Don Vito Interview Transcription
DJ Booth: What’s goin’ on everybody? It’s your boy “Z,” doin’ it real big, and joining me inside the DJ Booth is a man who was raised only forty minutes southeast of my hometown of Chicago. Starting out in Gary, Indiana, but ending up in Atlanta, Georgia, please welcome-
Don Vito: [singing] And you know what I need…
DJ Booth: Please welcome an emerging force in the record production industry, Don Vito!
Don Vito: Man, what’s goin’ on?
DJ Booth: What’s goin’ on is you’re back in Chicago.
Don Vito: Cold as a motherf*cker out here, though.
DJ Booth: Seriously! It never turns to summer until July 1st.
Don Vito: I know! I don’t get that sh*t! And then I go to LA, I’m overdressed!
DJ Booth: Don, your birth name is Rodney Richard, and your producer identity is Don Vito, so how did the Italian mob boss stage name come to fruition?
Don Vito: First of all, Rodney Richard is a great name within itself. Two first names – that means I’m first all the time. Secondly, Don Vito is not an Italian boss name; Don Vito [was] spawned from Don King. I wanted to name myself Don King, because I like him a lot. Because of his character, the way I viewed him, I thought it was like, “Damn – this guy is deep!” The way he’s able to use the English language to his advantage to be able to motivate and get you to do what he wants you to do – that’s me! But I couldn’t call myself Don King, because I wouldn’t have been original. I knew that sometimes I’m like that, and then sometimes, in business, I’m calculating and hardcore and straightforward, you know what I’m sayin’? If you don’t do what I say, you get out of line, you get a whack. And so I was like, “I’m like that dude from The Godfather, Vito!” And so I always knew him as Vito Corleone, I mean, I’m gonna take the “Vito,” and I’m gonna take the “Don,” from “Don King,” and that’ll be both of my characters, Don Vito. And so that’s how Don Vito came about.
DJ Booth: I often ask artists how their stage names came about, and they’ll say something along the lines of, “It just sounds good.” Never has anyone given me a story quite like that.
Don Vito: Hey, I’m original.
DJ Booth: You are. Hailing from Chicago myself, I know that many Gary, Indiana residents claim Chicago as their home city.
Don Vito: Oh, I don’t ever claim Chicago.
DJ Booth: Your bio proudly includes Gary. So, what was life like growing up in the Midwest, just west of Chicago?
Don Vito: Everything we received was Chicago news, Chicago radio, so I was influenced heavily by WGCI, and back in the day it was WBMA. I started off as a DJ, so I used to listen to Hot Mix 5, Fab 5, and, bein’ from Gary, Indiana, ‘cause we don’t have our own radio station or our own television station, my aspiration was to become a DJ. And if I could spin on BMX or WGCI, I thought I’d made it. It wasn’t until I left Gary and went to California, by form of the military, that I was able to see the world. It’s like, “Damn – you can be more, you can do more!” Like, my whole [stance] is still, from a DJ standpoint, I like to make music that makes you move. I’m always thinkin’ club first, dance, and then pop, which is popular.
DJ Booth: Don, oftentimes you hear producers try to stay away from that “pop” title but really, if you get the “pop” title, that means that the mainstream loves your record.
Don Vito: You’re right! I’m gonna tell the fans out there, I’m a sellout. I sell out. And I really try to sell out record stores! [laughter]
DJ Booth: [laughter]
Don Vito: And radio! I’m a sellout!
DJ Booth: Well, those are two good mediums to sell out; I couldn’t agree more. Thus far, some of your most well-known hits are Yung Joc’s Coffee Shop, Cherish’s Killa, and Bow Wow and Omarion’s collaboration Girlfriend. If someone were to listen to all three without knowing that Don Vito was the mastermind behind each, is there any particular sound or element that you try to incorporate into all of your music, that you maintain throughout?
Don Vito: Bright. If you listen to those songs, they’re bright. I mean, that’s the best way to describe it. They’re not dark.
DJ Booth: Tricky Stewart, I read, recruited you into his Red Zone production team. Tricky obviously has had a lot of radio success the past year, so what are a few similarities that you think you and Tricky both possess?
