Christie Zee

In our 10th episode, we talk to Christie Zee, the CEO of DMC USA, the prestigious and longest running DJ championship, as well as the co-founder of Tools of War park jams, a publicist, and event coordinator.
 
We chat about her passion for turntablism, the challenges of navigating the industry as a white female Muslim, saying no to hip hop legends, baking cookies and the importance of showing up.
 
You can find Christie at:
www.instagram.com/dmcusadjbattles/
www.dmcdjchamps.com
www.youtube.com/theOfficialDMCUSA
www.facebook.com/ChristieZeee 

Support the show

Episode Transcript

Unknown (00:05):
Welcome to Souls of Hip Hop, a podcast for hip hop heads
that aims to bring inspiringpeople together to share their
wisdom, passion, and uniquestories.
My name is Candy.
And I am DJ Razor Cut.
And together we are Soulidarity,connecting souls organically.

(00:26):
On today's show, we welcomeChristie Zee.
She is the CEO of DMC USA, themost prestigious and longest
running DJ championship, as wellas the co-founder of Tools of
War Park jams, a publicist andevent coordinator. Welcome to
Souls of hip hop.
Thanks for inviting me, thisreally is my first Zoom
interview ever and the firstinterview I've done during this

(00:47):
pandemic, and it really isrefreshing and you know, it's
nice. I was happy that it wasyou that reached out.
Of course, we're happy to haveyou join us. So let's get into
it. How would your parentsdescribe what you do?
They're happy that I'mentrepreneurial. I don't know if
they would be able to describeit besides Christie throws DJ

(01:07):
battles and park jams. That'sprobably what they would say.
Because who are they going totalk to that knows what they're
talking about? My mom likes touse the word turntablism
sometimes to her friends. It'shysterical. They don't know.
When did you know thatturntablism was your passion?
I always liked the DJ element.
And considering that thepioneers, the founding fathers

(01:28):
of hip hop are the DJs you know,you basically start off, but
sadly my first intro to hip hopwas the Sugar Hill gang, which I
really despise, because I wishit had been the Cold Crush
brothers or somebody else. Butthey were the gateway drug that
was necessary for me to learnmore. And so as the music
developed, you start hearingscratches and stuff. And I

(01:50):
remember hearing UTFO's MixMaster Ice scratching and I was
like, wow, this is some extraprogressive stuff. And then I
met DJ Swamp sometime in the mid90s, early 90s. And he explained
to me about DMC and turntablismand got me completely interested
in that. And I've loved it eversince

(02:11):
How was it growing up in westernPennsylvania?
It was very country. So youknow, and very divided racially.
So it wasn't, nobody was reallyexcited about me and my best
friend Rhonda being into hiphop, like we were the only two
white girls we knew that wereinto it. We just didn't know
that other girls didn't go tonational record Mart to buy

(02:33):
records. We didn't know thatother girls didn't beg their
moms to drive them to the mallto see B-boys. We just were in
our own little world. And youknow, we put ourselves in a lot
of awkward situations. But atthe same time, we immersed
ourselves in the culture andlearned about other people and
met a whole lot of differentpeople. So it was good. It You
know, sometimes some bumps inthe road and some hurt feelings,

(02:55):
but in general like it's justwhat we loved. We had to do it.
You had to go out and look forit.
Did you have any mentors?
Actually, no, that's the crazypart - outside of DJ Swamp way
later in the game getting meinto what battle DJ was. Rhonda
and I really just had likefriends that maybe they had a

(03:17):
mixtape that we would beg themfor to copy. We listened to the
one hip hop show on the radiowith sly jock late at night and
try to tape it. You actually hadto work to get hip hop then it's
not like that now where it's soeasy and we had to actually like
work hard and find it and it waslike kind of cool if you had
knowledge or you had a mixtapeno one else had or you know, we

(03:40):
just didn't know any other way.
So it's just strange that youknow, other people do have
mentors and stuff I wish I had.
I have friends that did stufflike what I do now they did
before me like Rosie from TommyBoy. She is the president of
Tommy Boy right now. And she ranDMC DJ battles in the USA before
me, or cool lady blue, who isone of the early hip hop

(04:03):
promoters downtown who broughtdown Bambaataa, Jazzy J and
other top DJs to clubs downtown.
Those are women I look up to aswell as Martha Cooper, the
photographer who just putherself in, regardless of
whether people wondered, orthey're not either, I guess. But
she was accepted. Like shecontributed to the culture. And
I think that's what's important.

(04:24):
If you contribute, then that'severything.
You're into photography as well...
I try. Most of the time it's outof necessity because if no one
else is documenting your event,you have to. Otherwise it just
looks like you're lazy. Like ifyou do an event, you have no
proof that it happened. You haveno proof that you put banners
up. no proof that it evenhappened. That's so tragic,

(04:45):
especially in the culture. Butyeah, I want to be like Martha
when I grow up seriously.
She is definitely a legend, aninspiration for sure. What
inspired you or how did you getthe courage to throw your first
events?
Oh man, I was inspired.
Actually, I believe it was 95.

(05:05):
And I went to New York for thefirst time with DJ Swamp and his
friends. And we went to the RockSteady Anniversary. And it was
so inspiring in a lot of ways.
And then I think I watchedWildstyle the movie. And so when
I got back to Pittsburgh, Ithrew some parties in little
places. And one of my friendssaid, it reminded him of parties
from the Lower East Side. So Iwas flattered, but I really was

(05:27):
trying to replicate kind of aWildstyle party without having
any mentors.
Just going by what you wereplaying, you were like, this
feels like what I felt.
Yeah, I would ask DJ Swamp todrive in from Cleveland to DJ
for me. So I thought I had thatcovered for who was my favorite
DJ and then you know, inviteB-boys and different other

(05:49):
people graff writers. Pittsburghhas a really kind of a small
scene. Everybody knows eachother.
Both of us are small time eventpromoters, but we know how
stressful that job is. Did yourbackground in psychology and
your work in mental health helpyou in your career as an event
promoter?
I don't think so. I you know, Ithink about the money and time I

(06:11):
spent towards a master's degreein psychology, but I don't want
to be forced to use psychology.
like it feels like manipulative.
You know what I mean? Withpeople that don't know you're
using psychology on them, so Idon't think that's good. So I
pretty much just, you know, justtry to use common sense and be
patient. But I learnedrestraints with juvenile
delinquents. I never had torestrain anybody at my Park jams

(06:34):
or DJ battles, you know, like,really don't, but yeah, it's
wild to have that degree andthen Excel is something that you
didn't go to school for.
I feel that, I feel that hard.
I feel like you shouldn't beallowed to decide at 17 or 18,
what you think you're going todo for the rest of your life as

(06:55):
a career? Like, that's crazy.
We're not even allowed to drinkyet. And we're deciding what our
life career is going to be.
That's crazy. I don't think theyshould do that.
I mean, they're asking them atfive years old, what do you want
to be?
Yeah. Well, the good thing isyou can change what you want to
be. But no one ever tells youthat early. Did you see
America's Funniest Home Videoswhere they asked kids what they

(07:16):
wanted to be when they grew up.
And one kid started crying, andanother kid said he wanted to be
a vampire bat. And I justthought he was so awesome.
Yeah, I agree with that. I don'tthink that the option of
changing your mind was somethingthat was taught or that you
think is possible in youngeryears.
I was very discouraged inpsychology. Like, I decided I

(07:39):
was going to be a sex therapist.
And my mentor told me to notjump to decisions and all this
blah, blah, just shut me down.
Not let me be great.
Well, you found your avenue tobe great in.
without having to be a sextherapist.
One of those avenues is the DMC- the legendary DJ battle. Can

(08:03):
you give us a bit of the historyof how you got into it and what
led you to become the CEO forthe USA.
I was in New York. I was workingas a mental health counselor in
the Bronx with my so calleddegree. And my friend DJ Swamp,
he said he wanted to introduceme to the owner of DMC Tony
Prince, who was in from London.
So Tony, and I met for dinner.

