my thoughts and memories of DJ-AM

well...

it's friday morning 10am, almost a week from the time I found out AM died. it's also the morning after I attended his memorial at the Palladium..

thiz week has been hard to say the least, this shit happens and I'm in Vegas (again) for... days ,for.. work..the MAGIC show is going for fucks sake..I held it together did what I had to do..but I couldn't wait to get back to LA and speak wit the homies..

so...Adam Michael Goldstein...AMG! He was something special...fucking turned into a rock star on me..I first met Adam in 95 or 96. I was working at CAA in the library at my first job ever, and thiz dude comes down from the mailroom wit his work outfit (dress shirt, tie, slacks, dress shoes) all baggy. I luckily could basically wear whatever I wanted (cuz our office wuz down the street) so I would always wear MECCA shit all baggy.

He immediately recognized me as a member of the hip hop nation and said "wut up biatch this is AMG!!" I was intimidated a lil bit but said back "I'm J-MACKEY"..you gotta remember back then..hip hop was just taking off mainstream..so it was like a lil click of us who liked rap...most of the black dudes who worked there, me AM, Anthony ( who I saw at the memorial...wow) used to roll together..cuz we wasn't no ARi hollywood agent BS wannabee types ..we were from the hood..trust me parts of BH are hood.

anywayz i was the outsider..he took me in. we'd go over to his apt right down the street in BH and fuck around wit turntables, records, and samplers...i came from a guitar playing background and had just begun to produce tracks on my Roland DJ-70 and played them for AM..he said it sounded like C & C music factory and then played me some GANGSTARR..He was also the 1st person to play me BIG's Ready to Die album...Al Mayman came over one day and really showed us how to sample..I really owe it to AM and Al cuz w out them I may have never become a producer and definately not a DJ..

.i actually brought AM to his first ever REAL studio session to lay cuts for me on a beat i had done..i'm talkin 2 inch tape days ...he was high, 2 hrs late, and was wearing the most wrinkled phat farm t shirt you have ever seen, but he killed it in the studio, i never got those tapes and lost the cassette mix we had of the track, but it was memorable for both of us....cuz we were still at the 9 to 5...

AM had some janky turntables and I had a single YORX combo unit i was scratching on...we were both thrilled when we found out CAA employee's got this insane discount on Panasonic gear, which included the coveted SL 1200's...we both ordered our pairs at the same time..the price got taken out of our checks..or we used our xmas bonus..they arrived at the same time...we'd ask each other every day...did you get yours yet? haha....he got his and became the best DJ in the world...I got mine and became a producer in training and a club soundman and now a rock star...i still have one of those tables today...sold thee other one a long time ago..

so we worked there for like 3 or 4 years together...hung out a lot...he was starting to DJ spots..The Boiler Room!!! an OG after hrs. Danny B paid him $40 to DJ Dragonfly I think..and soon he quit CAA to DJ full time!..i quit about 4 or 5 months after he did and went to work at Club Lingerie as their soundman for the next 4.5 years....

Club Lingerie was basically an all rap club then...or thats what was the biggest draw..i got to know the LA DJ world quick..Scott Oster basically ruled the Hollywood scene and DJ ADAM 12 used to rule the hip hop world...AM learned a lot from both of them and NYC's Mark Ronson... i remember him spinning Scott's exact mixes he would play at Saturday Night Fever for me in his BH apt...pointing out his favorite part when scott played Hall and Oats and kept extending the intro ....

anywayz i'd worked there a couple weeks...and in walks AM and we figure out we are gonna be working together again..this time in a club!! we'd made it....ha! so he would just go off!! and people hated sometimes cuz he was a white jewish kid from BH, but adam was down like fuck, i was always at all black clubs , and hanging in the hood and would see him and we'd be the only non white people there and Ben Yizzle.

so then he started to blow up...playing hollywood parties..he was so good at mixing and scratching...he could seemingly mix anything into anything...he took what Oster was doing to the next level...getting hollywood and the hood together...he started Dj'ing PuFFy's BDAY and all these insane corporate parties....B4 him DJ's were just DJ's...he brought back the spotlight to the DJ...turned it into something else completely...

i remember we hadn't seen him in a couple months, and I'm at what is now AREA wit COUNRTY and we hear what sounds like AM coming from the speakers we look in the booth and see this skinny kid in there rocking..we were like "some nerd stole all AM's mixes what the fuck"....but it was him...he'd had the surgery and lost like 100 plus pounds...the next week i went back to the club and nicole richie was in the booth with him..then he just BLEW UP , bigger than any DJ B4, world famous to supermodels, bboyz and moms in middle america alike....

i didnt see him as much once i quit the club scene and started producing full time...but when i did he looked at me like i'd made it....but then he and travis hooked up and i started seeing him a lot again...and then i started to work with MICKEY AVALON and KEV E KEV( AM's BF) so the ties were there again....He really is the Kevin Bacon of DJ'ing...we all are connected thru him...

then the accident on sept 20th happened..i was shattered....my dear friend LIL CHRIS died...my friend Travis was badly burned and AM was reportedly burned bad too. AM recovered first and was back on the scene in a couple of weeks...his welcome back concert at Avalon will forever be in my memory banks....it was like he died and came back to life...i was so glad to hug him and get his version of what had happened.... he told me that I did a good job speaking at LIL CHRIS's funeral and I was happy.

that accident affected all of us....and it affected AM more than he let on i guess...and that sent him back into addiction..but it's important to note..he wouldn't of done all the things he did if he didn't get sober...he helped a lot of people get sober..thats why its hard to accept the way he died....but we have to accept it..and learn from it.....addiction is a serious problem that can pop up after years of sobriety and kill you....even for someone who appeared to be the master of AA.

the memorial yesterday was a fitting tribute to an incredible dude. and proof that he knew everybody who's anybody.. everytime i got sad i just looked at 4 year old Sebastian Baker (who came wit me) and thought of his dad LIL CHRIS and AM looking down upon us...

stay up everybody and can I get an " awwwww jyyeaah"! in honor of  of my old friend DJ AM.

Mack Dizzle