Don Vito: Tricky helped me to focus on the song. When he first recruited me, I came over and I was like, “I got the hot beats!” And he was like, “I don’t give a f*ck about them beats – give me the record, give me the song!” And so Tricky taught me the song. I call ‘em “beat boys,” people [who] make beats, and they think that’s production. But that ain’t production; production is bein’ able to deliver a radio or a commercially-finished master record. That includes finding the engineer, paying for the studio time, paying the songwriter if need be, or the musicians if necessary. It’s not just, I’m in my house, I’m on FruityLoops, I’m on Logic or Cakewalk or Sonar or whatever, and I’m makin’ a beat. Production is just what it is. It’s production; it’s the beginning to the end. A lot of times a producer will be like,”Yeah, I’m gettin’ $10,000 a track!” but what they’re not tellin’ young producers tryin’ to get in the game is, out of that $10,000 I had to pay the songwriter this, and I had to pay the studio this, and I had to pay my attorney this and my businessman this. There’s a fee that’s included, and it’s called “All-In,” you know what I’m sayin’? You can negotiate the price. My whole mission right now, where I’m at today, as far as production is concerned, is to tell the young producers the business, the importance of publishing, and how that affects you.
DJ Booth: Definitely. People who view the record industry, “It is what it is: there’s someone who makes a beat, there’s someone who raps over the beat,” they don’t understand that wonderful explanation that you just gave a second ago.
Don Vito: Well, I don’t want you to just understand when you [do it] with me, I want you to overstand. And by the way, go to myspace.com/donvitoproductions and you’ll be able to see me.
DJ Booth: I like that – plugging the website early. I was gonna give you the opportunity to give it at the end..
Don Vito: Hey, I got about ten more times to do it! Come on, keep [count]!
DJ Booth: [laughter] What are some projects that you have on the horizon for the second half of 2008?
Don Vito: What I got in the oven cooking now, that I’m excited about, is the Ludacris record that I got, the Ciara record that I got, the Gorilla Zoe record we just recorded that’s muy caliente, for the Spanish-speaking people out there-
DJ Booth: Real hot, okay.
Don Vito: -and the Lil’ Wayne and Yung Berg record that I got out there, it’s called Gettin’ to the Money. But if you go to my MySpace page, myspace.com/donvitoproductions, you’ll get to hear those records. [laughter]
DJ Booth: Nice – you are two for two thus far with the plugs. Don, name an artist, if given the opportunity to produce the lead single off their brand new album, who you would work for without any monetary gain.
Don Vito: There are a few. T.I., Eminem, and in the R&B world it would be Neyo, The-Dream – and Dream is a good friend of mine. Dream and I write together a lot. Dream is the one who wrote Coffee Shop with me, and Dream wrote my Omarion and Bow Wow record, Girlfriend. We work together all the time. Dream is one of the hardest-working people I’ve ever seen. He [once] wrote fifteen songs in a day.
DJ Booth: Wow.
Don Vito: He can write an album in one day!
DJ Booth: Incredible, absolutely incredible. Let’s move away from the music game for a second. I was reading over your bio, it claims you are a self-professed geek. Is this true?
Don Vito: Yes, sir!
DJ Booth: Okay, so if I needed help hooking up my Xbox into my new Samsung 52-inch flat-screen plasma, or I wanted to wire some new subs into my trunk, would you be my man?
Don Vito: I’ve got a Samsung 52 with 120 gigs on it, and I got the 46 Samsung with 140 gigahertz, so, yeah, I’ll be your guy.
DJ Booth: Don, what is the geekiest thing you’ve ever done?
Don Vito: The geekiest thing I’ve ever done… right now, in my house, I have four bedrooms, and in any of my bedrooms, including the living room, or my basement, you can get on the Internet, and, I have a server that’s set up, and where you can access movies, without gettin’ up and [puttin’ a DVD in the player]. So, say, if you were in my house, Z, my favorite DJ, and you wanted to see 21, Vantage Point, or Sex and the City, Indiana Jones, and Iron Man, [which are] in the movies, a great copy – you can access that from any room in my house, without getting up and putting a DVD in. You just click a button.
DJ Booth: Okay, so now you’ve gotta tell me how that’s possible...
Don Vito: Hey, if I told you that, I’d have to kill you. Just tune in to myspace.com/donvitoproductions, and you’ll be able to see that.
DJ Booth: So if everyone just goes to your MySpace page, they can find out about what projects you have going on, and how to hotwire their house so they can watch pirated movies...
Don Vito: No, no, no, I’m not doin’ all of that, I’m not gonna tell you how to hotwire your house, but what I will tell you is, myspace.com/donvitoproductions – it’s the sh*t!
DJ Booth: Well, Don I appreciate your time greatly and thank you so much for joinin’ me inside the DJ Booth, my man.
Don Vito: The DJ Booth, that’s what’s up. I want [everyone] to know that Z will sell an Eskimo a refrigerator! [laughter]
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