Avoid These Programming Pitfalls: A DJ's Insights | DJ Bonics DSH #811
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It's important to have those types of people in, you know, in the cannabis space, not just like, you know, regular people who are obedient employees. I've been to a few shops out here, but Hardeen always feels different. Different approach and it's still Wild West. So I love how just one little shop in Las Vegas has a lot of attention around the world.

DJ Bonics in the building brought me some goodies. Thanks, man. Yeah, man. I hope they help, you know, with your brain. Yeah, help me sleep at night, man. I'd be laying in bed for hours. Goddamn. Yeah, cannabis is a proper tool. Yeah, I used to be a runner. That's the main reason I stopped smoking, but I used to love cannabis, dude. Now I get anxiety from it, too. Yeah, I guess it depends, you know.

because of like terpenes and all that stuff. So it's cool. I think, you know, it might come back in a season. So yeah, we'll see. I'm not ruling it out completely, but I just feel like it's way stronger than it was when we were growing up. Definitely. It's nuts now, dude. Definitely. I mean, it's like what, 20% THC now? I mean, there's the ones that are like 37% and then there's infused and then there's all the, you know,

What do they call it? Like shatter and batter. So many different levels of it. My first time ever getting high was off a dab. And I started hallucinating. And it was late as fuck at night. So I was at my friend's house. I started seeing monsters and ghosts. I had to run home, dude. My first time, I think I smoked a cigarette and weed in the same night. And I was a bad Asian kid. So I was mad at myself. Like, oh my God, I can't believe I did.

this and then here we are many moons later damn my mom was Asian too and she she was we was yeah

She didn't know what weed. Yeah, moms don't think about that at all. Asians smoke it, yeah. No, I would literally have it in the house. She would be like, what's that smell? And I'd be like, I don't know. Yeah, it's weird too because I'm like a grown man and I still try to hide it from my mom. Oh, she still doesn't know? Well, she knows. I mean, I obviously tour with Wiz and stuff, so she knows, but she'll catch me on like the ring. Like I'll try to smoke weed right in front of her house and then she'll be like, I saw you. Damn. And I'm a grown man, but I still feel bad. Wow.

Maybe you should have a sit down with her and tell her. No, she's good. I mean, she knows I work at Hardeen and do the Wiz stuff. But to her, I'm probably just her sweet little boy. Love that. How'd you get involved with Hardeen? I was an ambassador at first. So in the beginning of their journey, they were reaching out to different people. And a lot of DJs, man. That's the one thing I love about Hardeen is that they really support the culture. And where did you hear about weed?

probably music and you know movies so i feel like that for them to you know give back to the djs that's kind of where it started for me uh and so you know i'd have a residency here with wiz and we'd come and you know they invite me into the shop and etc and then it kind of blossomed to a great relationship and now i kind of oversee their ambassador program and

help people bring in the shop. And I like to call myself like an in-house artist. I don't know if they'll look at it that way. But I like to look at myself as that, like, hey, man, I'm running around. I'm still doing Wiz stuff, DJing, and getting my hands into certain things. But being able to bring people to the shop and having people who like...

We're a part of the culture or are part of the culture. You got to love that because I think there's a lot of people in the cannabis business that are just kind of like for hire people and not necessarily people who, you know, thugged it out and, you know, almost got arrested or have gotten arrested or did time for it. So I think it's important to have those types of people in, you know, in the cannabis space, not just like...

you know, regular people who are obedient employees. Yeah. No, you definitely feel it because I've been to a few shops out here, but Hardeen always feels different. Yeah, it's cool. It's a different approach and it's still Wild West. So anything that we do or anybody does in this business is we're always creating. So and, you know, the rules are all weird still. So it's hard to navigate. But I love Hardeen.

how just one little shop in Las Vegas has a lot of attention around the world. And people come here just to go to Hardeen. Thanks to a lot of the ambassadors and, of course, a lot of the marketing plays. But it really is lifestyle, man. Yeah, they do some interesting ads. I've seen some in some interesting places. Yeah, no, it's cool. It's all in-house made. A lot of the people in it are local influencers, are influencers or employees.

So just that whole thing is cool, not just hired-looking girls. Like, no, these people work here. They know about the business. And I love that aspect of it is that we're using people who are actually not just front-facing, but they're with the culture. Absolutely. So how did you get into DJing, and what was that first breakthrough moment for you in that space? I mean, I just like music. And growing up in Philly, by default, you're listening to some of the best DJs in the world, and you don't even know it. You're just like...