(08:28):
And we talked about whatever,whatever I thought I could do
with the DJ battles. And hehired me part time mostly to
sell. To call stores and justsell merchandise. And so I
secretly suspect that I was puton as a salesperson, and they
threw the DJ battle at me as abonus, like, Oh, you could do
this, but we really want you tosell. And so I out-did myself

(08:51):
selling in the first three yearsI was at DMC as an employee. And
then I had disagreements withmanagement, shall we say? And so
I left in 2000, after DJ Crazewon his third world title, you
know, it was kind of like notfeeling anything about DMC for
the time off. And then asponsor, a needle company named

(09:14):
Ortofon, said, Hey, we want tothrow your name into DMC, USA,
we want you to take it over. Bythat time, I was like a little,
you know, I was like, Okay, I'mover whatever I was angry about.
And then it was understood thatif I came in, the deal was, I
basically owned DMC USA, whereasI never thought that would
happen before, because it's afamily owned business out of

(09:37):
London, so I didn't think Iwould ever have a part of it. So
basically, I'm the branchmanager of DMC, USA since 2008.
And, you know, I have morecontrol in the battles and what
happens and it's really nice. Ido miss having a salary
sometimes, but it's very nice tohave the control and, you know,
be able to take the battle whereI want to in the US.

(09:59):
and where's that? Where do youwant to take it to in the
future? What is your vision?
Well, it's wild, because when Itook it over in the late 90s, it
was like, basically the heightof turntablism. And it was a
time where our DMC World Finalsin New York was on MTV and BET,
like we were covered by majors,we were covered by the New York

(10:20):
Times, paper magazine. Now youcome back in 2008, a lot of
record stores are gone. All thestores I had accounts with are
gone. Except for some of thecorporate ones. There's no so
called hip hop publications, orreally rap magazines that aren't
interested in any of the otherelements. So whoever's anybody's

(10:41):
DJ, you would know it. So it'sreally challenging, because you
basically have to make your ownpress, you have to cover your
own battles, because no one elseis going to. And it's really
rare to be featured in any kindof publicity. So it really is
challenging to get turntablismback to the light that it used
to have in the late 90s, early2000s. So we're still trying to

(11:02):
figure that out. And also, youknow, in some cases, DJs are
very, very, very technical. Andin some cases, there's a lot of
not funky sets happening. And Ithink if things were funkier
maybe more people would listento turntable lists, and bap DJ
battles. So it's a struggle,because I can't make the sets, I

(11:22):
can only encourage whatever. Sothere's only so much I could do,
but to set up a platform forothers to be great. And hope a
super funky technical DJ comesalong, that blows everybody out
of the water.
How has technology affectedturntablism?
It shouldn't have hurt. Like itshould only progress and make
easier what DJs found moredifficult back in the days. So

(11:46):
if you use the right, it shouldonly let you go farther yet.
Like right now DJs have accessthrough digital vinyl systems
like Serato, they can have anydiscs from anything to use in a
battle. And I find like thedisses are just not that funny
or interesting anymore, like butthey have so much at their hands

(12:06):
like you don't have to golooking for that record and buy
several of them in case one getsscratched. And that's in your
set. You know, like it's so mucheasier. And I don't understand
why DJs aren't taking advantageof it. It's fascinating. I will
say this though the DJs istalked about before there was
battle videos are before anybodycould really see what each other
was doing. A lot of things wereinnovated. So a DJ from the Bay

(12:31):
Area said that he heard the DJsfrom the Miami based DJs. And it
sounded like they werescratching really fast. But they
couldn't see what they weredoing. So the Bay Area DJ
scratched really fast. But theydidn't know that the Miami DJs
were speeding that up inproduction. So like, there's a
lot of innovations that happenjust from not being able to see.

(12:52):
So I think like it would be niceto be able to have DJ sets that
you could actually listen tothat were musical. Like, if you
ever see the album, return tothe DJs Volume One through
whatever, their turntablistssongs. And they're just so
great. You could listen to them.
We even sang along with them atDMC in the 90s. It would be nice

(13:13):
if we could get back to thatagain with like, clever, clever
samples and so much extra stuffand all those guys did it
without the new technology. Gofigure.
What are your thoughts on majorcorporations coming in? And
specifically, I'm thinking ofRedBull 3Style.

(13:34):
RedBull 3Style, what's that? Theonly danger of corporate DJ
battles, you know, because I'mhappy for anybody who wins. I'm
happy for anybody who advanceson it's a very different battle.
It's a it's a party rockingcompetition is what that one is
exactly. It's not even close towhat DMC is. But the thing is

(13:56):
the DMC is not owned by anycorporations like we have
sponsors, but they don't own us.
So the danger for any battlethat's run by a corporation is
that when the corporationdecides that they're no longer
interested in throwing thatbattle, the battles gone. Like
look at the Guitar Centerbattles, look at master the mix
that was just on TV, and it wassponsored by Smirnoff. But

(14:17):
that's not there anymore. Threestyle has existed and it's
really great because Redbull hasits own money to sponsor itself.
Like that's amazing. I can'teven imagine having to battle
where the sponsorship was likethat. The budget was that great.
You know, that would be awesome,but I'm happy for whoever

(14:37):
succeeds DJ wise within thebattle. I'm just not real crazy.
Honestly, I'm not real crazyabout that battle, saying that
it's the biggest in the worldwhen it just came around in the
2000s. Like, I feel that itnegates the history of all the
battles. It doesn't even have tobe DMC; new music seminar was
there There's other there's ZuluNation, DJ battles is just

(15:01):
something I know it's probablycorporate marketing. But I just
don't think that that'sauthentic to say you're the
biggest battle in the world whenyou basically came around rather
recently, or at least they may,okay, they could say, if
anything, I would be happy. AndI'll just say this publicly, if
they said they were the biggestparty rocking competition in the

(15:21):
world, that would sit well withme, the biggest DJ battle in the
world I don't agree with, I'llsay this for Red Bull, though.
One year, Herb magazinecontacted me, and I'm not one of
their journalist, I wasn't evena journalist. They contacted me
to go to South Africa on RedBulls tab, basically, to cover

