The memory of the little boy scratching
his mother's discs comes straight to my head.
Dennis DJ.
It's because there have been many battles.
There were moments when
I thought it wasn't working.
But I was sure it would, I had to take a chance.
I think it's very divine that you can write,
produce a song that will connect people.
Everything that happens in music is very magical.
I can only thank, it's something out of this world.
In the 80s, where I spent my childhood,
every Sunday my mother bought vinyl records.
And what caught my attention was the equipment for the vinyl.
It was the 3 in 1 device that caught my attention,
I kept looking at the lights,
and the disc needle.
Always when my mother went to work,
and my grandmother took care of me, but she had to cook,
do things at home, in that moment,
hidden from my mother,
I made my first scratches on the vinyls I had,
my children's records.
My mom's records ended up in that too.
It was my first connection
to this world of DJ.
I didn't have a microphone, I used to use the phone.
It ends up becoming a microphone at the mic input,
and recorded the tapes, me singing...
Until I met other friends. One had a tape player,
another had a semi-professional record player,
that already had a pitch, had to accelerate the beat
to get to the other song's BPM.
And so I started playing with friends' equipment.
My mother took me to the matinees.
At these parties I was always on the DJ's side watching.
I tried to copy what he did.
I learned by myself, watching.
Getting it wrong, getting it right.
And so I started.
It all happened very fast. From 12 to 15 years of age,
I started to produce and play a lot.
And one of those MC's that I recorded
took my production to Furacão 2000.
They looked at me and asked, "Was it you?"
I got hired that day.
I had access to better equipment than the ones I used.
I started playing at 'Bailes', for 5 or 4 thousand people.
I attended 5 'Baile Funk' a week.
There were 20 a month.
I accompanied several DJs.
Various locations around Rio on the 'Baile".
I created a certain experience.
I already knew the music that worked at a 'Baile',
which didn't work at the other.
It was my first experience playing for a large audience.
In 99, when I started producing
things saying "popozão", "popozuda",
and then we started making the songs.
We did the "Go popozuda, raise your..."
and we did "Só tem popozão..." They were the first songs
that started to get a little out of funk.
Soon after, "Tapinha não dói" from Swing Nova Geração.
"Dança da Motinha", Serginho Lacraia, "Eguinha Pocotó".
And then there was a sequence of songs.
I always had something in my head
that I had to enjoy the moment in Furacão 2000
to make my name.
If you notice, the songs at the time of the Furacão,
most of them I already put my name on.
"Drop it, Dennis, the princess's favorite".
There's always something reverencing my name.
And on the album cover, too,
I always put my name on the side.
It was a way for me to stand out.
I knew I wasn't going to stay there forever.
I had plans and dreams to have my own team,
to have my label, publisher, everything I have today.
I told the MC to say my name.
There was already a song reverencing a DJ,
it was DJ Marcinho.
"Ai Marcinho, are you ready?"
"With DJ Marcinho".
I thought it was really cool when I heard that song.
The song's revered the DJ's name.
And I thought of doing more of these.
I will not do just one.
And so it started.
There's always a song with my name on it.
Today it has become a brand for all DJs.
The DJ woke up and left their mark because
that tells the audience who made that song.
Funk has several songs that have crossed barriers.
We can say that they actually crossover.
The rap of happiness. "Só quero ser feliz".
Claudinho e Buchecha with "Nosso Sonho".
There is a crowd that made this construction
that one song or another crossed the barrier.
But in the beginning of the year 2000
it was when I was very strong, with all the funk in my hands,
where most of the productions were mine.
Bonde do Tigrão played this role
of making this crossover with "Cerol na Mão".
It was a very strong song.
In fact, Bonde was called Bonde do Putão.
But he was a guy who presented a TV show
and a radio show. He couldn't get on TV,
a daily program at 2 o'clock in the afternoon,
and announce: "Present to you, Bonde do Putão".
There was no way.
So Leandrinho told me a series of names.
"Bonde da Lora", "Bonde de Tal", I don't know what...
Until he said Bonde do Tigrão.
That the name was good and different.