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You know that sound. It's the sound of a friend paying you back for yesterday's coffee. Or it's your Venmo group settling up rent with your roomies. Or even the sound of you paying your dog groomer.

So, what's your Venmo? Used to it. So, you know, when I went to college, I got into college radio. I literally walked into this buddy's house and he had turntables there and it literally was like love at first touch and kind of took that and, you know, college radio, local clubs, you

On the regular radio, you know, performing in Pittsburgh, it really like a culture play, man. I was a supporter. You're going to hear that word a lot. Maybe in this interview where, you know, I was a part of the thread. Yeah. And then.

When that culture sees you thrive or sees you work, they're going to support you. And now I feel like Pittsburgh, because that's kind of... So I went to college in Pittsburgh. It's kind of where I started my DJ journey, is that I can always go back there and have that support. But I went up right in the rankings. College parties, clubs, radio...

stage, whiz, worldwide, and now I'm here in Vegas. Wow. How long did all that take? I mean, I guess I'm like almost 25 years in DJing. Damn. Which is definitely, you know, I put my 10,000 hours in, and honestly, I like the idea that, you know, I moved to probably like five different cities through my journey because of radio, but I love music.

meeting new people all the time. And I have this new audience, every city that I moved to that are like, holy shit, you do a lot. And I'm just like, man, I've been at this pace for a while, but I just love growing in and just growing and still doing it at 43 years old to me is just like, um, it's amazing, man. You know, I've been able to, uh,

do a lot with hip-hop and just now in cannabis. It's great. That's so cool. How did you develop a relationship with Wiz? Because he probably had thousands of DJs coming out of him, right? Yeah, so he was like 13, and I was friends with where he was like after-school recording. I shout out to ID Lab, shout out to my boy E-Dan, and Wiz was like coming after school with a group of kids who were freestyling and making music, and E-Dan...

uh, was like, Hey, this kid, Cameron, Cameron is very talented. And they kind of just, I watched a whole team kind of grow around him. And, and of course I was on the radio and did all that. So I made sure that I did what I could do with my platforms. And eventually when I was ready to leave, um, I heart radio, which was clear channel at the time. Um, you know, it was around the same time whiz needed a new DJ and they basically were like, Hey, this fall, we're going to

go on a tour tour bus tour was his first tour he just got signed to atlantic nobody knows yet we're gonna do this he's gonna drop this song called black and yellow and um imagine black and yellow drops we're on a world or uh you know u.s tour and then the steelers go to the super bowl so it was just the timing was just man the timing was crazy you couldn't plan that you could not plan that that was p quiz man i remember that song

Right. God damn. Yeah, that was big. Yeah. Going on tour with him during that time frame. You see anything crazy? I mean, it was just crazy. You had like 15 dudes on a bus driving around the country for the first time. So, you know, we definitely saw some things I shouldn't talk about. But also like, you know, there were different times where we would like...

Maybe getting fights locally. It was like a crew from Pittsburgh just running around for the first time and smoking weed everywhere and dodging the police. And then also, man, I just remember, because I'm older than Wiz, I'm about eight years older than him, but I just remember doing these shows and watching these kids like,

rap word for word and i'm like yo people in pittsburgh don't even know like how big whiz is you know so to do that world tour or to do that first tour bus tour um you know we i think we sold over um

I don't want to say a million tickets or something, but we sold a hell of a lot of tickets that tour. And it was just crazy to see a song called Black and Yellow represent Pittsburgh go worldwide. I never thought that that would actually when they first played it to me, I was like, this song is dope because I live here in Pittsburgh. But how will it be received?

and fuck it was a big so bump that song if it comes on it's a banger he's got so many hits too good anthems man not a lot of artists last that long what do you think contributed to that longevity for you guys uh culture you know seeing him you know be a proponent with weed because here's the thing like a lot of artists have to survive off hits and whiz has hits and

But there was a time where we were on tour and I'm like, why is Wiz out here? Why isn't this artist, this artist? We're actually in Europe. And that's when I recognized, though, is that Wiz actually representing a culture. Now, let's bring it out. Like any culture could get you deep. Like if you love puppies and you're just like, no, all about puppies. Like someone might call you and be like, yo, we need your puppy expertise. Yeah. Like.

