Shack: I am originally from New Orleans, I came to Atlanta to pursue a career as an artist, yes Freddy O I used to rap lol.

Well, honestly I’ve been throwing parties since I was in the 1st grade but I didn’t know that I was doing promotions. I just always liked recreational fun, but I started doing promotions as a business when I moved to Atlanta and linked up with a DJ by the name of DJ T Roc. Me and T Roc met at the Poole Palace and became really good friends. I helped him organize his birthday party and my birthday was 1 month after his and I wanted to throw a block party and T Roc helped me pull it off and it was a sensation. I was only in Atlanta for 3 months and I had people show up from out of town in tour buses to perform at my birthday party. I mean artists from all over the country came to perform, so T Roc and I started throwing showcases. The showcases became so popular and artists wanted us to start working with them 1 on 1 so we started signing artists. From signing artists we started a DJ crew and I started writing for magazines.  My column in HotBlock Magazine gave me the idea to start my own. We called it We RocHarder Magazine and it was one of the hottest urban publications to hit the streets. We were able to secure distribution to go in stores by our 2nd issue.

I’ve worked with The Shop Boyz, J Money, Juvenile, DG Yola, Lil Chuckee from Young Money, Mizay Entertainment, Maceo, Me and T Roc had our hands  on a lot of records from a lot of artists, Yung La, Cash Out, Big Kuntry, Shawty Lo, Dem Franchize Boyz, and more! 

I think Lil Chuckee from Young Money will definitely do big things in 2013. I’ve watched him grow, mature, and develop a style and swagger of his own. I knew Chuckee was special when he took over and got a crowd of thousands of peoples attention at a block party in my home town of New Orleans when he was about 7 years old.  Then there’s Rich Homie, Quam, The Rock Mob, and Keedy Black.  

What prompted you to do the Award Show? 

T Roc and I were inseparable. I was in the DJ booth every time he had to DJ somewhere. I witnessed a lot of bullshit that was going on and honestly it pissed me off. Djs have so much to deal with; asshole club owners, impatient artists who want you to play their records, artists that you put in the game then they forget about you and it just disgusted me. I had to make sure that these artists made sure that T Roc was in the videos. I had to make sure that when major shows came up that T Roc was involved and I felt like a lot of these artists should have done way more for the Djs than they did. So one day someone called me and said I have access to the Atrium, a club in Stone Mountain, GA and it can hold 1500 people in there do you want to do something there and I said hell yeah I want to do a DJ Awards Show and I want the music industry to give back to the Djs once a year! Our 1st year doing the award show was a huge success. We had 1500 people show up! 

A lot of people remember the Raz B fight at the award show about 2 years ago but my most memorable moment had to be last year’s show. When I walked in the building and saw prominet Dj’s like Bigga Rankin, Trapaholics and Dj Smallz there, and Deb Antney. Waka Flocka’s manager and Gucci Mane and Nicki Minaj’s former manager in there I knew the award show was getting bigger and it made me cry. The hardest show I had to do was when my publicist died 2 weeks before the award show 2 years ago. My girl Chiq Diva abruptly passed away a couple of weeks before the event and it was so hard for me to keep it going but by the grace of God we went on and had a very successful show.

More celebrities are confirmed to attend this year.  We have the star of Love and Hip Hop, K Michelle, Diamond, Jim Jones,Travis Porter, Mykko Montana, and many more.  Of course all the Djs are coming out, so we’re going to salute and celebrate them. We also added the Hip Hop for Homeless event, where we’ll raise funds to assist the growing homeless community in Atlanta. 

I’m planning a Salute the Djs Music Conference, Hustling Across State Lines artist showcase tour with Mizay Entertainment, more hits popping out from Lil Chuckee, my birthday party in April, breaking more artists, T Roc’s birthday bash in March. But for now I’m focusing on the DJ Awards show and we have a full weekend of events planned.  A celebrity basketball game, an exclusive and private DJ Meet and Greet at Tees and Quotes, a showcase January 21st at 10pm at the Atrium and the grand finale, which is the Salute the DJ Awards Show Tuesday, January 22nd at the Atrium. This is our 4th year and I thank God it’s getting bigger and better each year.