I usually remix or sample, produce things that
I like and that I have in my musical memory.
Our great reference in the 90s was the Miami Bass.
If you hear "Cerol na Mão", for example,
you will hear Miami Bass,
you’ll hear the electronic music at the time,
the Head Hunter’s Dance Music,
with the drums and beat of the 'Baile Funk',
with a vocal from the community.
The vocal of Leandrinho from Bonde do Tigrão.
I knew that one day I had to get out of the Furacão.
To achieve my dream.
With that I resigned from Furação 2000 in 2003.
To bet on my dream.
It took me two years to get my first radio show.
In 2005 I created "O Som do Galerão".
Where I did several successful collections,
I continued doing my work there.
But still working on behalf of the team.
Dennis was like the producer, he was still
"O Som do Galerão", that whole thing.
I started working on my brand,
until I came up with "Baile do Dennis".
In 2012...
after watching several electronic music shows,
David Guetta, Tiesto...
The guys were recognized as a pop star.
They kept the microphone in hand.
And that didn't exist here in Brazil.
There is no DJ artist,
who was presented as a great artist.
There was no such thing.
That's when I started to make a music videos,
I started to invest in my name, in my brand.
I created a show.
I took money that I had at the time,
it was all my savings,
and invested in a DVD.
There was no such thing.
That was the turning point of positioning myself as an artist.
So the public and the contracting parties
could see me as a great artist.
The DJ card was this big.
Arrive at the concert venue and present a project,
and the venues do not accept the project,
it frustrated me a little.
It discouraged me a little.
High and low. At risk.
Like, resign from Furacão 2000.
I had everything there, a radio show, a TV show...
Everything was at my disposal.
I just had to make music and play.
But it was not mine.
So I left.
When I left, I spent two difficult years,
until I got up.
Until I set up my things, my structure.
I had a few moments of discouragement.
I can say.
These were my moments of crisis.
I'll be very sincere, when I started
to do this job as an artist DJ,
to be the frontman,
I knew it was a gamble, that didn't exist.
I felt, that when I was in a nightclub,
releasing the video music,
I saw a first girl stand in front of the stage
all night, just singing my songs.
That girl turned two, turned three, turned four, five...
In a little while there were 200 people, 2000 thousand people.
That's when I saw it was working.
I had already made a hit, "Louca, Louquinha",
with João Lucas e Marcelo.
That was a funk that I wrote and produced for MC K9,
and wanted to make a 'sertanejo' version.
And he called me to produce, it became the first "Funknejo".
The mixture of funk and 'sertanejo'.
They were right at the time, with "Louca, Louquinha".
And they were at a barbecue at Ronaldinho's house.
And they made him hear our new song.
"Put it there to play". Then he hears the music.
Ronaldinho was humming the song all day.
"Joga o copo pro alto..."
They called me super happy,
"you will not believe who liked the song", Ronaldinho.
I told them to invite him to record.
Half an hour later they called me saying that he accepted.
I went to Belo Horizonte.
I recorded music, I shoot music video.
At Ronaldinho's house. By the pool.
It was very improvised. He had training that day.
We shoot the video music in an hour.
When we finished the shooting he went to training.
It was very random, but it was a God thing.
The guy liked the song.
At the right time, my music was there for him to hear.
He liked it, and we recorded it.
So it got a lot of public attention.
"This is funk, but this duo is not 'funkeiro',
this guy is not a singer".
"The song is from the DJ, it's from Dennis."
So that was the first song that caught the eye.
This exchange with the audience is essential.
It is what gives you strength
every day to continue.
Your soul goes to another dimension.
You go to another place, is difficult to sleep afterward.
Very difficult to sleep after being so energized.
When a show for 20K peoples like this ends
how do you sleep afterward?
People go to my 'Baile' and say
"We got married because we met at your 'Baile'."
To think that a song that I idealized,
wrote, every detail of production,
it to unites a couple,
or even a group of friends.
I think that's what music is.
It brings people together. Make that connection.
That's it.
To live and do what we love most,
which is music, which is a show.
To make the crowd enjoying and taking us along.