If you're not familiar with DJ Benzi, he's one of the best up and coming DJs in the country meshing fast paced sounds of modern dance music with some of the biggest names in hip hop. Last year Benzi remixed some tracks for The Clipse and acquired some unreleased material for a mixtape titled We Got The Remix, which was simply a preview of some of the larger things to come from this Michigan DJ in 2007.

He has already remixed some of Lil Wayne's best songs for a mixtape titled None Higher and is being pursued by a few satellite radio stations for his own weekly show. He's also just recently signed a deal with independent label Amalgam Entertainment for an album which is slated for an early '08 release.

HHNLive.com writer Aaron Frank chats with critically acclaimed DJ Benzi about getting into the music game, his next projects with Kanye West and Sean Kingston, working with Lil' Wayne and Clipse, the Dance/Hip-Hop collision and much more.

AF: So how did you originally get involved in whole DJ scene?

Benzi: I got my first turntables at 16 and started doing all of my high school dances and stuff. Then I moved down to college and did frat parties and clubs. After that I just started focusing on making CDs more and more. I started making CDs in the year 2000 and they were pretty elementary level. Now my main focus is working on new music and remixing tracks and stuff, but I hope to get back into the DJ stuff real soon.

AF: How involved are you in all of the production on each of your mixtapes?

Benzi: I am very involved in everything. I enlist a lot of producers to do the tracks, but I oversee everything. They usually send me 2 or 3 different versions of each remix and I usually just pick the best. There's really this core group of producers right now that I worked with on the Lil Wayne album and a lot of them were on the Clipse project. We've got a couple of different projects coming up pretty fast, but I oversee everything and I determine the beats, and then I do a lot of remixes myself obviously.

AF: So do you see yourself getting more involved in actually producing the tracks then?

Benzi: Well I just signed an album deal with Amalgam Entertainment and I'm doing probably half of the production on the album. We've got some great producers who are contributing beats, like Tittsworth and Diplo who I can't exclude. I've been working in this studio in Chicago though developing some different beats with an engineer and it's been coming along great. We've got like 5 or 6 really good beats done and I just keep going out there and working. So I'm really focusing on that but I'm also focusing on making good mixtapes as well.

AF: When did you decide you wanted to start putting your work out on the internet?

Benzi: It was just a natural situation that was going to happen with the DJ Drama situation or without it. You know, people download stuff like crazy. It's still good to have a hard copy as a novelty, so I still printed up some hard copies of the new Lil Wayne and gave them out to different magazines and friends and stuff. But the more people that hear your stuff the better and with websites offering stuff for free and with things like torrents, I don't really mind it. I'm not really looking for a profit on the tapes. It's more to get my name out there and to help the producers get their name out there. The end result is just going to culminate with this big album which will be out soon. So hopefully people will know me from the tapes by then and they'll support the album and the singles.

AF: You mentioned the deal with Amalgam earlier. How did that whole situation occur?

Benzi: They sought me out when they heard the Clipse tape and they're just big hip hop fans. They're a great grassroots label and they've been signing some really good talent. So we talked and I had been wanting to do a big album project on this scale before. So it all came together and we've got Get Right: The Album coming out. Get Right is like a theme that I carry. It's the name of my radio show and my podcast and I did a mixtape before called Get Right as well. But this is Get Right: The Album. The single is going to be huge. We've got a lot of big name stars mixed with up and comers I guess you could say. It's going to bring together the stars of dance music and hip hop and it's a mesh of that. It's going to be fast cutting edge beats. The single will be out in a month or two and then it will hopefully be followed by another single in the fall. Then the album should come out around the first quarter of '08. I should be going on a European tour this fall to support the two singles and it's just really going to mix mainstream hardcore hip hop with this new DJ/Club culture with the faster beats. I'm kinda doing something that no one has done yet so everyone should hopefully like it.

AF: Do you feel like this combination of the two genres is something that will blow up in the future and people just haven't really taken advantage of it yet?

Benzi: Yeah, you can always see a trend by what the big guys are doing and the way things are going. If you look at Timbaland and his latest singles, everything is over 120 BPM. And these producers, like Diplo and Xxxchange from Spank Rock, are really on the cutting edge. That's what I listen to in my free time and that's the direction that everyone is going. Stuff like Fergalicious became a crossover hit with Will.I.Am doing 130 BPMs. So we're going to keep it around 120 for the album, but we're really trying to push the limit on some of this Chicago style stuff, which is almost 160 BPMs. It's just unheard of fast and the country is slowly catching on to that.

