On Sunday, October 8, 2006, StreetHop.com sat down with DJ Fokis to bring fans an in-depth interview of his life, career, his involvement with Death Row Records, his contributions to the merge of hip-hop and the porn industry, as well his plans for the future.
Since the drop of "I Can Getcha Block Knocked off: Volume 1”, DJ Fokis has been working to bring us another mix tape from the “I Can Getcha Block Knocked off” series, as well as a mix tape with rap artist Petey Pablo.
DJ Fokis has also been very kind to StreetHop.com by giving us exclusive content from artists Amilcar, Big Face, and Spree Isreal to accompany the interview.The featured tracks are available for download below.
As a form of our appreciation to DJ Fokis, we kindly ask anyone viewing this interview to personally express their gratitude to DJ Fokis on his MySpace, which can be viewed here. Click here to listen to what DJ Fokis had to say about StreetHop.com.
Exclusive Audio Download:
01 Big Face; Fire.
02 Spree Isreal; Reborn Hustler
03 Amilcar; A's Up
StreetHop.com: How is everything going?
DJ Fokis: Life is good, dealing with the politics of the music industry, building, working on mix tapes, up starting movements, and making a significant mark.
StreetHop.com: Tell us about yourself.
DJ Fokis: Music became a part of me in 1988 when I was old enough to go to the record store and buy records with my allowance (laughs), LP's of Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew. Chicago is my birth home, but the world has been my playground since I started earning money from Deejaying back in 1997.
I started entering Deejay battles, won some, lost some, but I got to the point where I couldn't eat awards. I Deejayed some more parties and moved right up to producing music. Right now I am a music consultant for independent and major label artists looking for a break in the industry. I help them out with marketing, graphic work, finding an angle to sell their music, and then getting a capital to fund it.
As far as my career, I consider myself a “Jack of all Trades”. Not too many people can say they can design graphics, create web pages, produce music, Deejay, Deejay battle, practice turntablism, and render mix tapes. Homie, not to blow my own horn, but I can go on and on.
StreetHop.com: Yeah, I’m seeing that right now (laughs). Talk to us about some of the artists you’ve worked with. What was it like working with them?
DJ Fokis: Well, I have worked with a lot of local artists. I did some artwork for Rhymefest and his crew (Plugg City), which was an interesting task. Since 2001, I have been behind an artist named Spree Isreal from Chicago's South Side. This dude is the business, enough said. He has the voice and his flows are equal to none. I have been dealing with him for a minute. Right now I'm also dealing with the newly signed artist on Death Row Records, Warlord, which has been a cool experience.
StreetHop.com: How did you meet Warlord?
DJ Fokis: Warlord came to me after seeing some of my artwork online, and from there we clicked. It was cool that he came and showed love like that. Since then, I did the artwork for his latest mix tape “I Can Getcha Block Knocked off Volume 1”. I mixed the tracks as well. It was only an online release, no street promo yet, but people are going nuts over it. They like it. Now we’re about to start on volume two with more original material and other artists featuring with Warlord. The Petey Pablo mix tape is on the table as well.
StreetHop.com: Can you tell us more about "I Can Getcha Block Knocked off: Volume 2” and the Petey Pablo mix tape?
DJ Fokis: I was sworn not to say too much, but “I Can Getcha Block Knocked off: Volume 2” shows that Chicago has the weight to be in this game real heavy. It will be showcasing what the game has been missing. There has never been an L.A. to Chicago connection, and I think it needs to be addressed and put out there for the world to lean an ear to ya know?
Petey started working on his mix tape a few weeks back, and homie has a real good work ethic. I know it's going to be ridiculous when I press play, but Petey always had the clubs on smash, so now it’s only right to put the streets in a choke hold too.
As far as artists, (that we are going to have on the mix tape) we’re still working that out. The bottom line is that it will be nothing but heat. I’m going to put my foot on all the projects that Death Row Records brings my way (i.e. artwork, Deejay, etc.), so to everyone reading this, if you liked Warlord's first release, its only about to get better and better.
StreetHop.com: Tell us more about how you got into graphic designing. Is that something you’ve always wanted to do? What influences did you have as a child?
DJ Fokis: Man, art has been my life since I could do it. I came from crayons, right onto oil paint (laughs). I use to bomb (tagging) back in the day with a lot of known graffiti crews in Chicago (i.e. Chi-Roc, B.U.C.) doing burners, pieces, running from the law, and getting caught (laughs). Then the age of the computer took over and Photoshop became second nature to me. Graphic design was like, if you can do it on a wall, do that shit digitally and get paid for it.
I started out doing flyers for local parties. I look back at those designs and laugh my ass off because they were so bad, but I thought I was doing it big. To see something you did reach thousands of people was a rush, ya know? I started a graphic arts firm called Graphinheit Studios. Managing my own business is what I’ve always wanted to do since I was young. It's hard, but only a few are built for it.
