Published in the October 2008 issue of DJ Times Magazine
Volume 21 - Number 10
By Robert LaFrance

Long an Industry Curio, Roonie G’s Video Wizardry Has Fully & Finally Enchanted Clubland

Columbus, Ga.—DJ Roonie G exudes the future. You see it in everything he does—his DJ style, his personal philosophies, his website, and even his fashion sense. He seems to live on the edge of the present with an outstretched hand reaching for the next big thing.

When everyone was spinning vinyl, he was pushing the limits of CD technology. As soon as we were all comfortable with our digital-DJ systems, he was already exploring multi-media by incorporating video into his performances. Now that video systems are becoming common, he is producing his own custom source material and looking toward the horizon for what’s next in DJing—always challenging himself and never, ever resting. It’s those artistic and technological curiosities that continue to set him apart from the rest of the DJ world—it just took the audience a little time to catch up.

Roonie’s mixture of pop culture—TV, movies, hip-hop, rock-n-roll, dance music—has continually pushed the limits of technology and wowed audiences from L.A. to New York. Recently, the Columbus, Ga.-based jock was able to break a 10-year drought of gigs in Atlanta and show those in Georgia’s capitol city what they’ve been missing all these years. And Roonie G delivered with precision, excitement, enthusiasm, and the utmost professionalism—as he consistently does.

These are the qualities that have enabled him to progress up the DJ ladder and win over a national audience. He is now performing for the biggest celebrities in Vegas—think Diddy, Wyclef, Kid Rock—and the most prestigious clubs around the country. He currently has residencies at the Saddle Ranch in L.A., Jet in Vegas, Mixx at the Borgata in Atlantic City, plus others in Chicago, New Orleans, and now Hotlanta.

The industry accolades and career accomplishments continue to pile up. In addition to being an award-winning DVDJ (two Club World trophies, so far), his profile includes: serial entrepreneur—he’s owned nightclubs, beauty salons and real estate; turntablist—he’s won many local and national competitions; product-development consultant—he helped Pioneer develop the industry-standard CDJ-1000 and the audio/video players, the DVD-X1 and DVJ-1000; and nearly life-long DJ—now in his 25th year, he was an ’08 America’s Best DJ nominee. And, if that’s not enough, he’s a pretty good poker player, as evidenced by respectable finishes in several tournaments, including The World Series of Poker.

We recently caught up with Roonie G (aka 39-year-old Roongsak Griffeth) in between cross country flights to find out what makes him tick and why video has become so hot.

DJ Times: How did you get started DJing?

Roonie G: I was a hip-hop kid. I was break dancing professionally in 9th and 10th grade in Japan. We were touring in Japan and I needed music. But no DJ could do a mix for me the way I wanted it—so I had to do it myself. I got my little pause-button tape recorder, then a Casio sampler and started to build my tracks. And that led to being creative with the music. Then I started DJing my high-school dances when I was a sophomore. I was doing my homecomings and my own prom—I had my date next to me onstage. [Laughs.]

DJ Times: Your dad was in the service, right?

Roonie G: My father was in the Air Force, so I was an Air Force brat. I lived in The Philippines, Hawaii, Japan and, halfway through my senior year in high school, we moved to Georgia of all places. I still considered myself a breaker, but my DJ thing was building up, too. So my senior year, I was doing whatever gigs I could take. I did a friend’s wedding with my home speakers. I did other gigs in the area for like a $50 guarantee and would split the door. [From Warner Robins, Ga.,] I would drive literally 30 miles out to an all-black college area called Fort Valley. The names of the places I played will tell it all: Chocolate City, JJ’s Hideaway, Leroy’s Place, The Brown Derby. I was going there and bringing all my equipment, my vinyl, and my turntables with my Levert and Guy records—early- and mid-’90s R&B. And I was just killing them with it. I would end up making maybe $100. But I did it for the love of it. As long as I was DJing and I could make a dollar—I jumped on it. And that built a lot of my foundation.