(15:44):
the BC One for herbs. Sobasically, I got a free trip to
South Africa, flight, hotel,whatever, and met a ton of great
people in Johannesburg andSoweto. Like, sometimes that
money, you know, can be puttowards good and to bring people
together. And you know, I wrotefor herb, I don't know if it

(16:05):
came out in print, it definitelycame out on their blog or
whatever. I know, it wasinteresting, you know, I got to
meet Lilou, and all kinds ofgreat people, it was dope. But
it was really different for meto be flown to South Africa to
cover B-boy events, as that'snot my specialty.
You have been known as apublisher for quite a while, can

(16:25):
you maybe tell us about how youcame up with the newsletter and
how that took form. Or if therewere earlier times that you got
into writing?
The person who gave me theopportunity said it was because
I actually put the newsletterout in a timely fashion, they
How has the covid 19 pandemicimpacted your ability to
knew that I would get back like,because I was like, you know,
there was dancers that I said,you know, fly them to South
Africa. And they just weren'tsure about anybody producing the

(16:50):
article on time besides me. Sothat's why I got to go. And then
of course, my ex helped me withwording and terminology. So God
knows best.
organize events?
It's crazy, because I had eightbattles scheduled out of 10. For
the regional battles that I do.
And this this weekend would beDMC Denver. For whatever reason,

(17:13):
I held back on announcing anydates publicly. And I'm really
glad I did. Maybe I was waitingfor a sponsor to sign on. I'm
not even sure what I was up to.
But you know, you want yourmajor sponsors like Rane and
Technics in before you startbranding. And so I was waiting a
little bit, and then thishappened. And so I don't have

(17:34):
any events to cancel, becausenobody knows that they were
happening. So that's easy. Andnow I'm just waiting to see DMC
headquarters in London is goingto make some announcements who
about what their plans are inlight of the COVID situation,
but we're definitely going tohave battles. The question is,
you know, will they be in personor online, and we have the

(17:57):
capabilities to do each, it'sjust, I just think it might be
irresponsible to have livebattles. if everybody's going to
get sick. You know, I can't bethe ringleader of that. So
that's been challenging, verychallenging, and kind of a
bummer, because at this time, Ishould be traveling and seeing
all my old friends in, you know,Tampa in LA and Phoenix and

(18:21):
wherever. So it's kind ofdisappointing, but God knows
best. I mean, better safe than,you know, sick.
Yeah. How have you been managingpersonally during this time?
I've been extra healthy andpeaceful because I'm in Denver,
and not in New York right now.
But one thing that I noticed,like this weekend last week is
there's so much infighting rightnow. And I guess it's just

(18:42):
because people have been lockeddown and they're getting antsy
and they have all kinds offeelings. And then First we have
the pandemic. And then we havewidespread police brutality that
just hit the boiling point.
There's so much going on and apsych This is where the
psychology comes in, or evenjust my practice of is long. The

(19:04):
one thing and I was just goingto write about this today on
Recently, because I have anorganization called Child of
Facebook was you don't reallyknow what's in the hearts of
anybody, only God does. And youyou don't know what anybody's
intentions are. So the fact thatpeople are jumping down each
other's throats, assuming theyknow what that person has in
their hearts. That's hard for meto watch. Because there's a lot

(19:27):
of good people getting trolled,and I've been trolled before.
It's hard. And I mean, I guessthat's a test from God and
itself. When you get trolled.
I'm trying to be patient, andI'm trying to educate people, if
I have the patience on, youknow, Black Lives Matter and
police brutality and issues thatgo down. Because it's like, you
know, I'm white. There's a lotof fellow white people that will

(19:49):
say something to another whiteperson. And maybe they're
seeking some kind of answers.
And if I have it in me to giveit I will is Wow. It's so sad
though that so many people doneed to learn and so many people
haven't had like immersethemselves in the culture. And
also I think this is interestingto imagine is that I came up

(20:11):
like from Sugar Hill gang, I gotto hear all the music that
actually made it on commercialrap radio like brand new being
and Public Enemy. Even the lynchmob, which is one of my favorite
groups, Ice Cube, poor righteousteachers, you know, like
militant or conscious groups.
And you got to learn about, youknow, even though I'm not down
with the nation, I got to learnabout the Nation of Islam, the

(20:34):
five percenters black andAfrican American issues, like so
much stuff, conspiracy theories,like all of that is in the rap.
And now I don't even know like,unless you really go underground
and look for like, ImmortalTechnique and some other people,
you might not get any of thosemessages. And that's heavy. Like
it's dumbed down, the corporateradio has dumbed down commercial

(20:57):
hip hop radio, to the pointwhere people don't know the
issues that they should know. Soyeah, so I was just listening
Public Enemy and the lynch mobbefore you guys call me and then
ice cube, others certainlyconflicting lyrics as a woman,
but the beats are so hard, andsome of the words are just so
militant and hardcore. That'swhat I miss. I miss hardcore,

(21:20):
militant hype rap with beats,younger people, like even people
like a little bit below 40, justthey, they have no experience of
the activist side of hip hop,that's wild to think of, and
it's so ingrained, like justgoes with it. And somehow
corporations and commercialradio have removed the activism
element to some stupid stuff.

(21:42):
Like, no one speaking out, ismore dangerous than our
president. He's dangerous. Hehas powers over us. No hip hop
artists I know have any powersover me, you know. So there's a
bigger danger of our lawmakersand our president and our
leaders, and of course, ourpolice who are supposed to serve
and protect. So there's so manybigger issues that and then

(22:04):
we're just in fighting on somepetty stuff. And it's hard when
we could be educating. We needto have those educational
discussions if we can, andpatiently and respectfully.
this Culture foundation. Andinternally, we did something
about checking our biases, itwas just like a meet up with

(22:25):
just internal people aboutlearning how to check your
biases. And even though we'reall part of a hip hop
organization and education,ut some of the members were n
t understanding the movement, yu know, towards the end, it w
s like, Oh, I didn't think aout it like that, or, you k
ow, just even that little part were they're able to change or g
ow just within the dialog. And bcause it was a safe space for i

(22:48):
, but not everyone shows up.
I was thinking about what yousaid that I was thinking about
women and hip hop events and howguys don't usually go to them.
Yeah, and it's so disappointingbecause I'm like, you guys say
you want a woman that's downthat likes what you do, supports
you, if you're a practitioner,you want a girlfriend that
supports what you're doing. Andthen there's a women in hip hop

(23:10):
event and no dudes go. Andthat's exactly where they need
to go to meet women, but theywon't, and they don't they don't
think it's going to beinteresting and think it's gonna
be boring. And I'm always happybecause I could see other women,
you know, but but I always thinkwow, you know, guys should be
here for this, these these MCsare dope, these B-girls are
dope, you know, like, It'sweird. So it's a, it's an

(23:32):
interesting project to try toget people to go to an event,
this women centered, withouthaving to fall back on, we have
a man on the panel that willmake you count, like Immortal
Technique will be there, youshouldn't have to do that. You
know what I mean? If it is awomen in hip hop event, but then
on the other side, it's weird,because I'm not crazy about all

