Queen's Finest:
An In-Depth Interview with DJ Shine
(cont'd)
By Elsa Rodriguez, Staff Writer

Part 1- DJ Shine: Uncut

What's the meaning behind the name "DJ Shine" and how did it come about?
Shine: The DJ name I went by was DJ MRe.  I was pretty mysterious, being a Korean DJ and all in a very black culture at the time.  Throughout the years, I was known as that DJ; as time went by, my name started popping out in the scene and my doggs would clown me and say I wasn't mysterious at all, and always told me I was shining like the sun.  When I wanted to start over as a MC, the name stuck with me, but I didn't want to lose my DJ roots and what it had taught me about the game.

When did you start DJing?
Shine: I've been Djing since I was 14 years old; back in the day I started with a huge vintage mixer that partially worked with two turntables, a belt drive... which was very crappy but did the job.

What inspired you to start?
Shine: Definitely the culture was a major impact.  95% of the Asians were into new wave music; I just fell into the 5% that liked hip-hop and other shit.

And you were named top DJ in NY and Chicago?
Shine: That shit's over exaggerated. I don't know who the fuck started that rumor but thanks anyways. But I was one of the very, very few Korean/Asian DJ's that wasn't scared to rip shit up.

When did you start rapping?
Shine: I've been into music all my life, reciting lines from Michael to Whoudini. It just stuck with me through the following years.  I would jump into ciphers and just start flowing about bullshit.  People looked at me like I was crazy ‘cause I sucked so bad, but I didn't give a fuck! Peeps gave me props anyways ‘cause I had balls and wouldn't go down without a fight. There were never any Asians in the circles back then. I just wanted to have fun; I was always curious.  I always had pride!

When did you and Tiger JK meet?
Shine: It was around 91-92. My boy left NY and moved to LA. I went out there and we would hit up the hip-hop joints when I would see only one other Asian cat at that time. I was like, "Word, good to see another brotha at these kinds of spots." He knew my homie by face, and after finding out we were both Korean, we just became instant doggs.

When did you and JK decide to become Drunken Tiger?
Shine: We always kept in touch, even though he was in LA and I was in NY. We were DT since 92; we just kept it in the fams back then.  We both got burned by Korea trying to do our project albums; JK got discriminated for bringing non-Koreans and claiming his music was not hip-hop and that other pop songs were. He left heart-broken and furious at the same time. I got scammed on thinking I was about to drop a hip-hop album until the day I signed. After that, they told me they were going to sue me if I didn't cooperate.  My dogg Eugene was thinking the same thing, but he had it worse for him ‘cause he was living in Korea at that time.  I boned out of the company for the second joint; I couldn't live my life in that style of music. My bad for all the CIIK fans, but that shit was not for me. Plus, I had Eugene's blessing cause he knew exactly how I felt.  I had moved out to LA by now and JK and I were always mashin’ with the fellas.  We knew each other so well. We regretted not doing Drunken earlier.  We looked at it as a blessing in disguise. Korea wasn't ready for real artists yet, but we always felt like we had something to prove to ourselves, like some kind of redemption.  We just wanted to do our music.

You've been in the rap game for a while now. Do you have any bigger vision than being an artist? Where do you see yourself, DT, and the movement crew in the next few years?
Shine: Yo, I'm just doing my shit - JK, is the true artist.  I like the simple things in life. My biggest vision is to provide for my family. Being a family man, the heart that beats my life, the reason I live for. I don't want to think too ahead of time but I think the world is a huge classroom that we are all learning from.  Some just seem to excel more at a quicker pace than others do, but we all GOD's.  There [are] still a lot of things I want to show myself and others about the side of DJ Shine, but sometimes words just aren't enough to express it.  I'm just gonna’ live my life, the movement will always be there, we [are] always going to take our time to make shit tite as possible. Me, personally, I'm just gonna’ do what I'm doing ‘til I don't feel like doing it anymore.  It wouldn't matter what the reasons are, whether good or bad—if I feel like no more, then that's it.

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