Special Excerpt from the party people issue 2011
DOUBLE-O-SPOT a short story
I*t had been a few months of partying and about a month of go-go dancing in Hawaii back in 2000 before I finally met THE DJ G-Spot of Double-O-Spot. A name I had heard from every Raver, Clubber, Hip-Hopper...basically every party person on the island. A name that was often attached to the line “I went to the best party last night” or “you gotta go to (place name of Rave here.) It’s gonna be tight!” I giggled every time I heard the name and balked “what kind of guy would give him the deejay name of “G-Spot?” I had my ideas. I had my visions. I imaged him being this tall, muscular black dude...possibly with a gold tooth and a touch of bling...but I don’t think they called it “bling” back then. It wasn’t until one very memorable Perpetual Groove night (Perpetual Groove being the Thursday night at Venus that drew crowds even though it was a school night) when my friends and boss Rebekah of Viva La Diva convinced me to partake in the evening’s contest: “Double-O-Spot Girl”. After signing up for this ridiculously girly contest, I waited in the VIP room with the rest of the girls for the arrival of the famed G-Spot. To my surprise he didn’t look ANYTHING like I imagined him. Not even close! He had no gold tooth. He was wearing no bling. He certainly wasn’t tall. No muscles I could make out under his oversized clothes. And he absolutely was NOT black. He was this cute little white guy that spoke slow and kind to us. I don’t think I heard a word he said because I kept thinking “that’s G-Spot? What? No!” But it was, and from that night on his love and passion for music became a significant part of my party life, as it was for thousands all over the world.
I met up with G at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. We sat down to chat at the college radio station, KTUH, where G has hosted his own Friday night radio show for over 10 years. What an exciting surprise it was when he suggested I interview him over the air where thousands of people tune in from all over either by way of the good ol’ fashion radio or via the Internet. This was such a treat for me. I hope it was a treat for his listeners. TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF. My parents were both musicians, and they met at DuPaul University in Chicago. I got three siblings: a twin sister and two older brothers. We all played two or three instruments, and that doesn’t include my dj career. I went to Miami for a little bit, back to Chicago, then University of Hawaii solicited me to come out here for graduate school for the Civil Engineering Program...and that’s pretty much my life. ARE YOUR BROTHERS JUST AS HOT AS YOU? Well at one time, one of the first parties, I deejayed, I was just a young buck, right? I was in seventh grade, and I was deejaying one of the school dances. My older brother, Mark D., well... let me finish this story but, I’m going to answer the question yes. They’re pretty dapper. I was deejaying, and a couple of the teachers that were there at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in Chicago over there on the North
Side they all started asking me, “who was that guy that drove you and kinda watched over?” I was like, “that’s my brother Mark D,” and they were like “oh, okay.” Then over the summer, Miss Pritican wanted to make sure my Spanish got better over the summer, so she was willing to come over to the house and give me some free lessons in Spanish once in a while. I really didn’t know what was going on because I wasn’t a player like Mark D. But she was basically coming over my house to give me free Spanish lessons so she can hook up with my brother. Carlos is pretty cool, too. He always use to be sneaking in the basement with honeys and stuff, but I didn’t know what was going on in the eighth grade. They were athletes, and they were party boys. So, they were in good shape and so forth. But, you know, they use to beat me up, but they also took me to my first party and first concert, so they’re cool. Mark D. has a beautiful wife so is he attractive I would say so... I don’t’ know. But, I like him more for what he is. WHY DID YOU BECOME A %&&+":? On the radio (in Chicago was a station coming up WBMX, it’s legendary in the dance music scene, 1027 WBMX) they had this mix show, just like the one I’m doing here that came on after 10 pm Friday till three in the morning. So, I just stayed up. My parents wouldn’t let me watch TV. That’s what my brothers were listening to in the car when they would roll to parties and stuff.
