Brooklyn-born DJ Quest relocated to Southwest Florida as a teenager and moved to Orlando for a few years after high school where he joined the House of Steele DJ clique. He’s currently one of the largest club DJs in Ft. Myers, FL, and spins 5+ nights a week on Clear Channel’s WBTT. Unfortunately for Quest, Ft. Myers has not been the best place to live this past month.
How has the recent string of hurricanes affected your area?
Man, it killed us. It pretty much looked like a bomb went off in this bitch. A lot of people aren’t here, so they really don’t see how severe it is. When you actually drive through the city, places that used to be there are gone. The first two weeks after the hurricane, you’d actually get lost because landmarks that you’re used to are just gone. A lot of small mom & pop businesses are gone. If you had a trailer home, it’s gone. The first one, Hurricane Charley, was the worst. It wasn’t even supposed to come here. It was supposed to hit Tampa, not Port Charlotte, but about a half hour before it hit land that muthafucker just took a sharp turn right towards us. Our power was out for two weeks. I couldn’t do shit. A tree fell on my house, but it didn’t do too much damage. It actually protected the house from all the other flying debris. It damaged the roof, but it wasn’t major. We’ve got leaks in the roof, garage. I’ve got records that were damaged by the water. This is the worst storm season I can recall since I’ve lived here. In New York I went through Hurricane Gloria, but that shit was nothing compared to this.
Did your station do any type of fundraisers after the hurricane?
Suave Smooth and Smilez & Southstar came down to do fundraisers. Clear Channel actually created a program called StormAid to benefit the hurricane victims. It’s an online charity auction (www.StormAid.com) where you can bid on autographed posters, stuff like that.
How did you originally get started DJing?
I played football and wrestled in high school, so whenever I’d go to the game or practice I started making mixtapes for myself and the cats on the football team to listen to. I never really took it seriously until I moved to Orlando and hooked up with a DJ clique called House of Steele. It was me, Phantom, Remington Steele, G Dep, Marksman, and 007. We had a couple club nights.
Were you also putting out mixtapes?
It seems like a lot of people are putting out mixtapes just to get their name out there. If I don’t have a lot of good music to put out, I’m not gonna put out a mixtape. I hate listening to a mixtape with whack songs. They’re very watered down. Back in the days you could find a hot Tony Touch or Kid Capri mixtape and have that shit for years and it’ll still be hot. These days you listen to a mixtape for a week and throw it out and get ready to buy a new one. I recently put out the “Southern Fried Gumbo Vol. 1” mixtape, and now everybody’s like, “Where’s volume two?” I’m not gonna put that out until I’ve got hot shit. I’m also doing production on the low-low, but I’m not really satisfied with my beats yet.
What other DJ cliques do you represent?
Tech.Nitions, CORE DJs, and Bum Squad DJs. A lot of people think Tech.Nitions is finished, but I talk to Ran on a regular basis and he’s just sitting back watching muthafuckers and seeing who’s actually down for the team and who’s not. Tech.Nitions isn’t just a website. We’ve still got our weekly calls, we’re still networking.
Can you explain what the Tech.Nitions are and what The CORE is? It’s a little strange for you to belong to both organizations since they’re somewhat at odds.
Tech.Nitions was started by DJ Ran and Scrap Dirty, and the whole idea was to unite the DJ community. A lot of new DJs don’t know how to get music or how to deal with the common problems that you run into with radio stations and PDs. If I’ve got a problem at the station, I can call an old-school cat like Charles Dixon, Ran, or Showtime, and they’ll tell me how to handle it. The CORE DJs is basically the same theory. It’s just that a few people had problems with Ran and decided to branch off from Tech.Nitions and do their own thing. Tony Neal, who started The CORE DJs, that’s my man and I support him. I’m pretty much down with everybody.
Anything else you wanna say?
Check out my website, www.DeeJayQuest.com
