Friday, June 20, 2008

Freestyle Steve in Time Out Magazine



The media coverage of Mosley Music Group crew continues and this time it's Freestyle Steve, Timbaland's longtime DJ, who was featured in Hong Kong's own Time Out Magazine. Take a look:

Miami’s Freestyle Steve has quite the resume, having spun at Shaquille O’Neal’s celebrity party, the MTV Video Music Awards, and even at one of Hillary Clinton’s presidential fundraisers. As personal DJ to beats superstar Timbaland – the current ‘it’ producer for any pop-star in search of an insta-hit – Freestyle’s growing popularity has landed him gigs touring alongside Justin Timberlake, and work with artists such as 50 Cent, Madonna, and, er, Shayne Ward.

As a kid, Steve Johnson had his heart set on a football career, but at one high school game he sat next to the school band and the music took him over. Practicing every day, mixing CDs, he went from holding the booths for resident DJs while they took bathroom breaks, to spinning for major NFL and NBA bashes.

Freestyle keeps his sounds fresh by mixing mainstream tracks with classics, giving hip-hop a twist of disco funk accompanied by old school lyrics. Aside from the hype that rubs off from the high-profile company he keeps (halfway during the interview, for instance, he puts this reporter on hold to catch up with Chad Johnson, star wide-receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals NFL team), Freestyle has always been an independent individual, sticking to what he likes no matter the scrutiny.

“I used to do these all black parties, and one time the DJ was looking through my CDs while I was setting up and he pulled out the ‘N Sync album,” says Freestyle. (And this was before Justin went solo.) The DJ wasn’t impressed. “He was like, ‘What the hell is this?’” Freestyle says with laugh. “I gotta play a little bit off everything!”

Fast-forward to the present and now Timbaland – the man who washed the ‘N Sync outta Justin – won’t do a show without Freestyle by his side. The boys – Freestyle, Timbaland, JT and Fiddy – spend so much time together they know each other like brothers.

In a dance-off, Freestyle reckons he’s still got a ways to go before catching up to JT but he would skool both Timbaland and Fiddy. “Timbaland doesn’t dance, he two steps,” he says with a chuckle. “Now, you put Timbaland and Fiddy in a dance-off and that’s a toss-up.” He can picture it – Fiddy would be holding a wad of thousand-dollar bills in one hand and 20 car-keys in the other, while Timbaland, a man of understatement, would have a single million-dollar bill (yeah, we don’t think that exists) in one hand, and one car key that matches all of Fiddy’s in the other.

And what would Freestyle be holding? He’d have one hand in the air with the other on his headphones while he shows off his moves in and, if you’re lucky, out of the DJ booth.


Freestyle will be in Hong Kong June 26th and Shanghai June 28th followed by a tour with Timbaland to Australia! That's right for all you Chronicles readers in Australia get ready for Freetsyle and Timbo to be visiting your local club real soon. Dates will be coming soon so be on the lookout.

6 comments :

  1. who's fiddy???
    lol!
    :)

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  2. Does anybody else know timbo was married? Timnmagoo3 does...no posts on here yet?

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  3. woo cant wait for timbaland here in australia already got mah tickets timbaland coming to brissy bout time.

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  4. SICK!!! Hey is Sebastian coming down to Australia too?

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  5. i hope so would be good to have keri and sebastian to come downunder dont know aye it says special guest on the ticket so not sure prob someone local... hope not

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  6. cant wait till they come down to m.i.a.! keri's pg says she'll be in miami the 27th so im deff goin to check her out then!

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