DJ Sir Thurl’s BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

I am DJ Sir Thurl, Mixer for KATZ-FM 100.3 The Beat in St. Louis, and I am announcing that I am leaving mixshow.

My Quick History

I am also known as “The Official Party Starter” and have been in mixshow for 10 years on 100.3 The Beat in St. Louis. I have mixed in all day parts, including a weekend mixshow. My most recent mixshow was the Thunderstorm Mix at 10pm, Mon-Thurs on the station.

Over the years, I have been nationally nominated and have accepted several awards for my mixshow talents. Also with my nation wide family, The Core DJs, I have appeared on BET’s historic show Rap City.

They call me, The Official Party Starter because; I’ve been rockin clubs way before I entered radio. I used to open up for my mentor, St. Louis Native DJ Kut, who is now on Power 105 in New York. I am known for rocking many clubs in the STL like Spruill’s, The Monostary, The Living Room, Plush, The Ambassador, Club Isis, Club Society, St. Louis Happy Hour, Sleek and All The Eye Candy Parties thrown by promotion team MPAC.

My REASONs

The reason for this article is to tell you why I left mixshow. First and fore most, let’s not get it confused. I am still with 100.3 The Beat. You will still hear me all the time because I have made a horizontal move to start producing commercials. One of my many hidden talents, but I will also do Mixshow weekends and fill in for the Other DJs on the Station (Thanks to Taylor J).

This blog will be seen by a lot of people, most in which are not in radio or involved in the music business at all. So for my experts out there excuse me while I take a sec to breakdown, what mixshow actually is?

Mixshow BREAKDOWN

Mixshow was created to bring the liveliness and energy from the clubs into radio. And it worked big time. And since the club was the perfect place to break and hear new music, of course that crossed over to radio as well. Mixshow was a live and exciting 30 min to an hour, to even a couple of hour’s event on radio. You never knew what you were going to hear, old school record mixed with something new, this acapella, thrown over this inst. Shit was off the hook. Now don’t get me wrong, it still is….

But somewhere along the line, shit got real weird. The whole world started rapping, and the whole world wanted to go into the basement and record songs. WOW!

How Rap Changed the Industry

Well guess what! Everybody wasn’t good, but you’ve always had your good records and your bad records. But now, these independent labels start coming with these hot ass Street & Club records and was winning. Then came the big over abundance of dance records. To each is own. Shouldn’t affect the music industry right?

It shouldn’t, But These Corporate Record Execs got Greedy!!! Because they wanted to make all the money, these indie labels start embarrassing them. And turned the whole industry into “The Spin” Game. NOW STOP RIGHT THERE!!!! Book mark, cause we coming back to this point in a minute.

Now when I entered Mixshow years ago, I didn’t know much about Record Labels and how they worked. All I knew is I enjoyed seeing people kick it, and having the control to make them feel like that, That was always the shit to me.

But When I got into mixshow, these record reps start calling me. And back then, they were real promoters of records. Now reps before you get upset with me, hear me out, cause if you a real record rep from back in the day, you gone agree with me all the way.

Back then, every record rep would call you, and they worked for the record label to promote a record in a certain part of the country. In the realm of all that, the record label had more than one kind of record rep, some handled the streets, some handled radio, some handled retail and concerts etc. Well Back then record reps had to be dope. They had to know the artist they were promoting, know the market they were promoting to, and also know the DJs and street promoters they were dealing with. It was an art form then if you ask me.

Because they knew, that every record, or every artist could not be broke the same way in every market.

So they would hit you up and ask you to put your ears to a record, and they would ask your opinion, and the DJs opinion really mattered back then. This was all to figure out how to break the record in that market.

Now Lets Fast Forward in time a lil bit, and goes back to the greedy Corporate Record Execs Playing the spin game. Now what started to happen when these independents start coming up, and winning with this street / music. The label execs had to figure out a way to get the upper hand, so they start going to the streets in all these cities and start signing anybody. LOL Regardless of talent. And forcing these record reps to promote these guys all the same way. “The Assembly Line”

Then they needed a way to track how these artist were doing, and for those who don’t know there are two major companies that track when radio stations play records, They track every time a record gets played, that’s also known as a “spin”

But from as long as I remember labels have been using these companies to track records. But once these labels figured out that they were going broke trying to sign anything, they got greedier and start cutting budgets on artists, laying off talented Record reps and the assembly line factor got worse.

Then these GREEDY Corporate Record EXECS got even Greedier! Before the Last real A&Rs all got fired or either quit. If they brought a talented artist to the table for suggestion. The execs would say “Well, what are they spins looking like?” HUH? What the hell? What happened to signing an artist because they were talented, and you believed in them, and you could develop them. Right?

Well That took all the power from The “Real” A&Rs and the “Real” Record Reps, cause guess what, the labels start telling these artist to get themselves poppin in they marked and get spins all by themselves before they sign them to a record deal. WOW!!

DJs Are Somebody Again?

Then all of a sudden, Radio got bumrushed! The Same DJ that the industry got rid of back in the day from groups like DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Eric B & Rakim, Cash Money & Marvelous Marv, just to name a few.

