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It’s Just Begun: The Epic Journey of DJ Disco Wiz, Hip Hop’s First Latino DJ is a gritty and gripping tale of one man’s struggles to not only survive, but to triumph over adversity and abuse.
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I have always held Luis Cedeño (or Wiz, as his friends like to call him) with the highest regard and have always felt that he was family. His warm and generous personality belies his horrific personal history, a history of which I had not even a clue before editing of his autobiography. To know someone who has endured and overcome physical, emotional, and psychological pain so intense it could have easily destroyed a lesser man renews my faith in the redemptive power of love and humanity.
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For every person who believes Hip Hop is about money, status, and fashion; for everyone who equates violence and destruction with street credibility; for everybody ready to believe that the only way to succeed to ensure others fail, It’s Just Begun offers the antidote. Wiz’s story is more than a glorified, romanticized look at street life—it is a chilling, gripping, and ultimately uplifting saga of one man’s quest for emancipation from the prisons in which he has been living.
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Even at this late date, so many years after we first met, I still find it difficult to reconcile the charming and cuddly DJ I love with stories I have read. Which is, I believe, a testament, to the transformative possibilities on this earth. As I type these words, chills spill across my back, not wanting to give anything away, but unable to hold back.
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Wiz sat down for an interview to talk about what he’s been through, and how he has made it this far.
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Your grandfather Norberto Cedeño was a respected artist and you say that this was the one aspect of his life your family felt comfortable talking about. As a child, what was their reaction to your interest in art and drawing and eventually music and performance?
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DJ Disco Wiz: As far as I remember I was always artistic. My family always commented “you got that from your grandfather”. But the sad thing is that once I got into Hip Hop, they were totally not supportive. To them it was a black thing and they could not associate themselves with what I was doing. They never went to see me DJ, nor did they care about what I was doing. They really didn’t grasp the movement, nor could they see beyond their prejudices.
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Apart from Hip Hop, what music did you listen to growing up? Did you follow what was happening in Latino music at the same time?
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Wiz: First of all, as a child there was no such thing as Hip-Hop music. We created the genre and movement that would later be termed Hip Hop. I was a lover of all genres of music, Motown, rock, R&B, Disco, funk and soul. And eventually the sound of the Fania All Stars Salsa music as well.
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That montage of music, was what later helped me as a DJ become that avid “crate digger” in search of those great break beats which would become synonymous with the early years of Hip Hop. It was all about the DJ back then.
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There’s a moment in the book when you talk about watching Kool Herc set up for a jam at the P.A.L. When did you cross the line from being in the crowd to DJing on the stage, and what was it about hip hop that makes this possible? Was there a single moment early when you realized that this was something you could really do?
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Wiz: It was an epiphany at the moment, but seeing Kool Herc the first time was not the deciding factor. Crossing over is all credited to my childhood friend and partner Grandmaster Caz. He was the one who pulled me into the role of becoming a DJ. I really can’t answer specifically what in Hip Hop makes it possible; I can undoubtedly say that for me it was an indescribable feeling that compelled me towards the movement. At that time we did not know what we were doing. But we knew it was an alternative to the obvious, of street gangs, prison or early death. So to answer your question, no one knew or realized its full impact or significance at that moment. It wasn’t until many years later that we realized what we had created.
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You describe the negative feelings other Latinos had about your involvement in Hip Hop. What problems did you encounter from the African Americans you were performing for and with? What kind of prejudice did Grandmaster Caz and your black friends encounter for including you? Did you bring anything from Cuban or Puerto Rican music to DJing that they didn’t like because it was from Latin music?
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Wiz: Caz and I both got hassled by our respective communities. My street credibility was enough to keep any personal attacks from stopping me by either community from doing what I wanted to do. As matter of fact, in the beginning no one really knew I was Spanish. Everyone presumed that I was black until they got to see us perform live. Then they were shocked to see a light skin Latino rocking the turntables. But as far as the music was concerned I definitely found my distinctive signature by gravitating towards the break beats that came from ancestral African drums which is the foundation of all Spanish and black music. I also had this aggressive style behind the turntables that would later be termed Battle Style DJ.
Photograph courtesy of DJ Disco Wiz
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Photograph courtesy of DJ Disco Wiz
Did your presence bring more Latinos to your shows that may have stayed away otherwise? Do you follow Latino Hip Hop now, specifically in Cuba and Puerto Rico?
