DJ Rondevu is
not your typical DJ. In fact, he’s far from ever being placed
into that category. How could he when he drops some of the illest
mixtapes to hit the streets, has production credits with the likes
of Das-EFX, rocks the crowd at parties all across the U.S. and Europe
(his most recent being Greece), and has independently released a
studio album and DVD? He is a jack-of-all-trades that stays on his
grind, but nonetheless it all comes back to his foundation of being
a DJ. “It was always just a hobby,” Rondevu says of
DJing, “but I kinda caught the bug. From there it’s just
been crazy and I’m very thankful for everything.”
Rondevu picked up this hobby of his growing up in Brooklyn in the ‘80’s
and early ‘90’s . His father was a musician in a band,
so music was all around him. He was always listening to his father’s
huge record collection, taking in the many different genres of music,
and soon enough began messing around with the records and turntable.
He was only ten when he began teaching himself the art of DJing and
mixing on that house turntable and an old tape deck, mastering those
same techniques that he has built a career out of.
Rondevu cites DJ Red Alert, Mr. Magic, DJ Premier, and Stevie D
as some of his major influences, but was also influenced by New Music
Seminar and the Jamaican sound system DJs of the day. There were
also some non-musical elements that had major impacts on his music,
one of them being his hometown of Brooklyn, New York. “In
Brooklyn, when you came out as a DJ, you had to have high energy
no matter where you were. There was just this certain energy you
had to have or you’d get bottles thrown at you, you know what
I mean?”
Besides the fact that he was able to bring that energy to clubs
and parties, he was also able to put that energy into the mixtapes
he was making. “I was always in the mixtape scene since like
the early ‘90’s,” says Rondevu, “but I guess
I really got into it about three years ago.” It’s a
good thing too, because according to him, mixtapes are huge. “The
mixtape is hip-hop’s biggest marketing tool. Technology has
changed the rap game with the internet and everything. If you want
people to hear more of your music, its gotta be on a mixtape…I
don’t see them going away,” he continues, “mixtapes
are always gonna be there.” However, Rondevu would like to
see some changes within the whole mixtape industry. He brings up
sample clearance issues as well as all the DJ’s and MC’s
who seem to pop up every other day. “I don’t really
like what they’re doin’ to the mixtape game. Hopefully,
the consumer will smarten up.”
Maybe that’s the reason he tries (and succeeds) to put himself
so far ahead of the game. As he puts it, “I’m way more
than just another mixtape DJ.” From his signature Rondevu
Remixes to his “natural progression” from DJ to producer,
Rondevu has also been able to find success in areas other than mixtapes.
In 2004 he independently released a studio album and DVD, Dangerous
Minded, Vol. Two. “That was all me,” he says of the
project, “I did everything on that. That was me givin’ the
world me.” It was so well received around the world that Rondevu
will be dropping the third installment of Dangerous Minded (DVD only)
at the top of 2007, with an album possibly in the works for later
that year.
Besides his mixtapes and DVD, Rondevu is also well known throughout
Europe as a DJ that knows how to rock a crowd. “Overseas,
the energy is just bananas,” says Rondevu, “out there,
it’s like they’re stuck in a time warp. Its like they’re
still in ’95, just hungry for that real hip-hop…they
come out to party,” he continues. Rondevu’s most recent
trip overseas was to Greece where according to him, “There’s
just no mixtape culture. The only mixtapes they have are the ones
I was sellin’ to ‘em.” Among other things, Rondevu
wants to change that; he wants to help build a mixtape and hip-hop
culture where there never really was one.
Rondevu doesn’t stop there. “Look out for me, I’m
branching out,” he says as he mentions something about TV and
acting. He really isn’t your typical DJ: more like a businessman
with a vision that’s bigger than hip-hop. When asked about
the next projects he’ll be working on, he just laughs saying, “Oh
I can’t really get into that right now, but you can expect
major, major things. Things that are gonna shock the world.”
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