So, anyways I got into the mix show. They started making tapes and stuff, and that turned me on. We all played instruments, and to me it’s just an extension of music (because) the dj is more like a conductor, and I don’t think you can argue that a conductor ain’t a musician to any court of law. So, I just got into it. Mark D took me to my first party. He was friends with the deejay. His name was Ice T before there was the Ice T you all know. So, he took me to the party and put me behind the deejay booth. Patted me on the head, said what’s up. Todd was deejaying, and there was some other deejay there. It was dope because I was there kinda in the beginning. I saw what was going on, I knew the music they were playing, the tricks they were doing on the decks, there wFSF hot girls in the room, people were having fun, it was hot. I even liked how the wires were wrapped around the speaker stands. I just thought that was fresh, you know. It was a good time, and then the cops came, and some girl was like “what are we going to do with him, what are we going to do with Little G?”
They use to call me G back in the day. Actually they called me Spot like the little dog. That’s where it came from. There was this door, and you would close the door a little bit. I just kinda hid in the crack of the door between the door and the wall. So, when the popo came in I just hid behind the door. Then they left, and I came from behind the door. Anyways, that’s kinda what got me. YOU SAID YOU PLAYED AN INSTRUMENT. WHAT INSTRUMENT WAS THAT? We all had the base instrument of piano. I also played cello, and Caroline played violin and saxophone. Mark played violin and clarinet, and Carlos played cello. My piano skills aren’t as good or hardly as good as they were, but that was one of my regrets that I didn’t keep that up. YOU ARE NOT JUST ,/08/ AS A FABULOUS... Baseball player? WE’LL GET TO THAT ONE LATER. YOU ARE ONE OF THE TOP PROMOTERS, NOT JUST HERE BUT DOUBLE-O-SPOT IS KNOWN ALL OVER THE WORLD. WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO BECOME A PROMOTER? Honestly, I don’t think that was inspiration. What happened with that was a basic music industry evolution. I never wanted to be a promoter. I wanted to be a deejay, and I was also recording music back in the day. I couldn’t afford the normal hours. I’d rent the studio out at two in the morning to seven in the morning. I was putting out tracks and music, and trying to produce some stuff, and seeing where my disco can go. That was frustrating and rewarding.
Recording was just an extension from dFFjBZin’ and I played all those instruments, and stuff before I was a deejay. The promoting thing came around as an abstract from the deejaying worlE. I had a Nobile deejay company. I was deejaying all the parties... all the dj parties on the campuses. I was working hard, man. I’d bPrrow my parent’s car. I’d do a Bar Mitzvah from, like, five to eight. At 9:30, I’d be set up at the other party. From there, I wanted to become a club deejay. So, when I started deejaying clubs in Chicago, when I was in high school, I was just like “look give me 75 bucks for something I’d be doing for free anyways,” so that was cool. But, eventually, after Miami, I was deejaying some clubs (like) Dragon Fly, which is down the street from Second City (the famous comedian house in Chicago,) on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays every other Saturdays and Tuesdays. Eventually I just realized there was a value in what I was doing, and then eventually turned to the point were some people were packing the house out on a Wednesday with having me and my boy Brian Bordon spin. All they were really doing was calling it something and putting my name on the flier, and I thought “I can do that.” That became the evolution. I started doing a party every once in a while with some friends. So, it kinda came about that way. I like doing it now and I found ways to be creative and all of that. But basically I got in promotin’ because it was was an offset of deejaying. If people are going to be coming to see me, might as well put your own canvas to it. DURING THE INTERVIEW, ONE OF G’S LISTENERS CALLED IN WITH HER OWN QUESTIONS. SHE ASKED HIM SOME GREAT QUESTIONS ABOUT HIS FAMILY, HIS MUSICAL TALENTS AND HOW HE ENDED UP AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT MANAO.
