01. Timbaland feat. Drake – Say Something (produced by Timbaland)
02. Lil Wayne – Throw It In The Bag (Remix)
03. R.Kelly feat. Tyrese, Robin Thicke & The Dream – Pregnant
04. Jay Sean feat. Drake – If I Ain’t Got You
05. Amerie feat. Fabolous – More Than Love (produced by Dr.Dre)
06. 50 Cent – Do You Think About Me
07. Sean Garrett feat. JadaKiss & Gucci Mane – Up In Ya Heart (Remix)
08. Soulja Boy feat. Gucci Mane & Sean Garrett – Throw Money
09. Gucci Mane feat. Drake & Killer Mike – Street Cred (produced by Timbaland)
10. Dondria feat. Drake – Fear (Remix) (produced by DJ Khalil)
HipHopWired: Okay take me back to the beginning. What made a little boy in Germany decide to become a hip-hop DJ?
DJ Neptune: It started in 97, 98 when I heard a DJ Clue mixtape in high school. I was buying a lot of CDs; we didn’t have any internet at that time. So I went to a whole lot of record stores to make a mixtape for myself actually. When the internet came I grabbed a few cuts from the DJ clue mixtape, you couldn’t do it from Amazon like you can these days. So I grabbed it from the internet got the mp3 files. So DJ clue became my idol and I came into that game and started doing mixtapes for my friends and for myself. I started in 2001, 2002 and I hooked up with DJ Radio through the internet. He was the first one to put me on the map. I had a lot of relationships with artists and executives at the time so I was getting some music so I had a lot of stuff other DJs didn’t have so that gave me an opportunity to put out a mixtape. That was the whole start of that.
HipHopWired: Tell me more about Clue, I hear he’s your mentor.
DJ Neptune: Yeah, yeah! When I started doing mixtapes that was the first overseas mixtape collaboration in history. To this day I’m the most successful mixtape DJ outside of the united states. In 2002 someone gave me a contact for Clue, cause I was like man I gotta get in touch with Clue. Then finally I spoke to Clue and we started out trading music and he gave me all the Fabolous exclusives. He was always like my mentor and I hooked him up with music and worked on his mixtapes. That was our relationship even from a distance. It’s all love.
HipHopWired: That’s what’s up but if you’re overseas in Dubai, how’d you hook up with Smallz for Southern Smoke? I know you guys are really tight.
DJ Neptune: Me and Smallz, it’s a funny story. We actually recognized each other from the whole mixtape circuit. It’s a whole big family, everybody knows everybody. It basically started off of Twitter, he hit me up and was like, let’s work! And I was like, cool. To be honest with you I’m not working with a lot of DJs, I keep my circles very small. So the whole last five or six years I’ve been in this game, I only worked with guys like Big Mike, Drama, Smallz, only the big DJs. If you come to me with a product it’s gotta be real hard, it’s gotta be big. I don’t do amateur mixtapes, I don’t do all that. If you wanna be somebody you gotta come to me with a concept, with a great idea and Smallz had that. He’s one of the biggest DJs in the south. So we hooked up and I was down with him. We started that whole Southern Smoke TV movement.
HipHopWired: We recently spoke with Smallz and he told us that he thinks the South runs the whole music circuit right now. Do you agree with that statement?
DJ Neptune: Basically the south runs it. When I do a mixtape or the southern smoke thing or an R&B mixtape, every track was south influenced. The game right now is very south based. You got Jay Z and Nas who are East Coast but they’re not really into this whole mixtape game like Gucci Mane and Ludacris, they stepped away from that. The south is running things right now. Most definitely, I agree with Smallz.
HipHopWired: Okay, so let’s talk about Paranormal Activity. It hit the net on Halloween; tell me how you hooked up Soulja Boy and DJ Woogie for that.
DJ Neptune: I’ve actually known Woogie for four or five years, so he hooked up in Dubai with a friend of mine so we just got in touch. So he’s like, yeah I got this soulja tape going on. We came to an agreement, we said let’s work, let’s do this. I was down with the concept and I don’t like to do the usual mixtape thing. So I said yeah, let’s do this.
HipHopWired: Are you a big Soulja Boy fan?
DJ Neptune: Actually, I see his grind. I see he’s evolving and on the right track. I hooked him up with a song from my boy Sean Garrett and Gucci Mane. He actually laid down his verse to that the very next day and that song came out really, really hot. I can’t tell you any other rap artist his age evolving like he is. So I think he’s going to be here a long time. He’s just getting started.
HipHopWired: Now surprisingly, Paranormal Activity didn’t leak. No Ceilings leaked, 50’s album leaked, how did you guys manage to keep it under wraps?
DJ Neptune: We don’t send it out to nobody! *Laughs!* That’s the most important thing.
HipHopWired: *Laughs* So you keep it to yourself?
DJ Neptune: Right. The funny thing is I was laughing when No Ceilings leaked. I was a little mad because of 50; I know that’s really hard to have your album leak a month before the release. I think we’re in a pretty good position. One mixtape leaked already, the Cortez mixtape and we actually had no competition on Halloween. So we good. *Laughs* Out of the three mixtapes I think ours is the most global, the most commercial, it’s very different.
HipHopWired: So now that Paranormal Activity’s out what’s next for you in terms of mixtapes?
DJ Neptune: I’m working on a lot of mixtapes right now. I’m working with a lot of producers, I’m looking to release a mixtape with Sean Garrett cause that’s my big homie. He used to live in Germany for many years before he came to the states and became a producer. Just like DJ Smallz he was on a military base. So I’m gonna work with Sean Garrett and I got a few independent artists I’m working with here. I wanna start my movement here with my Neptune music group.
HipHopWired: Tell me more about Neptune Music Group. Who’s on your roster?
DJ Neptune: We’re basically gonna start doing a lot of booking with some new artists and through all these years I’ve built a lot of connections with artists, producers and managers. So I’ve never been in this territory before but I got a lot of people who are gonna help me out with that. The whole music group is gonna start in January, we’re gonna book the first artist and produce with them and do the official mixtape. The whole package, it’s very different from what you see these days. We wanna go worldwide from the U.S. to Russia to Dubai. I wanna have this whole thing on lock.
HipHopWired: So who are some artists that you’re looking to work with?
DJ Neptune: I can’t tell u right now, it’s a big secret. *Laughs* When u research Sean Garrett and you see who gave him the name, “the pen” then you’ll know who I’m talking about. I’m working on a lot of secret projects. But I would like to work with Game, my boy Trey Songz, I was actually the second DJ who supported Trey Songz. I’ve known him since I was 16, 17. I hooked up with DJ Radio and he was the first DJ to work with Trey Songz and he introduced me to this young guy. I had no idea who he was. When Radio played me a record from Trey Songz I was like yo, this dude is mad talented. We started putting him on everyone of my mixtapes and now there’s never been a DJ Neptune mixtape without Trey Songz. Never. You’ll hear Trey on any of my mixtapes. From time to time we speak. He’s one of the hardest working R&B guys in this business. He and Usher are my favorite artists. Me and Trey got history, he’s been hosting a lot of my mixtapes.
HipHopWired: Is there anything else you want to say? Any shoutouts?
DJ Neptune: If any artists want to hit me up they can hit me on my twitter, @DJNeptune. I wanna send a few shoutouts; to DJ Radio for putting me on the map, to Smallz and all the other guys I’m working with. Check out the Soulja Boy mixtape and you’re gonna be hearing a lot more from me!