AF: Are you influenced at all by the Baltimore style club music?

Benzi: Yeah, it's kinda getting played out all over the place, but there's still a lot of great stuff in that vein that is still coming out. Tittsworth, whose contributing a few tracks, has a lot of influence and has really mastered his style around that. Pretty soon I think that term and everything might be played out, but they'll definitely carry the torch and do something new.

AF: So, you've done remix albums with The Clipse and Lil Wayne. How do you decide which artists you're going to work with?

Benzi: Lately I've been getting a lot of requests to work with artists and I guess the money would be nice, but I really just choose who I like. With The Clipse, I had just been a huge fan of them and the Neptunes for a long time. That mixtape just came out during kind of a drought right before their last album came out. I think Lil Wayne is really on his game right now. He's probably the best rapper out so that was just a no-brainer, but this next project is my dream project with one of the biggest superstars in the world. You can't turn down people like that, but I do get a lot of offers to do stuff with silly rappers, so you really have to pick wisely on who you choose to work with.

AF: Who are you working with for your next mixtape?

Benzi: I actually got a call from Kanye's people yesterday and it's just going to be huge. I'm going to be doing remixes of some of his songs and we'll probably remix a couple of tracks from his last mixtape. But it's just going to be a crazy project no matter what. I'm really amped on it because if I bust my ass on this mixtape, then I'm hoping he might do a verse for my album or something. In 2 or 3 weeks though, we're going to have a CD with Sean Kingston, who my friend signed to Cinematic Music Group. So that connection is nice and we just remixed Beautiful Girls with some Miami booty bass type beats. It'll be a full mix called Get Radio: Summer Edition, which will be free on my website. It's going to a great summer barbecue CD. I have a tradition of coming out with CDs during the summer. 2 summers ago was the one I did with the Ying Yang Twins and then last summer I did one with Twista called Blackout, so it should be good to have that Sean Kingston connection.

AF: How do you get the exclusive and unreleased material?

Benzi: You gotta just figure out the way to approach them and you just have to show them what you do and show them that you can offer something that's better than anyone else. But in this day in age, it's hard to get stuff that isn't leaked. You have to have trust in them and they have to have trust in you. With the Clipse tape, my cover was blown and everyone ended up getting those acapellas, which kinda defeated the purpose. But being at that level is really great and you just have to hope that the stuff doesn't hit the internet. It's kinda hard nowadays, but I have confidence in everyone I work with. So you definitely won't see my album hitting the internet before it comes out because I work in this market everyday and I kinda know how it works.

AF: Can you tell us anymore about this gig you recently got with Shade45?

Benzi: Hopefully. I'm looking at an opening with Shade 45, but I will be at any channel on Sirius. We're in talks right now. I might end up on Hip Hop Nation. It will probably be an hour show every week. You can look for me on there in the future. I'm going to premiere the Get Right Radio: Summer Edition on DJ Jamad's show, which is on Sundays at 9 PM. That will be premiered July 9 on Hip Hop Nation on Sirius, but you will be able to get it early on July 2 at my website. You can also get all of the shows that I turn in to podcasts on iTunes and at DJBENZI.COM. I'm putting up a new one today actually.

AF: Who are some producers and DJs that you think are really going to be making some big moves in the next year?

Benzi: As far as producers, Tittsworth, Xxxchange, Nick Catchdubs, A-Trak, Diplo, all those guys. There's a kid to look out for in the UK named Sinden. He's doing remixes for some people and he's got some crazy stuff. Myself, obviously because I'm a new producer I guess.

AF: What about rappers and singers?

Benzi: The Cool Kids, Kid Sister, Vyle from Chicago, these kids from the Bay that won the URB contest called the Delmonic Crew. Rap is so finicky because people can be good and then they're not good, but I like Curren$y, Wayne's artist, a whole lot. It's tough to find people that are good on a consistent level, which is why I like people like the Clipse and Lil Wayne, but new people really have to prove themselves. The Cool Kids have a string of hits going right now that are really solid though.