My parents are both concert pianist. My mom was a public school teacher in the Chicago School. She taught at an all black school in the south side of Chicago. She was in the music department. I have said this a few times: the one thing I’m familiar with is when they start doing education cuts. The first thing they come after is the music program because they think its expendable as far as the administrators. So, my mom (was) always bouncing around from school to school being a music teacher, but she settled down. After school, she taught piano lessons out of the house. We have a nice grand piano in my living room in my house in Chicago. Honestly, every morning I’d be woke up to music on the piano be it my mom playing or she’s teaching. When there’s a young student, they doin’ all the damn repetition and exercises. Kinda annoying when you hear it in the morning, but I’d rather hear music than anything else. They (parents) did a lot to push music upon us. My sister still plays the violin around town. She has a Stradivarius. She worked her butt off for it! My mom, she’s retired now from the Chicago teaching school system, but she still teaches piano after school. I always thought that music has transcended more and done more to bring people together than politics and academics and all that stuff. I mean listen to this sound right here? Come on. “I Need Love ” everyone knows that. We use to all play together, too, like for seminars and stuff. Like me, my mom, my dad, my sister, my brother my other brother...do a little family quartet type a thing. There’s me and my brother Mark and Caroline, we’re all engineers. We got bachelors in Science and Engineering, and we got Masters in Science and Engineering. We were all just really good with math and science. Like beyond normally good. One thing that they’ve been finding out lately that I contribute to is that, at a super young age, we were being taught music which has the same mental capacity as
mathematics. So, when you look at something with 1/4 note and 1/2 note what’s the 1/2 note telling you? It’s half: 50%. When you look at a crescendo, it’s an increase. Music can all be derived
note, 4o we all became
mathematically. Eighth note, sixteenth the different increases and so forth. engineers.
I went into civil engineering because I thought it was the closest thing to environmental engineering, which is something that...the environment...I tend to care a lot about and do different things for in events throughout my history. But when I got into civil engineering I realized that environmental engineering wasn’t what I thought it was. It was more like sanitary engineering, and I wasn’t about to sit there and analyze what the best processes to clean up the thing that rhymes with processes. So I switched over to transportation engineering. Anyway, so what happened was after University of Miami I was going to Illinois Institute of Technology on the South Side of Chicago over next to Sox Comiskey Park. So, basically I was going to school there for a little bit (IIT is like MIT) then,
University of Hawaii offered to match the deal I had at IIT. Guaranteed free tuition for two years and a teaching assistant internship, and so I jumped at the prospects of coming out to beautiful Hawaii *hm happy with that decision very much. WHERE DID DOUBLE-O-SPOT COME FROM? Basically, my nick name was Spot, and I was a big James Bond fan, and obviously I couldn’t be 007. So, I never really thought, when I was throwing parties, to have G-Spot Presenting or Spot Presenting. so, (I) came up with Double-O-Spot. I do what I can to help the world...to save it. (Laughs) Keep people dancin’. THIS WAS JUST A HAPPEN CHANCE THAT IT BLEW UP TO BE THIS EMPIRE...DOUBLE-O-SPOT EMPIRE. (Laughs) Maybe I’m delusional... but I still think that what I’m doing is punk rock first off. I don’t think of it as an empire. WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? YOU ARE TAKING OVER THE WORLD! I’m Double-O-Spot, girl! I’m fighting evil just like James Bond. What are you talking about? (Laughs) I never looked at it like it was going to blow up or that people would associate Honolulu dance club scene...music scene...with somewhere else on this planet. Some people it’s synonyms. More so outside of Hawaii. But, did I ever think it was going to happen? Not really. I think the main reason that happened was persistent consistency, and things going on that we were doing. Almost relentless regardless of the climate in the economy or whatever. I wanted to get people together and have fun. Get their disco on. I don’t think of it as an empire. I’d rather be in some other shoes than in the big promoter shoes. you know. WHAT OTHER SHOES WOULD THAT BE?