(23:53):
women panels, or all women thisor that. I do think men need to
hear what we're saying. And Ithink if we could get supportive
men on panels with us, thatwould be helpful as well. You
know, even if that is the Lordto get guys to come and listen,
or whatever, but there's justsome weird stuff. Like there's
been times that I've beeninvited to be on panels, and I'm

(24:13):
pretty sure it was only becauseI had a vagina, like I'm quite
positive, that that was the onlyreason they needed to balance
the panel out. And I didn't feelright about it, because it
wasn't on topics that I'm evenwell spoken on. You know,
whoever's on your panel andwhoever's on your lineup should
be who you want and they shouldbe the best at it. You know, I
got that all the time with thepark gyms for the Crotona Park

(24:35):
gems. It's only pioneers andlegends DJs. And honestly,
there's very few hip hop, femalepioneer DJs that are still
DJing. So that's problematic toput them on. Then there was
other ones that were legendarythat said, I'll play but I'm
only playing holy hip hop. Andthat's not what my party was

(24:56):
about. Like I wasn't pushingIslam, so I'm definitely not
pushing any Other religion. Sothat was like weird challenges.
So it ended up that like DJJazzy Joyce would be the one
woman that I could put on thatstill party rock that stayed
active that lived in New Yorkbecause other people live other
places. There's baby D, who'sthe DJ for the Mercedes ladies

(25:19):
in her and a DJ named Pam Bada,which is the dopest name ever,
are considered to be the firsthip hop, female DJs. But I never
found Pam bata. I never met herand baby D is down in the south,
so I couldn't even put them onmy Park jams.
I've heard that you asked theDJs not to play music with
profanity at your park jams, isthis true?

(25:41):
You could leave the jam, notrealizing that you didn't hear
all kinds of curse words andbitches and stuff. There's been
events that I've gone to where Ididn't feel comfortable, as
either a woman or as a whiteperson or anything. And I never
wanted anybody else to feel likethat. Because the true spirit of
the culture is everybody'sinvited. Of course, you should

(26:02):
show up and be respectful. Buteverybody should be there to be
united and get down together andmeet each other and join
universally. So that was my thatwas our intention. So faible an
eye for tools award, grassrootship hop, which is like that
we're co founders, we decidedthat we were going to have
certain rules to the park gym,with each gym had its own theme.

(26:25):
But one of the running thingswas no profanity, no sexually
explicit lyrics, keep it clean,keep it clean was throughout.
And a lot of times the music wasfrom the 70s or even early 80s.
So it was a little safer than itis you know, and I certainly
love some some controversiallyrics, I just didn't want them

(26:45):
played at our jam, I don't wantto be the one who expose little
kids to it. Maybe that wasn'tthe way the culture went down
back in the days. But I alsofelt like because of commercial
rap, hip hop was becoming a 21and up event again, with alcohol
sponsors and all kinds of otherthings. So how could we get it
back to the roots like B-boyB-girl battles are always all

(27:08):
ages. Rarely Is there a barserving alcohol. And I like that
energy and I like the energy ofyouth being around. So that's
kind of what I wanted. And thenyou know, Fable and I fought
people trying to sell alcohol atour jams constantly. Like it was
like a money making cottageindustry. And it was like
fighting drug dealers really,people were dead set on making

(27:30):
money at our jams even though wedidn't make any money off of
them. And we would go broketrying to throw jabs while other
people were walking away with abig stack of money from secretly
selling alcohol. It washeartbreaking. And also people
are drunk and people gettingdrunk or a liability, and
they're more likely to fight. Sowhen we stopped throwing the
park jam recently, maybe withinthe last year or two, we feel

(27:53):
like maybe we got out beforeanything crazy happened. Because
God forbid, that would beterrible. You know, even if just
someone fell and got hurt frombeing drunk. There's so many
things, but we definitely didn'twant fights or anything crazy
happening at our jams and, andthey were getting big,
especially in the Bronx and morethan we could handle. It was why
it was getting wild.

(28:13):
After you've done so manydifferent events in all the
boroughs. What is a piece ofadvice you would give your
younger self?
I don't even know I know. It wasall trial and error. So I can't
even think of what I would tellmyself because I probably be
just as crazy, you know going upto people and tell them they
can't sell alcohol and Okay,maybe not to be a people pleaser

(28:36):
like I learned from Hip Hop,especially in the Bronx to say
no and be really firm about it.
That wasn't something that cameeasy to me. People get very
confrontational when they wantto perform at your parties. And
you don't want them to a lot ofMCs were really mad at me
because we didn't put MCs on thelineup. And if they did, they

(28:58):
had to be invited by the DJ. Sothe DJ was always the front man
or woman at our jams. And youcouldn't get on you couldn't
just walk on because you thinkyou're the star of the show. We
put the DJ back in the forefrontlike it was the very beginning
of hip hop. And that really madea lot of MCs very unhappy. And
and then the times that we didtrust an MC to get on legend.

(29:21):
These are legends. One legendgot on and even though we got
along with that police precinctand they were really cool and
supportive, he got on the micand yelled fuck the police and
had no idea how that could messus up. There was a lot of
community affairs cops that weresuper supportive and went to bat
for rjm still exists and knewthe value they had in the

(29:44):
community. You know, despitewhatever else happens in the
rest of the force of theprecincts. A lot of the
community affairs cops wereexactly right for the job and
they did their job. They gave uspermits they, you know made sure
we followed the rules andeverything. So like, it was
hurtful, another emcee got on.
And when I went to the bathroom,and somehow another legendary

(30:07):
emcee got on, and dissedGrandmaster Flash. And so then
flash shows up the next weeksaying, When can I get on? And
I'm like, well, you got to waittill next year because my lineup
is booked. So flash came thenext year, and we had a plan
where no one would know he wasshowing up except for fable me
and the sound man. And so thatway MCs couldn't plot to jump on

(30:28):
a set. They tried, though, itgot crazy towards the end,
because it was flash, but um, itwas interesting, like, and I
would have never agreed to letanybody display flash on my
lineup. Like, that's the guy I'mcool with. So it's hard when
people get on the mic and saywild stuff, you don't have any
control over. And that's whyGrandmaster Caz was our host,
because he basically is an alphaMC. And if you're not better

(30:52):
than him, how are you going totake the mic off him? So it
worked out where he held thatdown, and you couldn't just
overcome him? And take his mic.
So worked out. That's theperfect host - the forever park
jam host is Caz.
How has New York influenced youas a person?
Man, it's, it's good and bad.
Like now I'm in Denver. And I'mlike, super watchful of

(31:12):
everybody. And they're like,really nice. Like, if someone
comes into my boyfriend's stormand my Oh, hi, DJ, supply this
the logo. And they say, Oh, I'mhere to pick up gear. And I'm
like, What do you Oh, they sayit and it's true. And one time a
guy took gear, and then he cameback. And he's like, Oh, I
forgot to pay you. So it'sreally beautiful how honest

(31:34):
people are, you know what Imean? Whereas in New York,
there's a lot of hustling goingon. And so you have to watch
yourself, and you're just morewatchful in New York, because
there's so many more people withso many different agendas. And
it also messed me up for events.
Because New York, it's so hardto do events in New York, and
you're fighting off MCs, andyou're fighting off just dudes

(31:56):
that want to run on stage andstand there and look important.
And then you get to other partsof the country where people
don't do that. And it's so it'sso refreshing. You know, it's so
nice not to fight at your eventswith dudes that need to feel
important. Very rarely will awoman do that. But a guy almost
always needs to look importantby trying to get on your stage.