Wiz: Once they started realizing that DJ Disco Wiz was Spanish, I’d have to say yes. The Latino community started coming out to the events. I definitely support the young up and coming Latino hip hop artist from both Cuba and Puerto Rico like Mellow Man Ace, Immortal Technique, Rebel Diaz, and T-Weaponz etc… I actually support the movement in all Latin countries for example Mexico’s Boca Floja, who I just performed with in Mexico City. I also have a weekly radio show on UrbanLatinoRadio.com called the Hip Hop Chronicles where I feature the new Hip Hop artist as well as the old school fundamentals.
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Studying with Peace and the Latino organization in prison, you describe how cycles of violence throughout history have affected our communities. Did this alter or change your feelings towards your father and grandfather as products of the same cycle? You had extremely volatile relationships with the men in your life but the women seem to have been a more constant presence. How has their influence helped you break some of these patterns?
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Wiz: Honestly, I never really thought about my father or grandfather or related with them when it came to my life. I never met my grandfather so I really never harbored any negative feelings towards him. As far as my father was concerned, once he passed away I rarely thought about him until I started writing this book. All the life lessons I acquired during my incarceration I applied towards myself. Through the constant love I received from the women throughout my life, especially my wife Lizette, I have learned to love myself and those around me in order to break that vicious cycle of violence that I once lived by.
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Has the experience of writing your memoir changed your relationship to some of the people in your past? Have you gotten any feedback or reaction from the people you’ve written about?
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Wiz: I would have to say yes, especially the relationship with my daughter Tammy. I believe the book was an eye opening experience for Tammy. It gave her a new perspective to who her father really was and to what really happened thirty years ago. I believe she now understands me better and she has expressed to me how much the book has changed her own life. I feel it has definitely helped us both heal. As far as feedback, my partner Grandmaster Caz just told me how incredible he thought the book was. He mentioned how the book took him back in time to even some of the memories he had forgotten. This to me was very significant because he even mentioned how much he didn’t know about me until he just read the book.
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You chose not to rejoin Caz when you were released from prison in the early eighties. How did you follow Hip Hop during the period you weren’t performing? You’re very critical about the way hip hop has evolved. What are some of the points or events you feel changed it for the worse and for the better? How could people reclaim it now?
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Wiz: Once I went away, my life was pretty much scripted for me. When and if I came out, I would have to be a productive member of society. To me and many that meant getting a real job and staying out of trouble. Unfortunately, Hip Hop did not provide that life style at the time. Hip Hop has always been a part of my life in one way or another. Although I wasn’t performing, I was on top of what was happening with Caz and the movement. In the beginning hip hop was about the people and for the community that really had nothing else. After I came home, it was no longer that. When Hip Hop became a business it changed its essence and became something new and very different from what we had created so many years earlier in the streets of the South Bronx. Exactly when that happened, I can’t pinpoint. But in my opinion the change was neither good nor bad. It was a change that helped hip hop become global. And it is a business that has helped many. I truly believe that for anything to survive it must reinvent itself and change with the times, and hip hop is a perfect example of this. People reclaim it everyday. Today, real Hip Hop lives in the grass roots and underground movements. In some places it still is about the people and for the community
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Your memoir preserves an important part of Hip Hop’s history. What do you believe is the future of Hip Hop?
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Wiz: Its future is just like it’s past, the possibilities are endless.
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Many of the struggles in the book come from your need to establish a street reputation for survival. If you could say one thing to the kid you were then, what would it be? What did you believe made a man then and what do you believe makes a man now?
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Wiz: I would tell that kid to believe in himself no matter what his circumstances are, because no one believed in me as a child. They never told me I would accomplish anything. Needless to say that I would be a part of an incredible global movement like Hip Hop, a top chef at some of the finest eating establishments in the world and an author of a book I believe and hope will change many lives is something no one saw coming. I believe now that a man is made by what he accomplishes against all adversities and all the odds. And what he eventually leaves behind for future generations to learn from and the lives that he touches along the way.
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Photograph courtesy of DJ Disco Wiz
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Luis “DJ Disco Wiz” Cedeño, the first Latino hip hop DJ, is credited for being the first DJ to make a “mixed plate” in 1977 along with Grandmaster Caz. In the years since, Wiz has been an influential force in educating the world about the early years of hip-hop. Wiz was a major contributor in the opening of the Experience Music Project in Seattle in 2000, and was instrumental in the making of Jim Fricke and Charlie Ahearn’s Yes Yes Y’all (Da Capo Press, 2002). He was also featured in the Emmy-nominated VH1 Rock Doc NY77: The Coolest Year in Hell, and is the creator and founder of the Hip-Hop Meets Spoken Wordz series.
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