Wiz riding with the weed culture. Like, you may not know his music, but if you go see him at the festival, you know what he's going to be about, right? Oh, this is a safe place for me to smoke weed. He's a proponent, a la Bob Marley or something. So it's cool to see Wiz is actually like, you know, he caters to like a wide audience, you know, not just like hip hop heads or, you know, urban rockers.

You know, like his music is worldwide. He's pretty eclectic with it. So just seeing these people from, you know, Japan to South Korea to, you know, fucking all over Europe.

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Brazil, South America. It's like, man, watching someone in Africa wearing a fucking Pittsburgh hat. You're like, geez, this is crazy. Yeah. And I think I agree with you. I think we definitely played a role because that is international language. Well, that's what I'm saying. It's international language. So like we just were in Costa Rica recently and someone in Costa Rica was like, whiz is the fourth hip hop artist to ever perform in Costa Rica. And in my mind, I'm like, well, who are the other three artists?

One of them was T-Pain. One of them was Lloyd Banks, but that was like a club show. And the third one was Cypress Hill. So, you know, Cypress Hill obviously have great songs, but they probably got there too because the weed culture. You know what I mean? And of course Snoop Dogg is international language. So I just actually had the opportunity to tour with Snoop. He took me to Europe with him and just like being with that legend and everyone kind of still being like he's still the weed god, you know?

So culture, man, I think is super important. Yeah, him and Snoop Dogg, man. That was the duo. Mac and Devin, baby. Yeah, man. That's a classic. That was a good time. Were you in high school for all that? Yeah, I was literally in high school when it came out. So it's so relatable. Yeah, wearing camo shorts and all that. Yeah, I love that. Classic. What do you think about current hip-hop scene? Do you have any artists you really like right now? Current hip-hop scene's cool. I mean, I do like what the Earth Gang is doing. Spillage Village, I don't know if you know those guys. No.

JID. I kind of like that. I know JID. Yeah, I kind of like that whole lane and what they're doing. I'm actually just getting into a lot of newer jazz music. I do a jazz show in UNLV, which is dope, every Saturday night. And so, I don't know. I've kind of been on this instrumental tip because I

I've been saying this, like I don't like to be influenced right now necessarily with words. Like, you know, I definitely respect people's poetry and how they express themselves. But like, I also don't want to be influenced right now. I'm kind of like in my deprogramming stage. So I kind of like don't listen to a lot of words with music right now. Yeah.

because it's helpful literally saying dude i've been trying to deprogram the past few years ever since i found out i was programmed right right and yo that and that's like uh i'm gonna tell you my road to that was really um interesting if we could talk about that

So I was wondering, you know, I felt like a lot of times, even doing this for so long, like I feel like I have imposter syndrome or like I'll step on stage or I'm about to DJ and I'm just like, you know, and I would kind of like hate on myself a little bit. Like, what am I? Am I good enough to be here? Blah, blah. And even doing it for so long. But someone said to me once they were like, well, it's natural to feel that way about yourself, to doubt yourself. And so I thought about that and

And I went back to when I was born in my brain and I came out the womb and I said, "What's natural there about hating myself?" I thought about that specifically, like I came out the womb and for what reason would I doubt myself? There's nothing that tells me that that's a natural thing.

And then what I realized is like, oh, no shit, we were programmed this whole time. You know, I'm too chubby. My teeth aren't straight. My skin is this. I'm too short. I don't belong. And then, you know, even being a person of color and growing up...

I realize that that's not normal and we literally were programmed to doubt ourselves and not think we're good enough to compare ourselves constantly. So I just feel like that deprogramming is happening now and giving myself like a hell of grace to be like, well, maybe what I think success is isn't my version.