(32:17):
And that's not how I run things.
So I've kicked a lot oflegendary people, and a lot of
people that nobody knows off mystage is so new york made me
more militant about that. Also,if someone gets on your stage
that you don't know, or maybemaybe you do know them, and they
still do it. Suddenly, theprizes for the DJ is might be
missing. I remember one time inLA at a DMC, stuff was

(32:40):
disappearing, like a ghost stoleit, the sound man's laptop got
stolen, it was like right byhim. We had these Serato, rain,
USB watches as gifts for judges,those were disappearing, like
really quick. And that was frompeople that somehow got on the
stage. So as soon as I made therule about nobody, not even
friends coming by to say hi andshake your hand on stage, all

(33:03):
the thefts in missing thingswent away. So who knows what
anybody's intentions are. Yeah.
And I've gotten to some majorbad fights over the stage. It's
bad. Like, you couldn't evenbelieve that a guy would put
himself on the line and puthimself out there. That has
nothing to do with your DJbattle. And once the fight you

(33:25):
to stand on stage, like it'swild. I can't imagine. And so
when people invite me to thestage, I'm like, I'm good.
Because I need to set anexample. Like, I'm not going to
go on anybody else's stageunless I'm doing something. And
I'm not because I'm not anentertainer. I'm not a creative.
So I stand back, I'll help youon the side if you want. But
you're not going to see me likefloating around and look at him

(33:47):
trying to look important onstage. That's a weird thing
about hip hop. It's the beautyof needing to be seen versus
ruining a show because you needto be seen. The ego gets in the
way. But mostly in New York.
It's I really don't deal withthat too many times in any other
city like that. Maybe laoccasionally, but everybody else

(34:09):
is so nice and other cities, andmaybe they just haven't picked
up those bad habits.
Where do you get yourentrepreneurship quality from?
I would say my dad because hehad his own business, and always
worked for himself. Promotionwise though. I had an old
boyfriend, who was throwingparties and clubs in Boston. And

(34:31):
I watched him promote and Ilearned a lot from him as well.
Different weird things likenever let anybody see your flyer
laying on the ground. Justinteresting things that he had
like rules for himself as ayoung club promoter. And I never
thought that I'd end up doingwhat that you know what I mean?
So but I lived in Boston for ayear and we had loft parties and

(34:51):
all that other stuff. But I wasaround. I wasn't around hip hop.
I was around a bunch of clubkids and it was hard because no
one would take me to the placeswhere hip hop was happening.
Which was Roxbury. And a lot ofpeople felt that that was not
where they were going to takeme. The late 80s. Early 90s was
very disappointing, but theythought it was safer for me not
to go to Roxbury. But when Ifirst moved to New York and I

(35:12):
found out that there was a ZuluNation anniversary, I wasn't
going to miss that for theworld. And I stomped all my all
the way up to Harlem, wazzustreets and places I didn't know
and I was just determined,that's where I needed to be. And
I went and it was great. So youshouldn't let that fear keep you
from going. You know, where youwant to go to find hip hop. Even
if you think you're not going tofit in or whatever, you know,

(35:35):
you should go You should nevernever regret that fear of
missing out. I would have killedme to not go to a zoo
anniversary. Despite everythingthat happened. It's really a sad
for the culture especially butum, Afrika Bambaataa was one of
my biggest influences in hip hopfrom his albums and everything
and my girlfriend, Rhonda that Ispoke about earlier, we're like,

(35:55):
yeah, we're gonna go to zoo,we're gonna, like, we're gonna
go to Bronx, we're gonna be downwith Zulu, we're like, we're
just like, so sure that we'd beaccepted. Because it's
universal, and acceptseverybody, we have really,
really idealistic imaginationsfor ourselves being down in the
Bronx, in the early days, weprobably would have got

(36:17):
ourselves in a lot of trouble.
But that was our ideal. And Ihate to say it, but that ideal
is what drives drove me to theBronx, and to insist on
recreating Park jams with fablethat I missed from the 70s and
80s. So I was just determined,and I was determined to make it
like this happy, peaceful,loving place. There was no stick
of kids. There was no oneselling dust. Like all the stuff

(36:40):
that you hear about from theearly, late 70s, early 80s.
wasn't happening it my familyfriendly jam, you know, so maybe
it wasn't as authentic as itcould have been. But it was it
was safe for people to go to.
Talking about yourentrepreneurial ventures. I
heard you're also quite wellknown for your cookie business.

(37:03):
Yeah, that is an interesting ...
I don't work on the cookiebusiness 24/7, or anything. I
bake when I get a chance. But inNew York, I just like took some
cookies, this of jams and justshare them with people. And then
people wanted to buy them. Andthen it got to the point where I
was selling like $200 worth ofcookies at a jam, like as many
cookies as I could carry. Iwould sell like $10 bags of

(37:26):
cookies. And I think it'sbecause a lot of people don't
bake that I had the marketcorner. They were fresh baked
cookies. A lot of people can'tbake themselves. I don't you
know, I'm from Pennsylvania,where near Pittsburgh where
there was actually cookie tablesat weddings. Like, as a feature.
The wedding is cookie tables,and everybody bakes cookies. So

(37:47):
me making money in Pennsylvaniaoff cookies would be a whole
other thing. And then ithappened that I would take
pictures of like, legends withmy cookies, like DJ cash money,
or babauta or Kaz or whoever.
And then it started getting tobe like a weird status symbol,
like cash money would hold up a$20 bag of my cookies like he's

(38:11):
a baller. And then other peoplesaw the pictures and they just
was like, I have to try these.
And even when I go to the DMCbattles in London at the worlds
they, you know, DJs asked me tobring cookies over so I like
half of my bag is full ofcookies. And I take them over
and people buy cookies and othercountries and even the DMC World
Champion skills from France thisyear, made a comment that he

(38:32):
didn't get cookies last yearlike it was a prize. So this
year, I gave him cookies, butit's fascinating that people
come up and ask you for thecookies and about them when you
don't really think that theyknow. But so now there's so many
legends and battle championsholding up cookie pictures and
you know, Babu and Rhettmaticfrom the beat junkies are big
fans and Q-Bert likes a glutenfree cookies I make for him and

(38:55):
he made a commercial about mycookies. He said they have dank
in them. I think I would like tosay that that's not true. I
don't make special cookies. Butuh, yeah, I've got it. Just
people were just really excitedabout the cookies. So thank god,
it's a nice little side hustlewhen I have time to bake.