DJ Times: When did you realize that DJing was your future, not dancing and breaking?

Roonie G: As soon as I touched the turntables. And as soon as I touched my first sampler in my sophomore year I knew I was gonna do it. But when I was 18- or 19-years old, I picked up a gig in Macon, Ga., where Little Richard and Otis Redding are from. There was a black club there called The Peacock Lounge. I knocked on the door and got in for like $50 a night. I was DJing for an urban crowd in the early ’90s in the middle of Georgia when things weren’t as progressive as they are now. So I had to really tune into what they were tuned into. It educated me a lot. I was already very open-minded. My format already included rock and hip-hop from when I started in ’86—I was already doing mash-ups then because that’s what I was exposed to. I was a military brat with everybody who liked different genres of music. I was already mixing Bon Jovi and “Planet Rock,” and now I was exposed to this soulful type of music and I had to do my homework. But I was just in love with music and as long as I could buy my Ramen, I thought, “This is great!”

DJ Times: Were you in college at this point?

Roonie G: I went to two years of college. But I was stressed out every time I went to school. I was passing, but barely, because I was literally bored. And I realized that if I graduate, I’m still gonna want to DJ or make music—that’s it. So I decided after two years just to go full time with my DJing. I was making enough to support myself. I wasn’t well off by any means—I was just paying the bills and truly working on the level of a starving musician. Then, in 1990, I got my first extensive full-time gig at the Chickasaw Club in Columbus, Ga. And I made the decision to leave my schooling and moved to Columbus and kept pushing the game from there.

DJ Times: What type of crowd was at the Chickasaw Club?

Roonie G: It was a majority mainstream, Top-40 crowd with a big military influence because Fort Benning [Army base] is there. So there was a lot of diversity. In 1990, hip hop was becoming mainstream and I was playing rock, too, since it was a Georgia town. So I had a lot of opportunities to be very eclectic. I learned to be very diverse in my format. I was there for 10 years, from ’89 to ’99.

DJ Times: What was your style back then?

Roonie G: I was all about turntablism and electronic music. Back then, you were either a house or a hip-hop guy, but I liked it all! I was playing it all—dance, Stevie B, Shannon, TKA, all the freestyle and dropping the early ’90s hip hop, while incorporating all the mainstream stuff at the same time.

DJ Times: Is that when you started doing DJ competitions?

Roonie G: It was. I won a couple of regional competitions with the record pool Dixie Dance Kings (DDK). I did some stuff with three and four turntables. I was into the tuntablist stuff, but also into the mixing. And it was important to me to incorporate the advancement of mixing. The only way to do that was with three or four turntables and mixing three records at the same time. There weren’t a lot of break records back then, so you had to use authentic records. In one of the early competitions, I mixed an a cappella over a rhythm track, but then I was limited to what I could do next. So, I added a third turntable so I could seamlessly drop into another a cappella while the rhythm track was still going.

DJ Times: How did you start working with Pioneer?

Roonie G: In 1996, I won a competition at the Nightclub & Bar Convention at Disney World and Karl [Detken] from Pioneer saw me. I did this thing where I jumped down, came back up with a big old Afro, mixed in Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze,” and then lit the turntable on fire. So, the mix is going, “Purple Haze” is on fire and I’m doing my thing onstage with a big wig. Karl thought it was very creative. He approached me and wanted me to use the CDJ-700 for a showcase. I said, “I never worked with CD players.”  But, he asked me to try them out and sent me a couple. I was like, “OK, this pitch control thing is cool.” You couldn’t scratch on them, but there was an instant start and, with that, I was able to control the rhythm. So I could catch a kick or snare and then play it. In the showcase the next year, I used four CD-700s. I would catch a kick on one 700, catch a snare on another 700, a hi-hat on the third one, and a catch-phrase like, “Aw Yeah!” on the fourth one. Then I could replay it like I was drumming on a turntable. And that became the blueprint for the hot cues on the CDJ-1000.