So now it's about me actually focusing on that and also deciding what the definitions of words mean to me, I think is really important because if we take on other people's definition of words,

then we may not really see the magic. So for example, if someone's like, that's hard. Well, like we want to avoid things that are hard, right? So sometimes I'll change that into, well, what's necessary. And I think that sort of owning the words is so important to reprogramming because when we wake up every day and people see, they see two things on their social media. One,

And they see if you're not perfect, we're going to ridicule you. And that is a very hard space to be in. So that's what I recognize is like we're still contributing to that and we're volunteering ourselves to

for that validity which is we shouldn't we should not we should not at all it's tough though because negative headlines get way more views so i see it from the media's point of view right because they're trying to get eyeballs right and if they have a positive headline it won't get as many views but the the important thing i think is that you see it in that filter though like hey look they're just trying to sell this shit yeah not instead of actually

taking on that emotion and be like, fuck them. They shouldn't like, all right, yo, chill out. You know what they're doing. They're trying to get hit. So I think it's about like walking around with that filter and just seeing like, if you're dealing with someone and they, you know, don't respond in a certain way. Like a lot of times it's like, well, he's just programmed to think that way. Uh, so I can't be mad at him because he's like, you know, he's,

you know maybe hasn't realized that he's been programmed yeah i actually don't watch videos on drama anymore like i used to watch drama or i used to watch jamari i think whatever's youtube is um talk shit about rappers but yeah i don't watch any of that anymore i don't watch a lot of it which is kind of weird because i feel like i should be like a historian and but i don't watch a lot of shit right now i don't watch a lot of i was just telling someone i don't really watch a lot of tv i don't i listen to like only a few certain podcasts because i'm really right now just testing the whole like

for myself of like, well, how deep am I programmed in certain things or not? Facts. Because I used to watch the news. I used to read- Every day. Yeah, newspapers. NPR, all this shit. And I used to think I was listening to good guys and bad guys and whatever. But I think COVID definitely-

That era, you got to watch people become zombies for whatever side that they were. And I'm glad they were passionate about it. But someone said to me something one time. They're like, if you feel the need to be right, be kind. And I think that kind of is very important.

especially today where everything's polarized. I love that. This is very interesting to me. So is this why you took ayahuasca recently? Well, so that was a couple of years ago. And ayahuasca, first of all, I just want to put this out there. Like I know that a lot of people feel funny about talking about that. Yeah. And not for it to like necessarily come off as like, I don't know, like an escapism or just like, I don't know what the right word I'm looking for, but it wasn't for sport.

You had intention. Yeah, I had intention. And it was just literally to what is it about? And so when I agreed to it, I didn't think about it. I literally was like, yes, because I do feel like that it comes in your life at a time if you're invited. So I just said yes. And it was like six months before. And I ended up going. And I'll just say that.

It prepared me for the next few months, which was like some of the darkest times of my life. Wow. To go through something, which I don't want to be that specific about. But I think it helped me kind of purge because it's what it is like a purger. Yeah. Kind of helped me. It took things out of my life that shouldn't have been there. And those things, you know, I'm not going to say those things are good or bad. It just was like, yo, let's let's we got to purge this out.

And I'll tell you, man, it was a wonderful experience. Not only the actual sort of ceremony, but the people that were there. You know, I went with one friend and then there was 22 other people probably from all over the country. And, yo, these are the people seeking, you know, everyone was there for a different reason.

But to be around those types of people who basically are like nonjudgmental of like, wow, you are here because like when you're doing the ceremony, like people are crying or screaming. You didn't know any of these people? I only knew one of them. Got it. And, you know, by the end of the week, it was a week, I did three sittings. Yeah. And man, it's amazing. I cannot wait to go back. But I also, I have to go in with like a different mind frame and, and,

it was beautiful man i mean it really like uh it really just helped me with a lot of different perspectives and um i was waiting for the whole like scary moment yeah and it didn't really happen uh but it also made me think that like i was doing the right work to get to that place and whatever i expected

That's the problem is that you have expectations. So it really was, you know, one day we'll get specific about it, but it was just a beautiful freeing and you felt super connected and it really made a lot of sense. And it really prepared me for those next few months because I don't know if I didn't, I may have,

not survive that situation the way i did if i didn't go through like it was like an ego death basically yeah you know that is crazy and then you know covid was so weird we didn't know if the industry was coming back well i have no work pinching pennies so it was uh it was a great thing but it brought me to vegas man like the whole circumstance kind of when you zoom out it brought me to vegas and um you know still working with uh

plant medicine out here. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Now I'm hearing of ketamine therapy out here. My friend just tried that. I'm very curious. I don't know if you've dealt with that. No, I'm a little weary of it because I've had some hard stuff in the past and I could be wrong, so whoever corrects me, cool. I think ketamine kind of slows that down. So I'm not there yet. I definitely want to do more

do more ceremonies. I want to try like toad. Oh, I've seen that. Yeah. I've had a few guests do that. Yeah. So I think, you know, when I get, it'll get trippy again. I can't wait for that. I'm not a fan of how they burn it on your skin though. Yeah. I see. It's one of those things again where I don't even want to like look at it and dwell on it. Like I'm just going to be like, yes. And then, so who knows?

