Most of you may know DJ Chong Wizard from his American Ironman mixtape that he dropped at the beginning of the year. Well, this Canadian DJ has been tearing up the mixtape game for quite some time now and I felt it was time for all of us to get to know the man behind the bong.

American Ironman has gotten great reviews over the past month from sites such as allhiphop.com, lovesoul.tv, MTV, and Rolling Stone. In addition RapMullet.com declared American Ironman as the 1st Classic Mixtape of 2008.

His new mixtape, Good Look 5 (Kashi Kicks Edition), is getting rave reviews as well. DJ Chong Wizard is the DJ to look out for this year. Although his name may not be as well known as DJ Clue or DJ Whoo Kidd, be prepared for this cat to create some waves in the near future.

Kevin: Yo, what’s goin’ on man? Congratulations on the success of American Ironman! You’ve been getting major props for that tape around the Internet. We’ll talk about that in a minute… let’s start off by talking about you. Who is DJ Chong Wizard? How long you been doin’ this and how did you come up with that dope ass name!?!?

DJ Chong Wizard: I got my first set of turntables about a decade ago, but before that I was doing pause tapes since I was old enough to use a tape deck. So, when I finally got my turntables I was 18 and in my senior year of high school. Back then my DJ name was DJ Hot Box because everywhere I went the room would be full of smoke if you know what I mean. I used to do these Hot Box mixtapes on cassette that were all about smoking chronic. After I graduated from high school I moved to Cali to live with my Dad. Around that time I really got into turntablism and club DJing. I met a local DJ who went by the name Amer. Soon after we became a DJ duo and both gave each other new names. He called me the Wax Wizard cause I was magic with the mixing and I named him Cut Specialist because he was nice with the cuts. After a few years of living the California Hip-Hop lifestyle I got tired of it and moved back to Canada. When I got back here I was doing underground mixtapes. After about a year I got noticed by a local Hip Hop crew called 108. They showed me a lot of love. They liked my mixtapes and my beats. So, I started making beats and recording endlessly with them for a few years. Finally in 2004 I mixed down about thirty out of the hundreds of songs I did with 108 and released a mixtape/album called Time Will Tell. It was the first time I went by the name “DJ Chong Wizard”. How I got the name was…. there was already a local Vancouver DJ that was called DJ Wax. So, I decided I needed to drop Wax out of my Wax Wizard name. For a minute I was going by Wiz but it was too generic. Then I found out about Vaughn Bode’s Cheech Wizard comic character. I’m also known for being a bong smoking master much like Vancouver’s own Tommy Chong from Cheech & Chong. Who at the time had been arrested for selling bongs. I decided to get a artist to draw a Cheech Wizard character with a bong and call him Chon Wizard. That’s just a brief history on how I became DJ Chong Wizard. I always tell people “I ain’t Chinese, I just smoke a lot!”

Kevin: Wow, that’s a great story! There are so many types of DJ’s out there that do this thing for a living. So, as a DJ, are you primarily a club DJ, radio DJ, or do you just do mixtapes? What’s up?

DJ Chong Wizard: I’m best known as a mixtape DJ. Arguably Canada’s best mixtape DJ. I was nominated at Justo’s Mixtape Awards last year in the Best Canadian Mixtape DJ category. I’ve done over twenty mixtapes in the last three or four years. My mixtapes have been hosted by a who’s who list of rappers and producers. From Pete Rock to Prince Paul to Ice Cube to Twista to Bushwick Bill and the list goes on. That’s not to say that I can’t rock a club because I’ve DJed plenty of clubs over the years. I’ve also been 108 Records’ tour DJ. We’ve opened for Mobb Deep, Young Buck and others in the past. Really there’s a lot of politics in the club scene out here. So, I don’t get booked at clubs that often. As far as DJing on the radio… there is no urban radio station out here in Vancity. I really need a show on Sirius Satellite radio.

Kevin: Yeah a show on Sirius would be dope! Now most DJ’s are huge gear heads; which is why I gotta ask what your setup is like. Do you use vinyl, Serato, CDs, computer software? Break it down for us.

DJ Chong Wizard: I use Vestex turntables and mixer. I have tons of crates full of vinyl. I also use Serato. I use Adobe Audition on the computer to multitrack. I work with a lot of different local producers that all have different equipment. Whether it’s a MPC, keyboard, synth, Moog or whatever I done used all kinds of shit over the years.

Kevin: A lot of top producers today got their start from DJing. Do you see yourself moving into the producer’s realm somewhere down the road?

DJ Chong Wizard: Well, I’ve been known to make some dope beats. Back in 2004 when I released Time Will Tell, I was praised for my production from the Canadian media. One of the local papers said my beats were “as fresh as they come.” So, yeah I’ve already moved into that realm. I haven’t produced any major hits or anything for a major artist…YET! Well I have had Grafh and Pitbull rap on beats I produced for mixtapes but nothing that’s ended up on a major album release. So, yeah I definitely plan to get more serious with the production.

Kevin: Who are your influences? Who did you listen to growing up and who do you listen to now? What other DJs do you feel are on the top of their game right now?

DJ Chong Wizard: I’m one of those dudes that’s been so influenced by so many artists that it’s just a overall influenced that Hip-Hop has on me. I listened to everything growing up. Whether it was West Coast or East Coast. Too Short, NWA, Snoop, Wu Tang, Redman, Scarface, Pharcyde, Souls of Mischief, Slick Rick, Digital Underground… the list could go on and on… and it’s still that way to this day. Whether its hyphy, crunk, snap or whatever I just love Hip-Hop.