DJ Times: And also your launching pad into a more national audience, right?

Roonie G: Well, that was a couple years later. Working on the 700 led to a lot of communication with Pioneer and working as a consultant on products. That led to the main blueprint for the CDJ-1000 and that is when I started touring and showcasing the CDJ-1000. So, all these DJs are seeing what I am able to do and also recognizing me from my remixes for X-Mix and Ultimix. But I was still unknown in the commercial world.

DJ Times: Is that when Pioneer started thinking about video?

Roonie G: When we first launched the CDJ-1000, we had a showcase in Atlantic City and I remember us discussing the next level, which was very obviously the DVJ. So while everyone was still excited about the CDJ, we were already in the planning stages for the DVJ.

DJ Times: Was transition from audio to visual tough for you?

Roonie G: In the beginning, I was immediately wowed just to be able to scratch a video, but there was a big obstacle and that was: Where do you get content? And how do you even put tracks together on the same DVD? Especially in 2004 when the technology wasn’t as good as it is now and computers weren’t as fast. I had a big learning curve and I had to take a lot of extra time to educate myself on software, editing, using [Apple] Final Cut, stepping up my computer, so it was capable of video editing, learning to author DVDs. Back then, it was an enormous commitment for me. But I knew that it was the future—it was blatantly obvious. The dramatic impact of being able to manipulate video in an artistic fashion crosses boundaries. Because when I’m scratching video, even the average Joe can relate because they can visually see whatever content I choose. And that totally opens up your mind up to a whole new experience—that is the power of video mixing.

DJ Times: Do you think the audience reaction to video mixing is any different or better than with audio?

Roonie G: Yes, 100-percent. It also depends on the DJ/artist, but it’s impressive at any level. Think about it. For people who aren’t normally tuned in musically to the scratching and stuff, it can be just background. Whereas video becomes foreground and demands attention. You can visually relate to the music.

DJ Times: Do you create your own source material?

Roonie G: I get a lot from Promo Only, but it’s still necessary for me to step up to the plate and learn to edit. As many video DJs know, some of the early music videos are terrible because the audio is bad, it cuts off, or the version is bad and it’s just not workable as a DJ. So, I was like, “Holy crap! I gotta do that much work!” I just had to bite the bullet and dedicate another 20 hours a week to video editing.

DJ Times: What is your setup to edit video?

Roonie G: My Mac and a combination of Sony Vegas and Final Cut. But some of the guys in my Video Assassins group prefer Final Cut.

DJ Times: Who are the Video Assassins?

Roonie G: DVDJ Unique [Javier Lopez], 2nd Nature [Brett Belcastro], DVDJ G. Funk [Gene Jone], and two other guys, DJ Steel and Don Lynch. It’s mostly me and DVDJ Unique doing a lot of the Video Assassins shows. Unique and I are the core members.

DJ Times: Why did you form the group?

Roonie G: A combination of reasons: Bret and all of us were friends for a long time. It’s a way for me to collaborate with other video DJs. For different residencies that I have, it’s not in the best interest of the clubs to have me every week—they want variety. So I assimilated a group of different DJs that would work well. Basically, I had more gigs than I could handle, so I formed the Video Assassins. Plus, when you are putting so many hours into one mix, you want to have a little network of people you trust to collaborate with.

DJ Times: So you share the custom videos so you have a wider library to choose from?

Roonie G: Somewhat, but we don’t share a lot of videos anymore. We’ve gotten to the point where we have enough stuff and we want to keep our own individual identity. But it helps to have a team of people to work with since it may take multiple hours to edit a video—and that’s just one song!

DJ Times: How much of the stuff that you play are your own personal edits of stuff, as opposed to canned content from Promo Only or wherever?

Roonie G: I like to do even small edits and I’m getting quick now so maybe 80-percent is custom.

