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Hi Times With DJ Genesis
There are not a lot of things that I still enjoy from my childhood. I traded in toys for boys, theme parks have been replaced by sleazy clubs and affection for candy has left and been over-shadowed for a lust for liquor and weed. Yes, those youthful trivialities have matured into full-grown vices. One thing that survived the adult rapture? The park. Like anxious five year-olds, my friends and I still enjoy shooting the breeze where the grass grows thick and the skies are blue.
It was a smoldering Saturday after lunch that my friend and I decide to voyage to the park to attempt to touch the clouds. Before too long, Brent Phillips, more affectionately known as D.J. Genesis arrives equipped with a MacBook Pro and a swisher on his bike. There, after a few minutes, we started talking about everything that inspired his music, upcoming projects, a profound love of Sade, and of course those childhood experiences that make his mixes so good and his dreads so long.
“… Calypso, soca, R&B because of my sister, and really no rap. Rap really came when I moved to Atlanta when I was fourteen.” A strange sentiment for a D.J. that has been making most of his bread from gigs at SXSW and keeping notorious parties like ‘Broke&Boujee’ jamming and the soundtrack behind many of Atlanta’s art shows. D.J. Genesis’ main bread and butter is a rap-conscious audience. It’s his perspective on the genre that distinguishes him from other disc-jockeys flooding Atlanta’s streets. “You can really tell who’s a bad D.J. just like you can tell who’s a bad rapper. With D.J.’ing I can more control people. It’s easier for me to control people with music …” Brent lists everyone from BlocParty to Lil’ B as people who he jams in his iPOD, he even has a soft spot for the “War Of Hearts”-singer, Sade. “That’s my babe … Her music just fills something in me.”
The wind blows and cannabis fills the air as we try to insure that cops don’t get a whiff of our illegal recreational fun.
D.J. Genesis bridges Hip-Hop, authentic reggae riddims, african drums, snares, hi-hats, and a bit of dub-step if the vibe is right, all to get the body moving. Between Beyonce’s “Run The World (Girls)” and Britney Spears’ “Til The World Ends,” there has been a hi-jacking of tribal and dub-step influences from the underground onto the mainstream. “It’s fine, honestly! That was my purpose in D.J.’ing, I wanted people to hear that kind of stuff. I’m still going to keep doing my thing and try to make it different. I’m just a pusher of different kinds of music.” A gracious and open-minded response for somebody who has every reason to be arrogant since he’s just arrived back home from SXSW. “Just walking around bar to bar, watching every artist perform that you want to see, everyone I listen to.”
Genesis’ loyalty doesn’t just lie deep in Atlanta, but in L.A., as well. Where popular designers and rappers we know that came out of L.A., he simply considers friends. “The realness and authenticity [of L.A.]. Atlanta is confused [...] I don’t know what they are, other places have been consistent. I don’t know what it is.” I ask if he plans on changing that. “What can I do? I mean, I can be a trendsetter. But there a lot of people that dress like me, therefore I get called a hipster. But I’ve been doing this shit for forever.” D.J. Genesis takes a blow of indo and names people, in general, as his main greed, something he can’t just live without, not just concerning the dance floor but his life.
The 20 year-old music pusher, flips his back-length dreads that led me to ask about the significance of his locks. “I was a certain person through all of this [touching his hair]… when I get to a certain point where I want to be, I’ll probably cut them. [...] I’ll die with dreads, though.” The blunt gets shorter and the sun is lower, which are grave signs that our conversation must come to an end.
D.J. Genesis with his brand, FTL, is presenting a 32-song long mixtape called “Tribal Warfare” coming very soon filled with heavy sounds and heavier meanings. “You can’t just listen to it and go dumb. You have to listen to it.” We’re all ears.
