Features : DJ PRO LBC reinvents the mixtape with new project featuring seven rising rappers

He once pounded the pavement with mixtapes showcasing Long Beach, California underground artists––now DJ PRO LBC is out with a new iteration of the hip hop staple. 

The music industry veteran has mashed up ten different songs into one three-minute-and-fifty-second single which features seven rising rappers and its own unique style. It’s a party song with a club vibe and DJ PRO says it’s, “really just about having a good time.”

“The GOAT – Spring Edition” is set for release on March 22 along with a video shot in Los Angeles and several European hotspots like Paris, France. 

“It’s a mixture of new West Coast trap blended with a little bit of traditional Southern trap,” DJ Pro says. “It’s up tempo and it’s definitely going to appeal to all generations, especially the generation that’s in the club right now. And from a DJ perspective, any DJ that puts this song on is going to appreciate it. They’re going to listen to this and say whoa, wait a minute––I need to put this in my mix.”

And DJ PRO promises that by the end of the song, listeners will be wanting even more. 

“They say in the social media era if you can’t capture someone’s attention in the first two or three seconds, you’re going to lose them,” he says. “We’ve got something new every three to six seconds, something’s changing and it’s nonstop action. It’s like a Michael Bay action movie, there’s always something happening.”

DJ PRO, who owns his own recording studio, frequently brings in artists and producers to collaborate and put songs out. But he’s noticed that artists often struggle taking their music to the next level with marketing and promotion. And so he asked: who’s traditionally the biggest advocate of any new song? 

“Typically it’s the DJ,” he says. “I always say that people don’t fear the DJ, they typically fear other artists or other producers.”

And so DJ PRO decided he’d advocate for several emerging stars by bringing them into his studio to record songs and add them to his personal playlist (“GOAT Playlist via IG” on Spotify). And then he wondered: why not promote them all at once with a mashup?

“In the past I was real big on doing mixtapes when mixtapes were the thing in hip hop,” he says. “I was big on mashing up different albums because the record labels would give me all the new music that would come out before it was released and they’d say hey we’ve got this new artist we’re going to break, see if you can get the streets vibing to it. 

“So I wanted to bring that mixtape vibe back,” he says. “A little bit of nostalgia but at the same time give it a new era feeling. A mixtape back in the day would be 30, 40 minutes and that was normal. People are streaming now and it’s a whole different game, so I wanted to bring everything into a small segment and highlight all of those songs and all of those artists but still maintain people’s attention.”

DJ PRO serves as the executive producer for the new track and he worked with producers Daytone 500 and Dnyc3. The former has some strong placements out right now, including with Boosie Badazz and Suga Free, and is also involved with Tha Dogg Pound. The latter is a platinum-winning producer who produced the hit single “Faded” by Tyga featuring Lil Wayne and has worked with artists like 03 Greedo recently. 

The song features Daytone 500 and Dnyc3, who double as producers and artists; and Timia, Mani Coolen, Slain Illz, FastMooney Goon and Superstar Stone. 

Mani Coolen is dropping a new album this month called Now Is Not Forever with a feature song with Domo Genesis, part of the hip hop collective Odd Future. 

Timia is an up-and-coming artist with a sexy and very unique rap sound, DJ Pro says. She’s another Long Beach native but you wouldn’t know it from her style. Her debut project will be released this spring. 

Slain Illz is a trap lyrical artist out of Virginia who now splits time between both coasts and boasts a huge catalogue of music––nearly 100 songs already. 

FastMoney Goon was featured on the viral song “Who I Smoke” which has been played nearly 50 million times on YouTube alone. DJ PRO says he’s a power player who brings some Southern swag as a Jacksonville native. 

“When people think about West Coast music they think of Snoop Dogg and Dre Dre,” DJ PRO says. “This mashup isn’t that at all. This is bicoastal from Los Angeles all the way to Florida. You’ve got a Florida rapper, you’ve got Virginia, Timia from Long Beach, Dnyc3 from Los Angeles, myself from Long Beach. It’s a bicoastal song for sure.”

Even before the new song’s release, other producers and artists are already “kicking down the door” trying to get involved in the next mashup from DJ PRO, or find their way onto his GOAT playlist. 

“If I can do anything from a DJ perspective to highlight them more than they’re doing by themselves, then it’s a win for everybody,” he says.