A Waste Of Time W/ ItsTheReal: Episode 138 – DJ Green Lantern
ItsTheReal, Jeff and Eric Rosenthal, are Hip-Hop. They are not going anywhere. From doing sketches in the early aughts about Roc-A-fella to interviewing many of the players that made the label legendary on stage, what a difference hard work over seven years can take you. Their episode was a surprise for me as someone that grew up checking tracklists on mixunit.com and reading liner notes, knowing the name DJ Green Lantern, but never hearing him speak before, a lifelong history lesson was the best way to finally hear him.
This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we welcome the legendary mixtape DJ, producer, father, and former paperboy, DJ Green Lantern to the Upper West Side, where he tells two hours of the most amazing stories! Green discusses growing up in Rochester, New York, how listening to Led Zeppelin, Public Enemy and Jazz shaped his ears, how producing led him into DJing, rather than the other way around, and the big break that made him The Man along Interstate 90. Green recalled witnessing DJ Clark Kent forcing an aspiring MC to battle a young Jay-Z on 7th Avenue in New York City, driving to Toronto to get white label exclusives, and putting the most creativity into his mixtapes, earning him the recognition of his peers at the Justo Awards. We talk Hot 97, meeting Eminem, working on the Beanie Sigel and Jadakiss mixtapes, the stories behind Jadakiss’ song “The Champ is Here,” D-Block’s “2 Gunz Up,” Eminem’s “Hail Mary,” working with Jay-Z on his never-released mixtape, why he made the move to Atlanta, working with Rocko, Future, Killer Mike and 2 Chainz and so much more. All that, plus patching things up with Jadakiss, why he had to leave rap to come back to hip-hop, and a conversation with Green’s son Najee AKA DJ Tangotwelv!