I’d like to be a pitcher on the United States Olympic team in the gold medal match. I would have black tar under my eyes. I’d bring home the gold. I’d also like to do a bunch of other things, but you know. I love what I’m doing. Don’t get me wrong. But... who knows. SO, YOU’RE SAYING AT SOME POINT YOU WOULD LIKE TO, MAYBE, HAVE A SUCCESSOR SO YOU CAN GO ON AND DO SOMETHING ELSE. You know what, I love doing this. A lot of this stuff we are doing are annual events like Silky Love is Valentines, so fourth. So, it’s becoming more of an annual rhythm on a lot of things, and a lot of people on the team and so forth. I think of Double-O-Spot in the same terms as my baseball thing. Everyone is on the same team. Regardless of where theyhSF at politically or racially or whatever it might be...we’re on the same team, and we’re working hard together. IS THAT YOUR STRATEGY AS FAR AS BUILDING DOUBLE-O-SPOT... USING THE CONCEPT OF BASEBALL? It might be basketball. Is that my strategy? You know what...I don’t really know what I’m doing. I just want people to have fun and get down, and one thing is I always want to improve upon what * did last time and learn from it. I make mistakes. We make mistakes but, we’re pretty conscious about it, and we’re cool to hear about it, too. How else will we learn? I think one of the things was, let’s talk about boxing sport, eye of the tiger. I always felt that I was hungry. When I first came out here...it wasn’t a cake walk when I came out here. People were trying to black ball me, they wouldn’t book me. I’d throw an event they’d throw one on the same day. I’m friends with the people now, but you know...it wasn’t easy. I had to fight. It wasn’t like I just woke up at 12 noon and ate a sandwich and went to bed. I was
working hard. I had to fight. I had to be persistent, and I just got that “I don’t care if you don’t like me.” I’m going to throw the dopest party. You’re going to come regardless. If you put PVU a 60 minute mix tape, I was going to put out a 90 minute that was red. If you came out with one that is blue I was going to come out with one that is orange, you know. When I first was here, I was trying to sling $5 mix tapes. My dad showed me a place where I get mix tapes with my name printed on it. One night, I still remember I use to put a sign up “G-Spot mix tapes. $5.” I remember one night I sold 12 mix tapes. I was super happy. I was stoked! I was stoked. LET’S JUMP AHEAD TO CARL COX 2000. The BBC was putting together this world party, and the major cities around the planet earth, Sydney, London, whatever... Honolulu being the last major city to hit midnight. So, they hit me up in 1998. So, I was working on this project for two years. They called me up, and talking about they wanted to throw some big party and all of this stuff. Me...I’ve seen it all. I’m like “yeah, okay,” but seeing is believing. I need to see it.
There’s so many just random people in this music industry. Hagglers... whatever... so, you just don’t take everyone at face value. Anyway, they flew out and they came to meet me. We put the project together, and that’s a whole story in itself. There was a lot of politics involved. Politics between the Governor’s office and the Mayor’s office and me in between. It was supposed to be here on campus at UH. Y2K concerns. They were doin’ a lot of stuff, anyway shape in form, to not let it happen. I was trying to get a hold to the Convention Center. It was booked out by the Governor’s Millennium Commission. So, I called them up and did a presentation to them. They said “Why do you want to do it inside. They need to see Hawaii’s beautiful island,” and I agreed. I know I probably looked like some eccentric punk rock kid to them that talked slow. But, they adopted the project, and we worked really hard. Cayetano’s Milliniem commission and everybody over there on the board...I appreciate everything they did. The BBC did a documentary on it. I get emotional on there when their like “why you doing this?” It was a free party at Kaka’ako Waterfront Park. No one got hurt. There was over 25,000 people who came, and it was broadcast by every major news company in the world. BBC was doing it, and they are the biggest radio news station in the world. It was huge. It was huge for Hawaii. I was proud to be a part of it. I didn’t make a dollar. I was so over worked. I couldn’t get my hair cut. I was so over worked that I got the flu. I couldn’t see my family for the holidays. It was a lot of work. But, we’ll do another one.