(39:16):
What's your go to flavor?
Everybody likes the chocolatechip cookies, but lately when
I'm eating my own cookies, whichis weird, because I'll eat Oreos
like it's nothing like I loveOreos. So if we're eating my own
cookies lately, it's been thatit's a cookie that has pretzels,
chocolate chips, caramel piecesand butterscotch chips in it.

(39:37):
All that in one cookie. Sothat's like sweet and salty and
everything. That's one cookie Ilike and then we also like a
peanut butter cookie withbutterscotch chips in them. And
then we salted there's a couplethat I do eat. I always try to
tell myself I don't eat them sowe could sell them. But then
there's some extra that don'tfit in the bag or whatever we're
just eating. But yeah, those aremy latest two as well as that.

(40:00):
banana bread with pecan andcoconut in it. It's nuts. Like I
ate two slices the other daylike it is so unlike me to even
eat that much of my own stuff isbanging though. It's almost like
a status symbol or like a ballerkind of thing. That's weird.
That's funny. Has COVID allowedyou to try out some new recipes

(40:23):
or experiment around?
Oh, definitely. Yeah, that'swhat the the ones I just talked
to you about, or the ones thatare the latest ones, when you're
throwing events, and you're theperson who does all of the jobs
within the event, you know,which is different from a
corporate competition, becausethey have someone to do
everything different people, Idon't have an office, I have me
and my friends helped me. So. Sowhen you're doing DJ battles,

(40:47):
it's so stressful, because youmight be beefing with a DJ that
didn't place and how now yourbattle is corrupt, and you're
unfair, and your judges suck,and blah, blah. I'm not missing
any of that. I'm not missing DJsthat won't read the letter. I
sent them and they show upunprepared for battles. Like
there's a lot of stuff I don'tmiss. So it's really peaceful

(41:10):
right now, since COVID. Andthen, you know, we're here at
the store. The stores doors arealways locked in. Like, since we
started letting some people in,they can only come in with a
mask. But while everybody was onsevere lock down, everybody
wanted to buy DJ gear, like alot. Everything we were just
busy, busy, busy. So we had anoutside Drop, drop box contact

(41:33):
free pickup, you know, you canmeet us outside, you just
couldn't come inside. Like wejust we stayed hustling business
wise too. So thank God for that.
Like, it wasn't like we were outof jobs. And you know, the only
thing that we look for was astimulus check or something. So
thank god like it's been goodfor business. Not that the virus
has been good for business, butpeople being locked down, and

(41:54):
anyone needing their gear andsome people just wanted to pick
up a new hobby. So they mighthave bought a portable, they
might buy a controller theymight buy, you know, big
turntables, anything. I hopethat a lot of DJs actually come
out of this pandemic, you know,with fresh music and a new
approach, God willing, and Idon't really care what they DJ

(42:18):
on. My big deal is, you know, Ilike rare music. I like good
selection. I like funky stuff.
So the rarer the better thoughfor me. I'd rather hear what I
don't know.
Is there a particular battlethat stands out to you?
It's wild to say because thefirst year I ever did battles is
the best year so 1998 DMC USfinals has Craze and Shortcut

(42:42):
and DJ Dummy and Cuttin' Candyand DJ Slice, Swift Rock -rest
in peace- like so many peoplewere in that battle and Lord
Finesse is hosting and you knowwe inducted Grandmaster Flash
and other people into the Hallof Fame. That in itself is
comedy when you see like that,Bam, but he didn't show up to

(43:03):
accept his award and the hostthought (not Lord finesse) but
the host thought that one of theguys on stage was Bambaataa and
he tried to pull himself out ofit. It's frustrating, but it's
so funny now to watch. Like,you're just like, first you're
like, oh my god. No. So anyway,there's a lot on that battle. So
98, DMC USA, you can find it onI think my YouTube is official

(43:24):
DMC USA DJ battles, you can findall the work I've done and all
the battles I produce there. AndI'm still uploading more. But
that is the best one is thehypest. So 98, 99, 2000 are some
of my best battle years. And nowsince 2008. When I took it back.
I started with east coast andWest Coast and have got it back

(43:47):
to 10 regionals a year. I don'tknow how to say it. I talked DMC
into letting me make a scratchcategory, which is not a world
category. It's just a nationalcategory you don't advance. But
that's something I hope to makeinto a world world category
category when one day once I cantalk like the DMC headquarters

(44:09):
family into it. And that's onething I am actually really proud
of is introducing a newcategory. And we add a new
categories in my first year as aDMC two we had head to head
battle a team battle. So youknow, the more opportunities we
could make for battle DJs, thebetter because they don't get
that many. And a lot of them canwin a battle, but they might not

(44:31):
be good at party rocking, sothey got to figure that out. But
at least DMC is a good launchpad for oneself if you know how
to work it. Like it's not like ainstant success in a box where
we put it all together for youand get you all the gigs and
everything but we do whatever wecan to help our champions and
even people that don't when Ilook out for DJs that just

(44:52):
entered the battle like if youjust entered, you're on my
radar, but if you don't enter Ican't help you because I never
saw you DJ. But I do know whatDJs are in almost every city, if
you said, I need a DJ inIndianapolis, I know one. So
that's kind of cool to actuallyhave like kind of a US wide
network, but also like what, whoI know in the world, but I'm

(45:12):
really happy to be able to helpDJs in whatever way I can.
DMC is definitely been like aplatform for a lot of DJs to get
out there get the name known,you know, and some of them have
risen to the highest elitestatus that you can imagine, you
know, like Craze, like A-Trak.
You know, there are a lot of DJsthat started out and turntablism

(45:34):
and DMC was that platform forthem, was the catalyst.
That's really great to have. Andthen even DJs, like there's some
major DJs that battled butdidn't even win a US title that
are amazing. And then there'sDJs, that just competed in by

(45:54):
virtue of competing gotrecognized by someone else and
got invited to tour. And solike, that's what I'm saying,
like just showing up and doing atwo minute set sometimes is, you
know, an intro to so many otheropportunities, and a lot of DJs,
don't think about that, theyjust, oh, I'm not going to win.
So I'm not going to enter. Andit's just such a bad attitude to

(46:14):
have. The also one of the thingsI'm really happy about more
recently is that more childrenare entering the battle, because
we never really had an agelimit. And most clubs will let a
kid into the venue, as long asthey're battling and their
parent is with them. So eventhough sometimes we do 21 and up
battles, because we have nochoice in a city, kids still get

(46:35):
to compete. So um, over the lastcouple years, we've seen more
children competing, and morewomen and girls competing, and
that's really good. I'm allabout that. And then you know,
and I always warn the hosts,like don't make it a big deal
that they're a girl, just treatthem like a normal DJ, you know,
like, let this be a normalsituation. And don't you know,

(46:56):
don't focus on that. Becausethat then it gets weird. Or kid,
because you'll see that like,you know, kids get a lot of
extra love and opportunities,because they're little and
they're cute, and they'rebattling. My judges know, my
judges wouldn't just vote a kidin because it's cute, or it
would look good for the companyor anything we never have this
kind of talks about, oh, it'd bereally looking good. If you