Since the drop of "I Can Getcha Block Knocked off: Volume 1”, DJ Fokis has been working to bring us another mix tape from the “I Can Getcha Block Knocked off” series, as well as a mix tape with rap artist Petey Pablo.
DJ Fokis has also been very kind to StreetHop.com by giving us exclusive content from artists Amilcar, Big Face, and Spree Isreal to accompany the interview.The featured tracks are available for download below.
As a form of our appreciation to DJ Fokis, we kindly ask anyone viewing this interview to personally express their gratitude to DJ Fokis on his MySpace, which can be viewed here. Click here to listen to what DJ Fokis had to say about StreetHop.com.
Exclusive Audio Download:
01 Big Face; Fire.
02 Spree Isreal; Reborn Hustler
03 Amilcar; A's Up
StreetHop.com: How is everything going?
DJ Fokis: Life is good, dealing with the politics of the music industry, building, working on mix tapes, up starting movements, and making a significant mark.
StreetHop.com: Tell us about yourself.
DJ Fokis: Music became a part of me in 1988 when I was old enough to go to the record store and buy records with my allowance (laughs), LP's of Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew. Chicago is my birth home, but the world has been my playground since I started earning money from Deejaying back in 1997.
I started entering Deejay battles, won some, lost some, but I got to the point where I couldn't eat awards. I Deejayed some more parties and moved right up to producing music. Right now I am a music consultant for independent and major label artists looking for a break in the industry. I help them out with marketing, graphic work, finding an angle to sell their music, and then getting a capital to fund it.
As far as my career, I consider myself a “Jack of all Trades”. Not too many people can say they can design graphics, create web pages, produce music, Deejay, Deejay battle, practice turntablism, and render mix tapes. Homie, not to blow my own horn, but I can go on and on.
StreetHop.com: Yeah, I’m seeing that right now (laughs). Talk to us about some of the artists you’ve worked with. What was it like working with them?
DJ Fokis: Well, I have worked with a lot of local artists. I did some artwork for Rhymefest and his crew (Plugg City), which was an interesting task. Since 2001, I have been behind an artist named Spree Isreal from Chicago's South Side. This dude is the business, enough said. He has the voice and his flows are equal to none. I have been dealing with him for a minute. Right now I'm also dealing with the newly signed artist on Death Row Records, Warlord, which has been a cool experience.
StreetHop.com: How did you meet Warlord?
DJ Fokis: Warlord came to me after seeing some of my artwork online, and from there we clicked. It was cool that he came and showed love like that. Since then, I did the artwork for his latest mix tape “I Can Getcha Block Knocked off Volume 1”. I mixed the tracks as well. It was only an online release, no street promo yet, but people are going nuts over it. They like it. Now we’re about to start on volume two with more original material and other artists featuring with Warlord. The Petey Pablo mix tape is on the table as well.
StreetHop.com: Can you tell us more about "I Can Getcha Block Knocked off: Volume 2” and the Petey Pablo mix tape?
DJ Fokis: I was sworn not to say too much, but “I Can Getcha Block Knocked off: Volume 2” shows that Chicago has the weight to be in this game real heavy. It will be showcasing what the game has been missing. There has never been an L.A. to Chicago connection, and I think it needs to be addressed and put out there for the world to lean an ear to ya know?
Petey started working on his mix tape a few weeks back, and homie has a real good work ethic. I know it's going to be ridiculous when I press play, but Petey always had the clubs on smash, so now it’s only right to put the streets in a choke hold too.
As far as artists, (that we are going to have on the mix tape) we’re still working that out. The bottom line is that it will be nothing but heat. I’m going to put my foot on all the projects that Death Row Records brings my way (i.e. artwork, Deejay, etc.), so to everyone reading this, if you liked Warlord's first release, its only about to get better and better.
StreetHop.com: Tell us more about how you got into graphic designing. Is that something you’ve always wanted to do? What influences did you have as a child?
DJ Fokis: Man, art has been my life since I could do it. I came from crayons, right onto oil paint (laughs). I use to bomb (tagging) back in the day with a lot of known graffiti crews in Chicago (i.e. Chi-Roc, B.U.C.) doing burners, pieces, running from the law, and getting caught (laughs). Then the age of the computer took over and Photoshop became second nature to me. Graphic design was like, if you can do it on a wall, do that shit digitally and get paid for it.
I started out doing flyers for local parties. I look back at those designs and laugh my ass off because they were so bad, but I thought I was doing it big. To see something you did reach thousands of people was a rush, ya know? I started a graphic arts firm called Graphinheit Studios. Managing my own business is what I’ve always wanted to do since I was young. It's hard, but only a few are built for it.
