Passive income

Income.  We all need it to survive.  The problem is what you do for your income.  I live in the Ghetto.  In the Ghetto all businesses have bars and bullet proof glass.  When a business closes for the day there is a procedure it follows to survive to the next day.  Now if you in the front lines of what is known as the POS (Point of Sale) you have many things you do to ensure you can open the next day.  Everything of value has to be put behind a barrier and protected from people that would rather shoplift than support your business.  If you have employees you have to watch them too.  Some businesses like Barber Shops have the added perk of being targets for robbery because they deal strictly in cash.  Then there are the people who try to sell you stuff they've stolen from other businesses.  It's all very sordid.

As a DJ you have several hustles.  There is DJ'ing the party.  This is always a risk because you are bringing thousands of dollars of equipment with you.  Most theft is done in the form of a few records here and there or a cord or two.

Wedding DJ's are worse.  No matter what formula you have for a successful gig, you will always have a drunk relative that feels the need to MC, a demanding bride that gives you a list of music she DOESN'T want to hear and a group of people that will always request music that you wish was never written.  for me that is ANY slide.  I hate weddings.

Getting a residency at a club is better but you still have the other DJ's to worry about.  They WILL steal your music given the chance.  When you work this way you also have to worry about not getting paid.  You are the lowest employee in the club.  The owner will pay the bouncers, bartenders and even the guy that sits in the bathroom before he pays the DJ.  He feels that he can ALWAYS replace a DJ.

Then there is selling mixes.  As a DJ you are trying to sell your best sets.  You figure youput that set together better than anyone else could have and you have fans that feel the same.  Sometimes these same fans bring these CD's to parties with them and try to get the DJ present to play them.  Oh, joy.

If you get good at the party mix you can put those CD's in stores.  It is not easy work and you always have to worry about the idiot that tries to undercut you.  There is ALWAYS an idiot trying to undercut you whether it's at a party or selling your mixes.  Even if you become successful with your mixes and you go to collect your money the owner of the shop will always hit you with the fact that some other idiot is selling his mixes for less and you should do the same (see DJ Apollo for the reference).  The whole life of a DJ is very cutthroat.  Still it's is better than having to clock in for some faceless corporation that feels it should replace you every 6 months.

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Drugs and music

Dallas Police trying to find "Molly"

I love House music.  I love EDM.  I'm not a fan of drugs.  I really wish that the drug dealers would have left the EDM world alone.  The music is my drug.  With that being said, the reason we can't have raves anymore is because someone decided to sell drugs at them.  If it was just about the music then we would have them to this day.

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This one is for Jennifer...

So I was on my Book of the Faces page and I was ranting as usual.  That seems to be what I do most when I'm not outside trying to hobnob with people I don't really want to know.  I made a comment about how I don't miss having to be "work polite"  anymore and a friend of mine from the great state of Tennessee asked me why I do not have a blog.  Well.  I guess I need to start one and rant on that.  Wait.....what?

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Random post for the ladies.

Ladies. You know when you are talking to a guy and you try to cover your chest because you think we are looking at your tits? The very fact that you try to cover them brings our attention to your tits and makes us look at them.

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When a joke goes nuts...

So I'm on the Book of the Faces and I decide that I am bored and I'm going on a troll spree.  I am immediately called out by a young lady saying that true trolls don't announce that they are going to troll.  The just troll.  Well, being the complete asshole that I am I decide that I'm not going to allow this young lady to call me out so blatantly and that she does not know the meaning of trolling.  She Mz.immediately "like bombs" my profile.  What?!?!  This transgression cannot go unanswered!  Honor demands immediate response!  I decide to hit her in her soft spot.  Nooooooo, not THAT soft spot.  Her love of roller skating.
So I make a fake track and use one of her photos depicting a skate session.  I name the track "Don't break my leg (I can't skate)" and post it on Soundcloud.com announcing that she is my latest new artist.  Well, she loves it and promotes it better than the REAL artists I have on the label!  WTF!  If the guys I have on the label had that type of enthusiasm I would have the hottest label in Chicago!  Anyway, here is the song.  Thanks to Mz. DJ Tone for being a good sport.
https://soundcloud.com/hse-djs/mz-dj-tone-dont-break-my-leg-i

P.S. More recently Mz. DJ Tone did a "mashup" that was fairly decent for a newbie.  I contacted her to let her know there was an outlet that would allow her to put the mashup out legally and get her name out there.  her response was "I do it for the love of the game."  I used to do that, too.  That is until I found out that DJing is a very expensive hobby and that if you wanted to do it for any length of time you have to find ways to fund it.  It's almost like having a drug habit.  After a while you have to start pawning shit off to keep doing it.

http://soundcloud.com/mzdjtone/allgoldspecialdelivery

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The problem with free shit...