DJ Times: You incorporate a lot of pop-culture content in your performances. How and why do you do that?

Roonie G: I’m open-minded to our society, like I edited the trailer to the new Batman movie, so he is singing “Back in Black.” I just thought it would be cool. But people relate to what’s going on “in the now.” So they are emotionally attached to what’s happening so that if you mix it in creatively with music, it can be powerful. In a club environment, I still consider myself a DJ first. So, you have to wear the hat of a performance artist, while still reading the crowd. So I use those short interludes for transitions between BPMs. So if I’m doing a house set, I can use a Dave Chappelle line that we all know and is hilarious and then, bam, I kick it into a hip-hop set and it still makes sense.

DJ Times: Why has your residency at Universal City Walk been so successful?

Roonie G: The owner of Saddle Ranch in Los Angeles saw me and wanted to bring me on as a resident, so we signed a year contract. It started off with, like, 500 people and now it’s a minimum of 2,000 people every Thursday. The crowd is very tuned into what I am doing. It’s a combination of the experience I have as a DJ—being able to format the night to be progressive, but yet still keep in touch with some of the classic stuff. And doing that every week and then having video entertainment integrated, it gives you all the necessary ingredients for a party environment.

DJ Times: What makes you different from other entertainers?

Roonie G: I’m a veteran of the game, but I’m as enthusiastic as a rookie. I still have the same amount of heart as the first day I started. Just being open-minded and truly looking at it as an art. Art is first, musician second, then DJing, of course, and being human and in touch with what people are thinking. As DJs, we’re looking at responses and learning how to read people on a psychological level, and all those elements make a good DJ or artist. And then adding your own personal creative ideas. It takes time to master each level and I’m proud that I have had the time to do that and still be excited about it.

DJ Times: How much of your success at a gig depends on the equipment in the club?

Roonie G: It’s very vital. If you don’t look at the power of it, you can neglect it. It’s kinda like putting in a dinky sound system. People will only hear half the bass and that’s not truly experiencing the full frequencies of that dance record. If you have one dinky video monitor, people won’t be tuned into that. You have to show some presence.

DJ Times: What’s your ideal setup?

Roonie G: Definitely a minimum of two DVJs with the SVM-1000 mixer, and a screen within line of sight—a screen within a few feet of where I am, so they can relate. So if I’m scratching a video, the crowd can see it. I look at every video projector as a band member to me. You wouldn’t see a lead singer on one stage with the rest of the band members on another stage—it would look goofy. So it only makes sense to have my band members are on the same stage.

DJ Times: How would describe the difference between your performances and a DJ with background video?

Roonie G: Doing it with the tempo—that’s the key. We’re doing it rhythmically. If I edit a video, I edit it as a DJ—with a rhythmic feel. And that’s why it was important to me to learn to do it myself. I could have other people do it for me, but it’s not as powerful because I want it to pulsate more. Sometimes, the screens are also my light show, so I want it to be pulsating and become rhythmic to the experience and not to take away from it.

DJ Times: Do you think you’re at the peak of your career now?

Roonie G: This is an appetizer. I’m just warming up. I’m just so excited because there are so many artistic things that I want to do—hybrid entertainment performance ideas. I am so thankful for where I’m at and the love that people are giving me. I get a lot of love from the DJs. I don’t think the mainstream even knows who I am. It’s not like I have a reality show or anything. I am just focusing on my art one fan at a time. And the strongest fans have been the DJs because they recognize me from all the years before with Ultimix remixes and the DJ conventions. And it’s great to be respected in that field. But yet, I’m an artist and I’ve just begun to tap my artistic potential.

DJ Times: Do you see anything in particular that will change the DJ industry in the near future?

Roonie G: Not one specific thing, but technology is always moving so you have to be prepared for anything. But the most important thing is that when it all comes down to it, you gotta have the heart. As successful as my video mixing has been, even if the TVs go blank, I’m still gonna rock the crowd!