Twenty-five-year old DJ Benzi from Ann Arbor, Michigan has an impressive resume. His remix albums for rap heavyweights The Clipse and Lil Wayne have garnered serious critical acclaim. His Clipse mixtape “We Got the Remix” was named one of the top five mixtapes of 2006 by Rolling Stone magazine. He’s been mentioned in numerous issues of URB magazine and Scratch. With a recently signed record deal and album in the works the future is looking bright for Michigan’s top DJ.

Banquet: What’s good?

Benzi: Did you listen to that Lil Wayne CD? (Referring to
his new Lil Wayne mixtape “None Higher”)

Banquet: Yeah, I’ve been listening to it everyday…it's dope.

Benzi: Yeah cool, so it’s coming out in two weeks. It will
be a free download and a select few stores will have it. The big news is that I
just signed an album deal.

Banquet: What label did you sign with?

Benzi: Amalgam, its gonna be pretty crazy. The album is going
to be called “Get Right.” I also have a show on Sirius (it debuted on May 20th,
07) called “Get Right Radio” and its also going to be a podcast.

Banquet: So what got you into the DJ/mixtape game?

Benzi: When I was 15 or 16 I got my first set of turntables.
I did every school dance in high school and started doing CDs back when they
weren’t mixed. I was one of the first people to get a CD burner. Once I got to
college it just kept continuing and continuing and I realized that anyone who
would hear them (the CDs) would want to buy them. Then I got in touch with the
Clipse and did that first big mixtape.

Banquet: Nice, so how did you go from being the DJ at high
school dances to linking up with the Clipse?

Benzi: I met a contact who does the music videos for them,
one of their directors who hangs out with them periodically. I guess they had
heard some of my previous remixes/mashups whatever and so I got the
opportunity. They hit me up with a couple acappellas and it went from there.
Through my first contact and some other contacts I also got some unreleased
material and mixed it all together. I got Clipse to host it, you know do some
drops and stuff.

Banquet: Given the caliber of names you work with a lot of
people might see these projects as big money makers. How do things work out on
the backend, financially for you?

Benzi: It’s all promotional. We printed up a 12” (vinyl records) and lost a pretty large amount
of money on that. I also give away so many CDs that in the long run you don’t
make any money off them. It’s almost as if mixtapes are just a big commercial
for yourself. A big commercial that will hopefully pay off when the full-length
album comes out.

Banquet: Who would you say are your favorite DJs in the
game right now?

Benzi: I think DJ Skee is pretty crazy. As far as mixtapes
it’s really just a select few. I mean Drama (DJ Drama), Evil Empire, Mick
Boogie…but I think he’s kind of slowed down. I mean the mixtape thing is pretty
much dead. It’s just going to be a promotional tool. In the future I might
print up a couple thousand copies and give them to artists to hand out at shows
and appearances. Almost like a pre-album or teaser for the artist’s upcoming
album. So we try to time it right.

Banquet: What gave you the inspiration to use the kinds of
instrumentals that you’re using? I don’t know if you listen to bands like Hot
Chip or LCD Soundsystem but a lot of your tracks are kind of reminiscent of
their sound.

Benzi: Yeah I mean I’m tied pretty closely into that scene.
I keep up. I enjoy a lot of that, you know like LCD Soundsystem. I got Hot
Chip’s album. Influences like Diplo, I look to him. I like his production and
he’s always out there. That’s the direction I want to take it in. You would
never hear Lil Wayne over that type of stuff or you would never hear Clipse
over some of those more electro-hipster type beats.

Banquet: You were talking earlier about your label deal.
What do you think about the trend in the industry to move away from the major
labels and toward independent labels? Obviously you sell fewer CDs, but you get
a much bigger return on each one.

Benzi: Right, yeah the return and the freedom. The label
trusts me. They heard the Lil Wayne CD; they trust that I have a sense of
what’s good through my contacts and stuff. So this album is like a bridge
between mainstream rap with artists like Rick Ross and the club culture, with
people like Kid Sister and Diplo.

Banquet: So what do you think of someone like DJ Khaled? The
ways he’s situated with Koch, the units he’s been able to move etc…

Benzi: Yeah I mean his album is almost a blueprint for the
type of album I’m striving for. He does half of the production and brings in
guest producers. After talking to my label that’s the blueprint right now.

Banquet: What other projects do you have coming up?

Benzi: Look for installments of Get Right Radio, you can
find that on iTunes. Future installments of We Got the Remix with Clipse and
then my full length. I’ll be spending a lot of time on that making sure it’s
perfect.

Check out DJBenzi.com and MySpace.com/djbenzi