Lessons Learned From DJ Whoo Kid’s Combat Jack Interview
DJ Whoo Kid is someone I’ve always had a lot of respect for. I used to abuse sirius satellite’s free-trial system every weekend just to hear him on the radio. Why do I respect him so much? Because aside from the fact he’s the DJ for one of my favourite rappers, he’s the kind of guy that’s clearly living his passion and his aura shows it. DJ Whoo Kid never stops being an idiot, and it’s because he has that eternal happiness that can’t be broken. He’s a man that hustled his way into his desired industry, redecorated it and made millions of dollars from it. As a complete idiot myself, I’ve always strived to have the same kind of self confidence that DJ Whoo Kid has so I can let the world know I’m an idiot and not care because I’m living a life I enjoy.
DJ Whoo Kid recently joined the cast of The Comback Jack show for a lengthy interview. He has many stories from both his come up, to his life as a subtle celebrity. In the interview he talks about being kidnapped by Big Pun, threatened by other DJ’s and meeting Michael Jackson. But there’s many life lessons to be learned from this interview, so check out what I took from it below.
You’ll upset many people on your journey to success
DJ Whoo Kid hustled his way into the music industry by leaking unreleased music from Hip Hop artists. Its a formula that worked for him and many other popular Hip Hop DJ’s, but Whoo Kid made more noise than the other DJ’s by leaking songs he wasn’t supposed to. He not only upset the artists who recorded the music directly, but he upset his competition and artists who were beefing with each other.
In the interview Whoo Kid tells the story of being kidnapped by Big Pun for leaking a Sauce Money song dissing Terror Squad. DJ Whoo Kid barely even knew the extent of the beef, but he saw dollar signs after hearing the song and decided to leak it on his tape. It definitely boosted his popularity, but it also got him locked up in a van with Big Pun and his goonies. Thankfully, Pun was understanding towards Whoo Kid, and knew he only leaked the song because he was desperate to get his foot in the door.
This lesson is one that applies to any working structure in life. Your hunger may cause you to make moves that upset others. But it’s pretty much unavoidable. Your journey to success will see many people mad at you; some of them might be old friends, some may be competitors. But you can’t always make it to success by being the nice guy.
It’s okay to be ignorant to the things that don’t affect you
Many times it was DJ Whoo Kid’s ignorance to what was going on around him that landed him in trouble, but it also did him favours. By ignoring all the beef going on with rappers around him, DJ Whoo Kid was able to stay neutral, and focus solely on his work. He openly states multiple times that he doesn’t care about all the Hip Hop drama, or the damaged relationships between people, he just wants to do what he does best.
This is a great outlook to have. The conflicts around us can be distracting and this is particularly off-putting to those who practice tunnel vision. By remaining ignorant to who dislikes who, Whoo Kid has gained a level of trust that makes it possible for him to work with almost anyone.
Of course playing ignorant doesn’t just have to be towards beefs, you can play ignorant to literally anything that has no baring on your life or where you want to go as a person.
Your loyalties dictate how you move
Though Whoo Kid maintains a neutral stance on the conflicts around him, he does remain loyal to those who helped him, and this means he makes career decisions based on his loyalties. For instance, DJ Whoo Kid was asked why he never released an album full of contributions from various artists. Much like what DJ Drama, DJ Kay Slay and a list of other DJ’s have done. His reasoning was that he’d pledged loyalty to a man known for having conflicts with a number of artists in the industry, so it wouldn’t have felt right to go around asking artists for contributions knowing they had disagreements with his partner 50 Cent.
Much of those burned bridges have been repaired today, but DJ Whoo Kid is still loyal to the man he knows made him millions of dollars.
Always be honest about who you are
Sure DJ Whoo Kid had to lie his way out of trouble on many occasions, and he’s even told white lies on his radio shows for entertainment value. But the one thing he’s always honest about is himself. When Whoo Kid first met 50 Cent, 50 asked him “If people start shooting at us, how are you going to handle the situation?” Whoo Kid could have easily lied like the hundreds of yes men who vowed to shoot for 50 Cent. But instead Whoo Kid answered “Are you kidding me? I’m going to get the fuck outta there and run.”
This level of self honesty is what gives Whoo Kid the confidence to continue following his dreams, and it also let 50 Cent know where he stands with him. It’s easy to trust a person that’s honest about themselves. Whoo Kid is straight up with everybody about how much of a coward, and an idiot he is.
As long as you can admit to your weaknesses, you can use your strengths to their full potential.
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DJ Whoo Kid drops a ton of gems in this interview, so I recommend listening to get more takeaways from it. Let me know if you got any more interesting life lessons from him in the comments below.