So when I came back to Chicago I had a little problem.  I had to leave a significant amount of my music in order to move.  It was something I had no control over.

When I got back I had a  lot of resources due to my position within the House community.  I was not expecting that but why look a gift horse in  the mouth?  Therein lies the rub.  I got like 10,000 songs but most of them are mislabeled.  I don't really know what I have.  Do you know how long it takes to listen to 10,000 songs and correctly name them?  I do.

I was finally able to make a song list for this mix.  It's a good mix and you can get it here.

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So much music, so little time.

When you are putting out other people's music you tend to forget your own.  Since starting the label I've been sorting through music I get from other artists and I've seemed to have ignored my own releases.  Well, after the holiday I will be putting out some new music.

HSE MP3 downloads

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I'm not that guy....

So every now and then I check the interwebs for signs of my name and I find some guy in Russia using the same name.  You would think that he would get the point after seeing my posts, videos, releases and appearances all over the interwebs. The problem is if you don't travel outside of your country then people in other countries can use a name that they believe to be unique at their discretion.  Cease and desist letters do not work in Russia (or India for that matter.  Yes there is a guy in India using my name.)  So how do you fix something like this?  You become more famous than they are.  My new mission, if I choose to accept it:  Overwhelm the interwebs with my presence!  Well maybe I'll do it tomorrow...

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Insomnia and the DJ.....

I'm on disability for High Blood Pressure and Kidney Failure so I've revived my DJ career as a means of coping.  The medicine I take makes me a borderline Narcoleptic and I find myself falling asleep on public transportation often.  The order side of that is sometimes I can't sleep and I'm up all night.  The goes on for weeks at a time.  Now as a DJ you have to force yourself to stay up on weekends when you get most of your work.  I mostly support members of the crews that I've joined so I get a chance to sit down and that is when I nod off.  Now as I type this it is 3:15 in the morning and I'm wide awake.  I wonder if I lived on the other side of the planet if I would be up or would I be on a train to Tokyo and nodding off.  Oh, well.  Titty sprinkles.

New CD's available!

Pimping myself, pt 2

Finally found a way to sell my CD's on the interwebs.  It took long enough but here is my first single.  Also available are a few of my mixes.  More to come as they are available.

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How many songs can YOU name?

So I'm making this mix for an upcoming Free House music picnic hosted by the GETO DJz, Inc. and I'm making a playlist for the vendor table.  I get mostly through it and there is this song that I know but I've never known the title of the song or the artist.  I start to realize that it's like the for most of the songs that I play that are either mislabeled or a simple name has been placed on the file.  You see, the original DJ world was always steeped in mystery with most DJ's keeping their prized possessions, their music collection, private and secluded from prying eyes so that they would have the best collection.  Many times if you found a rare gem of a track you would black out the label so that other DJ's wouldn't know that name of the track.  In my case I had tons of music I inherited from other DJ's and another ton of music that was white labels.  (White Labels are promo copies of music that is soon to be released but had a preliminary promotional release with a simple white label and no cover art.)  I began to realize that the general public has this issue as well as I remembered one of my favorite songs in High School being The Who's "Baba O'Riley" which no one knew that was the title because we always called it "Teenaged Wasteland" over the years.  So the challenge is whether you can name all your favorite songs or not.  While you do that listen to my mix.

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Finding out New Old things...

Here's the thing:  Just when you think you know everything you find out you don't know squat.  I was talking to DJ Clent about his release on my label Halsted Street Entertainment and we were going over our marketing plan.  Now being the smartass that I am I figure that I know all the places to send information and that I have it handled.  Out of the blue Clent asks if I know about www.residentadvisor.net and I have to say I had never, ever heard of it.  The more I think I know the more I don't.

