Top Notch :: Rerog Edition

You may or may not know but I am starting up a weekly Dj night that will take place every Thursday night at The Lounge, located at 2810 Elm St. I will have guest Djs joining me on most of the weeks. There is no one genre or format I will be sticking to, all of my guests will be doing their own thing. The first installment of Top Notch goes down this Thursday (tomorrow), and features guest/ friend/ local badass...Rerog. Below are a few questions I cooked up for Rerog, so you can get familiar with the man himself. Peep game.

Oh, and roll through on Thursday!

Tell everyone who you are and what you do.
I am Rerog. I collect records, DJ those records, make music, and lately I have been catching up on The Wire and Trailer Park Boys thanks to Netflix. I toured and made music with Astronautalis for 5 years, and now I just call him and drunkenly ramble about the new Young Jeezy record.

If memory serves correctly, I think you and I got in to djing around the same time. What sparked your interest in djing, how did you get in to it?
Baby G is the main reason I wanted to start DJ'ing, hearing him on 100.3 JAMZ back in the day. Also, when I first learned that 12"s had bonus songs and remixes, thats what finally sold me. I had to have those exclusive songs. I met a DJ named Roski in 95 or so and he started showing me the basics and I just took it from there. I barely left my room for a year after I got my first turntables.

How did you and Nature meet up? Give us some insight on the famous Rubber Gloves Wednesday night. What made those gigs so special? Any one night or particular story that comes to mind when you think back on those Rubber Gloves gigs?
I was actually working at a record store called Spinmasters on Northwest highway, and I sold Nature his first turntables. That was the first time I remember meeting him. When I moved up to Denton for school in 98, we just started hanging out, drinking and scratching, and we started the Wednesdays in January of 99. I don't think I had a real job for over 2 years thanks to that gig. Part of what made that night different was that underground hip hop was new to most people, so it was different and exciting. The BYOB aspect of it was a big help too, not a lot of people realize that Rubber Gloves started out as just a little room with no bar and we literally had people bringing in coolers full of beer. Hot women dancing, plus cheap booze usually equals a good time in a college town, and we had the best party in town. As far as the most memorable of those nights, it has to be natures going away party. Lots of groups performing, tons of DJ's, both inside and outside, kegs of beer, and a slam dunk contest. Others would be themed nights we had, like the superhero theme where we played old Superfriends cartoons and gave away a bunch of action figures.

How long did the Wednesday thing last?
Nature and I held it down for about a year. When he moved to PR I kept going for another year, and kept doing shows there regularly untill I started I moved out of Denton. Rubber Gloves is where Astronautalis and I did I first live show in 2001 and it was our homebase and favorite spot to play.

Give me 5 records you are feeling right now. Anything.
Most of the music I listen to is old soul, funk, salsa, or rock but here goes:

Ray Barretto - Hard Hands
Baby Huey - The Baby Huey Story
Astronautalis - Pomegranate (I didn't work on this one so it's not a shameless plug!)
The Soft Machine - S/T
Shuggie Otis - Inspiration Information

Honerable mention for a little street cred:

Young Jeezy-The Recession

What kind of stuff can we expect to hear from you on Thursday?
Thursday, I'll be digging into my 90's West Coast and South crates. A couple things I'm looking forward to playing are:

Crooked Lettaz w/ Pimp C- Get Crunk
Big Moe- Tops Drop
Comptons Most Wanted- One Time gaffled Em Up
Keak Da Sneak- Super Hyphy

Any shout outs, rants, BBQ tips?
When you BBQ, always have more food and beer than you need.



Top Notch Thursdays
@ The Lounge on Elm
2810 Elm Street :: FREE!

-SBR