(47:18):
would vote this guy in oranything, we're really careful
about that. And like if a childwins, then that means you know
that they actually got all thejudges approval, and they
weren't just cute, or, you know,whatever. And so that's really
important to us, too, is thatthe integrity of the battle and
the wisdom of the judges, andyou know, and sometimes you get

(47:39):
a judge the judges a littlecrazy, and, you know, you keep
an eye out for that in thefuture. Yeah, you know, just
like in a dance battle, like Imean, no adult B boys want to
get beat by a kid that wasn't asgood as though. And I'm usually
happy when when someone wins.
And everybody agrees upon it,like we do in fight for weeks to
months after a DJ battle overthe winners, the judges choices

(48:01):
and all kinds of other stuff.
But it really is nice wheneverybody agrees that that was
the person who won andeverybody's happy.
And there are some really nastykids out there, especially the
stuff that I see popping up. Nowthese kids really have skills -
It's not just the cuteness.
Yeah, they're, they're killingit. In my case, though, like, if

(48:23):
they don't battle - once again,I'm not looking out because you
need to battle in person for meto see you. I'm not gonna watch,
it probably happens. A lot ofpeople probably cross one all
the time, too. But people willtry to post kid videos on your
page. And they're not battling.
And I don't agree with going upthe passing lane. It might sound
harsh, but battling is essentialin hip hop. And I'm a strong

(48:43):
believer in that. And so what isit going to look like? I'm DMC
and I'm letting you get up thepassing lane and promoting you.
And you're never battled, youknow. So I'm really big on that.
I'm a woman running the battle.
So there should be nothing likeintimidating any girls from
entering. I would think I'm theleast intimidating of all the

(49:04):
possible people that could be,you know, running a battle, you
know, and really try to befriendly. The wild thing,
though, and there is some reallybeautiful parents out there. But
there's some really wild stageparents too. Yeah, we've been
through it. Like, I feel like Ineed to write a guide for
parents of children battlingbecause you just need to let the
kid do their thing and not youknow, it's been wild. I've been

(49:27):
trolled by parents. I was toldby one kid's parents, even when
she wasn't battling that year.
There wasn't even anything tofight about. It's a way to get
attention. And it's you know,online beef is it's almost like
a reality show that I didn'tknow I was a part of. Yeah, so
we're so we're really like we'rereally encouraging and even then

(49:48):
we were really careful. Like wedidn't want to hurt the child's
name or reputation. If we talkedabout the parents, we had to
find a clever way to get aroundit without saying the DJ, his
name or anything like that. Andit's difficult because you want
to defend yourself because itlooks like you're arguing with a
child online. But it's theparents driving you crazy. When

(50:09):
one child DJ told me, aren't youa woman? Why don't you be a
woman? and I'm like, what the?
what kind of child writes likethat to anybody. So you knew it
was the parents ... Yeah.
And the child is probably superembarrassed.
I don't know, I never get totalk to the child, but I'm
hoping when the child is a teen,they could look back on their

(50:31):
years of social media that theydidn't know they had, maybe it's
gonna be wild, like none of usare holding it against any child
what their parents do, right?
what the parents do is make ithard for you to recommend the
child because you don't want toput anybody in touch with really
pushy or aggressive parents likethat. That doesn't look right.

(50:53):
You know, you recommend goodpeople to good people, no matter
what age and whatever. So it'schallenging. So you always want
to be fair, and you always wantto, like, you know, be helpful,
but you can't get abused at iteither. You know, you can't have
people abusing you.
Wow, Christie, you got to do alot of a lot of stuff in the
position that you're in, whatarmors you?

(51:15):
I think, well, one, you know, myreligion, my belief in God. And
the rules that go along with thereligion are righteous, you know
what I mean? Like you just dealwith each other righteously you
try to write, you try to speakrespectfully, you know, all this
stuff, you know? Yeah. And thenwhatever I learned over the
years since, um, since I learnedto say no. Yeah, and just you

(51:41):
always have to remember that yourepresent I represent DMC, so I
can't be writing crazy. But Ialso represent as a Muslim, and,
you know, there's so many otherthings you you're responsible
for to represent correctly, thatyou just don't want to, you
don't want to do anything wrong,you want to be extra, extra,
extra 100%. And I remember whenI first started, I thought,

(52:03):
like, I saw my malecounterparts, sometimes some
male promoters would be like,sloppy, or let things go. And,
and I felt like us as women hadto be 100% or 1,000% more
perfect, because people didn'treally want us doing it. I've
seen things over the years, likewho made that white girl in
charge of hip hop? DJs just meanthings, you know, so I know that

(52:27):
I have to represent because Ihave enough people that don't
want me to succeed. You knowwhat I mean? Not a lot. I just
think there's some haters outthere that don't like women
don't like white people maybedon't like Muslims. I might it
might be like a three part thingfor me. I will say the beautiful
thing about the battle. DJs inparticular is you know, you're

(52:48):
Muslim, but they're they want totake pictures with you. So
you'll see a picture of me witha whole bunch of battle DJs. And
some people might look at itfrom the outside. Like they
don't know why there's a Muslimwoman at the club. Why are they
talking to her? So I hope thatit opens minds towards the fact
that like I said, we're not homemaking falafel, like we're just

(53:09):
freakin we're out here. Andthere's so many of us doing
stuff in hip hop, and doing itin a strong way. Like there's
fellow power women, you know, ofall religions, but there's like
powerful women out here doingstuff. And I you know, and I get
excited, and I'm happy for theirsuccess. And that's another
thing we need to learn is to behappy for people and happy for

(53:29):
people success and want sendthose vibes out there. Like I
want you to succeed. I want thisto be the greatest and you just
like can't be just bitter andhating on everybody. You know,
that doesn't get us anywhere.
Yeah, I'm sure you'veexperienced the, you know, anti
female sentiment at some point,Total or being made to feel like
you're not welcome somewhere.

(53:50):
One person said - was it aQ-Bert video that I had - and
you'll always see me in the backof DMC like running. I'll be
like running across the back ofthe video. And I really don't
want to but it takes longer togo through the crowd. So someone
said, Who's that woman? Why dothey let her run on stage? It

was on YouTube and I wrote (54:08):
I let myself on stage because I
run this. But they just didn'tknow because I look different. I
don't look like I don't quotedress hip hop. I don't know what
dressing hip hop even isanymore. Right?
What did dressing hip hop looklike when you were just starting
out?
Well fortunately, I was alreadyMuslim and covering by the time
I had a professional job. Butbefore that, and this is why I

(54:35):
defend any woman's right to wearwhatever they want. I always had
like really short fly haircuts.
I would have to say this it isit's crazy. But however the fly
girls dress on and live incolor. I would be happy to dress
like that all day long. Like Idon't care if it was short
shorts, in a bikini top,whatever. Like in Pittsburgh,
you could wear different thingswithout getting like chased down
the street. Like when you get toNew York, you have to dress a

