[Si] TV

Anthony Valadez marches to the beat of his own drum. The 29-year-old DJ/producer/artist/Si blogger has found happiness doing things his way. You won't find an ounce of conformity in the California native, who has toured the country with the likes of Res and Talib Kweli. Instead you'll find a genuine optimist who hopes to change the world--one note at a time.

[Si] Ent.: So you're an artist, a DJ and a producer. What is it that you don't do?
Anthony Valadez: I don't know how to fix cars. I'm not a mechanic, I'm not an astronaut and I'm definitely not a politician.

[Si] Ent.: If you were a politician what would be number one on your agenda?
AV: Education, taking care of the economy and pulling troops out of Iraq; basically taking care of people and not instilling fear in them but rather producing hope and optimism amongst the people.

[Si] Ent.: You speak of hope and optimism. Your music is outside the box so to speak, so what keeps you optimistic about doing music outside of the machine?
AV: For me my measure of happiness is making music for me. I make a ton of beats a day and I just don't let nobody hear them. Some of them actually leak out and people end up recording on them. I just try to make stuff to put on my iPod. Of course mainstream America has ways to measure happiness and success, but I don't abide by those [measures]. It would be nice to make money and be like a Just Blaze or a Kanye, but right now I make music for me.

[Si] Ent.: What song gets the most play on your iPod?
AV: My friend Carlos Nino did a tribute track to the late great J Dilla. And he flipped a Common song where J Dilla did the beat.

[Si] Ent.: If you could have been in any session with J. Dilla and watched him make a beat which would it be?
AV: There's two. "Climax," [by Slum Village] and "Nag Champa" a song that he did for Common off of Like Water for Chocolate.

[Si] Ent.: Finish this sentence: Hip-hop is...
AV: Great. It's good and it's branching out. Hip-hop is making people dance again. I'm not really into hyphy and all of that but it's a great thing that people are dancing to hyphy and actually coming out of their shell.

[Si] Ent.: Since you brought up hyphy, are you out there ghost ridin' ya whip?
AV: You know what I did it twice in my jeep [laughs]. I love YouTube so I was like let me try this. I was a p***y with it. I was out of the car for one second and hopped right back in.

[Si] Ent.: Do you understand anything that Keak the Sneak says?
AV: That's the beauty of hip-hop. You can have no talent and you can make money off of it. If any person of color can make money, [that's good] regardless. That's his expression and it's not for me, [but] I know kids that like it. I don't understand [him] and as a DJ I get requests for it but I just don't play it because personally I'm not feeling it.

[Si] Ent.: What's your most anticipated album of ‘08?
AV: I think Pete Rock has an album [NY's Finest] coming out in ‘08 and I'm looking forward to that.

[Si] Ent.: Vinyl or Serato?
AV: The answer that hip-hop heads wanna hear is vinyl, but Serato because of my back. I'm not trying to carry crates. I rather come to a club with my Serato and do just what I would've done with my vinyl. I still buy vinyl [but] I rather just carry around a laptop. As a DJ we don't have healthcare so I'm not trying to put my back out.

[Si] Ent.: What's the one record that you can play in any party anywhere in the world and get it popping?
AV: David Bowie's "Let's Dance." I don't care if it's a Mobb Deep album release party "Let's Dance" gets it jumping. Actually Mobb Deep's "Quiet Storm" works too.

[Si] Ent.: Now Mobb Deep sampled Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five's "White Lines" on that record, you don't do drugs do you?
AV: Awww man, I'm drug-free. I been drug-free for a long time. It's funny because everybody I know does it, crack is back and coke is back, but I'm just trying to run and lose weight.

[Si] Ent.: How are people still smoking crack in 2008?
AV: I can name six people right now who I know that are crackheads and it's sad. It's back and I don't know what to blame it on, but the economy is not doing good and people are trying to escape just like they did in the ‘80s. Reaganomics wasn't cool and now we got Bush.

[Si] Ent.: Ahh our beloved Commander-in-Chief; if anybody in the world could be our next president who would it be?
AV: Bono from U2 and Al Gore as his VP.

[Si] Ent.: Can music save the world?
AV: Realistically, it can't but I gotta teach my kids that it can. I believe that it can change people's worlds. But as mighty as the words of Bob Marley are, people who control the world are not trying to hear it. But music can change individual worlds and communities, but the establishment ain't trying to hear it.