Other DJ’s that I feel are on top of their games… Well I always liked Green Lantern, Kay Slay, Dirty Harry, DJ Drama & Clinton Sparks but I didn’t hear too much from any of them in 2007. The whole year of 2007 was slow for mixtapes. My peoples DJ Crazy Chris, Dub Floyd, DJ Unexpected, DJ G-Spot and DJ Teknikz all been making some ill mixtapes lately. I remember bumping a lot DJ Screw and DJ Rectangle mixtapes back in the day. I’ve always liked DJ Q-Bert and the Scratch Piklz. It’s also good to see DJ A-Trak touring with Kanye. Man, I know there is tons of dope DJs out there Im forgetting… but my memory is fried….

Kevin: Nah, I think you about named everyone (LOL). Let’s talk about American Ironman… you had one of the most original ideas for an American Gangster remix album. How did you come up with that concept? Tell us a little bit about the process of putting that mix together.

DJ Chong Wizard: Well… I had seen a lot of producers and DJs doing American Gangster remixes. The majority were lackluster as far as concepts go. So, really I thought I could do a better mixtape then any of the American Gangster remixes that were out. I noticed all these producers trying to make it all about them and their so called dope beats. I wanted to make something that people wanted to hear. It wasn’t supposed to be all about me. At the same time I was thinking like why is Jay-Z getting all this free promotion. I thought I’d rather do a Ghostface remix album. I don’t know what clicked in my head but it just all came together as a concept. It could have been that my favorite album of all time is Ghostface Killah’s Ironman or that I had the Ironman instrumentals and wanted to use for something but didn’t know what? It also could of been the fact that I was reading a lot of comics around that time. Anyways I had the concept for the music and then I came up with the idea for the cover. I told my graphic artist Jis The Future, who is also a comic fiend, to look for a picture of Iron Man wearing red, white and blue. Or if he could just re-color Iron Man in red, white and blue. A few days later he got back to me so excited about this picture of Iron Man he had found. At that point the whole mixtape was still a concept. So, I was like I gotta try and see if these Jay-Z accapellas mix with these Ghostface beats. It turns out they did fit together like it was meant to be and the rest is history.

Kevin: You know, listening to American Ironman makes me wish Jay & Ghostface would get on a track together. Have you gotten any feedback from either camps or anyone associated with the two?

DJ Chong Wizard: Yeah I always wanted to hear Jay-Z and Ghostface do song together too. I haven’t heard anything from either camp. Although that does remind me to reach back out to Ghost’s manager. A few years ago I did a double disc mixtape called Kung Fu Hussle that was hosted by Ghostface, Raekwon and GZA. So, I definitely been in contact with Wu-Tang in the past.

Kevin: Which mix on American Ironman is your favorite and which one was the most difficult to pull off?

DJ Chong Wizard: My favorite mix is Jay-Z’s “Success” vocals over Ghost’s “Fish” beat. I called it “Is This What Success All About”. I also really liked “Pray For Camay” and “Blue Marvel”. The most difficult part was the Ghostface blends… his flows are so crazy that it’s hard to blend him perfectly on beat and there isn’t that many Ghostface accapellas available. That’s the main reason there wasn’t as many Ghostface mixes on there.

Kevin: So what’s in store for 2008? Any new mixtapes coming out soon? Has the success of American Ironman created any new opportunities for you that you’ll be pursuing this year?

DJ Chong Wizard: There is a lot in store for 2008! I already got a new mixtape coming out this week. It’s called GOOD LOOK 5 (Kashi Kicks Edition). It’s hosted by a dope upcoming rapper out of Philly named Rocky Fontaine. If anybody reading this is going to be in Las Vegas next week for the Magic Convention you need to look out for the Kashi Kicks booth. They gonna be giving away free copies of GOOD LOOK 5. Check out Kashi Kicks on www.kashikicks.com. American Ironman has definitely created a bunch of opportunities for me. A lot of dope artists have been reaching out to me. I’ve even been getting spins on Sirius Satellite radio shows. Terry Urban played one of my mixes on The League Crew radio show. Also a few weeks ago Danny Boy and Everlast from House of Pain/La Coka Nostra were on DJ Mugg’s Mash Up Radio show. They were talking about me and playing a bunch of mixes off American Ironman. They even tried to call me on the air to ask me about doing a mash up album for them. You gotta check it out. I got the audio up on GOOD LOOK 5 and on my myspace page. So, yeah the next big Mash Up project from me is gonna be of DJ Muggs and Sick Jacken’s album vs. La Coka Nostra.

Kevin: Wow, sounds like it’s gonna be a great year for you! It was a pleasure chatting with you, my man. Is there anything you wanna mention that we didn’t get a chance to touch on?

DJ Chong Wizard: Yes, I wanna say thank you Kevin for taking the time to interview me. I also wanna shout out all the
peoples that supported me before the American Ironman blew up. Websites that knew I was dope for years like www.thickonline.com and www.rapmullet.com. Thank you for the continued support. Also look out for these dope artists I’m producing for 108, Phoenix Jones, Dirk LP, Ravage, Rack Lo, Poizunus and everybody else I forgot you need to holla at me!

In addition to American Ironman, check out some of these other dope mixtapes from DJ Chong Wizard….

• Bong Hits Volume 1 (hosted by Yukmouth)
• Offishall Badman Bizness (hosted by Kardinal Offishall)
• They Robot 3: Robots of Dawn (hosted by Brother J from X-Clan)
• GOOD LOOK 5
• A-SIDE
• B-SIDE

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