Who knows? It's kind of scary, though. It's cool to see you open up to psychedelics, man, because I feel like it was kind of a negative taboo maybe 10, 20 years ago. I mean, look, I feel like we live in upside down world, right? Anything that they tell us that's bad for us, I actually think is probably good for us. And, you know, things that they say that's good for us is probably bad for us. So, you know, I know that mushrooms is like a hot button right now in a great way, man. But it's just like, dude, plus one, like,

This shit comes from the earth. So it just feels like the right thing. Yeah. No, I agree. I mean, look at the food pyramid they taught us as a kid and how much of a joke that is. Everything. And just all of it, you know, it's weird, though, because I also do think that there is like media out there that's basically trying to have you. I like, you know, rewire everything. But listen, man.

Our grandparents lasted a whole fucking long time drinking milk and doing all these things that they said was bad for us. And I'm not saying they are good for us, but I just think the answer is somewhere in the middle. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. You got to look at who's funding the news source. And then from there, that's all you need to know. It's crazy. We can go down that hole. We can go down those, but we'll probably get banned if we talk about it.

about it yeah no it's scary i mean it's i was just thinking about this today like what's good actually good for you you know um water is scary i appreciate glass bottles of course um i just kind of i purchased a condo recently and i was having this guy look at plumbing and he basically was like we're gonna replace all this copper and

you know, and give you plastic. And, uh, you know, I, for some reason I had this, I had this like content coming up where basically like, you know, copper is actually good. Like I have a copper pot, it charges your water. Uh, and the reason why that they probably use copper, uh,

I'm not an expert in this, so I'm just going by what I hear and see. It actually charges your water for good. So I didn't want to get rid of any of the copper in my place. Hell no, not for plastic, bro. God damn. I just found out last night that toilet paper has carcinogens in it. So now I just had to buy bamboo toilet paper. What's that like? I just bought it this morning on Amazon. Costco has it too.

Really? Yeah, bamboo toilet paper. So the one you're probably using now, I'll send you the video, but yeah, it might cause some health issues because it's going in your bloodstream when you wipe your ass. Right. You know what I mean?

Man, plastics. Plastics, dude. That's scary. Even like your toothpaste, bro. Right. The fluoride. All of it. Literally everything you used and used on a daily basis your whole life. Yeah. So I use non-fluoride toothpaste as well. Shampoo and conditioner. I don't actually use shampoo and conditioner. Oh, really? I just use soap to wash my hair. Is it natural soap, though? It's Dove, so it probably is not. I know. Even that has percentages. I know. So literally everything, bro. I know. I know.

I know. I got to do that. And there's levels to it. So now there's people that aren't even showering because of the tap water. Right. I used to use the Dr. Bronner's for a while. What's that? Dr. Bronner's. It's a very popular hippie soap, I guess. Oh, okay. But it's like super natural. You should check that out, Dr. Bronner's. Yeah, I'll check it out. It's pretty. You can buy it at Target and all that. The food is the main concern. I know. You got to spend a lot of money to eat healthy these days. I...

So I don't eat chicken, pork, and beef right now. Wow. It's been like four or five years. So you're a vegetarian? I'm not saying I have a perfect diet. I eat fish and all that. Okay, pescatarian. But I do feel like that sort of break from it has helped me...

you know slim down a little bit and then you know i feel like i don't knock on woods or wood in here uh i don't get colds and stuff as much you know and i don't know if that's the weed or this or that but i don't i feel like my family like i smoke weed and and i'm out constantly like this is a lack of sleep shit but i feel like some of my family members they get colds all the time they're always sick i used to get colds monthly bro and i it might be because i was eating shitty quality meat honestly yeah what's your diet like

So I'm very conscious about me. I do eat meat, but it has to be really high quality because if the animal is killed in an inhumane way, the stress can leach onto me and that can affect you spiritually. So I don't eat cheap, cheap meat, organic. Uh, there's grades. I forget the highest grade, what it's called prime. I think. Right. I'll only eat that. Yeah. I'm thinking about going back into the meat game because I feel like I'm missing like, man, I want to eat some good Filipino food that I've been missing out. But, uh,

