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Meet Johnnie Judah | DJ & Media Curator

Meet Johnnie Judah | DJ & Media Curator

By : Tenth Letter 0

We had the good fortune of connecting with Johnnie Judah and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Johnnie, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I have always been somewhat of a conservative guy in business so risk was kind of an extreme to me. I preferred comfortable and risk shakes up comfort. However, at this point in my life risk is necessary for forward movement. For the majority of my DJ career I had been timid and afraid of risk, specifically the unknowns involved with it, and as a result it kept me in a stagnant state business-wise and limiting my ability to reach the masses. Here recently, after coming to the realization that I have more sand at the bottom of my hourglass than the top, I have decided to take more risks and although I have suffered my share of setbacks It pales in comparison to my progression as a DJ and business owner.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am a DJ. I manipulate music, sounds, and video to creative a unique media experience. What sets me apart is my computer hardware and software expertise. My skills allow me to not only curate video DJ sets totally in house, but I can also take it a step further by customizing my work to my liking without limitations presented by relying on outside entities such as graphic designers or video editors. I got to where I am today with perseverance and a supportive wife. It was not easy, I definitely took the stairs of trial and error. I overcame challenges by going back to science class days and understanding that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. So when I elevate or progress, basically moving forward, there will be obstacles and they tend to grow/multiply proportionately with my progression. As a result I had to hone my ability to hurdle obstacles of any size. Basically I went from judging the size of the obstacle to judging my ability to hurdle. One big lesson I learned is to drop my trust issues and DELEGATE. Think like a boss, don’t try to do everything. While it’s cool to say you did it all yourself from the ground up you could tire out before you get where you want to be. What I want people to know is it’s never too late. I left corporate America in my mid-to-late 30’s to enter a hip hop related profession and we all know hip hop is geared to the young, not the old. But if you believe it, you can achieve it.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would take them through the “Dirty South”, to place you normally might not know about. Now granted we may hit some upscale spots like Tru Kitchen or the all new Jamies Rhythms in Dallas, or maybe Club Ritzy or Seven Lounge in Fort Worth but I would want to take them to enjoy some home grown borderline country town stuff. We will hit up Lulu’s Lounge in Fort Worth for a good ol’ Southern Soul/Blues “hood” experience. A visit to One Unit Motorcycle Club’s OU Lounge in Deep South Fort Worth. I would absolutely have to order some loaded potatoes from my favorite chef Christinia with A Taste of The Kingdom Catering for some midnight snack action. We would definitely hit the Deep Ellum area and chill at The Freeman for some good seafood. Me being a media guy I would take them to a studio or two, namely Villa Koola in Dallas or Platinum Wick Studios, both of which have nice podcast studios and cater to the underground music community.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to send a very special shout out to my initial mentor, James Futrell. This guy showed me the basics, gave me a DJ speaker system to start out on, and sent clientele my way. Every time I learn a new technique, acquire new equipment, or hit pretty much any DJ-related accomplishment big or small I think about him and often call or text just to tell him thank you.

Website: http://johnniej.com

Instagram: http://instagram.com/johnnie_johnnie

Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/johnnie-judah

Twitter: https://twitter.com/johnnie_judah

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iamjohnniej

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxBQSNI12g3jjKM9lQ6TD5w

Johnnie Judah masters the crowd, mixing records for over a decade

Johnnie Judah masters the crowd, mixing records for over a decade

By : Tenth Letter 0

 Johnnie Judah 

Name: Johnnie Johnson

City: Fort Worth, Texas

Rolling out’s Master DJ series spotlights DJs recognized in their respective cities who are making an impact in their communities.

Johnnie Judah’s DJ name originated from his religious beliefs as he began to study the Hebrew Israelite culture. Born Johnnie Johnson in Fort Worth, the multitalented DJ has been behind the boards since 2006.

Johnnie launched his career with a pirated copy of Virtual DJ on a friend’s computer in 2006 as a “bedroom DJ” with nothing but a laptop with controls mapped to keys on the keyboard. He is currently mastering his craft spinning records at the Brickhouse Lounge and Makumba Nightclub & Grill in Fort Worth.

Rolling out recently caught up with Johnnie Judah to learn more about his early passions and how he uses technology in his daily business.

What or who were your early passions and influences?

My passion has always been music. My mother was a choir director and a devout Christian so that’s emblazoned in my psyche and in recent years I have begun to subscribe to the teachings of the Hebrew Israelite community. I also have an uncle that plays bass and another [uncle] that plays tenor saxophone. I would hear them play the jazz version of R&B and funk songs, which are big influences on my blending style.

My influences as a DJ were DJ Dr. Rock and DJ Ushy, DJ battles. They used a lot of breakbeats and mixed in chant type songs that defined their style of energizing the club. Also, DJ Jazzy Jeff has always been my favorite DJ because he doesn’t talk much but he has excellent sets.

How do you utilize technology in your work as a DJ?

Technology is used a lot. It is essentially how I got into DJing professionally. My first software was and still is Virtual DJ. The compatibility of different formats is unmatched, but I manually map so many things from my devices to the software on my laptop.

I am a freelance graphic designer as well, so I use Adobe After Effects, Premiere and Photoshop to generate visuals for songs that don’t have videos as well to advertise the venue I’m spinning at, drink specials, etcetera.

What three skill sets do you feel are critical for any professional DJ?

Music knowledge, mic presence, and the ability to read a crowd. The ability to have music knowledge in order to read a crowd is needed to keep a vibe going. Mic presence can carry, set or kill a vibe. All three together make a solid DJ whether you’re using 1200s or a double cassette player.

What new music are you playing now?

