions.
(18:09):
Like you said, there's no timeto dilly dally or wonder what
could happen next.
So you really have to trust yourinstincts, right?
Yeah, I mean, When I firststarted, I was really nervous,
like super, super nervous.
Yeah.
Just because I'm in, in chargeof every single thing that comes
outta my laptop, every singlesong.
Right.
and as you get more experienceand as I've gotten more big
(18:31):
gigs, it's one of those thingsof where I don't necessarily
have to prep as hard anymore.
but I do still need to look at arundown to see what's going on,
because I need to know, like aBaylor.
I'm in a front facing role whereit's like, You are the dj, you
are DJ elusive.
We're gonna put you up on the,video board.
We're gonna do all this stuff.
okay, well now I have to go intoDJ mode and like do the life of
(18:53):
the party and like the, and allthat other stuff, you know what
I mean?
The triple air horn, which wehad at the wedding.
We had on our mask in the otherday.
I love that.
okay, so that is so interestingto me because I feel like you
really bring up a whole thing,which is that sports DJs have
now become their own brand.
Mm-hmm.
You're not just sitting behindthe booth, behind the glass,
(19:15):
kind of hidden from what's goingon.
Teams really are embracing thiswhole.
Sports DJ role and they want youto like be another big
entertainment piece.
So did you have to kind ofreadjust your thinking into like
yeah I am actually like aperformer, sports dj.
it was actually the other wayaround because like I was always
somewhat of a performer.
Like I DJ clubs for forever, soI can get on the mic right now.
(19:38):
True.
I do it for Athletes Unlimited,where they'll come to me for
crowd.
right before we do tip off, Nowthere's times where if y'all
know me and y'all, I'm, y'allknow me, I have to bite my
tongue cuz I'm like, all right,I'm not in the club anymore.
Let me call you, bite my tongue,lemme make sure what I want to
say.
I have to say, put your hands upin the air and not put your.
(20:02):
Hands up.
You know what I mean?
Right.
You're Ming So yes.
So that like, it comes with alot of responsibility.
It comes with a lot of, likerealizing where you are in the
situation.
And then just going back to themusic standpoint, I mean, you
talked about checking tickmarks, when I picked the.
that's also like, does it makesense for sports?
(20:23):
Is it popular?
Is it something that I can playaround kids?
Is it is this team, a hip hopteam There's some schools that
don't want that.
So you have to like, right, beable to literally and just go
into these things and you havethe biggest, age gap You can
have 80 year olds there, youcould have six year olds.
How do you play something foreach one of those people?
(20:44):
so that part is what it comeswith responsibility and it comes
with a lot of prep.
And I am never a hundred percentready.
Like that's just, honestly, I'mnever ready because you just
don't know what you're goinginto, what works at one place.
Yeah.
I may not work somewhere else.
Right.
I remember, Ray Allen, the n B aGreat was asked, why he always
(21:04):
continues to practice soincessantly on his shots, and he
said, I've never made a hundredpercent of my shots.
You're never, a hundred percentprepared.
There's all kinds of differentsituations and scenarios that
can play out, and that's thesame for anybody that's in the
sports entertainment.
as well.
There's so many scenarios thatwe have to be prepared for that
we can't really prep for.
(21:25):
You just have to be preparedfor, and I think that that's
just a common theme amongst anyof us, whether you're a
producer, whether you're a dj,whether you're a host, you just
gotta be ready for it.
Yep.
It's so true.
Wow.
I feel like we've learned somuch from you.
This has been awesome.
I'm so glad we get to finallyconnect.
I know you are the busiest guyon the planet.
Thank you for taking the time tocome on to the It's a lot.
Y'all podcast dj.
(21:46):
Elusive everybody.
Woohoo.
Thank you, It was definitely alot.
Y'all Thanks so much for joiningus for episodes.
Six.
That's a wrap for the, it's alot y'all podcast.
Don't forget to follow us on allthe social media platforms, but
the most important thing is foryou to subscribe and like us on
either Apple Podcasts or Spotifyor anywhere that you listen to
podcasts, and please give usthat five star review.
(22:08):
All right, see you next time.
Bye-bye.
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