I don't know. I appreciate that. I appreciate anyone that actually can have that discipline. Yeah. I mean, it's interesting. A lot of spiritual people don't eat meat and I just don't know if I'm there yet. Right. But it's interesting to me. Right. I just don't know if I'm missing out on like proteins and this and that. But there's a lot. Someone actually said to me before, they're like, like,

Cows like big-ass animals. They're not eating meat at all. They're eating shit. No, they're eating fucking grass Yeah, so the grass isn't what it used to be. Yeah, that's true. The soil I just had a doctor on our topsoil will be gone in 20 years So we're pretty much save the soil. I know right? We have a soil epidemic right now man everything's bad for you, but you know, I just feel like That everything will yin and yang itself. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Like I

We just have to adjust. And again, there's people who've been living kind of program lives that are healthy and successful. That's true. Yeah, I try not to focus on it too much because you could just live that way and be fearful of every single thing. But that's not a fun way to live. Right, exactly. Here's a thing that I like. Here's a good piece of advice I like to say. If you're going to eat the donut, don't cry about it. You know why? Because look, if the donut's bad for you, okay, it might be bad for you. But if you're going to cry about it,

then you're doubling down on the bad experience. True. So enjoy the fucking donut. You did. Don't talk about it yet because some people complain about, oh, why did I eat that? Exactly. Enjoy it because I actually do think that the energy that you're carrying is just as important, right? So pray over your food. I'm all about energy. Speaking of energies, what was your favorite city to perform at where the energy just felt really good? Hmm.

I mean, it's always cool to go back to Pittsburgh because that's where we were in the trenches. So just to be on the big stage every summer at the pavilion and seeing the love that we get is amazing because I saw we were all in the trenches together before, like where people didn't think we would do it or, you know, people didn't believe in us or we were performing for, you know, two people.

But now, you know, taking that big stage and going back to Pittsburgh and that was such a great era. Like Wiz, Mac Miller, like, you know what I mean? Like Pittsburgh had a moment and it's still continuing to grow and prosper. So great place. Who are your favorite DJs, artists growing up? I mean...

Jazzy Jeff, of course, Fresh Prince, Jazzy Jeff, seeing him on the show. A lot of the Philly DJs seen Touchtone on Power 99. And man, there's a whole countless amount of... Kid Swift was very important for me. And then, you know, when I actually...

Like that's what kind of planted the seeds in Philly. But in Pittsburgh, there was a, you know, the cult. I like to say like when you're in a small city, you like try to compensate that you're from a small city. So it's like the knowledge you try to like be overcompensate like because you think when you're going to, you know, go against people in bigger cities, like, of course, they have more resources. Yeah. And I think we do it to.

We overcompensate it so that when we actually got to those different cities and DJed, I'm like, oh shit, I can compete against these cats. Because when you start from a small city, you want to try to swing a big sword. There's been a lot of Paul Dang, this guy Ishka Bibble, DJ Selecta,

There's so many. And the genres out there, like, you know, from between drum and bass and reggae, it was so plentiful. So Pittsburgh's a great, was a great place to start. I've never been there. I got to get out there. Yeah, no, it's cool, man. I mean, City of Bridges,

it's beautiful the andy warhol museum is there oh nice you know so definitely worth checking out and uh you know good food and the steelers are out there and the steelers that's right if you weren't djing what what would you be doing do you think this is your true passion um i well you know it i was trying to say this is like okay the dj part is what it is it's a it's a part of me but i think the bigger thing that

And I don't like to necessarily say this because I don't want it to sound braggadocious. I just like helping people. So whatever... Again, if I was a master of puppies, I'd probably be helping people with that. And so it's just helping people to me. Music is my vehicle to help people and help recognize their greatness and the program. So I really...

I've had like a message for a long time about love and really trying to spread that and use love is like a big message. But I've been kind of filtering and not kind of spewing that too much because I need to be the example. I think when you realize that,

We need to be example. I could tell a bunch of motherfuckers how to live their life. But if I'm still doing not, you know, if I'm still doing shit that I shouldn't be doing, then who am I to like be telling people how to live their lives? So I'm just trying to be the example at this point. I love that. And most people I would say that you meet are pretty selfish. So how did you change that mindset to want to help people out? Were you always like that? Oh, I think I was always like that, man. I'm definitely my mom's son. You know, she's every year we send stuff to the Philippines and, you know,

She's always giving. If you worked with my mom, she's just like everyone's mom. And so I just think that's a part of me. So something I did, like I'll give you an example. When I was living in Minneapolis, I did this thing called 10,000 Hoodies for the 10,000 Lakes.

