Portland Oregon has a DJ named Flip Flop. His friends call him Kenny. He is currently traveling through Europe with CunninLynguists and has been their traveling and studio DJ for the last 3 years. But in 2007 they had an awkward introduction.
“I was opening up for a lot of the show’s at Hawthorne and Berbati’s Pan at the time. I was opening for them at Berbati’s, and I had heard of CunninLynguists but I didn’t know what they looked like. So when they came in I thought they were a local group that was opening. ” Flip Flop continued, “Kno gave me their CD and said he would give me $50 if I’d play it for them. And I thought he was just a Portland white rapper so I said ‘Uhh. Sure.’ I DJed for Pack FM and Cunninlynguists. We ended up talking it up outside for a bit after. A year later Kno hit me up and asked me to go on the road with them.”
DJing for CL has it rewards, such as performing for people all of the world, but their intense road schedules can get pretty…well, intense.
“I was just having this discussion a couple of minutes ago. We’re still in Atlanta, we haven’t even left yet and we’re already ready to go home.” He continued, “I enjoy it but I miss home just as much as they do. We’re doing two months straight. We’re touring Germany for a month and then coming home for a week and then touring in the States for the next month. Its tedious.”
Flip Flop toured with the crew in both 2008 and 2009.
“We took a year off, they’ve been touring for the last five years. So they wanted to take a year off and just make a bunch of music.”
Although he now lives in the San Fernando Valley in California, he still stays busy providing his services to many artists in the Portland area.
“I’ve mostly been staying busy doing various DJ services for people and also doing mixing and mastering for people’s albums back home.”
He also did all of the cuts on the new CunninLynguists album.
“I’ve also been spending a lot of time on my new routine. I had been doing the old one for the last 4 years, so I thought it was time to change it up,” he said with a laugh.
Performing in Europe has been an especially rewarding experience for him.
“Its 10 times iller. Everybody appreciates hip hop. In the states its really hard to get folks to respond. A lot of them are either wall flowers or rappers critiquing you with their eyes or their mind. When you go to Europe no one’s critiquing you. Everyone’s there to have a fun time and they’re going to support after the show. Especially Cunninlynguists, because they really do a good job connecting with their fans. And it’s a big reason they have such a big fan base.”
Flip quickly took a note from CL, and learned the importance of being out building relationships with the fans.
“That’s how you have to do it. You can’t just sit there and think you are tight and hope your album sales. You really have to sit there and connect with people and show them that you are down with them as much as they are down with you.”