Defsounds

With 10 albums under his belt, an acclaimed radio show, and a bevy of accolades collected over his twenty-year career; Miami's DJ Laz has become a household name in his hometown and has gained national notoriety for his unique music style.

Known affectionately by his fans as “The Pimp With the Limp,” Laz is a South Florida native who has made the Latin community very proud. His highly successful single, “Mami El Negro,” released in 1991, is the first of its kind to spawn the early evolution of Latin Bass, utilizing the machine-gun beats of bass with the syncopated tropical voice of Latino music, and debuted in the Billboard Top 100. His subsequent smash albums “Journey into Bass” and “King of Bass” were followed by the release of his most popular album “Cruzin” which was labeled “The Ultimate Party Album.” He then released a fifth album titled “Pimpin” which blew up the charts combining bilingual raps with the true Latin rhythms and live instruments in the innovative style Laz calls “Merengue swing”.

DJ Laz has now released his highly anticipated sixth album “Category 6,” on his own record label VIP Music. The first single from this album, “Move Shake Drop” has already sold over 170,000 digital downloads.

We sit down with the Pimp With the Limp for Defsounds' second international feature. If you didn' t know Laz before, you're about to get familiar.

Defsounds.com: How’s the project coming along?

DJ Laz: The project is going great, it hit the stores yesterday and everyone is happy

Defsounds.com: Do you have any word on the reception of the album or is it too early?

DJ Laz: It’s a little early to tell but I did get a lot of good feedback on the radio today

Defsounds.com: Who did you work on with this album?

DJ Laz: Basically Flo Rida, T-pain, Rick Ross, Mims who’s on the second single called “She can get it”

Defsounds.com:When is that dropping?

DJ Laz: It should be dropping within the next 30 days

Defsounds.com: is that coming out with a video or just a single?

DJ Laz: We’re trying to coordinate the video shoot for the same time as the single but for now it looks like the single will drop before the video

Defsounds.com: You have a very unique sound with your music, how would you describe it to those who don’t listen to you?

DJ Laz: If you enjoy music and like to have a good time you will appreciate a DJ Laz album. I like to make records that people can dance to, like the single with Mims “ She can get it”. It’s going to be a monster. I would call my albums very versatile, it has a little bit of everything to give you a different feel, but it’s definitely all Miami.

Defsounds.com: How did you go from bass to hip hop?

DJ Laz: You gotta evolve with the times, I didn’t really switch over I just added to, the record I did with T Pain was a booty record that I did ten twelve years ago, but just revamped it and had pain do the hook, but its still one of those records that when you hear it for the first time your like “what the hell”, and the name of the song was called Morena 08.

Defsounds.com: In Miami you’re more or less a godfather, how do you plan to bring your stature in Miami across the states?

DJ Laz: Basically I’m gonna let the music talk, were close to 200,000 records with our first single “Move Shake Drop”, we opened a lot of doors that were never opened before with that single, and people will get a feel for what Laz is about, I like to party and have a good time. My records tend to relate to women because I would personally like to see a club full of ladies than a club full of dudes, and now we got people like Rick Ross, DJ Khalid, and Flo Rida doing good, musically Miami is getting respected on a whole different level.

Defsounds.com: Speaking of Ross what are your thoughts on his past and how he came up?

DJ Laz: All I gotta say is haters will be haters, I don’t care about what he did when he was 19 years old, who cares, he’s a multi platinum rap artist who broke a lot of boundaries and got out of whatever the hell he was doing, if he was a C.O. or a dope dealer, whatever the hell he did the bottom line is that homie is excellent at what he does, he makes hit records, and a lot of people are gonna hate on that.

Defsounds.com: You had his back in this situation, but other DJ’s like DJ Khalid have walked out on Ross because of this, how do you feel about that?

DJ Laz: I think that it’s sad that Khalid walked away from Ross over a situation like this. I think that as much as Khalid helped Ross, Ross helped Khalid, I think people just wanna look for a reason to hate when you’re doing big things.

Defsounds.com: Last album you dropped was in 04, and four years later you dropped category six, are you gonna wait another four years?

DJ Laz: I wanted to put this album out because I love music, I took four years and really concentrated on the radio game, and perfected the radio game. I love the fact that I can travel go places and shut em down with the songs.

Defsounds.com: What are your favorite tracks on this album?

DJ Laz: “She Can Get It”, “ Move Shake Drop”, “Rich Bitch”, there’s also a record called ready to go.

Defsounds.com: Is there anyone from this album that you wanna keep working with?

DJ Laz: Everybody did their thing.

Defsounds.com: Did you produce every track on this album?

DJ Laz: No I worked with a lot of Producers, I actually only produced two records off of this album. I’ve pretty much produced all of my other albums so I wanted a new feel.

Defsounds.com: How do you feel about the state of the DJ game?

DJ Laz: Basically DJ and technology has gotten easier as far as not having to carry 15 crates and not having to break you’re back carrying records. I love the Serato systems now, where you can have all of your music on your laptop, but you still have to be a DJ

Defsounds.com: Well, now a day you can pretty much just load up a program and sound like a D.J. so you don’t really need skills anymore.

DJ Laz: I still use turntables, but I use my Serato sound to carry my music. You can still press a button but you still gotta have the DJ instinct.

Defsounds.com: How do you feel about the Miami hip hop scene?

DJ Laz: The Miami music scene has grown, I think we have definitely left a stamp and a mark.

Defsounds.com: What are your plans after this album drops?

DJ Laz: I wanna kick off my label V.I.P. Music with my project “Category six” and we are now signing artists to the label. We got a guy named Charles Sweden who has a hit record out here called “She Bout it” that were gonna leak to the rest of the country. My job is to find artist promote them put them out, and be the president of the label.

Defsounds.com: Are you a fan of mixtapes and will you release mixtapes for your artist?

DJ Laz: I personally don’t but anyway you can get your music heard is a great thing for the artist

Defsounds.com: One of your most critically acclaimed albums was “Cruising” how does this album compare to that album?

DJ Laz: I would have to say that this “Category Six” album is my best album, personally I’ve grown, and musically we got a lot of styles and feels on this album. You gotta change with the times. With this album I feel that I have evolved not just as Laz who makes Spanish and bootie records, we got a lil bit of everything.

Defsounds.com: Did you reach out to any other artist from other coast to be on this album?

DJ Laz: Everyone that I reached out to was someone I wanted to work with. Everybody we called jumped on board.

Defsounds.com: Are you doing a tour for this album?

DJ Laz: I tour on the weekends because I still hold a spot on the radio show I do the morning gig in Miami.

Dj Laz's Category 6 is in stores NOW. Click here to check it out.