And my mind frame was, and I like to speak the message from where people can understand it in a way that's just different than, hey, why don't you donate? Like to me, that's like not. That's fake. It's fake. And like, yo, you got all these like celebrities who are rich as shit trying to ask you for money. Like didn't make sense. So the way I launched it through the radio station I was there with. And basically I said, as hip hop kids, as music lovers, the culture is all about

stuff right like you go to how many fucking hoodies have you bought at a concert or whatever right and i'm just like we bombard the messages with

to our next generation, to kids that like, if you don't have the illest sneaks, if you don't have this. And to me, there's gotta be like a responsible part of it that's like reuse, recycle. Like how many hoodies are you sitting on that you don't wear? - A lot. - And guess what? In Minnesota, it's cold as fuck, right? So like as a culture, look, cool, if you work hard and you wanna buy stuff, by all means celebrate. But as a culture, how are we showing the next generation that,

We got to be able to reuse, recycle, be economic about how we spend in the hip-hop culture. Because it's like, if you're going broke buying the coolest fucking shoes, so let's give that. Let's push that. Because what I realized going through that was that there's a lot of homeless... There's a lot of kids that go to school and they're homeless. And so...

I reached out to a whole bunch of people like, listen, send me your hoodies. I was getting hoodies from around the world. But imagine just a kid and, you know, maybe we're teaching them a little bit of commercialism at that. But imagine a kid who is homeless and you got him like a just a dope Nike hoodie that someone wasn't wearing. And that kid might just feel a little bit more confident at school. And and so that's why I just think it's important.

To reuse, recycle, and to reprogram ourselves not to thinking that we need all this shit. Like on my birthday this year, I promised myself that for the rest of the year, and it's kind of bleeding into this year, that I wasn't going to buy any clothes at all. Shoes or clothes. Now, when I went to the Philippines, I was like, listen, let's not be too extreme here.

I want to grab this or grab a piece of merch or something like that. But that shit just really helped me unlock that habit and that programming of I need this, I need this. And then what I realized was it was actually making me value what I had already. You know what I mean? So going back to Minnesota, I was able to collect. I didn't hit 10,000. I hit like 7,000. That's so insane. Which is a lot. And I had to fucking deal with it.

package it, and I donated it to a bunch of shelters and Salvation Armies and distributed all these hoodies. And there was some fly-ass shit that people were sending. And I was like, can you imagine all of this is just sitting in people's closets? So I'm trying to find out what that version is here in Vegas. And I'm looking to do something for the community here.

But I'm going to figure that out. I want that to come naturally and not force it or just be like, hey, guys, donate for this. Like, I want it to be meaningful. And I want it to help someone who needs to get rid of shit. Like, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I'd love to help with that, man. I got probably 50 clothing items that I don't even wear. And that's what I'm saying is that I think that we can be –

cool and have the cool clothes and flashy or whatever but we also can be conscious about what we're doing with our extra uh and i think that's important in hip-hop how many times you hear a motherfucker in hip-hop saying like recycle and reuse and you know i think it's important yeah they buy the thousand dollar jackets and use it once i heard you know that's what i'm saying and you know i i love that like i'm again but

Man, support local and just be creative of how we do that. Just be a consumer. Be a conscious consumer. Absolutely. DJ Bonix, where can people find you and what you're up to, man? At DJ Bonix, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch. They can find me at Hardeen during the week or on stage with Wiz or at different clubs here in Vegas. Been moving around a lot. So please reach out to me. We'd love to connect with you. And yo, thank you for, you know,

having this platform and having me on it and congrats to your success man and seeing all the people that you have on here the numbers and you know you know just being a cool dude man thanks man means a lot i think this episode was great i think people can take a lot out of this one yeah thank my asian bro half asian bro over here man he's got to stick together appreciate you big shout out to hardeen real quick thanks for rocking and we're yeah shout out to my favorite dispenser biggest got some cbd products for tonight see you guys next time let's go