TheClub App
- Apr 28, 2021
- 20 min read

EP. 011 - DJ Q (My DJ Story Podcast)

Name: Q Fletcher DJ Name: DJ Q Website: https://www.djq.us/ Instagram: @djqdmv

Primary Genre: Hip Hop Other Genres: Rap, R&B, Reggae, Soca, Dancehall, Bachata, Salsa, Merengue, Pop, House, Afrobeat

Transcript

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Darrel Frater, TheClub CEO: What's going on everybody is Darrell freighter here. The club CEO. And we have another amazing TJ here DJ Q brother, can you introduce yourself, tell the people where you're from.

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DJ Q: How's it going, How's it going my name is DJ Q originally from Silver Spring, Maryland right outside of Washington, DC represent the DMV area and been DJ for about a decade now, so

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DJ Q: My career pretty much started in college, but I've always been really into music. I actually really wanted to be a music producer at first.

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DJ Q: And then when I went to went to college. I ended up in a role where I had to throw events. I was an event coordinator for our African American alliance.

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DJ Q: I went to college down in Tennessee, by the way.

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DJ Q: suwanee THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH real small liberal arts predominantly white school

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DJ Q: And

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DJ Q: And that definitely helped shape my early career as far as like understanding how to play for like corporate clients. You know what I mean, like all the

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DJ Q: The kids that I was performing for like they end up being the interns, or they end up, you know, like, that's just the world we live in, you know, I

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Darrel Frater, TheClub CEO: Wow that's super amazing. So you started DJ in college and then kind of

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Darrel Frater, TheClub CEO: That kind of helped you with the relationship that you build and people, you know, as they moved up in their career. They became decision makers at these corporate companies and you're able to get in and do DJ work for these people in their, in their events. Right.

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DJ Q: Yeah, I definitely had a lot of connections from college and got a lot of gigs and I ended up doing.

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DJ Q: I ended up kind of being the prime DJ for this sort of

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DJ Q: Click not click, but I guess this this group of folks.

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DJ Q: That had money and through lots of events so

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DJ Q: Go to DJ for that. And yeah, you know, things started off in college, and I, I was fortunate enough to to meet

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DJ Q: Early mentor.

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DJ Q: He didn't go to college, I went to, but we were in the same scholarship program and his name is Jamal DJ dope star. He was also from DC. So we had the same scholarship program. And that's how we connected and he was kind enough to let me just kind of watch him and learn from him so

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DJ Q: Eventually I would, you know, had the courage to try some of the things he was showing me and

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DJ Q: And just would continue on, you know, any questions I had he would kind of guide me through you know my equipment questions, all that stuff. So I was very fortunate to kind of have that early mentor.

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Darrel Frater, TheClub CEO: Awesome. That's really great man. I'm super curious like what was that spark that made you decide that you wanted to become a DJ. Like what sparked you to do that.

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DJ Q: So, um, for me, it was back in college when I was

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DJ Q: The event coordinator for our African American alliance so

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DJ Q: Most schools have like a BS. You have Black Student Union, but we didn't have that the closest thing we had was our African American alliance and me and my roommate.

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DJ Q: Were the event coordinator. So we had to throw the events, the parties and such. And our schools in the middle of nowhere on a mountain in Tennessee. So like we really, if we wanted to pop in DJ, we had to get someone from Atlanta, and that was a two hour plus drive

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DJ Q: There were some DJ is in Nashville or Chattanooga, that we can holler. But, you know, if we were about to pay someone we usually went and got them from Atlanta. So, but they weren't always available. So sometimes I would just play the music.

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DJ Q: It would just be YouTube tabs open tons of YouTube and

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DJ Q: Then it was virtual DJ, and then I

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DJ Q: Was the guidance of DJ dope saw I

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DJ Q: Figured out what equipment I needed to use. And then I started to DJ, some of our parties and what was unique about my school was again it was

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DJ Q: A predominantly white school and all of their parties were frat parties with bands, you know, but folks wanted to still dance like they wanted to still

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DJ Q: Party, you get low all of that, you know, so my fraternity. Are we turned into. We call it the late night spot where we would have the after parties and where you could dance have a DJ, which was me in just like really party because the

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DJ Q: band's also had to be done by think like 1am or something. So it was pretty early. People still wanted to rock our house was in the cut.

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DJ Q: The police the canvas police didn't really bother us because we weren't doing nothing. You know Vigo, really, it was just a you know a gathering it was safe no trouble.

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DJ Q: Got shut down a few times, but for the most part they let us rock two to three. Um, and then they would break it up for, you know, then people will have

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Darrel Frater, TheClub CEO: Super bear my college days of the parties to get shut down by the cop so I'm there with you. And I think that your story is super fascinating because

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Darrel Frater, TheClub CEO: You didn't intently decide, oh, I want to be a DJ. You kind of gradually push in that direction.

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Darrel Frater, TheClub CEO: Where the need was there and you will just fulfilling that need and then it became much more real with each iteration and each improvement that you decided until he was like, You know what, I'm here.

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Darrel Frater, TheClub CEO: Let me invest my time and energy and really learn the trade of DJ, then you had your mentor that help make that process much easier. So like your, your journey is a lot different from the

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Darrel Frater, TheClub CEO: Interviews that I've currently been doing with some of these other DJ is. I think that's really dope. Because like everyone's journey and everyone's story about how the guide is a DJ is so different.

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Darrel Frater, TheClub CEO: And it shows just the uniqueness that that becoming a DJ that anyone can become one.

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Darrel Frater, TheClub CEO: You just kind of have to find your way into the industry and figure out a way for you to thrive and be able to do what you love. So that's super exciting. Man, and are you still in touch with your mentor. Do you guys still like is he still your mentor.

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DJ Q: Yeah. Um, so my, my mentor, we actually ended up living together for a few years after college. It was really dope.

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DJ Q: That was an incredible creative period because not only did I was it to DJ living together, but we also saw the universe brought

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DJ Q: Three other really dope DJ kind of into our circle.