[Si] TV

James D'Agostino's stage name (DJ Green Lantern) suggests he has superhuman powers. Yet, he doesn't own a magical ring only a relentless work ethic. His tenacity and perseverance have turned the Rochester, N.Y.-native into one of hip-hop's in-demand DJs and beatsmiths. In the past couple of months he's produced the soundtrack for Grand Theft Auto IV, and worked with two of the most controversial figures in urban music-Nas and Immortal Technique. Green talks to SiTV.com about being Nas' tour DJ, his controversial N****r disc and collaborating with Russell Simmons on the pro-Barack Obama mixtape, Yes We Can.

SiTV.com: What was your thinking process behind the Nas' N****r mixtape?
DJ Green Lantern: I'm blessed to be part of the project period. This was Nas' vision and [I thought] I'm going to take it to the extreme for him. It's not exactly my personal stance on the world but me being a mixtape DJ, I wouldn't be effective if I didn't try to make the craziest movie possible.

SiTV.com: Did Nas approach you or vice versa?
Green: The label called first and said, "Yo, you gotta do this Nas mixtape. They just switched up name of the title so we're going to make that the mixtape title." I started thinking how I could add some elements to fit that. They provided some a cappellas to some songs that didn't make the album and some exclusive stuff that we did for it. I put it together, put some interludes in it and made it flow together. I added my own personal production on it and it came out real hot. I looked at it like, "I'm doing a Nas album. Let me go crazy and do the best Nas album I can do."

SiTV.com: How has it been being his DJ for the Jones' Experience and Rock the Bells?
Green: It's crazy! You get to see how people react. This guy has shaped people's lives with his music. You get grown ass 35-year-old people in audience singing "It Ain't Hard To Tell" word for word (laughs).

SiTV.com: How did the Jay-Z appearance at Jones Beach go down?
Green: I can't front I kept asking about it for like two weeks before. One day Nas said, "I'm thinking about bringing Jay out." I was like, "Yeah, for real?" I told him, "I am not going to let you forget that you told me that." I kept asking about it like, "Yo, we doing that right?" I got the "Success" instrumental and everything. We did a little pre-game in the dressing room to figure out how it was going down. We do "Breathe" off the new album and once the song ends it goes, "Just breathe, breathe..." So then we went into "Let's let this b***h breath!" So I went into "Success" then a little break to let the crowd realize what's going on, and then [hit them] with "Black Republicans."

SiTV.com: When is your Obama mixtape coming out?
Green: It's way overdue I understand that (laughs). I was waiting for certain verses. Now I'm focused and back in it. It's just me doing my part. It's like Obama represents so much to the hip-hop nation; he represents hope, fairness in a corrupt society that why wouldn't we have a mixtape. I'm just really loving this whole idea. I'm not taking anything for granted.