“Caught a Vibe,” 7 Tha Great

“Old Town Road,” Lil Nas X

“Suge,” Da Baby

“Undecided,” Chris Brown

“Back At It,” Yella Beezy (ft. Migos, Gucci Mane)

Meet Johnnie Judah of Spin Doctors Entertainment in Fort Worth

Meet Johnnie Judah of Spin Doctors Entertainment in Fort Worth

By : Tenth Letter 0

Today we’d like to introduce you to Johnnie Judah.

Johnnie, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
As a DJ, I feel like I started early but didn’t start the business side of it until around 2005. Ever since I can remember, I loved wiring and sound applications. As a teen I learned how to install car radios and alarms and then moved on to learning telephone wiring. Then when VCRs came out, I learned to use two VCRs to splice together my own video productions. I learned computer programming around age 12 on the Radio Shack TRS-80 after school at the Panther Boys Club, starting with Basic and eventually learning Pascal and COBOL in high school. I have always loved music and media. I was one of those guys that always had a vast music collection.

Books and books of CD’s, so many that I began selling mix CD’s on the side at my last corporate job, AT&T. I produced pictures and video slideshows for events at my job as well as for employees’ personal events(birthdays, graduations, etc.) Also, I would repair hardware and software on computers at the job and often, employees would bring their computers to me for upgrades and/or advice. Another skill I benefitted from was building websites. I gained a working knowledge of HTML, CSS, and Javascript as a result.

I used to get in trouble for using my technical skills to get over. For example, I worked in a call center and figured out a way to re-route calls myself to kind of be able to extend my breaks. I also rigged a 25-foot extension of my headset so I could walk around the office freely and still be able to answer the phone. I was a real terror and kept my union stewards busy trying to defend my shenanigans! So often fellow employees would ask me “Why are you working here? You should be doing something bigger than this!” but I was afraid of leaving Corporate America so I stayed much longer than I should have. One good thing about staying was that I was able to obtain an Associate’s Degree in Information Technology, and that has really helped me in this new digital DJ era.

When the music transitioned from CDs to digital media (mp3s) in the “Napster era” I ended up boosting my collection exponentially and then when a friend approached me with a copy of VirtualDJ software (don’t judge me) I came up with the idea of DJing to make some money off of all this music I had collected. My first residency was around 2005 at B&B Blues Bar on the south side of Fort Worth DJing from 9p – 2a for $45 on Saturdays. I did that for s little over two years and finally left because the owner at the time wanted to cut my pay even lower. So in 2008, I ventured into mobile DJing. My first setup was two huge tower speakers and a used component stereo amplifier that I bought from a pawn shop. I don’t even know how I fit those huge speakers in my car!

In 2009 my work shenanigans finally earned me the ax from my corporate job. I was ready to embark on my own journey on the outside as far as everyone could see but on the inside, I was scared to death. With a marred employment history, it was near impossible to earn the pay that I was getting so I was either going to take a job making half of what I used to make or get out there and generate my own income. Very quickly, I figured out that there is a DJ on every corner so I had to do some things to make myself stand out as the one to hire. From 2009 to 2015, I acquired tons of equipment and learned valuable skills to make myself more marketable as a DJ and little did I know I would be moving into the content curator arena as well. I ended up learning virtually every software in the Adobe Master Collection Suite(Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Dreamweaver and After Effects in particular), photography and videography.

Two things that put my DJ career into overdrive was learning streaming software and video DJing. By 2013 Word had gotten around town that not only was I a decent DJ but a good sound guy as well, which caught the attention of a few internet radio stations in Fort Worth. By working with them, I learned of several streaming software and learned how to build streaming studios. At the same time, I started collecting music and karaoke videos to get a step ahead of regular music DJs. From 2013 to 2018, I would experiment with programs by going live DJing from my Facebook profile and eventually, I caught the eye of the manager of Brickhouse Lounge and later, I would also get the attention of the manager of Buttons Fort Worth. Up until COVID, I had a residency at both establishments and a Thursday residency at Makumba.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It was definitely NOT a smooth road. I had one mentor, James Futrell aka DJ Big Luv, that started me out in DJing but he wasn’t doing it full-time. He gave me a great start but most of my DJ career is based on trial and error. I could have learned a lot quicker had I connected with a DJ in the industry but I found myself feeling like I was on the outside looking in as I was in my mid-30’s with no DJ experience other than DJ software and using software/controllers was frowned upon unless you already knew turntables. Even worse my software of choice was and still is VirtualDJ and my laptop of choice was a PC. “Professional” DJs often laughed at me telling me to get Serato and a Mac and they could help but as long as I was on VirtualDJ with a PC I was on my own.

Spin Doctors Entertainment – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Spin Doctors Entertainment is a full circle DJ company that caters to small – to mid-sized events (from 5 to 500). The company specializes in both the Audio and Visual side of DJing. I myself am probably known just as much for video expertise as I am for sound as I can create a regular and motion flyer for your event, also I can create visuals that can be displayed on TV’s and/or projectors, provide uplighting changing the ambiance of the event space, I am now a video DJ, offer karaoke, and can even stream your event live using my platform and software. I can also play corporate, school, and church events as I have a vast “clean” music and video library. What sets me apart is my ability to construct a full audio and/or video production as opposed to just coming in and playing music. I can implement cameras and software to literally make your event a movie that can stream live on Facebook, Instagram, and several other platforms simultaneously!

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
One of my favorite childhood memories is a competition between two of my best friends and I. We used to challenge each other to come up with old music from our parents’ music collection. 2-3 nights a week we’d get on 3-way and compare the songs we discovered. Ironically all three of us eventually became DJ’s.

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