Ode To DJ Clue

It was September 1996 and I had just begun my sophomore year at Grand Valley State University.  I had a history class and met this guy named Gary.  We started talking about hip-hop and he started talking to me about mixtapes.  Now, I’m from Muskegon, Michigan, went to a school only 30 minutes away and this was before the Internet blew up, so I didn’t know anything about mixtapes.  I remember my boy Shun, who went to Michigan State, let me hear a Bad Boy mixtape, but it was bad quality.  However, I started talking to Gary and he started telling me about mixtapes that were coming out of New York and featured unreleased songs.  He told me about this one DJ, named DJ Clue and he said Clue put out the dopest mixtapes.  Gary was headed to North Carolina to visit family and he said he could grab a couple of mixtapes for me, so I gave him the loot and told him just to make sure he got at least one Clue tape for me.

Gary brought back this Clue tape for me called, 4, 5, 6 (Going For Broke) and to this day, it’s my favorite mixtape of all-time.  It had a Mobb Deep joint on it called Drop A Gem On ‘Em that I had only heard about it in Vibe magazine.  It was Mobb Deep’s response to 2Pac’s diss on Hit ‘Em Up and it hadn’t been released yet.  Just for that fact, I loved the mixtape, but it had a lot of other gems on there such Nas’ Take It In Blood, Lil Kim’s No Time and Capone-N-Noreaga’s Illegal Life.  For the next five years, I would have a love affair with Clue tape’s and I made it a priority to cop every Clue tape that came out.  There was the Show Me the Money series, Clue For President series, the Cluemanatti series and countless others.

In the late 90s, mixtapes weren’t artist driven like they are today, they were DJ driven.  It seemed like each DJ was known for something.  Ron G was nice with the blends, Tony Touch had the scratches and dope turntable techniques, Kayslay was known for showcasing beef between rappers, but Clue had the exclusives and was known for breaking New York artists.  I first heard the Lox, Fabolous, Joe Budden, Stack Bundles and a bunch of other artists from Clue tapes.  I remember hearing Mobb Deep’s Quiet Storm, Puff’s All About The Benjamins and Jay-Z’s People’s Court for the first time on Clue tapes. 

Clue’s success would extend beyond mixtapes because he would sign with Roc-A-Fella records and in 1998 he released his debut compilation album The Professional that would go platinum.  He would later release 3 additional albums, the Backstage soundtrack (2000), The Professional 2 (2000) and The Professional 3 (2006).  His mixtapes connections enabled him to put together solid compilation albums that would feature artists such as Jay-Z, DMX, Fabolous, Noreaga and a long list of noteworthy hip-hop artists.

When you think of some of the greatest mixtape DJs of all-time, Clue has to be included because he was forerunner in revolutionizing the mixtape game.  In my opinion, Clue paved the way for a lot of DJs such as DJ Kay Slay, DJ Envy and DJ Drama.  Clue was also one of the first mixtape DJs to transition successfully to releasing major label albums and music production.  At the end of day though, my love for DJ Clue is for the mixtapes that he blessed us with.  I had an addiction for hip-hop and Clue was the pusher feeding my habit, so to DJ Clue, I owe you a huge debt of gratitude for blessing me with dope music over the years.