Is the same industry that now needed the DJ. Why? Because the DJ became the expert cause, artist didn’t know what the hell spins were and how to go about getting them, and labels sure didn’t know who was hot in theses cites.

The DJs became important but also became the most abused entity out of the whole industry. Because, once the artist got signed, who made the money, the artist and the label, and maybe the DJ got a guest appearance in a damn video somewhere. A lot of promoters got cheap, on the DJ, most radio stations; don’t pay a DJ shit for real. So the expert DJ is left out in the cold.

So you know most DJs are hustlers by nature, so we gone find a way to get it. DJs became the promoters, DJs became the artist and start dropping mixtapes, DJs became the Club Owners, DJs moved up in radio to make money. But then in the growth of all that a lot of DJs loose they integrity. Shit most DJs got they own artist now, I mean really signed to them. It’s a damn favoritism game going on now.

They forgot what they got into the game for; they just start acting like the people that were in position right before them.

The Spin Game

The record reps have to push all the artists that are signed to the label the same way, they cut out all the street teams, they just email you the records and ask for spins. Some DJs get caught up doing favors for record reps instead of playing what they think is hot.

So the record reps with the most relationships with DJs do the best at they jobs, but where is the art in just asking for spins? I guess the art is out the window, its all about the money now.

Then at the radio station, DJs have bosses who have bosses who have bosses who have long term friendships with the NOW Corporate Record Execs that need favors too. Then Mixshow DJs get Mixshow lists!!! But this was so the radio station can control how much new music is played. It got out of hand because some DJs get caught up in the favor “Spin Game” instead of throwing it back, playing what’s hot.

Now Mix Show DJs, how many times have you played a record and you knew that shit was wack. LOL it was that favor. It’s the spin game.

Now Don’t get me wrong, mixshow is still great, it’s still needed. In my opinion, I just don’t think that it’s the way to break every record in the world. I still believe records and artist can still be broke outside of Mixshow.

BREAKing RECORDS

I want to go back to that. I’ve broke more records at Club Plush and Club Society than I have broke at mixshow. And DJs I’m not talking about playing it first. That doesn’t constitute as breaking a record anymore. When you are the first person to get everybody in your spot rockin to that joint, U get the credit for breaking it.

DJs kill me talking about, they broke this record or broke that record, get the fuck outta here, excuse my French, but you aint broke shit.

A mixtape DJ coulda broke it, A artist themselves coulda broke it. I always preach to artist about how the radio should be an added bonus, it shouldn’t be your goal, for trying to get noticed or get on.

Game Changing Decisions / Moving On

In St. Louis, we got some of the best mixshows in the country. Best mixers in the country, we blend all day, no slamming. But we are lacking in areas outside the radio, cause everyone wants to be “on the radio”, now don’t get me wrong we still got hustling ass DJs out there that doing it. But I want to take that side to another level. I’m ready to start practicing what I preach. And let some of these younger DJs in to get down in the Mixshow game.

If I change the game a little GREAT!, If I get a couple artist on. GREAT! If I don’t, COOL, it doesn’t matter, I’m not here to prove shit to nobody but me. When I’m done with this DJ shit, people will say that DJ Sir Thurl was one of the best who did it, they will say DJ Sir Thurl did rock parties, he set trends, he broke records, he did what the fuck he wanted to do.

I am ready to take a new lead. With my company Allstar DJ Service, we plan to take mobile DJing to a new height. If you need a DJ hit us up 314.551.9872 or wegotthejams.com.

Stay updated with my progress www. sir Thurl.com. Thanks to my man J-Will / Allstar Solutions doing it big! www.allstarstl.biz.

I’m picking up several clubs in St. Louis and East St. Louis, stay on the lookout for that. I’m hittin the road doing some thangs, also doing some mixes for some music networks worldwide. And will also be dropping some mixtapes as well. On my website, I got Thurl Radio, you can listen to mixes all day while you are at work or on ya phone. All kind of mixes. More to come too.

I plan on continuing my work in the streets, dealing with the dopest street team in St. Louis, I will never deal with nobody else cause these guys got St. Louis on Lock. Authentic Marketing and Promotions also know as AMP St. Louis. Hit them up at AMPstLouis.com

I will be doing more work with my mentor DJ Kut, The Core DJs and these cats doing some thangs in the STL. Them Derrty DJs. Be on the look out for all that.

Now don’t get it twisted, Like I said earlier, I’m still in radio, KATZ-FM 100.3 the beat. I just made a move over to production, Yep producing commercials. I’m one of the dopest too, go to the website for that as well. Sir thurl.com

Thanks for checkin this shit out instead of just assuming that I got fired. Boy I tell you the truth people always think you got fired from something. LOL….

It’s the Official Party Starter DJ Sir Thurl

Sir Thurl.com (s I r T h U r L)

Facebook/djsirthurl

Twitter/djsirthurl

Myspace, tagged, linked in

You name it, I’m on it.., Video Vault TV thanks for the Look!

Share this with your folks: