When asked to review his profession in the music market, Damion “Damizza” Young stops briefly for a minute to think about. “I never ever made it,” he states, “however I’ve been chasing it my entire life.”
Scroll through music Instagram on any provided day, when Young is responding to the most recent news through his @Damizza manage (240,000 fans and counting), and you may believe in a different way.
Following a substantial hiatus from the market, Young reemerged on Instagram in 2023, sharing important insights with his fans who continue to devour his hard-won knowledge. Whether he’s going over Drake’s newest claims, making use of expert system, Jermaine Dupri’s legal fight with Sony Music or the Ed Sheeran and Macklemore debate, Young dives into appropriate and present subjects impacting the music market, stimulating discussion and developing a neighborhood that use his competence.
From an outsider’s point of view, Young did make it. A program director at Santa Barbara’s KHTY FM by 17, the enthusiastic radio prodigy had a clear vision of what he wished to achieve at an early age– bringing more hip-hop to the airwaves. That didn’t line up with the station’s format. He rotated to Nineties alternative rock, playing artists like Nirvana, Fiona Apple, Smashing Pumpkins, and Garbage and, in the procedure, assisted establish the alternative radio format.
“One of the very first 8x10s I ever got signed was from Fiona Apple and it simply checked out, ‘To Damion, you puncture,'” he states with a chuckle. “I was young and constantly pestering them for interviews and things.”
Young didn’t precisely have the alternative to stop working. His moms and dads, simply teens at the time of his birth, left him on his grandma Claudia’s doorstep when he was a years of age, and removed. His grandma wasn’t home that cold, rainy day in 1975, so he wound up with pneumonia and almost passed away.
“My moms and dads weren’t all set to have kids,” he states. “I was an unfortunate sack, as my grandmother stated, when she got me. The very first thing she did was rush me to the medical facility. After that, I was granny’s kid.”
The lessons she instilled in Young became his North Star.
“My granny provided me some excellent guidance,” Young remembers. “She stated, ‘Surround yourself with individuals smarter than you and you’ll be all right.’ The thing I discovered from grandmother above whatever else is how crucial household, commitment, responsibility, sticking by your word and regard is.”
Those concepts accidentally led Young to leading positions at Los Angeles’ Power 106 and New York’s Hot 97, and producing music for artists like Mariah Carey, Nate Dogg, Lil Wayne, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, and Ludacris. He likewise pressed Jay-Z to discover a global audience, contributed to reigniting Janet Jackson’s profession, and provided Dr. Dre recommendations on how to break Eminem.
After being Claudia’s full-time caretaker for many years up until her death in 2024 at age 96, Young moved back to Santa Barbara and cultivated his social networks audience by sharing insights into the music company.
A hot subject of late? His previous company, Hot 97, which seems imploding after numerous radio characters were released, causing present staffers slamming the station’s management on air. Inflammatory remarks from hosts like “this is the worst location I’ve ever operated in my life” and “they are not paying their workers” rapidly made the rounds on social networks– magnified by the similarity Ebro and Rosenberg, likewise alums of the station.
“Anytime your early morning program is discussing management on the air, they currently lost the plot,” states Young. “But, I am delighted many individuals are discussing radio once again. That speaks with its importance.”
Of his own success on Instagram and beyond, Young appears truly shocked to have actually made a damage in the music organization at all.
“I consider myself the Forrest Gump of hip-hop,” he states. “Some days Forrest saw history, some days he played a part. His mom got ill, he moved home and when she passed, he restored. He respected everybody and wished to assist.
“Grandma’s door was constantly open,” he continues. “If you required a location to remain, a meal or simply a few of granny’s knowledge, anyone might come by. Everyone understood granny– everyone at the radio station and all the artists. Among my preferred memories is when Mariah remained in L.A. and there were hazards of a bomb, so we went to Santa Barbara. We were at my granny’s and I smelled something burning in the kitchen area, which was completely unusual.
“My little bro and I remained in the living-room, and we’re like, ‘What’s burning?’ We stroll in and Granny and Mariah are above the garbage can removing the tops of the rolls. And I go, ‘Grandma, you burned something?’ She goes, ‘We got to girl-talking. Leave my kitchen area!'”
In addition to his grandma, Young had a number of substantial coaches enter his life, consisting of Nate Dogg and DJ Quik. The previous, who passed away in 2011, employed him to co-produce his 2nd (and what would become his last) solo album, Music & & Mein 2001. The title track is crafted totally by Young and ended up being associated with the West Coast King of Hooks.
“Nate was among my buddies,” he states. “We did a great deal of collaborate and no matter where I was– whether it’s a radio station or the recording studio– I’m gon na get a call from Nate in the early morning like, ‘Where are you?’ I ‘d resemble, ‘I’m at the studio today with so and so.’ And he ‘d state, ‘You got any beats? I’m coming by.'”
Bone Thug’s Krayzie Bone and Layzie Bone were the very first individuals to text Young when his grandma passed away, a testimony to his effect on the artist he’s dealt with and the regard he’s amassed.
“This universe has actually been so excellent to me to put me in these scenarios, where I get to witness incredible things and belong of it,” he states. “It’s been such a dream come to life.”
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