I’m still friends with the guys at the BBC. They fly me out to LA for a bowling match. A BOWLING MATCH? Yeah...I think I won. I think I won the second game. I didn’t know the dude was being serious until he won the first game. So, I said, “let’s platy another one.” Luckily I won. TALKING ABOUT BIG PARTIES...LOVE FEST. WHERE DID IT START? I KNOW YOU HAVE IT HERE IN HAWAII, BUT I KNOW A LOT OF THE FOLK IN HAWAII DOESN’T KNOW THAT IT’S NOT JUST HERE. We’ve been doing it all over. I’m a majority involvement here, and a minority elsewhere like on the mainland and so forth. But, we’ve done it in Mexico and in Tokyo. Recently we’ve been settling into doing it in Vegas, LA and Honolulu, and we’ve been at the Palm’s Hotel Memorial Day weekend. I helped put the Vegas one together, but I couldn’t go to the Vegas one because my twin sister got married. That was just a weird trip for me. I’ve gotten over the fact that I don’t necessarily need to be at every party. That’s one I should have been at, but there’s no way in hell I’m going to miss my sister’s wedding...for a party! I’ve learned through promoting that family and friends are first. It took a while to learn that, but I got that lesson down now. No problem. WHERE DID THE LOVE FEST IDEA COME FROM? That was not originated by me. That was originated by Reza from LA. One of my best friends. He ain’t getting married if I ain’t gettin’ married...I mean I’m not getting married, but I’m sure if we do we’d be each other’s best man...best mate not best man...stand up at each other’s wedding...is that what you call it? BEST MAN... I don’t even need to know about it. It ain’t going to happen. I ain’t worried about it. But he started it out, and we did a few parties together. He deejayed for me a few times, I deejayed for him a few times and we then we started to do a show together.
Reza and I we work together really well. We understand each other’s dynamic, idiosyncrasy. It’s a team effort. It always is. Even Double-O-Spot. It’s a team effort. If you can understand the metaphor, there’s a lot of fifth Beetles running around. Some of them are running around for UXP or UISFF years, some are runnin’ around for life, some are running around for seven years helping out. They might not be gettin’ nominated for an award. The team does. I was just honored by the American Red Cross for throwin’ benefit parties during disasters like the Haiti earthquake and stuff like that. It’s just a little weird because a lot of people worked on that and helped out, and all the EFFKBZF all deejayed for free but... you know... I guess... I don’t know... they need to take a picture with somebody. SOME PEOPLE SAY THAT YOU SOLD OUT. WHAT DO YOU SAY TO THAT? Well...are they referring to G-Spot or are they referring to Double-O-Spot ? G-SPOT... I don’ t really understand why they would think that because in my world what I’m doin’ is seriously underground. I mean... in what context? Like musically? #usiness wise? That I’m throwin’ a party at Pipeline instead of in a basement? Like, in what context? I THINK...FROM WHAT I UNDERSTAND...THAT WOULD BE TO SOME PEOPLE “SELLING OUT”. Throwing a party at Pipeline? YEP. Well...have they been to the parties at Pipeline? PROBABLY NOT?
Well, touche. Well... here’s the thing... alright...all I need is four walls. Give me four walls, power and a door...I don’t even need walls. Just give me a field. Give me somewhere and I’ll do what I can to get people to dance. I’ll get them to listen to some music they didn’t hear before. I’ll do whatever I can to get them to meet a new friend by giving them a venue to get down in. To get their dance shoes hot. To maybe meet the first person that they’ll ever kiss or the person that they marry. You’d be surprise sometimes when I end a weekly like Perpetual Groove. There’s a bunch of married people came up and thanked me for throwing the party. “We met at your party. We’re married, we’re happy.” Oh snap...okay, that’s cool. But..the thing is...you know what...two things...one is...the venue Pipeline is letting people do what they want to do and bring music. What other venue %oes the Blaisdell let you throw this stuff? Actually, I did throw a party at the Blaisdell. (Laughs) Basically, I’m thankful that they (Pipeline) are letting people do events there cuz not everybody will let someone throw a party, a concert, a get down or something at their place. If anyone has the freakiness to allow people to get together and have a dance floor...I’m not tryin’ to say they should commended... but maybe. I mean...all I need is some four walls, and I’ll come in there with some lighting, some decorations and if the place is drab I’ll do what I can to decorate it. If they have a screen... I have crazy visuals you have never seen in your life. Lighting, lasers, sound... If you’re really hung up on a venue I think you need to get over yourself, and that’s one reason why I’m enjoying playing for the kids now more than the adults because the adults... they don’t like this, they don’t like this person... “oh, that caths on the line up? Naw 5hat venue? No! Oh it’s on that side of town. Only this kind of people go there...” No, that’s not in my world!