So I finally go to the site to check out this lead.  All of the DJ's I respect have listings there already so I decide to list my label.  Well to list a label you have to have a DJ that is known to have recorded for that label.  But then you need to list recordings by that DJ.  Then you need to tote that and lift this.  It was crazy and I spent 4 hours just trying to list HSE.  After I was done I had to list myself and another guy just to get to the page that allowed me to list the label.  Then when I found Clent's page for his DJ chart I see three of the songs on the album already listed.  WTF, Chuck!?! Man, this crap is crazy.

Here is a taste of two of the songs on that release.  I spliced in a short interview Clent did about how he got started between the two songs.

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New music with an old feel...

So in the wake of my song "I Bust It" going live on Beatport, I decided to put out some more music.  As quiet as it is kept I uploaded my remix of Chris Brown's "Beautiful People" which I'm told has been making the rounds in the clubs in Chicago.   I also put out a few tracks that were nagging me which I will compile into a big album's worth of tracks soon.

Is there still room for Ghettotech in the world?  I hear I'm popular in England so we will see.

In other news I recently completed a new Juke mix with DJ Fulltono of Osaka, Japan.  It's called "Superjuke" and it can be streamed from the previous link.  I don't do Juke very often but when I do I do it to death.  Special thanks to DJ Fulltono for his help with this and his mixing skills.  I gained quite a few new fans due to this.  Maybe I should have called it "Halsted Street Entertainment Volume 5."  Maybe I'll save that for later.

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Self promotion

When you are doing self promotion often times you hit that wall.  The part where you have done everything you can do and you are waiting for people to discover your efforts.  You've posted everywhere you know to post and you've updated everything you could.  Then comes the wait.  And you wait.  And wait.  The you say screw it and you start promoting something new but by that time you start seeing results for the promotion you gave up on.  Sometimes it can be very frustrating especially doing it from scratch.  Big companies can throw a lot of money at something and guarantee that SOMEONE will buy what they are promoting even if it is hot crap.

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Pimping my own music

Sometimes self promotion can get out of hand.  I joined a support group for DJ's on  Facebook thinking I could network and build connections.  What I got was endless posts of parties I did not intend to attend.  One girl would advertise her clients but failed to mention what city/region they represented and how to get to their parties.  She was eventually kicked out of the group.  Well I've tried to post a few things in the group which seemed to have a frenzy of new posts right after whatever I'd post.  Maybe it is time to start advertising.
 My Music on Amazon.com
Follow DJ Flint on Mixcloud

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DJ Flint Snapped Again by Dj Flint on Mixcloud

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So I was watching Netflix and...

I was watching this show called "Taboo" which aires on the NatGeo channel and the topic was about the drug Ecstasy and the Rave scene. They mentioned the premise of P.L.U.R. which means "Peace, Love, Understanding and Respect" and is the basis for the movement. My being a DJ means I'm all about the music and as long as people are dancing and happy I'm oblivious to anything else. My first rave some really cute girl came up to me and asked if I was "rolling" but I did not know what she meant so I answered "No. I took the bus here."

Anyway, I got inspired to design a t-shirt and here is the result.

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Something to listen to...

Here are a couple of mixes from the vaults.

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Physical Wax vs Digital Tracks

Now that HSE is starting to get digital sales the new question of the day is "do we need to produce records for old school DJs?"

Well, I am an old school DJ and before the wide spread usage of such resources as Traktor and Serato we carried our crates from party to party. This task was tedious and stressful as we had to keep one eye on the crate and the other on the turntables. Some DJs would get victimize for their best wax and often would not know until the next gig.

There is still a demand for wax and still DJs that refuse to use the digital resources while others scoff at the "old ways." Still, there is the satisfaction of seeing your name on your very own record that cannot be matched digitally. The debate continues...

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Juba and the Ooogabooga

When it comes to supporting stuff I'm usually on the fringe of the ordeal as people tend to think they know what you are all about based on what they see you do. With that said a buddy of mine from my college days has reached out from the vastness of cyberspace for support and I have seen his beacon.

His name is Juba Kalamka and he has a message he wants you to hear but he needs your assistance. The link above will tell you more as I lack the communication skills to describe it properly. G Phi F, bruh.

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