(54:57):
little bit more conservatively.
People are really, guys arereally aggressive and fresh,
like just, it's amazing likeIt's nuts. So piss where you
could dress and have a littlemore freedom to dress how you
want it. So like the outfit wasbikini top, and some kind of
baggy shorts shorts, like allsummer long, maybe shell toes. I

(55:18):
don't even know if that was hiphop. But we just thought the fly
girls were just like the dopest.
So I just send again. So thenafter I became Muslim, my ID
still had me my driver's licensehad me in a bikini top. And so
I'd have to show it to people toget into clubs and stuff. It was
really crazy. But I but Iseriously feel like we should

(55:39):
have a right to dress however wewant. We should be able to dress
sexy, we should be able to coverourselves completely. I don't
think it's anybody's business,you know, what we're doing with
our body and how we're coveringit. And I think that's a big
issue in the US as well as theworld that everybody likes you
if you're showing your ass, butif you cover your ass, that's
not gonna be good. Like, that's,it's unAmerican. That's how I

(56:02):
feel. But I'm happy. Maybe it'sthe way the whole look. But a
lot of people either don't knowwhat I am, or careful because
they don't want to misstep withme. Maybe as a Muslim. They
don't want to accidentally bedisrespectful. And then some
people really do believe I havecancer. There's something Ill
about like there's a there's somany things. Some people think

(56:23):
of Jewish instead of Muslim,some people refer to me as a
nun. like yeah, it's been it'sbeen an adventure. being Muslim
and white in hip hopIs it a different experience as
a Muslim that you experienceoutside of the US?
Well in England, they're notsuper crazy. You know, the
ruling party isn't super crazyabout Muslims. So after the

(56:45):
Brexit thing, I felt a littledifferent when I got on planes
and stuff. A long time ago Iwent to Paris and people were
just strange like they just likelooked at you right in your face
like you couldn't see them andjust stared hard England to they
people will stare at you likeyou can't see them staring. And
considering the stereotype isthat they're very, very polite.
It's the one of the strangestkookiest things on the train to

(57:08):
experiences people staring atyou like you're in an aquarium,
but you can't see them. But ingeneral, like I don't, I think
maybe because people don't knowwhat I am. They don't mess with
me as much. I don't know, Ican't figure it out. I mean, you
know, in that way, there mightbe privileges involved in that.
If I was a black or brown Muslimfully covered, would I get

(57:28):
treated the same? If I had anaccent from another country,
would I get through TSA aseasily, I hope for all of us
that and I don't know how longit's going to take for people to
drop their biases, or stopstereotyping us as terrorists or
whatever else they think it's soit's so hard. Because you,
you're out there with an openheart and you want to be

(57:49):
friendly with everybody, I smileat everybody. And um, even my
boyfriend said it like he, I'velearned to avoid it. But you
don't always realize how peopleare looking at you. And they're
not happy a lot of time at theairports, especially in things.
And in New York, I would get itfrom interestingly enough from
like, certain people from othercountries would grill on me hard

(58:09):
like, like, if we were in thatother country, they probably
would do worse to me. And theytreat me like I'm from another
country, which is weird to beborn in America and to be
treated that like that. I referto it as whenever you're, I
became Muslim, and I gave up myBarbie privileges. You know what
I mean? So you like so now youare from another country, your

(58:33):
hair's covered. You're somebodydifferent now and people react
to you that way. And it's reallyinteresting to see how people
will treat you other whitepeople to other white people
that normally would haveprobably said hi to you on the
street, and now you're covered.
Nope. And anybody with me, likeanybody who's with me is
automatically a Muslim or anArab now. So it's been it's been
an adventure to say the least.

(58:57):
I'm happy I'm going through itthough. And it makes me more
conscious of how people treatother people, you know, in the
Muslim ban, and all the otherthings that are going on against
Muslims and the misinformationabout us and all that stuff.
Tevye thank you for sheddingsome light on your experience
with that, because I think it'sa very interesting perspective.

(59:17):
Is there anything else you wantto talk about? Follow DMC DJ
online or DMC USA or DMC worldon social media? To find out
about our upcoming plans once weannounce them? If I could advise
anybody during this covidpandemic protest time, I would
say be patient with each other.
Speak respectfully to eachother. Try to educate, don't

(59:39):
troll people. Don't be harsh,try to help people and if you
can't help people don't sayanything. And then to stay safe.
We like to end out ourinterviews with the same

question which is (59:52):
What is hip hop to you?
Hip hop is a culture. It'suniversal to everybody. should
be able to be within hip hopfocusing for me hip hop focusing
on the elements of the dance,aerosol, our DJing, emceeing,
Did I miss anything, I don'tthink so. And then out from

(01:00:15):
there. And I do believe it'suniversal. And I do believe it
has a message of peace. And I dobelieve it goes beyond color
barriers and races andeverything. Like we can all be a
part of it, but you have toapproach it with the right
intentions and be respectful ofwhere it came from. Try to learn

(01:00:36):
the history as best as you can,in fact, check it because
there's so much misinformation.
But hip hop to me is the cultureand the commercial, rap radio,
and the corporation's don'trepresent it. Hip Hop is about
battling hip hop is all thoseelements. And hip hop made a lot
of things possible for me and toknow a lot of different people
of different colors and racesand ethnicities, and learn about

(01:00:58):
issues. It could be so much, orit could be just this commercial
stuff that people were definingit as now, which is sad, but it
is so much more and I hopepeople take time to look into
that. And it has activism in it.
All of that, all of it should bea part of it. Everything that's

(01:01:19):
good should be a part of hiphop, and we should try to weed
out the other stuff thatmisrepresents.
Thank you so much to our guestChristie Zee, for taking the
time and being so open whilesharing your perspective with
us.
Some of the gems we took awayfrom this interview were
Opportunities are often given toa person who shows reliability

(01:01:42):
and trustworthiness, over pureexpertise. Dependability is a
skill that everyone cancultivate.
When you find a passion, youwill find a way and take a risk
to learn and immerse yourself.
Showing up is essential toreaching any goal. There's
always people searching fortalent that they can support. So

(01:02:02):
one must show up and be seen.
Our theme music was beat boxedby Denis the Menace and produced
by Zede. A big shout out to thebrothers from Switzerland.
Also a big shout out to BrianLim aka Brian Pistols for his
dedication to his community andthe hip hop culture.
We congratulate you on receivingthe 2020 Teknyc B-boy B-girl

(01:02:24):
scholarship.
We would love to get yourfeedback, questions and any
suggestions you might have. Youcan reach out to us on
Instagram, Twitter or Facebook@SoulidarityLLC or via email
[e-mail] you liked today's show,
please tell a friend about ourpodcast. Or as Phife Dawg would

say: Tell your mother, your father, (01:02:45):
undefined
send a telegramIn our next episode, we welcome
Rob Stull.
Rob is a comic book industryveteran who has worked for every
major publisher. He is also ateacher, a Museum of Fine Arts
Boston artist-in-residence, andan Isabella Stewart Gardner

(01:03:06):
Museum luminary.
Thank you for listening to ourpodcast.
No seriously though. Thank you.
I am Candy. I'm DJ Razor Cut.
And this is Souls of Hip Hop