You know what...if you’re jaded and so forth...you need to find out what’s new and fresh, and these kids are just bouncing around...they don’ t care! They don’t care what the venue is they just want to have a good time and a lot of those people are probably older. They need to go back and find out the reason they loved the thing, and maybe I can’t do that as a deejay or promoter and that’s fine. But they need to get past that and be able to go to a venue and not have the negative attitude: “I don’t like this venue...I don’t like the promoter that’s doing this.” You need to go out and try to have a good time, and the more people that comes to the event the aura and the excitement and so forth gets it more exciting. With Success comes hate. Envy has been around since before JC’s time. Jesus Christ, you know. It’s just out there. I think the way I deal with it I’m happy with, and I’m able to go out and have a good time with my competition’s events and parties...if you want to use that word competition. You know what, I’m going to have a good time, and that’s the bottom line is having a good time and doing what you can at having a good time. This good friend of mine, Jeff, who played volleyball at UH, he said to me one time “you know G, you’re only hearing the squeak of the mouse. But you don’t hear the roar of the lions.” I’m down for criticism, and I need it to learn how to improve upon what I am doin’. But, if I say this should be red somebody will say “I hate that he does it cuz it’s in red.” They’d rather have it in Blue. What are you gonna do?
Just get down on the dance floor close your eyes and listen to some music. OUT OF ALL THE MIXES YOU HAVE CREATED, WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MIX? That would be that song “Yeah, Yeah”. A lot of people like that song. WHAT IS IT ABOUT THAT MIX YOU LOVE SO MUCH? A couple of things. One, the processes in which I did it. I found some marching band drum riffs that I liked. I had them reproduce (the rifts) with live instrumentation and sampled it. I looped them, and that was the back. Then I wanted a bass kick in it that was so dirty and nasty like Too Short from Oakland. I wanted a bass kick in it on the four. Well, the one if you are a JB fan on the fourth if you’re into Prince. The bass was the hit. The kick bass would be hit so dirty and nasty it would ride out for four measures, and I had some fast drums on there and looped them up. I paid an upright bassist to come in there and do this one bassline that I liked off of the Roberta Flack song. It was very hard to play live. So, he played a couple of riffs, and we sampled it and recorded it and so forth. Then I had a diva come in and sing. She was really talented, and she was able to do three parts, and she was able to harmonize with herself. Then did some piano on it, and brought a little girl in the studio whose name was Melissa. She came in the studio and she was really young, so we just put a mic up by her and started playing “repeat after me.” So, you’d get this really cute girl and say, “let’s play repeat after me,” and she’d say, “okay.” I’d like say, “I like music,” and she’d go, “I like music.” Then, “I like it when the beat drops,” and she’d go, “I like it when the beat drops.” You know, so she’s just playing all this stuff. Then we just had her start talkin’. Basically she was saying,
“my name is Melissa,� which should have been the name of the song, “My name is Melissa.� She was talkin’ about, you know, “my name is Melissa. I like Barbie. I like to look up at the stars at night,� and stuff like that. SO MANY OF THE HAWAII OLD SCHOOL PARTY PEOPLE, INCLUDING MYSELF, FOUND THE SCENE IN 2000 AND PRIOR TO BE DEEPLY SPECIAL. DO YOU AND WHY? Yes, not exactly sure why but I do. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE 808 OLD SKOOL PARTY KIDS GROUP ON F"$&#00, I like seeing the old fliers and such. Some I don’t even have copies of. I definitly needed to cut my hair more. DOUBLE-O-SPOT WAS A HUGE PART OF WHAT WAS SPECIAL ABOUT THAT SCENE. WHEN YOU ASK ANYONE FROM BACK THEN THEY WOULD AGREE. HOW DO YOU FEEL KNOWING THAT YOU CONTRIBUTED TO SUCH A POWERFUL LOVE? Good I guess. Still doing it today. Compliments make me uneasy sometimes. WHY DO YOU THINK SUCH A LOVE EXISTED IN THIS PARTY WORLD? All you need is love. Go to www.excellencehappens.net to here “Yeah, Yeah� written by G-Spot. To learn more about G-Spot and to find out about all the latest parties, go to XXX PPTQPU.com.
~ Written and Photographed by Jeanne Wynne Herring ~